Millie's debt diary

mildredalien

Thanks! Ooh I will bear that in mind today, I have a terrible hangover ><

This weekend has been quite spendy, although I've managed to keep it relatively sensible. Went to visit my sister with some old school friends which was great, we tend to only meet up a couple of times a year if that. Much cider was drunk, hence the hangover today! I'm terrible when I'm feeling rough, I just spendspendspend on food! So full disclosure....

£17 on food/drinks for the evening
£3.50 on a pint at the pub
£7.25 on starbucks earlier to try and recover!

I have about a tenner left from the money I took out to cover this weekend, and I'm about to go to Asda for something to eat for tea tonight as I don't feel in the mood for cooking!

In good news, my barclaycard offered me a 0% balance transfer until May 2012, so I've transferred my Tesco credit card balance over. It'll save me £25 or so interest per month for the next 6 months which more than covers the £50 transfer fee. The interest is slightly higher after the offer rate ends though, so I'll either have to try and clear the entire card by May next year (my snowball calculator has it being cleared by July 2012) or maybe transfer the remainder off to a lower interest card after May.... hrm...

My snowball calculator says I should now be paying a total of £381.50 a month to my main barclaycard now, which seems like a lot

mildredalien

Checked the bank balance today which continues to look bafflingly healthy. Considering I have budgeted for every expenditure, the majority of bills have come out, and all of the cash saved for emergencies is sitting in another account I should only have about £100 or so left to cover groceries for the next 2 weeks, but I have over £500 in there!! Although that being said, I'm not sure I was at the depths of my overdraft at the end of last month.... maybe i miscalculated how much to pay off the credit card last month to take me back down to my overdraft limit before I got paid. I shouldn't be complaining about having too much money haha, but it's throwing my budget and making me less concerned about my spending which is likely to lead to a downward spiral of purchases.... must keep vigilant!

In good news, DB got the new job he was after :j:beer: which means a lovely pay increase and better working hours! Not that it'll help my debts much as our finances are separate, but I may be able to convince him to treat me more often :rotfl:

In slightly-annoying news, I realised that Barclaycard took my 'overpayment' as the 'payment' this month so they haven't taken out the minimum direct debit amount :mad:. It just means that I'll have to calculate the total amount including the usual minimum payment when I make my payment at the beginning of each month.

Anyway, off to spend even more money on a celebratory takeaway....

mildredalien

Managed a NSD today (although only because DB picked up a few bits we needed from the shop on his way home!) and am making dinner out of stuff we had in the freezer/fridge - the very random combination of reggae reggae chicken and aubergine parmegiana.... well I like them both individually so hoping they'll go together! The diet on the other hand is not looking so good after a weekend of indulgence followed by opening chocolates in celebration of DB's new job. Oops.

Everything else looking as planned, bought my sisters OH a cheesey gift set from Pongcheese.co.uk, the website name just tickled me My topcashback balance is looking relatively healthy too, about £20 from just buying things I needed to anyway! Result

mildredalien

Another NSD yesterday, today bought some groceries from Asda for the weekend/next week's food which was another £23 onto the grocery budget. The £200 limit is looming very fast!! Although we got a free bag of mixed peppers it seems so I'll chop and freeze those today, that should keep us in peppers for a month!

No other real news as far as debt busting and money-saving go, still keeping largely to budget and checking my bank account daily, still fighting the urge to buy shiny things (and takeaway....)

freebyfifty

Hi Millie,

Just wanted to say "Hello" :j

You are so focussed at the moment, it's a brilliant feeling knowing that you are doing something positive about your money isn't it?
Keep going and stay focussed .......we will get there

mildredalien

Hi freebyfifty, thanks for stopping by!

Thanks for the compliment, I do feel quite focused and am hoping I can stick with it! I think the knowledge that I could be debt free in less than a year is helping me stay motivated, it actually seems achievable! Before I used to think (rarely) of £6k debt and just never believe I could pay it off in a reasonable amount of time.

This weekend is going to be cheaper than originally planned, although only because the friends that were going to visit now can't make it Am gutted, I only get to see them a couple of times a year but illness can't be helped I suppose. The silver lining of course is that I won't blow my budget with going out to eat/drink all weekend...

I've been thinking about developing a more detailed spreadsheet to track what goes in/out of my account better. Bills and DDs get taken out all throughout the month, and money goes IN throughout the month too from expenses (although this isn't money that I rely on in my budget, it's extra and covers the cost of petrol). I'm not very good with spreadsheets though and some of the ones I've seen on this site put the fear into me!! Maybe I'll have a play around with googledocs this weekend! Not exactly the same as a fun weekend in the pub with mates, but close :rotfl:

freebyfifty

mildredalien wrote: »

I've been thinking about developing a more detailed spreadsheet to track what goes in/out of my account better. Bills and DDs get taken out all throughout the month, and money goes IN throughout the month too from expenses (although this isn't money that I rely on in my budget, it's extra and covers the cost of petrol). I'm not very good with spreadsheets though and some of the ones I've seen on this site put the fear into me!! Maybe I'll have a play around with googledocs this weekend! Not exactly the same as a fun weekend in the pub with mates, but close :rotfl:

I'd be so completely lost without my spreadsheet. I log into it every day and check it against my online bank account. I have a projected budget until June next year :cool: Every single thing goes in it and it is really motivating to see the available balance going up (or down) and really keeps me on track. I can't recommend starting one enough

Sorry to hear about your weekend. I hope your friend gets better soon and you can have your catch up.

mildredalien

I've been trying to figure out a spreadsheet but no luck so far - the ones I have found don't quite match what I need, and I'm not spreadsheet-skilled enough to make one myself!!

Just checked my Tesco CC and it looks like the balance has been transferred off to the BC for the 0% interest period, woop! Well all except £26.51 which looks like it's the interest that was added on after the transfer *eyeroll* I've just paid that off so that's one CC down to £0! And another up to an eye watering amount but lets ignore that one shall we....

Keeping my funds for car stuff and non-regular payments separate has been quite a good thing, it's helping me keep track of what disposable income actually is in my main account. Just paid £63.25 for car tax and £25 to get a new V5, ugh cars are expensive!

freebyfifty

Well done you on the cc at zero :T........what other one, I can't see another one :rotfl:

Do you have Excel on your computer? that's all I use. I'm sorta spreadsheet literate but not advanced, just enough to do what I want it to do.
It's your spreadsheet so as long as you can make sense of it then it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks


Have a great day :j

mildredalien

I have openoffice which has a spreadsheet tool, oh and googledocs has spreadsheets I think! I'll have to have a proper go at making a spreadsheet, I'm sure I can beat it into submission at some point.

Today added another £8.29 to the grocery shopping this week, on weekend crap as usual :mad::eek: I seem to be incapable of keeping away from the junk food lately!! That did include lunch for Monday and Tuesday and we have plenty of food in the fridge/freezer so I'm hoping we won't need to spend too much next week... hmm maybe I should make a list of stuff we have so I can plan some meals. Off the top of my head we have:

• Chicken thighs
• Chicken breasts
• Sausages
• Noodles
• Bread/English muffins
• Eggs
• Milk
• Bell peppers

plus assorted storecupboard stuff, beans, tinned soup, tinned tomatoes, some veggies... should last for a while huh?! At least today we resisted the temptation of starbucks and/or a cooked breakfast out. Instead we bought Frijj milkshake (2 for £1.50) and made american pancakes with bacon, maple syrup and strawberries, yum! Mostly from stuff we already had in too. Small successes....