Diary of a "Frugal Saver"

Frugal_Saver

Thanks WantToBeSe, sorry about the delay in responding, I've been itching to get on here all week but I'm having problems with my internet at home and it keeps cutting out. Sky are on the case, I'm waiting for a call back from them on Friday to see if they can get to the bottom of it, in the meantime I've got to connect via a cable to the internet on my laptap.

WantToBeSE wrote: »

In regards to the gold money- do you have an emergency fund already in place? In the post further down you said that you now have no access to credit (Well done BTW!), so it's really important that you have an emergency fund, should the washing machine/car etc go wrong. If you dont have that emergency fund, you may end up back in debt to pay for repairs/new car/new washing machine etc..?

I may have exagerated my comment about not having credit, what I meant was I don't have access to a credit card. I have a Littlewoods account, which I can usually get 0% on and if it's household items OH contributes. I also have a next account but I'm really strict with myself with this, I make sure I pay off in full when I spend which is usually only in the sales and never very much as I usually send back most things I get!!

I do have an emergency fund which I initially set up as a car fund for tax and MOT but think it will just become a general saving account for anything like this. There's only £100 in there at the moment and car tax is due at the end of next month but at least it wont be going on credit card this time round!

Payday yesterday and I've never been so organised. On my lunch break yesterday I made my first overpayment on my loan, today I went to the building society to put money aside in my emergency fund and the woman at the counter was really helpful and explained how I could transfer the money online. All billshave been paid for the month already, just a few direct debits left to go out in the next few days and all remaining money is allocated to the following catagories; food, petrol and other (e.g. going out, clothes etc).

I'm setting myself a target of 8 NSD this month, starting tomorrow hopefully! I have meals planned up to the weekend and there's plenty of food in the freezer.

Can't wait for credit card and loan statement to update my signature.

Frugal_Saver

Yay, my loan statement has been updated. Not going to update my signature until I receive my credit card statement.

I have also managed a NSD, I wont be able to manage another one tomorrow but I may be able to over the weekend.

Frugal_Saver

Direct debit for credit card will go through on Tuesday and then I should receive a statement, can't wait to update my signature.

I've started doing surveys online again, I need to get back into Swagbucks, at one stage I was addicted but as soon as I had enough money for my kindle I lost interest. I'm going to get the payout to paypal rather than Amazon vouchers, if I can pay another £10 per month to my loan it will reduce my DFD by 2 months!

Budget going well so far, not managed another NSD but keeping to a very strict budget and I'm being extremely restrained when I'm out shopping.

Frugal_Saver

So yesterday wasn't a very MSE day. I got my haircut, this cost £35 but the last time I got it cut was September last year and I did budget for this.

I also upgraded my phone as the contract was coming to an end and my current phone is broken. I have to confess I have upgraded to an iphone, again this was budgeted for (I have to pay £50 for the handset) and the monthly bill will be less than what I pay now. OH is happy to keep his phone as it works so his bill has been reduced from £36 a month to £12.90.

I feel quilty posting this as I see so many people on this board who are in a worse situation than me and struggle to pay bills, but I need to allow myself some luxuries, it's not that I can't afford things I just want to pay my debt off sooner.

On a more positive note I managed a NSD on Tuesday so that's 2 NSDs so far, hoping for another one or two today and possibly tomorrow and Sunday.

Still waiting for CC statement, should get this be tomorrow at the latest. Nearly spent half the budget for food this month already, but with careful meal planning and making sure OH contributes I still think it will be possible to stay on track. I haven't spent any money on petrol yet as OH filled up for me when he got paid, will probably have to fill up this weekend but again I'm optimistic I can stick to this budget.

Close to receiving £50 cheque from NewVista, just £1.75 to go, also close to receiving £5.00 via paypal and awaiting £10 next voucher which should come in the post soon. It's amazing how all these little bits add up.

Frugal_Saver

Managed a NSD today, that makes 3 already this month and I don't think I need to buy anything tomorrow it that could be a 4th :j.

Cooked a massive lasagne, have plenty left over for dinner tomorrow. I'm not going to freeze it as I'm trying to condense two freezers full of food into one.

Ever since we moved over a year ago we've had two freezers on the go as we already had one but the house came with a fridge freezer. There's only two of us, so there's no need at all for us to use both. There are 4 tubs of ice-cream open, well by the end of today it will be 3 !!!

Frugal_Saver

Got my credit card statment through. Total debt is now £9,197.13. Having looked at the snowball calculator I should have it below £9,000 by July. I think if I break down into little chunks like that rather than focussing on the over all total I will feel like I am achieving something.

I've got enough Swagbucks to cash out £5.00 pay pal so that will be extra towards my loan next month.

Frugal_Saver

I have had a very productive day, I spent sometime this morning working on my CV and applied for about 10 jobs.

In between applying for jobs I was able to do some surveys and cash out on a £10 Sainsbury's voucher from Valued Opinions, £5.00 paypal from Swagbucks and I reached £50 on newvista so I should get a cheque from them next month.

Also looked at getting cash for my old phone, I wasn't expecting much as it's only a basic smartphone and it's broken but I could get anything between £6.00 - £12.00 plus a small amount from top cashback if I go through them.

And today was a NSD so extra money coming in but none spent!!!

brizzledfw

Hi FS...just read your diary from start to finish.. Well done for keeping on going, especially when OH hasn't had his LBMyet! You're doing really well...keep posting so we can cheer on your progress!

Brizzle

WantToBeSE

Morning FS, you are doing really well in making those small steps towards being DF!

Frugal_Saver

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I've hit rock bottom tonight, had massive argument with OH over my obsession with money, he asked me to leave and I've run out of energy argue anymore. I've stopped at a service station on my way to driving down to my family. I'm so exhausted from crying.