£2012 in 2012

clipperty

Thanks guys I really appreciate, I had such a slow start getting to the 2 weeks mark with absolutely nothing and from there it has just snowballed! It is you guys that have just pushed me on you are all an inspiration :Tand I just want to do this so badly to the stage where I am obsessed. (Bought my first piece of clothing the other day, succumbed in Sainsburys, a lovely dress half price to £20) got it home and tried it on, yes it is nice, but no different than the other 10 black dresses I have got in my wardrobe for work, so it is going back, I dont need it I wanted it, but what a waste of money, all I keep thinking is yes only £20 but that is a fifth of £100, £20 is neither here nor there but five of these, £100 is a lot of money do you understand what I mean?

I have never had any savings in my life, my 'old' life, I would definitely have been a candidate for the shocking people on superscrimpers and the like, up until December (yes i know it is only a short time and could easily fall back into my ways) I could not wait for payday and would think nothing of going to the retail park and literally blowing £500 in one go on nothing, prime example, some of the things I am putting on Ebay are the outgrown clothes of my 21 month old DD. I would get paid go to Next and shop in there like you would a supermarket, picking everything I liked and going and paying without a second thought £150 later and then popping into the Asda and doing the same, meaning daughter would have enough new outfits for 2-3 weeks without wearing anything twice, I have spent the last couple of weeks going through all these clothes, there are loads of BNWT items and probably 80-90% of the rest has been worn once, what a waste! Looking back through old bank statements is now marking me cringe even just the paypal payments, they might be £5 here and £10 there, but add them up and I have probably been wasting another £300 a month there on things that I dont need just love the buzz of the bidding (also bearing in mind that I do do some Ebay most months anyway on top of this £300 I would also spend sorry waste all that too as I felt it was free extra money, no it was not it was money that could have been saved to buy nice things.

I was talking to my husband last night and was telling him that although I have tightened the purse strings, our standard of living is not going to change. What I was saying to him is that I go to the supermarket and automatically will go and grab a handful of plain white or black t-shirts, (have just given a full bag of these to the charity shop) as have probably got in excess of 50 all idenitcal, you pay £5 each for these and was buying probably about 6 a month thats £30 for tat. What I was saying is nice to see a bargain, but only a bargain if I am a) going to wear it and b) will I get a lot of wear out of it. sorry I am waffling now! For work I buy mainly shift dresses and suits from Marks and Spencer, I do not think anything of spending £60-£70 on a nice shift dress BUT I buy classic styles and I get my wear out of them, they look expensive, smart and professional making them cost effective even though they were expensive. For out of work clothes I buy all the cheaper stuff and stuff in the sales and I have got twice as much as will fit into the wardrobe. My new pholosophy is save up and buy a good quality even expensive item instead of 10 cheapo items, it would mean I would get pleasure because it looks good, makes me feel good, save on wardrobe space and I will get so much more pleasure.

God I really am waffling now but I have started so I will finish. For our 10th wedding anniversay my husband bought me a tweed coat I had wanted for a year, yes it was £500 but my DH calls it my look me up and down coat, whenever I wear it I get asked where it was from and how beautiful it is and when we are out people look me up and down I feel so good in it and walk tall, it is a classic that will not date and will have for a lot longer than any other coat.

Thank you for staying with me, I will leave you all to get back on with your lives now :rotfl:

LotsaLuck

I don't think the point is how expensive the clothes you buy are - it's about spending consciously - spending the money that you can afford to spend on things that you need / want / love. I, as I suspect many on this board have too, have learnt about this the hard way. I used to spend money I didn't have on things I didn't need, or especially want sometimes, without a second thought. Now I'm out of the horrendous debt that that caused, I know where every penny goes. I'm not doing great at the moment, I have a very low income and I'm really struggling, but I think the only way to rebuild my life is to control the money I do have, instead of it controlling me. That's why I'm here. And it sounds like you've made a really positive start to the year, clipperty, it's as much about attitude as £'s racked up.

Tete_en_l'Air

Hello all, wow some people are doing so well! Perhaps anyone who reaches £2012 early could then aim for £3000? It's up to you though, like everyone's been saying, we're all playing to our own rules here!

It's payday for me so I've moved a bit of money about. I said earlier I'm going to try to put away £80 of my wages each month and that will make up almost half of the target. This month we've had a very small payrise which is backdated to September, so I've put the backdated portion away too as I hadn't missed it.

