My first diary.. time to get in control

nomorespending

I have been posting on a few threads and one of the posters has inspired me to start a diary. Ive not kept a diary since i was a little girl but my aim is to try and post everyday and report for myself on how i'm doing . I think it will encourage me to get organised and thing about the next day each day which in tur should help me plan for things better!!
So today is sunday the 4th december. I have started a spreadsheet with my planned spending and more importantly my actual spending which I hope will inform futuer months as it is obvious that what i think i spend is way off what i actually spend!!
I want a family - at the moment if i went on maternity leave we coudlm't afford the payments for my loans and credit cards on mat pay - so if we want children we need to get out of debt!!
Grocery shopping - biggest spend
lack of planning so spending more money because i;m disorganised. I'm going to get organised !! hopefully this diary will help me.
I need to gradually get OH to support more. Banning him from coming shopping has been my first move but actually i need to think about talking to him about the food budget and getting him on board with keeping the spending down. But that means i need to work out the impact on the debts - ie the differenc on the debt reduction between spending 100 pounds a week on food and spending £40 pe week on food - so i need to do the snow ball actiity so he can see the bigger picture. And it needs to be simple and specific so its very obvious.
Heating - I have started turning the heating right down to 14 before bed - we;re in bed and really don't need the heating on - although oh seems to thing that its warmer outside in the morning - just need to do the same thing with the bills for gas and electric.

lunches - have made great progress recently - oh now makes sandwiches everyday. I can't have bread as on sw diet ( another issue) so take home made veg soup of gamon and pepper loaf. could cut down this further by buying tuna for oh sandwiches when its on offer, and getting eggs cheap too as he loves egg mayo butties. generally tuna costs £1 per tin and warbies bread 115 per loaf so if i can look out for offers on bread tuna and eggs i can reduce the cost of lunches.

Sw - i am paying to go to slimming world everyweek - the sessions are great but really i need to get focussed and start losing weight faster - i've been doign it since may and only lost 1.5 stone..I dont think its a waste of money as i woudl have put a lot more on if i hadn't been paying 5 poind every week and facing the music but i really need to get focussed, lose my weight and become a target member - that means it will be free to weigh in - this is one of my targets for next year - lose the rest of my weight and stop messing around!!

So in all - i want a baby ( but not before i'm out of debt)
I want to get married - I will be saving up for this once out of debt - and not getting into any debt to get married!!

I want to feel in control ...

For tomorrow i have set myself a couple of targets -
1. complete mileage form so i get paid some money in january - I think i have oct and nov to claim!
Also put in parking reciept and get the money back for that in jans pay too.

First day tomorrow ( monday 5th dec 2011) of being more focussed and more in control!

nomorespending

Day 2. Monday 5th December. A very long day at work today - its 9.30pm, I got home at 7pm , worked for 2 hours and then I've just had some spaghetti and pesto. I haven't spent any money all day.. hurray!!
I have completed my petrol forms and my parking reciepts and sent them off!! I have also sent my proof on no claims bonus off to car insurence company as they wanted proof in order to keep the quote they gave - so both of those jobs done.

Tonight I will pack up my ebay items which sold last night. I have made about £24 however I suspect that the postage tomorrow may add up to more than i've charged so i'll report in on the actual profit tomorrow night once i've been to the post office.

My Oh has given me a handsfree thing to sell on ebay so i need to get that on - maybe tonight? yes tonight - I need to stop dilly dallying around and get busy!!

Plan for tomorrow.. I need to order some shopping from tesco to arrive friday night as both me and OH are working all weekend, its going be a tough week.

I turned the heating down to 14 degrees last night - it was like the antarctic in the house this morning!! OH didn't actually complain - he just said maybe we should put a timer on to turn the heating on at 6am. I don't know how to do that so i think it will just be a 14 degree again tonight.

OH just had beans eggs and waffles for tea, so tomorrow night will make veg and gammon. Gammon is already cooked and veg is in the fridge. I had pasta and pesto but ony used a tiny bit of pesto so wednesday it will be psta pesto with left over gammon mushroom and pepper. Thursday i'm working overtime again so must make sure I plan for it.

