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

jakes-mum

dd1981 wrote: »

Hi everyone :wave:

I have been thinking about money lots recently thanks to this fab thread and have been looking at how to manage our money in the new year. Does anybody have any tips at all? I really want to set ourselves budgets for stuff like food but not sure what else to account for? I really want to keep a little money aside for Xmas too coz this year has been so hard getting presents from this months wages. Have overspent too so wanting to get smart in 2012 lol

Any advice would be much appreciated

DD
x

Hello DD, I have a little challenge for myself, I am trying to keep my shopping under £25 a week for 4 of us :rotfl: I have a spreadsheet (oooo I love a spreadsheet) which is split into days where I have a column for the shop name and a column for the amount spent. It totals at the bottom then tells me underneath what i have left to spend. Really helps me see where im overindulging and helps me reign in the extra 'oh go on its only £1' purchases

If you want to save for christmas, come over to the sealed pot challenge, we save all year and open them at the beginning of december for our christmas spends/holidays/weddings. We love new members

Christina_F wrote: »

hi - I have been lurking on this thread and think its a great incentive for everyone. I would to join th challenge too - will come back in the New Year with the figures - hope this is ok?

I need to find some tips regarding survey sites - which ones would you recommend?
Thank you everyone

Welcome Christina, I use swagbucks and maximiles. Swagbucks is giving me a £5 amazon voucher roughly every 7 days. Maximiles has taken me 2 months to get a £10 john lewis voucher. I cna send you links (and a load of info about swagbucks) via pm if oyu want

mf0u1098

dd1981 wrote: »

I really want to keep a little money aside for Xmas too coz this year has been so hard getting presents from this months wages. Have overspent too so wanting to get smart in 2012 lol

To be prepared for Xmas 2012 I am going to put £2/week minimum away each week and join the Tesco Christmas Savers club but only put the money into it in October just before you get paid the £6 bonus. Basically you can save up throughout the year in a savings account earning interest then the Tesco scheme gives you the equivalent of 6% interest as you get £6 for putting in £100. Like a fellow devious yorkshire lass said that you can open multiple tesco accounts and then save up more so that in October you can put all the money in and get 6% on each £100... The only draw back is that all the money is in Tesco vouchers but if like me, you mainly shop in Tesco anyway the it won't matter as it can go on Xmas food, Xmas pressies, fuel or your normal grocery bills...

xxx

CraftyTwinkle

Just popping in quickly to say hello, I'm still participating in the debt busting fun but have been busy earning swag bucks - it's all jakes-mum's fault lol!!! It was pay day today so will be updating my totals in the next couple of days, and is also my birthday which I got 50 free SB for!! Is it sad that it was my favourite gift today lol?!

seriousDFW

Monthly Update: Current balance is £10,187 which means I've paid off £536 in total now so far, which equates to about 5%.

I had hoped for more this month and there's two reasons I haven't paid off more:

1. Have done some balance transfers which has meant that debt has increased due to the transfer fee, but will obviously be beneficial in long term as about £6000 is now 0% for the next 18 months, so this is a definite positive really!

2. Have decided to overspend on budget because of Christmas. I know it's possible to avoid this, but I made the conscious decision to enjoy Christmas by having meals out etc. This has put my DF date back a few weeks but it is a measured decision and once Christmas is over, things will be very much stricter!

mf0u1098

CraftyTwinkle wrote: »

Just popping in quickly to say hello, I'm still participating in the debt busting fun but have been busy earning swag bucks - it's all jakes-mum's fault lol!!! It was pay day today so will be updating my totals in the next couple of days, and is also my birthday which I got 50 free SB for!! Is it sad that it was my favourite gift today lol?!

:bdaycake:_party__party__party_ HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

jakes-mum

CraftyTwinkle wrote: »

Just popping in quickly to say hello, I'm still participating in the debt busting fun but have been busy earning swag bucks - it's all jakes-mum's fault lol!!! It was pay day today so will be updating my totals in the next couple of days, and is also my birthday which I got 50 free SB for!! Is it sad that it was my favourite gift today lol?!

<---- Jakes mum points to the post roughly 30 pages previous stating her disclaimer *jakesmum takes no responsibility for loss of work hours, family time or the missing of special occasions due to swagging* :rotfl: :rotfl:

:j Happy Birthday :j

DorsetGirl_2

Just been looking at my spreadsheet and according to that I have paid off£267.15/£7873.87 - dont know why my figures were lower but thats fine by me

£267.15/£7873.87 #130

Still waiting for my other CC statements so I can update my payments to them too.

lulalolly

Morning , awwwwww thanks for all your support yesterday when my purse was stolen, you're all so kind.
This thread is a true example of what mse should be about.
L x

DorsetGirl_2

Happy Birthday for yesterday CraftyTwinkle.

Why is is on school mornings I spend ages dragging the kids out of bed at 7.30 - this morning they are all up at 6.45?

floridafairy

Get paid tomorrow, Can barely wait....Not so i can go spending but so i can pay some more off my credit card! LOL