2012 Frugal Living Challenge (Part 1)

tylersbabe

Maypole wrote: »

Hi all

I have been sat admiring how everyone is managing and learning to manage their finances.

I manage my money reasonably well in that the debt that I have is managable, BUT, I now want to pay off my car loan early, so had been using this thread and all the posts as my insperation.

I was managing quite well and patting myself on the back that I have managed on the budget that I had set mysel for the month and had only gone £10 over. Which I felt was not bad for someone who normally has no idea of where their money goes. Actually I still have little idea, just know I did not overspend allocated amount

But today that all went to pot when my friend arrived for coffee and said " what have you done? why did you not tell me you had dented your car?...............................................Well it only turns out that some "lovely individual" has driven into the side of my car and left a very large dent, then just drove off :mad:

To make it worse my car is parked on a drive, so to do this they have had to drive up the kerb and over a small peice of grass.

Anyhow this is how I have come to the realisation that I have very little money for lifes little emergencies :eek:

Oh and when in crisis I respond by going out and buying chocolate muffins, which were not in my budget

So although not offically joining, I hope it is alright I pop in from time to time, whilst I learn how to manage my money better. I am going to start by doing a spending diary for Febuary just to see what I am spending and where. So hopefully in March I can start setting myself some personal finacial goals, then join for the rest of the year.

If you have made it to the end of this epic post, thank you, and I appologise for going on, but today has been a very worrying wake up call

Hi again I had tried to log on with a new name as wanted a new begining and my usual name "Tylersbabe" relates to a dog who I lost when origionally joining, so was emotive for me.

Anyhow cause I am monumentally dim when it comes to technology, I have managed to loose my new password, and it will not let me reset it. Obviously doing something very wrong

So to get back to the point; I now have a quote to repair my car and a recycled note book to start monitering my spending. Onwards and upwards :cool:

purpleorchid

evening all, well done everyone x

not made much money this month

£30 on S & S, redeemed £20 for cat food
£17.54 selling books, dvds and cds on Zapper
£1.77 on amazon, sold 1 book.
total= £49.31

21 nsd for january which i thought was good, but i have well over spent, really need to tighten my belt on unessential things

Luv P
xx

purpleorchid

chika wrote: »

For all the loo roll hoarders. This was posted on the grabbit board http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0048DRZVC/ref=nosim/?!!!!!hotukdeals-21

45 rolls of Andrex white for £10 with free delivery. Apparently it works out at the same price per roll as the value stuff so treat yourselfs! I've bought a pack as I'm down to just three rolls! The delivery date is a while away so will go to home bargains later and check out this famous Nicky brand.

gutted just looked and its now £22.45 :eek:

Luv P
xx

dizzy_lizzie

Lola big hugz huni. What a rotten time you're having at the moment. Men eh? Take it easy and maybe let things take their natural course rather than getting too stressed about it all. Sleep sounds good, your body will always know what it needs if we listen to it.

Purple I'm the same, spent more than I wanted. I can see this becoming a trend for February so I'm going to have to be very strict with myself.

Almost February. How fast did that come around...!
As for loo rolls we have the grand total of.........one and a half
x

rising_from_the_ashes

LolaLemon wrote: »

Thank you, I'm just really hating it all atm, more so because my son likes him n asks him to come do things with us.
I'm completely 'in a mood' just now, as he offered to take son so I could go to my Gaelic class, said he would pick him up at 5 from swimming, I fone at 4 just b4 we go in n he says he has to take his niece n nephew down to his flat, as apparently that 'just have to see it, right now' (his direct words) . He has bn their 7 months now, never once has he invited them down, not have they ever asked b4. He turns up at 5.55. My son is starving and absolutely shattered. I tell him to make sure he us fed within half an hour and he is in bed for 7. I just foned and they are at his sisters house.. son still isn't fed and will now b up all night! Rage is not even close to how I feel just now!

