My money saving ways

Lemon_Tree

is that not sacralige?

La_escocesa

Just totted up :eek: Debt has increased by £334.38 this month.

£295 was the extra wedding photos we got. Totally unaccounted for, kinda came out of the blue, and lumped onto my cc. MIL is meant to give us £100 towards them so I can pay that off if/when that money comes through. Then I guess it would only be about £100 each for me and OH to pay, which doesn't sound as bad. Don't think OH has that though...

Other spends was travel to sister's (now partly paid off). Didn't account for that as we only decided to go a couple of weeks ago. Guess I should start putting something away every month for travel... Going away in July and have nowt put away for that so far.

Have really taken my eye off the ball, haven't I?! :eek::(

I wonder if I could make £100 on amazon/ebay... Kinda fallen out with selling stuff after the last few hassles I've had but maybe I should stick with it.

determined_new_ms

La_escocesa wrote: »

Just totted up :eek: Debt has increased by £334.38 this month.

£295 was the extra wedding photos we got. Totally unaccounted for, kinda came out of the blue, and lumped onto my cc. MIL is meant to give us £100 towards them so I can pay that off if/when that money comes through. Then I guess it would only be about £100 each for me and OH to pay, which doesn't sound as bad. Don't think OH has that though...

Other spends was travel to sister's (now partly paid off). Didn't account for that as we only decided to go a couple of weeks ago. Guess I should start putting something away every month for travel... Going away in July and have nowt put away for that so far.

Have really taken my eye off the ball, haven't I?! :eek::(

I wonder if I could make £100 on amazon/ebay... Kinda fallen out with selling stuff after the last few hassles I've had but maybe I should stick with it.

hey love I was just thinking that, any chance you could sell some stuff to raise the short fall? You were really amazing at all that, I was really impressed with how much you raised - and it also will help with the minimalism . Any other ways you could cut back? x

La_escocesa

determined_new_ms wrote: »

hey love I was just thinking that, any chance you could sell some stuff to raise the short fall? You were really amazing at all that, I was really impressed with how much you raised - and it also will help with the minimalism . Any other ways you could cut back? x

Hey, thanks love. Think I'll need to bite the bullet and get selling. The past few times I've sold a bunch of stuff I had quite a bit of hassle - buyers not paying and then bidding way too high and then retracting bids etc - and that kinda put me off.

I've got a few books that I'll list on Amazon and a lot of clothes following my clear out. I could sell a few dresses (wedding season is defo coming up, if it's not already here...) and some shoes I think.

The only problem I find is that you don't get much for clothes even though they're good quality/nearly new. Last time a jacket I thought would've gone for about £30 or £40 only went for £15 inc postage. Guess I wasn't wearing it and better £15 in the bank than another jacket on the coat rack. Hmmm... Something to get on with tonight methinks.

Hope you and stitchy are having a lovely weekend

La_escocesa

Been doing a bit of analysis on my money spending habits...:o I've noticed that my money is usually all accounted for by the 1st of the month. It goes like this: I'm skint on the 1st of the month or not too long afterwards, I stay skint until payday, payday comes on the 25th, :j, I take my 'pocket money' out of the bank, leave all my money for bills, 1st of the month - bills come out, shortly after my 'pocket money' is all used up and I am skint again until the next 25th.

Thing is, on paper, not having a lot of pocket money shouldn't be a problem for me - I walk to work, take lunch, don't have a car to run and have all the make up, jewellery, accessories, shoes and clothes I need.

But anyway, you know how it is...

So I've been thinking that from now on I should try to treat the period from the 25th until the end of the month as the most critical - If I can keep as much of this cash as I can for as long as I can then I think I'll feel a bit better about the situation, even if it's all in my head and I'm just putting off buying things for a week or so.

I guess the theory is that I'll realise I don't actually need the stuff I wanted on payday.

It's going to be tricky this month because of the bank holiday but I am going to give it a go. Next weekend we've only planned to go to the cinema and we have vouchers for that.

Lemon_Tree

sounds like my life La Es. only i'm paid on the 28th i know the bills are paid, and i know technically the money is still in my account for the bills later in the month but i still feel skint about a week after pay day. Just doesn't feel fair does it! I really wish i got paid weekly, i'd rather be skint for a day or two each week rather than for 3 weeks per month lol

La_escocesa

Oh LT, I've got a feeling we won't be like this forever We can do it!

OH checked his credit report today. His loan is down to £12k-something too :T Think he's feeling a lot more positive about everything these days. His credit report looked so much better to previously - no missed/late payments etc. I'm so glad he seems more focussed on it this time.

My trying not to get excited about payday has worked a little. I've been quite good and only bought a dress, which I've been planning and saving up for in my VSP. Thing is, now I've bought it I don't want to transfer the funds :rotfl: Might wait until the end of the month and transfer it if I'm heading towards overdraftdom...

I do need to take some money out for the bank hol wknd though:

• £3.50 - Tram ticket to cinema
• £10 - Taxi home from friend's ('free' tram there with OH's travel card but don't want to get public transport late at night)
• £5 to £15 - Bottle of wine to take to friend's and phoning out for takeaway - I was considering taking a frozen pizza and asking her to put it in her oven but haven't quite figured out how to broach the subject
• £20 - Train to other friend's
• £10 to £20 - Pub quiz on Sunday

Would cost about the same to borrow the car - £30 petrol and save a taxi home from friend's on Sat night and other train on Sunday/Monday.

La_escocesa

Just updating my spends:

• £5 bottle of vino
• £8 take away
• £6.50 taxi home :cool:
• Night in with old pal watching a film and having a gossip :T

Today it's:

• £19 train ticket
• £20 pub quiz - probably more than I need tbh

Hopefully saved tram fare to cinema as going on way back from friend's tomorrow...

Lemon_Tree

enjoy your pub quiz.

La_escocesa

Uh gosh, I'm really struggling again this month. Really can't keep up with OH's loan payments as well as everything else.

Haven't gone to the cash point all week so that's been good. Did go to the bank once but that was to put a cheque in. £13.45 richer

And I think that's the last chiro appt over with - can't really complain with spending £200 to fix your back but couldn't keep up with it every month.

I'm at yoga all weekend so that is keeping me outta trouble - will do my bestest not to spend anything while I'm there. Getting a lift on Sunday so maybe need to give £5 for petrol so hopefully that'll be all...

Going to make some sweet potato barley risotto for packed lunches and got some snacks here. Also take a flask of tea for the break. £3 for a cuppa in the hotel where the course is!!!

Gotta just keep myself focussed and remember to talk things through with OH - thing is that I don't want to go on about it too much to him because he won't have a job come this time next week Don't want to add to the stress. Oh well, I'm sure it'll all work out somehow. At least we're still in the small flat with reasonable bills and 0% on our cc until the end of the year