Blinded by the LBM...!

Beencounting

Hi Bonnington - well the car was £117 :eek:, but apparently that's "quite good" per OH...hmmm, maybe :think:. Anyway, not going to dwell on that, as we need the car so that's that :cool:.

I was very restrained with my shopping - went to B00ts and got 2-4-1 on conditioner at £1.99 plus a couple of packets of throat lozengers as I have a sore throat. Paid for this little lot with my points, so all cash-free .

The birthday card was £1.79.

I've had a quick check of my bank account, but haven't updated my spreadsheet yet, so even though it's not looking too bad, I really need to check what's left to go out of the bank between now and payday. Will try to do this today, but tomorrow at the latest.

I've got £19.05 in my purse to last til next Friday - this is my 'pocket money and anything else that turns up' money! First demand on it has come this morning as DD2 needs bus money - £3. OH is out with the car and won't be back in time to take her to work.

I'm also out of teabags and cat food, so will need to pop to T3sc0 later to pick some up. These will come from the remains of the grocery budget (if there is any ). I'll do this when I collect DD2 from work later to save on journeys.

Hoping to have a mostly quiet pootling day today .

Been

Beencounting

Oh, forgot to mention, it was statement day for the target card yesterday, so new balance is now sub-£800 :T. I've updated my signature .

hillside777

Well done on the deals at the chemist and also using your points to pay.

I'm very impressed with the way your target CC is reducing. You're doing magnificently. It won't be long before it is clear. :j

debtfreewannabe321

Oooooh sig is looking good and your car was much cheaper than mine to fix so although I know nothing about cars I would agree with your OH and say yours was pretty good lol!

i hope you got your nice quiet day xx

Beencounting

Thanks Bonnington & DFW , I enjoyed my whole weekend, the weather was lovely and I wasn't under any pressure to do anything or be anywhere for a change .

I plucked up the courage to check all my balances today, and am pleased to say that since our LBM at the end of September we have paid £3,756.84 off the CCs plus £977.72 off the loan, a total of £4,734.56 :T. I know we still have a long way to go, but I'm very pleased with our progress .

Been

Beencounting

It's been a really busy week in work this week, so although I've been reading, I haven't done much posting . I'll try to catch up now though, although it might mean a couple of posts as I remember things!

Well, a fresh new month and a fresh new start .

It wasn't quite the start I'd hoped for though as my pay was down by £250 due to a change in my tax code :eek:. I think this relates to an error previously made my the Revenue, so they've basically collected 11 months back-tax in one go . Next month I think it will be less than £20.

To cover this I'm going to have to pull back all my Christmas savings to date - £150, plus my planned overpayments to the target card - £65. That still leaves me short by about £35, but I'll have to manage this within the month somehow .

Then, just to make things a bit worse...DS' phone bill arrives....£98 :eek::mad:. His contract is for £25pm. DS' only gets pocket money, so he's been told he gets no money whatsoever this month, which should enable us to recoup about £50. He's also being made to check his balance online every day to make sure he doesn't go over again . (We're checking too, just to be sure ).

So that's the :eek::mad: things this week....

There are some positives too though .

I've searched out all the coupons/vouchers I have so that I can make our grocery budget stretch this month and have found £5 for Mr M, £1 for M&S and I also have a till spit voucher for T3sc0 for £3 off a £20 spend.

I then entered my Mr A receipts onto the price guarantee and got vouchers for £2.50 .

So a total of £11.50 . These will all go into my SP (2nd purse) to buy bargain stock .

This week I've also bought two Christmas presents , one from Amaz0n which was £15 reduced to £3.67 with free delivery and another from Arg0s which was £10 reduced to £4.49 :D. I've used my pocket money/and anything else budget for these .

Oooh, nearly forgot, also spent £40-odd on the Whiskas cat food deal and now have enough for about 2 months! This was from a combination of planned grocery spends and SP money .

That's all I can remember at the mo

Been

debtfreewannabe321

glad to see there were positives to your week as well as the :mad::eek:!

I always seem to be short each month, even with a budget :think: and when i stick to the pots in the budget :huh: i'm def doing something wrong still :rotfl:!

Beencounting

Hi DFW - I think you're doing great , you're always having unplanneds thrown your way and seem to cope really well, so pat on the back I think .

Added a bit more to my stockpile this weekend courtesy of the SP . I'm now charging OH 50p when he wants a mars bar :rotfl:, but, as I explained to him, that's cheaper than buying from the shops .

I need a little to do list, or I'm going to forget. So this week I need to:

• update bank/spreadsheet
• pay PO CC
• pay target CC
• draw Christmas savings back

I seem to have lost a bit of focus with attacking the target card, but have noticed that the 1 debt in 100 days challenge starts back up next week, so I'm going to join. I've done this one before and it really helped. I just need to work out how much I can pay and how much would be a stretch before I declare my intention to join. Better add that to the list:

• work out how much to declare for 1 debt in 100 days challenge
• join 1 debt in 100 days challenge

Right, let's get going...

Been

Beencounting

Well I've had a think about how much to pledge for the next 1 debt in 100 days challenge. My planned payments are £100 plus planned overpayments of £191, making £291. I'm going to go for a stretch and make it a pledge of £350 to pay off. This will mean finding an extra £59 which is roughly £4.25 extra per week.

The only place I can see this coming from at the moment is my 'pocket money' or the general 'and anything else' budget which in total is £30pw.

I'm looking forward to getting going on this now because I love making lots of little payments to the CC just to annoy them :rotfl:.

Been

Beencounting

Quick spends post -

£2.45 - coffee
£1.00 - milk & fizzy drink
£1.99 - plasters

In hand (to last til Thurs evening) - £7.01 (this is my pocket money )

Also paid the PO CC, including a £2 overpayment