Ok off to pack up ebay stuff and list the earpiece thing. Will be back tomorrow night to report in.

Task for tomorrow - just post the ebay stuff off and work out the profit.

Itsadogslife_2

I have done the same, I packaged all my eBay things up yesterday and tootled off to the post office and 4 out of 6 I hadn't charged enough I had charged £1.95 and 4 of them came to £2.16 oops - must calculate better next time.

nomorespending

Well I was only down 47p from my estimated postage charges, although that doesn't take account of all the packing materials, but luckily all the brown wrap was recycled and the bubble wrap i used I got a month ago ( a whole bin bag full) from someone on freecycle so the materials didn't cost me much - i need some new sellotape now though as its all run out!

I think from the sales I have made about £33 pounds profit. That will be in my paypal account, need to have a look at my banks and see if i should transfer it straight in - i'm not sure if i'll be overdrawn by pay day.. i keep working it out and then working it out again... will take a look tonight!

Mixed day today debt wise - obviously I got all my parcels sent off- got rid of some stuff i wasn't using.
I parked at work and forgot to get a receipt for my parking £4 - what an idiot. As i was paying it I was thinking I must put my receipt somewhere safe and claim it back straight away - then promptly forgot to press the receipt request button and off i trotted!! i remembered when i got in the car - doh!

Tonight I earned £50 ish in overtime...a positive, but on a negative my OH came in from work with a take out - which I ate - even though i had already prepared a slimming meal for us both!! wheres my will power? - i could do some serious money saving if i lost another half a stone as i'd actually be able to get into about 10 bags of my old clothes!!

so plan for tomorrow - Am working late - until 10pm so need to take lots of food to work so i don't end up buying any food in the evening.

I have one more parcel to post tomorrow - which hadn't been paid for today when i went to the post office, but has been now so i need to send it off.

I need to do the online shop so we have food in for the weekend... i need it delivering on friday night but I keep putting it off... tomorrow when i do my diary I will have ordered it!! i will!! and it won't be more than £40!!

ITSADOGSLIFE- I think you're estimate wasn't bad at all - I was pleased I was only 50 p (ish) out - you're only 21p out - result!!

off to nosey though some threads see if i can magic up some more money somehow!!

nomorespending

running in to say ... what a long day - the sooner it is over the better - its 10.40 pm i've just got in , i've had no tea and spent £2.50 parking . I'm going to go to bed!!

Got gas and electric bill today its £186 - i had budgeted 120 - had a long conversation with OH - we need ot both address keeping the heating off, wrapping up more. PLan is to have the heating on between 7pm - 9pm at night onyl and for 30 mins in the morning - o got in tonight and the hosue is cold and he is sat in pjs ( mine as he doesn't own any !!!) fingers crossed we can keep this up.
r
Hes had pizza out of the freezer for tea and is goign to give me some money towards the bill which I can give him back when we get paid - it is his petrol moneu but he shoudl be able to manage which means i won't ( fingers crossed ) have to go overdrawn to pay the bill due on the 12th .

.. will write more - with less errors tonorrow night .

goodnight

road-runner15

Hey, well done on your progress so far!

I'm in a similar situation - wanting to get married and possibly start family in a couple of years, but need to sort out the finances first.

I know what you mean about the food shopping - it's so easy to just grab things from overpriced shops on the way home, isn't it? So well done for meal planning. I'm going to take inspiration from you and do the same today. Spent a ridiculous amount last night at the supermarket.

Oh, and good luck with SW. I did it myself a few years ago and it really gave me the kick I needed to lose weight. If was money well spent. The meetings were fun - everyone was so nice and shared some great tips about how to deal with Christmas, eating out etc. Hhhmm, not that we DFWs should be eating out that much anyway

LAM2011

hi nomorespending,

good luck in your mission to become debt free. I have a few similar issues so can understand.

