Millie's debt diary

mildredalien

OK 1st December, time to turn over a new spending-diary leaf! I'm going to try very hard to track everything this month and get a true idea of what I'm spending...

Todays spends total £91!! :eek: This did include a new suit, boots and shirt for the interview tomorrow (the suit should last me a long time, and the boots will be my winter work-wear for only £13, bargain ) Xmas shopping is almost done, I'll be glad when I don't have to think about it any more....

debtfreewannabe321

Do you use cash back sites to get your shopping on? If not then sign up for them before getting anymore pressies if you already have them (i'm sorry i have actually read all the posts my memory is shockingly bad though) then ignore me

If you have a smart phone i've heard there are some good free apps on there to help you keep a spend diary / budget in check

Keep up the good work

mildredalien

I do use cash back sites (when I'm shopping online, shame I can't get the same deals in person!!) I've been able to get cashback on a fair few of my presents, not all of them unfortunately

At the moment I'm using spendingdiary.com to track everything, it went well for a couple of weeks last month before I drifted off.... I have trouble sticking with things like that! Am going to try hard this month though, if it still doesn't work I'll try an app, I usually have my phone on me for the majority of the day so it might work better.

I've readjusted my debt numbers now that I'm at the beginning of another month, the grand total has now reduced to:

£5031.18 :j:beer:

It seems to have reduced quite quickly! But I have overpaid even more than my snowball calculator suggested this month to clear some odd balances off old cards. Now I just have TWO debts to worry about - one Barclaycard and my overdraft! *edit* oops forgot my loan!

I've also been provisionally offered a new job today :j It's a qualified position in my field and would mean a nice pay increase, just need to wait for the results of my last submission for the qualification to come through.... if I pass, the job is mine, if not, I'll have to wait for next year Oh well at least I know that I didn't embarrass myself in the interview hehe! Off to celebrate now (couldn't resist the temptation of a few beers tonight, will try and keep it sensible!)

mildredalien

Finally found a spreadsheet this morning that lets me put in my projected spends and update my actual spends as I go along, updating the totals that I should be left with at the end of the month. I'm still finding it hard to figure out how to get it to make sense with my virtual pots for non-regular expenses being in a different account and transferring in/out as needed... money is hard! Anyway I'm hoping it will at least try and keep me on track this month It looks like I have £150 or so wiggle room in my projected budget, which should cover any holiday expenses I haven't remembered!

Total spends for yesterday were £25.21, mainly on the meal and drinks out. Hopefully won't spend much today although I do need to get a few bits in for food this weekend. I'm off on a training course from Sunday night so food will be provided/expensed for a couple of days which should help!

mildredalien

So being in town with a hangover and my purse does not end well in terms of DFW spending.... I managed to spend about £19 on random crap yesterday! A few Christmas decorations from the pound shop was planned, but the giant toblerone, sushi for tea and Heston Blumenthal mince pies were not :eek: I knew I should never have gone into that Waitrose!!

Also bought another pressie for the DB, a grand old £6.75 on a pair of gloves

Hoping my spends will be minimal for the next few days as I'm away on training, and anything I do spend on food/travel will be reimbursed. I'm going to take my kindle on the train to avoid the temptation to buy expensive magazines...

freebyfifty

mildredalien wrote: »

So being in town with a hangover and my purse does not end well in terms of DFW spending.... I managed to spend about £19 on random crap yesterday! A few Christmas decorations from the pound shop was planned, but the giant toblerone, sushi for tea and Heston Blumenthal mince pies were not :eek: I knew I should never have gone into that Waitrose!!

Comfort food - sometimes it is definitely worth it

Have a great week x

mildredalien

Well that was a busy (and expensive) week!

Have been in sunny (hah) Scotland on a long weekend away with some friends to celebrate three 'big' birthdays, complete with touristy stuff, eating out a LOT, cocktails and one super-expensive swanky meal... I am definitely glad that I have budgeted holiday money into my plan as this covered the entire amazing weekend and I would have regretted not going!! So I have barely dipped into my normal budget since last Thursday as all expenses came out of the holiday money (apart from one round of tequilas at the end of a night paid for by debit card :beer:)

Must get back into DFW mindset and stop spending crazy amounts of money on food and activities for the next couple of weeks!! Am at home ill today (nasty cold, not self inflicted long weekend hangover :P) so will pore over the bank account and plan the next week or two.

mildredalien

Right, bank account has been checked and double checked and seems to be looking as it should 2 weeks before pay day....

Bit the bullet and paid an extra £180 to my BC - in total I've now paid about £600 off my debts this month :j For some reason I really dislike not having reams of money left in my overdraft, but I knew as I got into the budget and my plan of using my cheaper OD to pay off expensive CCs that I'd be delving right down to the limit.... just need to be super careful now not to go over it and incur any charges!! To be fair I'm pretty sure I have enough left to last me without too much trouble, but I'll need to avoid the usual temptations of splurging on Xmas goodies and socialising. After this weekend's excesses, I could do with a quiet few weeks!!

I think I always forget that there are days in December AFTER Xmas lol, and just think 'oh 2 weeks to Christmas, that's fine!' I will actually need to eat from the 26th - 31st though :rotfl:

mildredalien

Yesterday was a NSD :j and today will be a LSD - just a couple of necessary toiletries from Asda this morning and that's the lot! Shouldn't need to spend anything tomorrow either - spent £15 in Asda the other day for meals for this week (and a couple of 'I'm iiiiiillll' treats....)

So pottering on as usual, expenses are going into my account in a couple of days, and I should have more due in at Xmas as I'm travelling a lot for work at the moment, which should see me through December ok!

I've planned a trip to Sweden for 10 days next April with some friends which I'm currently worrying about I know it's my own stupid fault for agreeing to it, but it's somewhere DB has always wanted to go... and I just love holidays! I thought my holiday budget would cover it but now I'm not so sure having spent about £300 on a 4 day trip Mind you we splashed out a bit on this one, will have to investigate Sweden-on-a-budget! I'll have to sit down and properly work out how much I can afford without eating into debt-repayment or giving in to the temptation of the credit card. Maybe I can start selling some of my junk on ebay, who knows!

debtfreewannabe321

good news on the job front and like you i was counting down to christmas completely forgetting that we have another whole week in december after the big day :rotfl:

Well done on all the debt payments i'm very impressed and wish i had your motivation to pay debt so close to christmas. Instead I have to keep reminding myself I am in debt, and I don't need to buy every bargain i see

dfw :)