Ohhhhh hun, you must've been typing as I posted the last time .... that's just not on, no wonder you're p'd off.:mad:

I think I've turned over a big leaf which I hope means I'll never be in debt again .... I actually can't wait until tomorrow so I can put all my monthly payments into the SOW:o (I take these off my budget / add to my sig on the 1st even tho' they're spread throughout the whole month). Ohhhhh deaaarrrrrr!

dizzy_lizzie

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I think I've turned over a big leaf which I hope means I'll never be in debt again .... I actually can't wait until tomorrow so I can put all my monthly payments into the SOW:o (I take these off my budget / add to my sig on the 1st even tho' they're spread throughout the whole month). Ohhhhh deaaarrrrrr!

:T Well done. I bet you feel great
x

JayneC

Hello all just a quick hello

Nothing much to report, have been frugalling away as usual. Kept mostly to budget for the month (logs have taken my heating budget quite a lot higher but should even out over the year).

However, inspired by Frugaldom's blog I've decided to really try to get my debts cleared by the end of next year. They currently stand at £11, 500 (or thereabouts) having almost cleared them last year I then paid almost £8000 (on credit card but 0% till May) getting my woodburning boiler stove fitted!!! But my previous boiler was well and truly dead - I spent last winter with no hot water and heating by electric fires!!! So.. need to raise around £400 per month in addition to budgetted for minimum payments. As my income is only just over £1000 per month this will take some doing. May start my own diary so will let you know if and when and if you fancy a peek you are welcome to come along.

Keep going everybody and huge big hugs to ((((Lola)))) Look after yourself xx

cw18

Spreadsheet all updated for January, and looks like this...



Overspent on 7 categories
Council Tax - as I divide the annual bill by 12, but it's actually taken in 10 payments. will be in the black by end of Feb as next payment not due until April
Mobile Phone - I added on an optional extra from mid-Dec, but they didn't charge the Dec to Jan fee for it until this month - when I've also got the fee for Jan to Feb as they normally charge in advance - so £5 (or thereabouts) of it should really have been charged/paid last month. I've hopefully over-estimated the normal monthly bill (so that it rounds to a monthly £ figure) by enough that I'll be in the black before year end.
Endowment - this will be in the red until year end, as I've only got 2 or 3 payments due this year but divided the total that will cost me (based on 3) over 12 months
Breakdown Cover - annual bill that comes due in January, so stays in the red all year
Road Tax - same as breakdown cover
Running Expenses - paid entry fees for 4 races (1 in April, 1 in June and 2 in October). have to pay club membership in next few days (another £30), but as long as I don't enter many more races or need any equipment I should be back in the black by the end of March
Anything Else - about half of this was on home exercise stuff from Ald! and L!dl, which meant it was 'grab now or miss out' (£39.91). a further £17 was for my dental check-up (so not a lot I could do to avoid that without risking being knocked off their books for not going in a certain time-frame, and I can't afford to lose my place with an NHS dentist ). A further £2.20 was a car park fee from 18th, when I was at the hospital as one of DDs birthing partners - I now have 3 grand-daughters, and have seen them all come into the world

Underspent on the other 14 categories by varying degrees, but by enough that the bottom line (the all important figure) is showing a credit balance of £39.06 which is good news :T

In 2010 (last time I kept my spreadsheet up-to-date) I ended January over budget on 5 categories and on or under budget on 18 (I've merged a couple this year and have lost 3 due to no longer having a dog or working, but I've also added in 2 new ones) - but my bottom line showed an overspend on the month of £102.86. So it looks like I may have set more realistic figures this year

Kerfuffle

phoenix_dragon wrote: »

Hi all, hope you are all well. Due to some unexpected circumstances, I will have to pull out of this challenge. I wish you all well, and I will lurk from time to time, when the baby allows

Hi phoenix_dragon,

sorry to see you go, but hope to see you return in your own good time.

tumptyteapot

Sorry folks for the dissapearing act, and thanks to Lola for checking up on me.
I am not being at all frugal, but I'm not going mad - working hard, got a new bloke! (I give it 5 minutes but it will be a fun 5 minutes) busy keeping warm and trying not to think about the heating bill.
I've dumped all my accounting stuff with an accountant so I'm having a rest from having to think about it this month - I'll be back in March when grim reality hits me :-)