If I take my OH shopping the bill can be £20 - £30 more than planned - he is terrible! So I also now sit and menu plan and then shop online - have to pay delivery charges but at least I get ONLY the stuff I need and normally come in under budget and its delivered right to my dining table

we have our heating on at night from 5 to 9 and then occassionally for an hour from 5 - 6 am. But its me always complaining I am cold lol. My OH is always warm I dont know how he does it.

nomorespending

HI road runner and Lam2011 so lovely to have some hellos on my diary - please visit again!!

Well today my food shopping arrived from tescos at 945 pm... there seems to be nothing in there but i did keep to under 40 pounds - I decided to go with tesco because I had some vouchers through the post - £3 off a £30 shop and some club card vouchers too so a £46 was £36. I got a load of warbourtons toastie bread - 6 loaves - because Oh really loves it and it means that he always takes sandwiches instead of buying lunch, got loo roll, milk , shreddies and not a lot else!! but I have loads of veg left over from last week so should be fine - £10 was on dog food thats on offer so while i had money off i thought i might as well get some shopping in. OH was goign to go to the shops and get some milk earlier ( with my money) which woudl have been milk and what ever other goodies he saw so it was perfect that he was prevented from goign in the shops with the promise of an online delivery any minute ( i did tell him it was due at 8 so he was moaning that we couldn't have a brew by 9.30 whoopps!!
Tonight I got weighed ( my usual SW night is wednesday but I was workign late last night so went tonight) and I have lost 1.5 pounds which has taken me to 1 and half stone - which has made me very happy because I got there in october and promptly lost the plot - put a load of weight on and thought i'd never get back down - its come back off in half pounds - torture for me - the queen of impatience!!

I got £40 petrol in my car tonight... as it was nearly on empty and tomorrow I have to go into manchester for the day - Have looked into the best thing - drive and park, train or metro and I think metro will be cheapesta and most time eficient.
I posted my last ebay item off today too - i have another couple of bits with bids on totalling £7 at the moment so that will go into paypal and hopefully I can add it to some overpaments on something in december.
I don't have any food planned for myself for tomorrow lunch time - I am torn between free lunch at the training course i;m on tomorrow - whcih is money saving - and taking a slimming world lunch - that i need to prepare tonight ... hmm!! what to do -= i think i'll go with money saving option but try and choose sensibly so that i;m not ruining my diet too much!!
One of my work suits arrived from ebay today - I decided i need more work clothes that fit because most of my stuff is too big now , but i'm not goign to do my usual trick of swaning off to m and s and spending 100 etc on a new suit - especially when i am hoping to drop another dress size by march - so my ebay suit arrives - by next, gorgeous and cost me £5 plus £4 postage - absulte bargain - i'm feeling very pleased with myself.

I have a big presentation on saturday so am goign to get mmy hair done tomorrow night - £25 for my roots to be coloured blonde. I am goign to seriously consider dying my hair to my own colour but maybe in the new year i really prefer it blonde - maybe I'll committ to making my hair money on eaby every 2 months - it was spetember i last had it done.

I know that htis weekend is goign to really knock me workign all weekened so need to try and prepare as best i can so i don't end up thinking - ahhh i deserve a take out - I've worked sooo hard all weekend - !!!!!!
Friday night - somehting with new pots and veg
ooh and I'll make a spag bol ready for sat so all we need to do is cook spaghetti - its my favourite tea so i'll look forward to eating that when i finsih work... thats it.. plan done!

nomorespending

Oh tried to put some bedding away in my cupboard last night ... He said 'what on earth have you got in here ... you never even go in this cupboard' yes its true - i do not!!! It is full of things people of me for my 30th birthday - I was 31 in June!!! all kinds of things - I don't know what to do with them - shoudl i sell them or keep them and not use them ( things like scarfs - i'll never wear) or just give them away? One of the scarfs is a brand ( not sure what brand - maybe armaini or something) I don't know if its real or not and I don't want to sell it on ebay and get a bad review...
hmmm on that note I will get one thing out of that cupboard this weekend and put it on ebay!! Its a bit of a pain trying to nip out of work to go to the post office.. and I keep thinking all this for £2 on ebay... ( although I won't admit i think this to OH - I keep saying that every bit helps) but then i have to remember the dual purpose - its not jsut about the money it makes, its also about making room in my cluttered house! tomorrow i plan to report a plan for christmas present buying!! just mum dad and OH to buy for.

thevinternet

Hello!! Well done, god you have done lots and written loads already :T you sound far more organised than me, jealous!

