Ecoelles journey to a debt free future

Herewego

Sorry yes you are right, I love payday countdown keeps me coming back daily

ecoelle

Right, well i'm off for the night as i'm on a promise...woo and indeed hoo!

Sleep well guys x

Herewego

Me too i have promised I will do the ironing :rotfl:

ecoelle

Hiya all, I'm having the morning at home and then i'm off to work later. Had a brill day at work yesterday, took all my breaks which made a change and i think people were a bit taken back. I normally go all day without stopping or eating, then go home and collapse n a heap with a headache from lack of food.

Then i had my staff in the office one at a time and went through my expectations as of now, with the run up to Christmas and a visit from the regional boss today i thought it was a good time to go over what i expect and it seemed to work, My cash office lady hada problem and i made her sort it out instead of jumping in and doing it myself like i normally do. The problem has been that i'm a complete control freak and so i always try and fix all the problems myself, but then when i take a day off the whole thing falls apart, so no more, i am going to make them fix the problems for themselves and only come to me when they have exausted all their own ideas. I think it will not only improve my work life but will empower them to feel like they hve more control over their work life as well. It must be really frustrating if every time you have the slightest problem your boss comes in and just takes over, so i'm going to try really hard to keep it up.

On the whole debt free front it ok but not brill. Checked the bank today, there is one more DD to go this month, £38 to Tesco and a cheque for £125 to one of the companies involved in our wedding which they have not yet cashed. Once both of these are gone then we shall have £92 for the rest of the month until hubby gets paid. This means on £40 a week we will be in the OD by £28 on payday. So not as bad as last month but i really wanted to not be OD this month. If i cut the weekly budget and added in the change i have in the kitchen drawer i reackon we could probably not go into the OD but it's so annoying.

What i'm hanging onto is the fact that this month we were OD by £265, had £151 on the co-op credit card (now £0) had the £125 to pay to the wedding company (now £0). So if we spend next month like we have this month then we should have £265 + £151 + £125 = £541 leftover at the end of the month.

Well obviously it's Christmas coming so i have a few gifts to buy. We decided with siblings that we would do Secret Santa and we decided as a group of friends we would go for a meal at our ocal allyou can eat instead of presents, also decided as a couple that getting out of debt was more important than stuff so

Presents for secret santa 2x £15 = £30
Meal with friends 2x £15 = £30
Presents for parents (food hamper for mine and gardening and craft hamper for his) 3x£20 = £60

So i reckon if we budget £150 for Christma then we should be ok and it means we could still have £391 left at the end of the month.

December wages should be ok as i get paid every 4 weeks instead of monthly so i get 2 pay days in December, one at the start and one at the end.

Ok, so now i've got allt hat down don't actually feel quite as bad.

Do you think i should draw out the £150 for Christmas on payday so that we have to use cash and don't over spend?

Might pop back in a bit, off to get a coffee (freebies from our honeymoon hotel) x

Herewego

Wow you have been busy, good for you for taking control in the office you sound more positive already.
I would take the cash out then once its gone you should have christmas completed. I have envelopes and they work for me I put a little away in each for xmas cars treats.

ecoelle

Well, hello Wednesday! I'm off all day today and have spent the morning cleaning, cooking and entereing competitions (i never win any) and ordering freebies!

Well, nothing much to report today, fancy maybe just vegging in front of the tv now, i have about 10 episodes of 'the good life' to catch up on x x

brizzledfw

I agree with Herewego..take the money out in advance so you're not tempted to overspend and also don't leave it too late. It seems that everyone spends more money if they leave it until the last minute.

I haven't done a budget for Christmas before( probably why I usually spend too much!) but I think I will for this one. You've inspired me! Plus me and BIL and sister have already agreed we are only buying for each others kids so no presents for the adults so 2 less presents. May also agree not to buy for OH..or is that just uninventive..what do you think? Maybe a budget on spending instead?

ecoelle

Thanks Brizzledfw - with regards to Christmas do whatever suits you. Me and hubby decided no presents for each other but we are doing parents and brothers and sisters, but no nieces and nephews, sounds mean and although we are only 30 our nieces and nephews are everything from 3 to 26 so some are a little old to be getting selection boxes! I thik as long as you and OH agree then fine, why not go out for a nice meal or have a night in, movie, take away and cuddle up under a duvet?

I'm not trying to be miserly, or, non-festive but i think the whole present thing has got out of hand for a lot of people and i'm really not that into it all, I don't want to stress out my friends and family with the eternal question of 'but what am i going to buy for...what if they get me a present and i don't get them one...but she has everything!' So i made a decision far enough ahead of Christmas that it was unlikely anyone had already purchased gifts, and said 'I'm not being rude, but, we don't want gifts this year, however please come and join us for a drink/some food/a meal over Christmas'

People get way too over the top and then spend the whole of January(- next December) paying off gifts that the people they gave them to didn't even really want.

So to sum up, i don't think there is anything wrong with not giving gifts as long as everyone involved in the non-giving knows and is ok with it.

brizzledfw

That's good advice. I think we will let everyone know that we are thinking this and see what the reaction is. ( for example I know my mum would find it hard..even a token gift would be her preferred route and it's not because she is materialistic..she just likes things or events where someone has effectively said "I have been thinking of you and think you would like or like to do this..." iyswim) I
also think that a budget will help me decide overall how much we genuinely want to spend this year.

Will keep you posted!

ecoelle

Hiya, well was feling quite good today and now...i'm not Funny isn't it how someone can say something without meaning to be mean to you but you feel like crap afterwards.

So it was my birthday on Friday and i had a lovely day, rubbish day at work then had a nice evening and tea with my hubby. But a couple of friends (even though i said 'no presents') popped round today for a cuppa anf chat. Now as previously posted i had agreed with said friends that we would not do Christmas presents this year, now, all of a sudden they are going to go for a night in London and see a show...'you're welcome to come along too, we could make a girly weekend of it!' This was said in the nicest possible way by a friend who gets paid £110 per day for aher job, along with another friend who makes over £30,000 a year, 'yeah i'll think about it and see what i feel like doing '

Well, i'm not interested in money, i don't care that i quit a high paid job to work in a shop, i don't care about any of that, but these are two educated women, one of whom i came clean with just last week of the money situation, and then they go and say that. Now i'm sat here 'what iffing' and thinking about how my decision to quit my previous job has affected my life forever

Don't really have much to say on the whole debt free topic today, have had 2 NSD since the big shop and have been baking today along with cooking a couple of curries for tea tonight. Now i'm watching baby programmes while typing in the hope that i'll cheer myself up with thoughts of upcoming babies (hopefully)...how the heck am i going to aford them though?

Signing off now, might pop back in a bit!