A Budgeteers Quest to be Debt Free & Mortgage Free By 40

jwil

Hope you managed to have a better day in the end DDFW!

DedicatedDFW

Well, it has been a while since i last posted - been very tired all week - had already agreed to cover the weekend shift for a colleague which i did yesterday bleurgh! and then had to do an MS straight after this and then went out for a meal with friends, which was really good but didn't get to bed until about 2am which is very late for me. Not really helping myself with this tiredness malarky am i? But as a one off having fun with good friends is well worth a late night i say :T

So today i got up, wrote up the MS and submitted this, checked for other MS's and managed to pick up another :j - i did have to cancel an MS the other day as the car broke down! :mad: Not only did i miss out on the MS but also on my p/t work - it is just so frustrating when this happens - especially when i have spent so much money on this already. Grr!

Right - will get to them shoes now and then be back with more of an update

Reminder to self - must start spending diary and keep an update on here - more details to follow

jwil

Glad you had a good night out DDFW, but grrr to car troubles!

DedicatedDFW

Righto - shoes sorted none for e-bay sadly but everything is now nice and neat - i've lifted out the shoes that need repairing and hoping to find a good cobbler to do this - not like the last one i used who clamped all my lovely heels leaving gouge marks/holes and completely ruining 3 pairs of perfectly good shoes :mad: I guess i could have got new heels (the whole heel) to try and get a bit more use out of them but i was having these repaired even though they weren't great but to spend the money on new heels after paying for the ruinous repairs was too much

Back to cheery things Shoes now organised and thats a job done so happy with that. 2 lots of washing done and dried - pouring down here but must admit to using the dryer as its worth it to me not to have to iron things

Oh done my free bingo and several surveys today. Also got some e-bay stuff ending so really need to update my june target too.

Popped my list back up as a reminder of what i've got to catch up on - plus must post up about my money stuff*** somebody give me a push if i don't do it when i get back as i'm off for a run in a mo. just a few mins round the block type plod :cool:

1, Finish assignment
2, Book fitness class
3, Make-up class
4, Shoes sorted any for e-bay?
5, Ring dishwasher place and leave my details
6, Work bag organised
7, Sort out wrong parcel to return - grr!

Oh jwil yes - have seen your posts too about car problems pesky troublesome things :mad:

DedicatedDFW

1, Finish assignment An absolute priority for this week!
2, Book fitness class I tried - apparently the times i can attend are fully booked out for weeks been for a run though :T
3, Make-up class this didn't quite go to plan - i had help selecting items which i am happy with but must stalk the department store this week!
4, [STRIKE]Shoes sorted any for e-bay? [/STRIKE] Phew! Got one crossed off leastways
5, Ring dishwasher place and leave my details Tomorrow i have the number and alot of pots that need doing :whistle:
6, [STRIKE]Work bag organised [/STRIKE] Done
7, Sort out wrong parcel to return - grr! E-mail sent and awaiting response.

There at least some things have been done Next job is my underbed drawer :cool: Will do that after i've posted about my money dilemma :think:

I have identified a bit of a trend that i have i'll explain it and by putting it down it may help me come up with a solution or am happy for any suggestions thrown this way The problem is i do lots of things to try and save a bit of money/make a bit of money - things alot of us probably do - e-bay, MS's, surveys, free bingo etc. Now in the past i'd buy myself little treats - e.g a necklace reduced from £24 to £2, a magazine for the reading and the free product. These little treats were introduced to stop me splurging on bigger treats - new boots reduced from £110 to £27 anyone? Anywho's i decided these little treats were unnecessary and then i had a bit of a big spend this week :o:o Totally and utterly love what i bought and cannot return it anyway.

So the thing is - it seems I cannot throw all the money at the debt so what to do? Small treats little and often? Or a big treat every now and again - trust me the next one won't be until xmas - i have my birthday between now and then so any treat will come out of money for this (have to show people what i got with the money ).

I also unnecessarily waste money at times and this is also a problem. Today we went out and I took some vouchers to pay for lunch - the place we chose to eat - which we have used quite recently doesn't accept the vouchers any more :eek: so then i had to pay in cash - which i can ill afford to do. I know i should have checked and will be doing so in future.

