Millie's debt diary

mildredalien

Today's spending:

£2.90 on food for lunch today and tomorrow (going to try and attempt a NSD tomorrow!!)
£5 towards colleague leaving present fund

That should be it for today I hope! Although I may need to go find a cashpoint and attempt to reset my debit card. Just rang HSBC to find out what was taking so long, it seems like the useless woman at the bank I spoke to gave me entirely the wrong information!! Apparently I should have been able to reset my pin by using it at a cashpoint with the correct number rather than requesting a new one. It might be too late, or I might be able to reset it anyway.... depends if I can be bothered to leave the house tonight, it's horrible out there!

mildredalien

Slight amendment to today's spending - had an extra £2 slide out of my purse and into the palm of my lovely OH who is almost as bad at budgeting as me! Bless him, he was so sheepish about asking but is totally skint after trying to buy all his xmas pressies early and then realising that he'd totally gone over budget. It's just a loan so barely counts (maybe I should charge him 29% interest a la Barclaycard??)

Managed to steer clear of internet shopping tonight, I don't know how many times I've filled up virtual shopping baskets and then closed the page at the last minute....

mildredalien

Ok today has NOT been a good spending day, and to think I was going to have a NSD! :rotfl: oh dear....

All of today's spend was on food actually, an unplanned grocery shop (which is ok) and pizza for tea (which isn't, but at least I took advantage of the 2 for Tuesdays deal!) Grocery spend was £29.92 which should last me and OH until the end of the weekend for lunches and tea for the most part. We actually meal planned and I picked up stuff for lunch tomorrow and thursday which should minimise my spending for the rest of the week.

Pizza was £14.49, taking advantage of the 2 for Tuesday deal

In good news, I got my expenses and refund for the training I had to book last week so that's an extra £189 to my bank account. It looks like I might have a spare £200 or so to chuck towards my Barclaycard 2 at the end of the month, which would be great! That would mean one card almost cleared :beer:

I also cancelled my contents insurance which had automatically renewed while I was away - given that it was on a house I no longer live at, and my OH's insurance covers my stuff too I thought I could probably do without it!

mildredalien

Another day, another dollar as they say!

Spending today:
- £3.06 on lunch (I took my soup to work to find out that there is no can opener!!)
- £20 petrol (to be claimed back)
- £1.50 to see a 3D film later

Hopefully that will be it, am hoping not to be tempted by cinema snacks I've been tracking my spending all week, and it's not looking good!!
So far I have spent £116.07! The breakdown is:

• £40.88 for groceries
• £14.49 for a takeaway
• £20 petrol
• £5 leaving contribution
• £35.70 for presents (xmas and birthdays)

Clearly I need to knock the takeaways on the head and reduce the grocery spending - that's going to be my main focus once the budget comes in. The rest is fairly unavoidable or budgeted for at least....

mildredalien

Not a bad day for the old wallet today. Spent a grand total of £1.30 on stuff for lunch Not quite a NSD but getting there!

One more weekend to go and then the proper budgeting starts! Planning to have a quiet one though, the OH is treating me to dinner tomorrow night, and then a night in with the girls on Saturday so shouldn't be too expensive

mildredalien

I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this whole snowball thing... my calculator tells me I should be able to put £153 extra towards my debts each month if I stick to my budget. So, do I pay off this amount from the credit card at the beginning of the month and hope my budget is right and I'm not left short? Or do I pay off whatever I have left at the end of each month and risk not paying off as much as I could?

Argh decisions!!

mildredalien

Yesterday was a low-spend-day thanks to my lovely OH - just contributed £2 for parking, £1 towards the tip and £1 on a drink earlier in the day so a total of £4 yesterday.

I think my budget for groceries SHOULD be way over what I need to spend - I've budgeted £200/m but that's just my contribution, I think my OH will spend the same again towards groceries. £400/m is way too much for 2 people!! I did a meal planner last night for our dinners which should cost us approx £20/week each, so that's £80/month on dinners. If I spend £120 a month on lunches and other household expenses I think something's going wrong :rotfl:

Aaanyway, I've decided to bite the bullet and throw my apparent 'spare' money at the credit card at the beginning of next month. That way I won't be tempted (or able) to spend it. If it makes for a slightly tight month well... that's what the SOA is for isn't it? Making sure I don't spend too much on frivolous things!

mildredalien

Hmm today is a spendy day... oops... although hopefully this means I won't have to spend anything tomorrow! Plus I'm getting some good deals from the cashback sites - can't believe I never thought of using them before given all the internet shopping I do! Fortunately today's spending is planned - a grocery shop (£50 worth of food for £45 including delivery with a voucher, plus £5 cashback, yay!) and an xmas pressie for my sister. That's 3 xmas presents down, 6 to go!

freebyfifty

Hi there :wave:

Just wanted to say hello and to tell you that I can relate to so much stuff you've been saying so far.


I too took a tin of soup to work and realised there was no can opener :doh: Luckily my workmate solved it for me with a bit of brute force and a screwdriver so all was not lost (took ages to get the soup out of the can though!!!)

I too spent way toooooo much on takeaways trying to keep my kids happy. Have not spent on takeaways since I started being a DFW (don't be impressed - its only been 3 weeks!!!!)

I too have cut back and cut back on my groceries. It's actually been quite rewarding searching for bargains and believing I am beating the system (in a very small way)

I too am confused about the snowbally thing. At the beginning of the month? or at the end of the month? But unlike you I am too scared to do it at the beginning (Well done you)

I've enjoyed reading so far..........keep going *subscribes*

mildredalien

Hi freebyfifty I don't mind talking to myself (probably do it a bit too much) but it's nice to know someone out there is listening

Love that you opened your tin of soup with a screwdriver :rotfl: Unfortunately i work in a kind of secure environment, so not allowed to take sharp or dangerous things in

Well done for cutting back on groceries and takeaways! It's nice to know that you are getting a bargain huh? (I'm trying to forget that I noticed that justeat.com takeaways gives me cashback, I don't need any more temptation to splurge!)

And three weeks is plenty, day 1 of proper budgeting doesn't start for me til Monday... although I'm trying to get ahead today by getting a few bargains in myself Although I checked my spending diary for this week and it's at £182.67 :eek: That does include 2 weekly food shops though (one last sunday and one today, they both count for this week) so it's not quite as bad as it looks... I hope...