Money Fritters 'Enough Now' DFW Diary - Chapter 2

Money_Fritter

Thanks MrsP.

Well I managed a run on Monday morning and Tuesday morning. I did not manage to get out for a run this morning, but I might try when I get home from work.

Money Fritter

Money_Fritter

Debt

Right, here comes the hard section. If the truth be known, I have put this section off until last as I didn’t really know what targets to set, apart from previous ones.

When thinking about my debt tackling I decided to re-read through most of my first chapter of my diary. To be honest, I had forgotten a lot of the challenges I had done. Re-reading them again has made me think that some of them still have their merits and could be included in my new debt busting plan.

Finances

In terms of debt I have 2 credit cards, both cards contain some of the debt as 0%. I have done 0% switching before, but I can’t do any more for at least another 6 months, as I recently got rejected when applying for a NatWest 0% card. However, one of my credit cards will increase my limit at the end of August by a decent amount, so hopefully I can shift 0% onto that one. I also have a car loan, this will finished in March next year. Finally, I also have an overdraft on my bank account, this is not 0%. However, my wages get paid into this account every month.

Credit Cards:- At the moment I am only paying the minimum payments. This has got to stop. Looking at my finances,

1. I reckon I can pay an extra £100 off my debt per month. So I will set that as a minimum target.

Grocery Challenge:- Looking back over my diary, I managed £25 per week on food and household stuff in the past. Now I know the cost of living has gone up, but at the moment I am spending around £40-£50 per week. My gf lives with me now, but she gives me money on top of that towards food. This has got to stop.

1. So I am going to try and set myself a target of £25 per week, but that will just be my contribution. As a challenge I am going to withdraw my food money for the month and put it in a money bag. Whenever I go food shopping and shopping for household items, I can only use money from that bag, once it has gone, I can’t use anymore.

Cutting back:- Looking at my other outgoings, I have managed to reduce my mobile phone by £5 per month. However, all my other outgoings are pretty fixed at the moment. Next March my car payments finish, so that will be another £150 that can go on the credit cards. The only other thing I could get rid of is sky. I know it is expensive, as I also subscribe to all the sport channels. However, before people start groaning, I need sky as I do something called sports trading. I can’t really go into details on this forum as it is not totally risk free. It is like trading stocks and shares, you buy low and sell high. However, you need to be watching a game of football, tennis or cricket live, and for that I need sky. To be fair, most months, especially when the football season is running, I do make £100 or more, so that more than covers my sky costs. I also don’t use any additional money to fund my sports trading. I started with £50 and have slowly built that up to around £600.

Extra Cash:-

1. Every month I will use half of my profits from my sports trading to pay off credit cards.

I have sold some books before on Amazon, but I have never sold anything on e-bay.

2. I am going to try and challenge myself to sell at least 1 item on Amazon or e-bay every month. I will de-clutter the house and see what I can find to sell.

Other Challenges:-

1. I will continue with the NSD challenges
2. I will continue with the grocery challenges
3. I have £20 spending money set aside per week. I going to try the £20 challenge again and see how I get on.

Money_Fritter

I forget to mention the reasoning behind my money bag challenge. I think if I withdraw spending money and food money and see it physically in a money bag, it might make me cherish it more and invest it wisely. I think most of the time it is just so easy to use a debt card or credit card, and you don't think about the money

Money Fritter

Money_Fritter

Hi Folks,

Well pay day has come and I had £50 left over from last month, so that has gone towards the visa bill.

I withdrew my food money at the weekend and did my first stock-up shop for the month, I withdrew £100, and spent £71!!!!

So I have £29 to last me for food until the end of August. It's not actually as bad as it sounds; I should only need to buy fresh stuff each week. I have done a meal plan for the next four weeks. So hopefully that will work quite well.

Last week I also managed to go running 6 of the 7 days and managed to lose another 2lbs.

My debts now stand at £25849.95, so I have reduced my debts by a whopping £88.89 for the month of July. Obviously my plans are in place now, so hopefully this month onwards I can pay more per month.

Money Fritter

Money_Fritter

Actually I have just checked and I have only reduced my debts by £24.43 this month. Oh well, just got to keep going.

On a positive note, I have not used my credit cards for the last few months.

