Starting Good Habits Early

Decluttering

Hi everyone, my name's Kate and I'm a DFW in training. Why just in training? Because I'm 19 and earning quite a good income presently so I'm trying to live like I owe a lot of people money so that I can (hopefully) build up some savings and get some good savings habits going before I need them.

I have worked out a weekly budget for myself that is going quite well at the moment (but I might be speaking too soon, it is only week 3!) It's going to be a bit challenging this week though - I've given myself £10 for "miscellaneous spending" (basically for all the useless knick knacks and edibles I pick up during the week that I don't need!) and after quite an extravagant Saturday afternoon, I now have less than £2.50 of it left.

Sunday and Monday have been No Spend Days, I have a feeling there's going to be more of these this week :rotfl:

Ultimately though I should be able to survive - after all, should I really have a budget for unnecessary items? Shouldn't the idea be to get rid of them altogether?

Watch this space.

Decluttering

I realised today that I have no idea what I'm doing for the Christmas party. Well, I know roughly where it is and I can imagine there is a disco but the important decisions have not been made yet - what to wear.

Luckily, this isn't going to be too big a spend for me. I bought a little black prom dress at Debenhams in 2008, it was £90. It was £100 but my mum took out a store card to get me a 10% discount (don't worry, she paid it back immediately and cut up the card, it's never been used again). I wore it to a very formal dinner party, then again to a couple of other mildly formal occasions. Now I consider it a crime to go out without it on (it's not a fashion faux pas, I don't go out very often!)

It's all about the accessories when it comes to this dress, fooling people into thinking they've never seen it. The people who do recognise it applaud the fact that I've had it so long and worn it so frequently, my £20 imitations have always broke or been torn in some way. About a year ago I bought a pair of £1 bright pink tights from Primark to accessorise it, my inspiration came from The Saturdays. Then the next time I went out, I toned down the pink with some black fishnet tights that I wore over the bright pink ones. It seems everytime I wear it, I get more creative.

This time I'm going to have to shell out for a new pair of tights, my old ones (RIP) laddered on their last outing. I might go for purple this time.


In other news, today was a no spend day. At 11am I was dying to get a bar of chocolate from the vending machine but a good samaritan offered me some Heroes. They satisfied that hunger pang until I got home

Decluttering

My train was late tonight. Very late. The one I was supposed to get got cancelled, then the one after it got cancelled and then the one after that was 10 minutes late. I was standing on the platform for about 45 minutes while other people were going to the other platform and taking a train the other way so they could jump on an express train and then get home earlier. A month ago my impatience would've made me join them. But I was thinking of the extra cost of a ticket to go in the opposite direction to the one I wanted to go in, just to come back again.

And then on the way home I stopped by at Tesco. Last night I'd given my vouchers to my mum, since I never really use my Clubcard but somehow I get all the good vouchers! Anyway, I gave her my £7.50 in vouchers along with the little coupons for £1 off etc etc and she gave me £7.50 in cash.

But I saw a great dress for work while I was in there. It was £14 so I "bought back" my £5 voucher, asked for a £10 coupon to spend it in the clothing section at the customer enquiries desk and paid £4 for it.

My clothing budget is £50 every 3 months, I've spent £7 so far so this spend takes it up to £11. I didn't realise how much I spent on clothes until I started doing this but now I do what I can to reduce the amount spent. This has to last me until the 5th of February.

January20

Woohooo! You've done it! Well done! :T

Reading about you "extravagant" Saturday afternoon, I'm always amazed at out little you can get for £10 nowadays!

And well done on the dress! £4 what a great bargain!

My dd, who is a year younger, than you buys a lot of Primark tights as they are so cheap. Sadly she finds that they don't last very long! ansd she's been complaining about the price increase there too lol!

Decluttering

January20 wrote: »

Woohooo! You've done it! Well done! :T

Reading about you "extravagant" Saturday afternoon, I'm always amazed at out little you can get for £10 nowadays!

And well done on the dress! £4 what a great bargain!

My dd, who is a year younger, than you buys a lot of Primark tights as they are so cheap. Sadly she finds that they don't last very long! ansd she's been complaining about the price increase there too lol!

I guess the most shameful thing about my extravagant Saturday is the fact that somewhere along the way I lost between £2 and £3 (can't remember the exact figure). Either that or I bought some sort of food I don't remember eating!

I found the pair I bought were quite thick but not in an ideal colour for everyday use (neon pink). Thinking about it though, I think I only wore them 3 times. I guess it seemed like longer because that equalled about a year's useage!

January20

Losing a couple of pounds happens sometimes... as long as you don't do what a lot of young people seems to be doing now which is throw 1p and 2p coins on the floor! they don't seem to realise it all adds up!

Yeah I would say my dd will get a max of 2 or 3 times wearing Primark tights, if that, but then it's not as bad as M&S tights at £9.50 that rip the first or second time you wear them :mad:. She is partial to bright colours and weird patterns but it's ok as she goes to high school and can wear what she wants

Decluttering

A spend of 40p today - a couple of 20p mix ups! Perfect example of why I need £10 for "stuff" each week! To be fair though, this week has been more "stuff" filled than previous weeks.

Realised today though that as yet I haven't been saving towards my Christmas night out! I think I'll have to review my budget in January and give myself a small budget for going out. Until then, I guess I'll take out a loan from myself and pay myself back in installments with interest.

Sounds a bit mean but it's my own fault for not being more organised!

Decluttering

Me and my mum went to ASDA tonight to do a panic weekly shop just in case it snows over the weekend! Got 2 trolleys, we both got half the list and we got everything we could as quickly as we could before the snow was forecast to arrive.

There are probably things we've missed and things we didn't necessarily need ("who added the Toblerone?!") but looking at the receipt (which will be price checked on the ASDA website tomorrow for discounts) we didn't do too badly.

I also had a pining for a slushy drink, not the most rational of cravings on a cold night! So we took a detour on the way home past the bowling alley, where the machine was out of order. I could've gone to the cinema down the road and got a ridiculously priced slush but I took that as the universe telling me to put my money in my sealed pot instead.

So now I'm at home with a glass of tap water and ice, it's almost a slush!

Decluttering

The snow is threatening to put me over budget this week, my mum usually drives us to the station in the morning (we travel in together) but the bad weather means we may have to get the bus everyday.

Got a bus into town today (£3) and it's about £1.70 for a single to the station. I've already spent £24.10 on my travel this week (for a monthly train ticket) so I think if the weather is still bad on Friday, I will be taking out a "loan" with myself.

As for my £10 miscellaneous money, I've only spent £1.80 of it this week so far, so it's a better start than last week!

Decluttering

No Spend Day for me today and yesterday, been snowed in! So I've been very good and not spent any money So far so good, though I'd blow my budget if it meant the weather clearing up!

Decluttering

55p spent today, got a lift into work against all odds and celebrated at lunch time by buying myself a Crunchie - haven't been out the house since Saturday and since Friday have only had what was already in the house to eat, our panic shop on Friday didn't include sweeties!

Have been doing soome surveys / polls on Toluna in hopes of getting enough for a voucher. The only thing I actively dislike about it is when doing surveys, I sometimes get asked a generous amount of questions and then they'll say my profile doesn't match and I get no points. I think anything past age, location etc etc should be rewarded.