So, a few thoughts if I may...

- Heating...14 is a bit low in my humble opinion. There was some official advice on here a few weeks ago from the government/councils about heating that said 16 degrees is ideal minimum, even at 15 you are at risk of infection apparently. I guess this depends on your constitution, but stay healthy, nothing worse than being ill and missing out on earnings/overtime!

- Unwanted scarves etc - regift? Secret Santa? Or ebay them, and post from home, you can do this by using kitchen scales to work out the weight of parcels, then paying for the postage with royal mail online. You then print out labels to attach to the parcels, but you don't need special sticky paper, you can print them on normal paper and glue or sellotape it on. Then you can just drop the parcels off at the PO rather than queueing, or alternatively at the sorting office if they let you - our local one accepts parcels til 7pm at night. Worth finding out, anyway.

- Weight loss - I am a health professional, and trust me, 1 and a half stone since May is really really good going, especially if you've kept it off. :T:T:T Good work and keep at it, if SW works for you then superb.

nomorespending

thanks thevinternet... I'm feeling very excited about finding a post on my diary so thank you you've made my night!!

Great advice - I have kitchen scales and i did not know i could pay for postage online - thats ace!!


i'm just going to take a short break from my waffle to pop and turn the heating up to 16... its been on 14 all day...If the advice says 16 then I'll go with that - thanks for that - you're right - I have one of those annoying bodies that waits until i'm about to go on leave for a week or 2 and then crashes with something horrid so i spend all my time off work ill. I' never ever off work sick - I've worked in my current job 8 years and never been off sick. I don't fancy being ill over christmas though as I'm really tired and I just want to relax and slob about and not be ill or stressed for a whole week and a half!!

So today - Well i've been out all day in manchester. I had a conference there - which meant free lucnh - i was soo good I chose the chicken and salad and no dressing and fruit for afters.:A. there were some yummy looking puddings but i resisted so feeling pleased with myself. I had looked into a variety of ways to get there - car being my favourite as the weather is vile - but I went by train because parking costs loads.
It cost me £3.10 I had about a ten minute walk when i go there but actually i missed the rain on the way there and the way back so I was pleased and it was much easier than faffing with driving parking or metros. I'm going to make an note in my diary to claim the £3.10 travel back - I never claim stuff back and I;m going to start!! one of my committments over the next year.

i have been and had my hair coloured tonight - I have a presentation tomorrow which is inmportant and I want to look ok - my hair was very scragily. I've taken it a shade darker than usual and am goign to go a shade darker each visit ( next one in feb half term) until its back to my own colour. My hair colour costs £25 -- howver the salon was empty and I had £50 in my purse so I got it cut too - I know i shoudlnt' have done and that its £21.50 i could have knocked off my debt but it does look really lovely, I'm so pleased with it and I know that I'll feel great tomorrow for my presentation. So to counteract this act of self indulgence I shall think of a plan as I type..

I have come home made tea ( pasta with mushrooms peppers and bacon) and some for OH too who is home just after ten. I have completed my excel sheet which has every sing penny i have spent since 1st dec on it. Its so that I can properly budget forecast for Jan and feb rather than just thinking I know what i will spend - I see now I'm miles out.. I have spent £470.04 since 1st dec, that includes hair train etc from today!! I can hardly believe it.
I have listed every single food item I have bought as I have entered the grocery challenge so far £119 on food and groceries ( including dog food) my limit is £260 and I'm only on the 9th Dec!!

I was thinking about putting the targets i set myself each day in a different colour maybe red as its all very well saying ' right tomorrow i;m goign to ...' but i actually need to do the things I say.

Ok plan for making up for having my hair cut... ebay ebay ebay... Off to hunt something down to list tomorrow. Was supposed to be making spag bol for tomorrow - must see if we have any mince.