Natty's Kicking her Mortgage in the Pants Diary

nattypants

nattypants wrote: »

Lulabelle (I am on December 22nd top of page 5, off your diary by the way, and it's making me feel like it should be Christmas NOW! I had to stop reading as my friend turned up earlier, however am looking forward to continuing)

I've just realised that it's NOVEMBER 22nd in your diary Lulabelle - I was reading away thinking, hang-on what's happened to Christmas?:rotfl:

Back over I go.....
NP:D

nattypants

Okay, so I didn't get stuck into defining my Ebay 'loot' today however this is still very much on my weekend list.

For the second night I have refrained from purchasing a bottle of wine, not exactly earth shattering however I will O/P £5 into my mortgage instead.

Little and often:j

NP:D

HelenDaveKids

Guiltily enjoying my free u switch wine, had long day at work and all felt better knowing I had freebie wine in fridge,
done long day, then ironed school clothes (1 less job tomorrow) then spent an hour on ebay using free listing to clear out my rubbish so feel definitely deserve - now on free bottle number 2! (sharing!)

HelenDaveKids

edinburgher wrote: »

Absolutely - just try and sell the better stuff first and make sure you don't spend the money you earn on anything else before Christmas - only 95 days to go :rotfl:

noooooo. Not the C word!!!

Emthemist

Hi Natty,

Rather than leave all of your receipts until the end of the month and then get a shock, what I do is have a budget for Supermarket, Petrol and Other, put the budget at the top, and minus every receipt total.

eg

Supermarket
spent remaining

---

250.00
6.50 243.50


I find it really focuses the mind, especially towards the end of the month!

Em

Emthemist

Also, if you haven't spent all of your budget you can put it towards OP - even more incentive not to spend it all!

Sepa74

If you have a smart phone you can download spending diary apps, so you plug in your spend while you're standing at the till!

I use Expense Manager and find it very useful.

Heffi1

I have just had a look on BlackBerry App World and I am downloading Expense Manager right now, as I tend to forget what I have bought, I try to use my card in shops, but I forget what I have used the cash for, so I will try this out for a while and see if it is any good, it is free so no outlay to worry about.

ETA: Rubbish app so deleted, what a pain the backside that was, as you can tell if it doesn't get my attention straight away I won't use it.

chocoholic_chick

Loving your diary! Have had a few chuckles reading through and will be subscribing to keep up with how you're getting on

I downloaded expense manager a few days ago but am yet to look at it, is it just not worth bothering with then??

Definitely agree with keeping an eye on your spends more regularly, has meant I've been able to OP my mortgage by £80 this month, mainly by meal planning and only buying what I needed, saved a fortune on my food shopping :T

nattypants

Noooooo........I typed up a big post and lost it all. It went something like this though;

HelenDaveKids - I hope you enjoyed your USwitch wine, which no doubt tasted all the better for being free, free, free! Today is my day 3 of no wine, and more importantly no wine purchase (except I did drink the dregs of a bottle which amounted to a mere 2 gulps)

Emthemist - A while ago I used the envelope method, an idea that I stole at the time from Hypno's DFW thread, however I failed miserably on more than once occasion. In hindsight I was way off the mark on my grocery and petrol anticipated V actual spends, however now I have a better idea of actuals and potential reductions (namely saying 'cheerio' to the gas-guzzler), I will give this another go from 1st October. I am paid early this month so will have to be ultra non-spendie from this coming Friday right through to Monday. This means I will only be able to use existing money in my purse, and (if achieved) will the most incredible achievement. Ever.

Sepa and Heffi1 - I do have a Smart phone, although currently it has b**ger all functionality which I suppose makes it a pretty brainless phone....however great reminder for me to contact 0*2 to fix so thank you for this!

Choc_chick - I am so impressed with your O/P of £80 purely down to meal-planning and careful spends:T Although only a small amount, since starting my diary I have O/P by an extra £18.61 which I wouldn't have even considered doing before.

Confession Time: This weekend I pledged to eBay and did not keep up my promise, although I did read lots of hints and tips - does that count? Probably not, however on the plus my total spends have been at an all time low for Saturday and Sunday, and I russled up a meal from the fridge rather than venturing out to dreaded supermarket. I will Ebay, I will, I will, I will.

PS. Little-Boy-Racer-Car isn't so bad, and he even tells me when it's time to change gear. Bless:cool:

Thank you for dropping by and reading, please do come back!

NP:D