The "Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2012" challenge

mf0u1098

sharronej wrote: »

I have introduced a system of envelopes which has taken up a lot of our pennies

oooh what's this??? xxx

Kerfuffle

mf0u1098 wrote: »

OOoooooooh I'm loving this idea! You are brilliantly devious :rotfl:xxx

Nah! Just a Yorkshire housewife :rotfl:

sam09_2

Hello! Mfou i would definately be up for a weight loss challenge, i would love to lose a stone over the new year. Am planning on doing my Tracy Anderson dvds about 4 days a week and eating healthier, Havent done any exercise for nearly 3 weeks due to a chest infection, I will be starting back tomorrow- no excuses! Hope all is well at home, My parents divorced a few years ago and it was really awful at the time but all settled now.

No more debt busting yet, will have more money to pay off but will have to wait til friday. Haha that makes me so frustrated, its funny that i cant wait to be paid to pay off debt rather than to buy things!

sharronej

mf0u1098 wrote: »

oooh what's this??? xxx

It's a real back to basics way of budgeting. I have a hard back A4 notebook which I write down all my dd's for the month - 3 columns for the 3 accounts including the dates they go out on (8th & 15th). I then have a column for my envelopes: Food, Diesel, Scouts, Tutor, Playgroup, Holiday/Christmas, school dinners, son's spends etc etc literally any commitment I have for the month! Because both dh and I are self employed it's been a real struggle to get a start and end to our month..it's taken me a year and a half to co-ordinate our wages so that I get most of my money the first week in the month. One of the most satisfying moments in the month is to distribute the money over the accounts and to fill my envelopes then it's job done - all the bills paid and all the envelopes full, in the last six months I have been able to include a weekend cash envelope for a little treat. I have another column for unexpected spends under the headings of need or want and I try to note down anything extra that I spend - I don't always manage but I'm not bad with it now. The real bonus is that because all the money is accounted for I have to physically open a different envelope if I overspend and then it's very obvious that I've gone wrong so I tend to remember what I'v blown it on, it also shows me if my budgets are not adequate. This has helped me to save £1600 up in the last four months (I'm saving up to finish my bank loan off in January £2400) and has showed me that actually yes, I can save up :T

Like I said, very simple but very effective and I'd recommend it to everyone

mf0u1098

sam09 wrote: »

Hello! Mfou i would definately be up for a weight loss challenge, i would love to lose a stone over the new year. Am planning on doing my Tracy Anderson dvds about 4 days a week and eating healthier, Havent done any exercise for nearly 3 weeks due to a chest infection, I will be starting back tomorrow- no excuses! Hope all is well at home, My parents divorced a few years ago and it was really awful at the time but all settled now.

No more debt busting yet, will have more money to pay off but will have to wait til friday. Haha that makes me so frustrated, its funny that i cant wait to be paid to pay off debt rather than to buy things!

I have a fantastic Pilates Dvd that is actually harder than it looks but I have tonnes of exercise dvds to be honest, I even have a treadmill, weights and an exercise ball so no excuse! To be honest my main problem has been that work has just been knackering... I just haven't had the energy to do any exercise after coming home. oh and my room is tiny and there isn't room if it's a mess...which is normally is... Well, I'm off work until the New Year so I will definitely tidy my room tomorrow (oops was supposed to do it today...) so I can start the exercising straight away!!!

It's weird isn't it how addictive paying off the debt is?! :rotfl:

mf0u1098

sharronej wrote: »

It's a real back to basics way of budgeting. I have a hard back A4 notebook which I write down all my dd's for the month - 3 columns for the 3 accounts including the dates they go out on (8th & 15th). I then have a column for my envelopes: Food, Diesel, Scouts, Tutor, Playgroup, Holiday/Christmas, school dinners, son's spends etc etc literally any commitment I have for the month! Because both dh and I are self employed it's been a real struggle to get a start and end to our month..it's taken me a year and a half to co-ordinate our wages so that I get most of my money the first week in the month. One of the most satisfying moments in the month is to distribute the money over the accounts and to fill my envelopes then it's job done - all the bills paid and all the envelopes full, in the last six months I have been able to include a weekend cash envelope for a little treat. I have another column for unexpected spends under the headings of need or want and I try to note down anything extra that I spend - I don't always manage but I'm not bad with it now. The real bonus is that because all the money is accounted for I have to physically open a different envelope if I overspend and then it's very obvious that I've gone wrong so I tend to remember what I'v blown it on, it also shows me if my budgets are not adequate. This has helped me to save £1600 up in the last four months (I'm saving up to finish my bank loan off in January £2400) and has showed me that actually yes, I can save up :T

Like I said, very simple but very effective and I'd recommend it to everyone

Superb! I love the wants/needs column... :T

sam09_2

mf0u1098 wrote: »

I have a fantastic Pilates Dvd that is actually harder than it looks but I have tonnes of exercise dvds to be honest, I even have a treadmill, weights and an exercise ball so no excuse! To be honest my main problem has been that work has just been knackering... I just haven't had the energy to do any exercise after coming home. oh and my room is tiny and there isn't room if it's a mess...which is normally is... Well, I'm off work until the New Year so I will definitely tidy my room tomorrow (oops was supposed to do it today...) so I can start the exercising straight away!!!

It's weird isn't it how addictive paying off the debt is?! :rotfl:

I know what you mean its hard to think of exercising when your tired already, Maybe you could just do half an hour to start off with. I work nights part time and look after my two toddlers so by the time their in bed im soo tired- i would like to follow the Tracy Anderson programme fully but 6 days a week is a bit too much with my circumstances!

mf0u1098

sam09 wrote: »

I know what you mean its hard to think of exercising when your tired already, Maybe you could just do half an hour to start off with. I work nights part time and look after my two toddlers so by the time their in bed im soo tired- i would like to follow the Tracy Anderson programme fully but 6 days a week is a bit too much with my circumstances!

eeek I feel even worse now as 1) I only have to look after myself (I have no idea how you parents cope at all!) and 2) the dvds I have are called the 10 minute workouts so you can either just do 10mins or all 5 sections for 50mins or a mixture of whatever you want... Oh dear, I feel bloomin awful now that I'm soooo lazy! :eek:

DorsetGirl_2

I have 4 children and luckily its quite a walk from our house to school, and I do it and back three times a day, so its about 2 miles a day. I can really tell in the 6 weeks holidays when I haven't been walking it.

Skintbint_3

Hi all, hope it's okay to join in. I would like to clear my debt by the end of 2012. I have an overdraft that is forever growing out of control and currently owe about 1500. I have previously been in debt but paid off that debt of £7000, so I know I can do it, It's just that now I live on a fraction of what I did when I had my previous debt to pay off and each month it's getting harder.

I am a real old styler and eons ago was a member of MSE and participated in the OS forum so I am well practiced in frugal living, but there is still more I can do, to be sure.

Even though 1500 might not seem much to some people,it's crippling me financially, as are the fees, and I want to finally be debt free by the end of 2012.

Hope you don't mind me joining in