The future WILL be bright . . .

TotallyInzane

Hi All

A few of you may know me, as I've been lurking for a little while, reading everyone's posts & realizing there IS light at the end of the tunnel!

I'm not going to go into detail atm due to needing to rush out the door shortly - however I have been encouraged & gained confidence by what I have read on here. Meaning I am now jumping in with both feet & starting my own DFW diary :j

Within the diary I'm gonna inc. a spending record, to try & help me work out exactly where my money does go, meaning then looking back at it I can re-distribute accordingly.

So, so far today my spending has included -

£99.75 - Best Man Suit for my upcoming wedding (paid for from savings for wedding)
£13.90 - Tools to fix door lock on car (inst. of expensive garage fees)

Unfortunately I know this won't be it for the day, as Ive got to take the cats to the vets shortly, which ISN'T going to be cheap :eek:

On a positive - on weigh in this morning, I have lost 1kg :j

Anyways, will try & pop back in later, have a good day all

Hovel_lady

Hello and welcome to your shiny new diary
I keep tabs on my spending in my diary too - very useful!
Look forward to reading more. And good luck at the vets x

TotallyInzane

Well back from the vets:

The good news is - both cats are in very good health, both slightly over weight (but than so am I ), so they're on a diet now!

The NOT SO good news - it just cost £173.45 :eek: (tbf that'll be divided with my OH so £86.73 each, only problem is I had to pay the full amount at the time due to not enough in our joint acc. currently ). Now don't get me wrong, our cats are priceless & I wouldn't be without them, I know non-animal lovers probably think I'm barking (pun intended! ) but those of you who do have much loved family pets will know exactly what I mean.

Anyway a bit more about myself & what I'm hoping to achieve, I recently posted the below in *DFW lets get rid of the lbs without spending £££'s Weight Loss thread*
which I am also participating in as I'm trying to shed a few lbs as well

On the money front: I have one large bank loan, a current account with O/D & a joint account with O/D with same bank, a credit card with same bank (£0 Balance), a credit card with another bank (pay off the balance each month) & a savings account (different bank) for the up coming wedding! I have recently re-financed my loan to have it all in one place (therefore more controllable) & my current account is in credit (just). My loan is over a 6 year term but I have personal & family aspirations to have it cleared before then.

Unfortunately I know that with the wedding I'm about to have a few large out lays but taking them into account, I am going to try just carrying cash with me & leaving my cards at home, to try & stop me impulse buying the bottle of wine at the end of the day.

It also transpires that I will be moving to a different work location (within the same company) some point at the beginning of August - which should save me over £100 in travel expenses a month :j

Also we have asked for money towards our honeymoon as wedding gifts, as well as already knowing some family members are planing on giving us money on the day, therefore we are hoping that will help towards paying off the additional debt from the wedding.

I have within the last month visited local businesses - bars/cafes etc. issuing my CV to try & secure a P/T 2nd job, although I haven't been successful with this yet However once I know where I'm going to be based work wise & settled into the new location, I will canvas the local businesses in that area & hopefully find something.

Thanks to the motivation I received from reading eyebright's diary, I have also started to list a few unwanted items on ebay - although I don't have many items that I think are patically sell-able.

right must get on with a few jobs - I hope everyone else is having a good day? I will try to check back on here later to see how other peoples days have panned out

Daily Spending Diary
£99.75 - Best Man Suit for my upcoming wedding (paid for from savings for wedding)
£13.90 - Tools to fix door lock on car (inst. of expensive garage fees)
Vets: £173.45 (vaccinations, worming tablets & specialist food)

clippy_girl

Know exactly what you mean about the cost of vets! Have spent over £90 taking my hamster in the last 6 weeks (and unfortunately putting him down) and everyone could not believe I was wasting all that money on a £9 hamster

TotallyInzane

clippy_girl wrote: »

Know exactly what you mean about the cost of vets! Have spent over £90 taking my hamster in the last 6 weeks (and unfortunately putting him down) and everyone could not believe I was wasting all that money on a £9 hamster

I'm sorry for your loss clippy_girl , pets no matter how small or large, provide such warmth, comfort & unlimited love, I couldn't be without any of our pets - no matter what the cost!

Take care

TotallyInzane

Just sat down & worked out my current monthly 'regular' income & expenditure -

Result: £5.53 remaining credit!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

That's before any additional debt payment or 'living'

RIGHT back to the drawing board . . .

Hovel_lady

clippy_girl wrote: »

Know exactly what you mean about the cost of vets! Have spent over £90 taking my hamster in the last 6 weeks (and unfortunately putting him down) and everyone could not believe I was wasting all that money on a £9 hamster

I had that reaction too when we spent £180 over a couple of months on my lovely mouse who had a very bad skin condition.
But we couldn't & wouldn't do anything else.
She was lovely & I do miss her

clippy_girl

o dear have you used the soa tool? if so try posting it on here or the main dfw thread for people to look over and see if there are ways you can cut back

i love mice hovel lady, my brother used to have some and i loved playing with their tails

Hovel_lady

TotallyInzane wrote: »

Just sat down & worked out my current monthly 'regular' income & expenditure -

Result: £5.53 remaining credit!!! :eek: :eek: :eek:

That's before any additional debt payment or 'living'

RIGHT back to the drawing board . . .

At least it's not £5.53 in debit :eek:
When you're back from the drawing board do let us know if the figures are better.
A spending diary really will be very helpful. Just carrying cash and no cards is also useful. Spending cash rather than handing over a card concentrates the mind wonderfully!

Thank you, it's been a good day Do stop by my diary and say hello if you like (The Hovel diary - possibly not a very original name!).
Glad the cats are OK. Do you have insurance for them? The Hovel dog says "woof"

TotallyInzane

clippy_girl wrote: »

o dear have you used the soa tool? if so try posting it on here or the main dfw thread for people to look over and see if there are ways you can cut back

Forgive me of my naivety but what is the SOA tool? I've noticed other people mention it but can't work out what it is!

Thanks in advance

TotallyInzane

Hovel lady - I am already a fan of the Hovel diary & signed up to the feed

We have one of the cats currently insured but not the other, a must on my to do list currently, we we're going to just after we got him but we discovered a condition which we were more focused on resolving & couldn't get insurance until it had been treated. I'm pleased to say it now is under control - so must look at insurance again!

What type of dog is the hovel dog? We really want to have a dog as well but currently it would be unfair due to work commitments etc.