I am also doing all sorts of things to save money/make money and not keeping a good enough track of this.

Ok then: - plan of action

1, start a money diary - other than the usual DD's and S/O's all other items to be written on this and updated here. This way i can keep track of what extra comes in and where it all goes :T *Must find notebook when i go and do drawer

2, Do a SOA - then i can see what personal budget i have as currently i do not have any spending money allocation

3, Avoid wastage

jwil

Hey DDFW,

I am a confirmed 'fritterer'. I do waste a lot of money on little treats or just being disorganised. If I did a spending diary I'd probably have a heart attack!

I think you need to decide what is important to you. Do you like getting the magazine each week or would you rather 'save up' and buy a nice item of clothing or something?

I like having a mooch around a car boot sale. I rarely spend much, and my book purchases (which are mainly what I buy) eventually get sold again anyway, so it keeps me a source of things to sell. That I won't give up, and it keeps me going and away from spending in shops etc.

If you do your SOA, you should make an allowance of £5, £10, £20 - whatever is enough to keep you on the straight and narrow. This money is all yours to do what you like with - fritter, save up for something bigger or whatever - all guilt free. If you've got enough to cover your minimum payments, taking £20 out of your overpayments is not going to be the end of the world, especially if it means it stops you from having a huge splurge every so often and then feeling guilty about it or adding to your debt.

DedicatedDFW

Hi jwil,

Thank you so much for your supportive words I do need to do an soa though i still don't think my regular income would cover my outgoings and thats why there's no budget for spends for me and the fact that i don't think my income will cover my outgoings puts me off doing this

Just got up and had a bleurgh moment :mad::mad::mad: Was up late into the night writing up reports - i had almost completed one but felt it best to proofread this morning as i was so tired. Just checked my account and the MS has now been taken off me because i didn't complete the report last night :mad: i'll give them a ring but last time they took an MS off me - and that time it was their error they just said oh well someone else is doing it :mad: Annoyed with myself as I should have just put it in and instead I wanted to make sure i did the report the best i could - and this again is wasted money as i won't get the money back for the purchase and i wasted my whole lunch hour in there and had to run back to work I guess this is a 1 step forward to steps back moment - although i will see it as 'heads up' moment i think and next time i'll check the timescales for getting the reports in and make sure i prioratise these - as they'd have still had it for 9am today i do think its a tad unfair.

These are the times i think an ipad or is it a smartphone? would be useful - the hour on the train home would have seen this rattled off in no time - so maybe look at the budget, if there is a budget for me weigh up large purchase like this which will help make me money and save me time - and the time saving is a major factor - although i read or knit or plan future things on the train time i am doing this because i can't write up any reports until i get home. One to think about for sure so thank you jwil and one that will involve an extra jar to drop in all of the odd £2's that i save until i have the funds for this

The Money Update (yesterday)

Spent:-
£10 petrol - put on credit card :eek::eek::eek: - i had filled the car up with the petrol i'd need but due to the car breaking down needed more
£6.91 MS will be re-imbursed
£4.99 MS which will not be re-imbursed as above :mad:
£3.60 train fare
£300.38 holiday money :eek::eek::eek:

Made:-

£10 MS - would have been £15 but see above

Plans for today are work and 3 MS's :eek: best get my fingers flexed for all that report writing then :cool:

And yes - will start to think about an soa although my income from f/t work will be different now i'm going to be doing a day less.

In good news it is Tuesday and i am on the countdown to my holidays :j

DedicatedDFW

Hmm - turns out the ipad 2 would be a whole lot of magazines not bought - i was looking at getting 4 this month for the freebies - so MSE in a way - will now see what they would have cost and start up a new little jar - freebies were make-up which i would use but don't need for a loooooong time

jwil

I would LOVE an ipad! Great idea to save up for one with £2 coins.

How annoying about the mystery shop though, hope you can at least use the purchase :mad:

I bought Glamour magazine this month for the benetint. I don't know why as I'm never going to use it . I just wanted to see it as people always used to rave about it.

DedicatedDFW

Hi jwil - that was the magazine i was going to buy x3!!! 1 for each of the products - plus a mag for the free eye shadow and another one for the lip gloss :whistle: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl: