Being realistic, being kinder and taking my time.....

Choc-addict

• Investigate ebay (never done it before!) (didn't happen)
• Take nephew to cinema (xmas treat) (DONE - was lovely!)
• Sort out online savings pots (virtual savings) (didn't happen)
• Finish Christmas shopping if possible (didn't happen)
• Wrap/bag etc all Christmas presents ready for delivering (no shopping done so didn't happen)
• Work out budget for December payday (nope)
• Cut all card for wedding invites ready to print/prepare next week (DONE)
• Write a small to do list for wedding bits - make some final payments early to get out of the way (nope)
• Pick up new car Sunday morning after Church (Sort of...our car wasn't ready so been given Ka to drive about...it's almost pink...OH not amused :rotfl:)

Not very successful on all the things that I wanted to do at weekend. Hey ho, today is another week!

Choc-addict

Feeling in a girly pink mood today so change my colour to write in that, sometimes I do wonder about myself :rotfl:

Had a non productive weekend in matter of my to-do-list but in another sense a good weekend spent with family and friends and above all relaxing - something i'm not good at doing normally!

OH and I had good old chat about things this weekend money wise and we've decided that I need to 100% focus on my debts, not saving for this, that, wedding, car....my money is all over the place. Soooooo OH is going to concentrate on that side of things as he has the disposable income and I am going to 100% focus all my spare money on clearing my debts. In turn this is a win win situ for both of us as means we'll be financially solvent (is that the term?) a lot quicker and the sooner I clear my debts the sooner we have an extra £900 odd pounds (min pays to detbs) coming into our joint household income, not to mention the few hunderd that I will be overpaying by each month now that I don't have other things to pay, so in turn once sorted, we'll actually probably have around £1200 - £1400 excess income we are not usually used to having once my debts are clear, OMG how amazing would that be!

It's all systems go from now on, watch this space!

Karen xx

laura2481

Hi choc! thought I'd pop by and catch up as I've not been around much- busy busy! Anyhoo, thought I would suggest ING online savings as something to look into. Because it is seperate to my normal bank account I forget it exists- I just have a DD set up to take a teeny amount every month and then forget about it. It's easy to use, you can set up DD for regular amounts and do manual transfers. Just a suggestion if you haven't got anything sorted already.
Also, a wedding tip you may find handy. get yourself a little diary and keep it in you handbag and write down in it all you due dates of payments, dress fittings, florist meetings anything like that. I found it really handy, especially in the last couple of weeks when everything got really busy!
laura x

Choc-addict

laura2481 wrote: »

Hi choc! thought I'd pop by and catch up as I've not been around much- busy busy! Anyhoo, thought I would suggest ING online savings as something to look into. Because it is seperate to my normal bank account I forget it exists- I just have a DD set up to take a teeny amount every month and then forget about it. It's easy to use, you can set up DD for regular amounts and do manual transfers. Just a suggestion if you haven't got anything sorted already.
Also, a wedding tip you may find handy. get yourself a little diary and keep it in you handbag and write down in it all you due dates of payments, dress fittings, florist meetings anything like that. I found it really handy, especially in the last couple of weeks when everything got really busy!
laura x

Hey Laura!

How are you?

Thanks for the tips re savings account and diary idea....i already have 2012 diary for personal use but didn't think how useful it would be for the wedding...it's coming around sooooooooooooo fast!!!! Eeek!!!!!

I love the idea of setting up a direct debit for teeny amount and like you say forgetting about it, that'll build up. Also good to go away from own banking as too easy to log in and 'dip in' so to speak. If its a diff account somewhere I probably won't bother as too much hassle whereas log into my current acc etc on daily basis.

xx

Choc-addict

Finally all my statements have arrived since November payments and have paid a nice tidy sum of £785.86 off of my debts this month :T

Have updated my new total, very happy bunny

Next months aim is to clear at over £800 off them minimum....exciting!

Choc-addict

Nothing interesting to report today. Had friends over last night which resulted in takeaway so unfortunately a spend there. It's funny but I start begrudging spending money :rotfl:

Anyhow, it's payday tomorrow so a nice new fresh budget to be set with the aim to clear as much debt as possible! I'd like to think I could find a way of ensuring I clear over 1k of debt after this months payments in total - that would be great. Hmmm thinking caps on :think:

Karen x

Choc-addict

It's payday! Woo hoo! :j

Now the real work starts, I need to sit down and work out budgets/spends etc and upcoming events and make a plan to stick to.

I have already found an old notebook which I am going to use as my spending diary this month. I will also log all spends on here too, just to keep me motivated and make me think twice about things.

This month runs 15th December to 13th January. Here's to a frugal month and lots of debt overpayments

Karen x

jwil

Just de-lurking to say hi :wave:

*relurks*

Choc-addict

jwil wrote: »

Just de-lurking to say hi :wave:

*relurks*

Hi lurker/delurker....thank you for posting, reminds me that I need to keep on writing or things will slip! You're a star!

Choc-addict

What a week, been so busy not had time to do anything money wise. Wedding invites on the go, christmas shopping, food shopping, present delivering, present shopping for my dad (bless him never knows what to get people), working....endless! Every year I tell myself that I am going to take a few days off before and after Christmas and every year I miss the boat in booking only to be told I can't have it as too many people off at one time :mad: If i'm still on here this time next year, please can someone remind me!

I need to sit down and look at finances, rejig after Christmas spends (more than I intended ) and work out a budget for the rest of my month until next pay day. Hoping to have at least £40 per week which I know I can survive on....obviously with many a NSD!!

I have put aside £250 to overpay on a debt - just got to decide which one...feel very good about that

Right best get back to work. Will be back with plan of action for remaining part of month until payday in Jan!

Karen x