I'm also doing the Day Zero Project and as part of that I'm saving £10 for every item crossed off, in its own little dedicated savings account, so I'm going to count anything I put away towards that this year in this challenge.

I'm also going to count savings made on things I've bought, but only in certain circumstances. Eg, I won't count saving 10% with my NUS discount in Topshop because I always take 10% off their prices anyway and expect to get it. But if I take a sale item to the till expecting to pay £10 and find it's gone down to £7, that's £3 saved - if that makes sense! This month I bought some stuff in Boots, forgetting that as a contact lens customer with their opticians I get £10% off all own brand stuff, so the 70p I saved I would have spent, so I'm counting it.

It's a friend's birthday this month and as she hasn't been the best friend to me recently, instead of spending £15ish as I would normally, I bought her a £5 item in the sales and am going to re-gift a book of mine, saving myself £10.

So to keep myself right, here's what I've saved so far:

£ 1.60 - Quidco cashback
£ 1.45 - interest from bank
£30.00 - Day Zero savings
£33.60 - backdated payrise
£80.00 - regular savings from wages
£10.00 - birthday present savings
£ .70 - Boots 10% saved

TOTAL: £157.35


If I could find another £10.32 from somewhere before the 31st I'll be on track

Hope that wasn't too garbled, thinking out loud a bit!

spykey_uk

Is it too late for me to join this? It means I'll have a bit more of a challenge as I'll have to raise a bit more each month, but I'm up for that! I would like to aim for the £2,012 too. I've just paid off my debts so this can be my emergency fund as I don't have one at the moment!

specialkthefirst

everyone is doing brilliantly!!
ive been looking for things round my house today to ebay and i came accross some shoes in my DS room... i found 2 pairs of shoes still in the box - a pair of nike air max's and a pair of vans, i do remember buying them a while ago but clearly his feet grew to fast and they got forgotten - he is only 22 months! together they would have cost me £60!! what was i thinking!?!?! ahhh

so glad i found this site and everyone here i am so motivated to save !

was wondering does anyone have any advice i sold an item on ebay on the 8th Jan and she took 10 days to pay.... finaly i got the package sent off. all the other packages i sent at the same time have arrived but shes saying hers hasnt come... im feeling very un trustworthy of her. she is asking for a refund... i dont know what to do?? i only starting ebaying at begining of month so unsure of what to do? any advice would be great

happy money making & saving xxx

Babnie

I am not doing so well after my first 2 weeks.

I have only managed £8 since my last post.

So my total for the month is only £93

I am hoping my Ebay items i listed last weekend get some bids.

No interest so far in the items i have listed on Gumtree.

197: £93 / £2012

amberfinn53

Btw, if anyone else is into horses or used to go horse riding, horse riding clothing and horse clothing and items seem to sell really really well so well worth having a clear out

clipperty

amberfinn53 wrote: »

Btw, if anyone else is into horses or used to go horse riding, horse riding clothing and horse clothing and items seem to sell really really well so well worth having a clear out

Thats true Amberfinn, but then again having horses you know how expensive this stuff is to buy in the first place lol!!!! We have 8, our biggest expensive is fuel to travel up and down the country, but was worth every penny last year when daughter qualified for horse of the year show

jiggyquincy

Hi everyone
Just discovered this forum post, I have been following the 2 grand/2 stone in 4 months one.
This one is more realistic at my current total of £247.62/£2012

Combination of selling books on greenmetropolis, selling phones on ebay and recycling them through trade in sites, topcashback, swapping credit cards, etc.

Hope I am not too late to join in

nomi01

CLIPPERTY You are doing amazingly well. Please don't think it would be smug to stick with the challenge after you reach £2012. Its great to see people doing well. Anyway, its about changing your thinking towards the way you spend your money and you seem to be doing that really well. I,m sure everyone on here is hoping everyone achieves their target, however they get there. This challenge has been such an eye opener for me. I never realised how much I wasted on things I dont need. Also never thought of the potential value of the things I have given away and recycled in the past. It has had a big effect on how I view things. No more buying the same things every week from supermarket, I did a stock take of my freezer before I went this week, I also stocked up on items that we use alot, whilst they are on offer.
I have been through my wardrobe and found clothes BNWT that I got on a whim. I am listing them on ebay. I have sorted my books, going to look at amazon for dvd trade ins and i,m blitzing the kids rooms and garage for stuff too.
Well done, your hard work is being rewarded.