Money Fritter

Money_Fritter

Hi Folks,

Here is my Weekly food plan for this week

Monday

Breakfast:- Shreddies and a Banana
Morning Snack:- Apple and a Jelly
Lunch:- Ham Salad a Yoghurt and an Apple
Afternoon Snack:- Handful of Blueberries
Tea:- Baked Bean Curry and Mash

Tuesday

Breakfast:- Porridge and a Banana
Morning Snack:- Apple and a Jelly
Lunch:- Ham Salad a Yoghurt and an Apple
Afternoon Snack:- Handful of Blueberries
Tea:- Lentil Stew

Wednesday

Breakfast:- Shreddies and Banana
Morning Snack:- Apple and a Jelly
Lunch:- Lentil Stew, Yoghurt and an Apple
Afternoon Snack:- Handful of Blueberries
Tea:- Tuna Pasta Bake

Thursday

Breakfast:- Porridge and a Banana
Morning Snack:- Apple and a Jelly
Lunch:- Ham salad, Yoghurt and an Apple
Afternoon Snack:- Handful of Blueberries
Tea:- Spicy Carrot tomato soup

Friday

Breakfast:- Shreddies and a Banana
Morning Snack:- Apple and a Jelly
Lunch:- Spicy Carrot tomato soup, Yoghurt and a Apple
Afternoon Snack:- Handful of Blueberries
Tea:- Scampi and Salad

Saturday

Breakfast:- Scrambled egg on toast
Lunch:- Supernoddles with some bread and a Jelly
Tea:- Chickpea Curry

Sunday

Breakfast:- Scrambled egg on toast
Lunch:- Tuna/Mayo/Cucumber Sandwich and a Jelly
Tea:- Turkey Sunday Dinner

Money Fritter

Money_Fritter

So the cost of today's meal plan is as follows:-

Breakfast:-

Shreddies - 8p
Milk - 10p
Banana - 14p

Snacks and Lunch:-

Apple - 22p
Jelly - 33p
Lettuce - 10p
Cucumber - 10p
Tomatoes - 20p
Ham - 20p
Yoghurt - 25p
Apple - 22p
Blueberries - 40p

Tea:-

Baked beans - 20p
Onion - 4p
Spices - 10p
Tomatoes - 20p
Potatoes - 38p

Total for the day = £3.26

Money Fritter

Enchanted21

I have to say MF I'm finding this all very fascinating. You have given me a great deal to think about. I love how you are breaking everything down into goals and lists...... This sooooooo appeals to me :-)

Another great motivational coach is Tony Robbins....... I love his no nonsense style x. Good Luck on your journey :-)

Money_Fritter

Thanks for the comments Enchanted21, and feel free to drop in anytime for a chat.

Well I got home a bit late from work today, but I still managed to get my run in; so very pleased with that.

Think it is time for some tea I am starving.

Catch you later

Money Fritter

Money_Fritter

Money_Fritter wrote: »

So the cost of today's meal plan is as follows:-

Breakfast:-

Shreddies - 8p
Milk - 10p
Banana - 14p

Snacks and Lunch:-

Apple - 22p
Jelly - 33p
Lettuce - 10p
Cucumber - 10p
Tomatoes - 20p
Ham - 20p
Yoghurt - 25p
Apple - 22p
Blueberries - 40p

Tea:-

Baked beans - 20p
Onion - 4p
Spices - 10p
Tomatoes - 20p
Potatoes - 38p

Total for the day = £3.26

Money Fritter

Got my figures slightly wrong before. The amount should be as follows

Breakfast:-

Shreddies - 8p
Milk - 10p
Banana - 14p

Snacks and Lunch:-

Apple - 22p
Jelly - 33p
Lettuce - 10p
Cucumber - 10p
Tomatoes - 17p
Ham - 36p
Yoghurt - 25p
Apple - 22p
Blueberries - 40p

Tea:-

Baked beans - 20p
Onion - 4p
Spices - 10p
Tomatoes - 17p
Potatoes - 17p

Total for the day = £3.15

Ideally, I would like to keep the daily cost below £3. A few years ago when I did this, I was looking at £2 per day. However, that was 3 years ago and times have changed. I will try and get it down to £2.50. I will see what I can do.

Money Fritter