Squeaky spreadsheet diary

Tiglath

Have decided to blitz the Natwest card next. That was going to dribble along @ £40/month till July after my overdraft was paid off, but I can clear it by early March and it only puts the overdraft clearance back by a month to June instead of May. I'll pay less interest doing it that way as well, and I need the boost of crossing off another debt quickly after clearing 2 store cards this month. Not sure I can enjoy keeping up the momentum unless I see concrete results on a regular basis. £1272 on Natwest card, here I come

specialkaye

This may be you http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/loans/2012/12/northern-rock-pays-270-m-to-150000-after-gaffe

if it is then good news

Tiglath

Winding down towards payday next Wednesday, and it's been a good first month for the diary. I've cleared the total £644 from my Simply Be account, am clearing the final £100 from Next next Wednesday, have paid £20 more than the minimum on everything else, and in fact am doing a double payment to Amex so I can pay the bill as soon as it comes in instead of waiting till payday. I will be £20-30 below the food budget I set to last till the 19th, and have taken lunch into work all bar 2 of the days since I started this (one of those was the farm volunteering day).

It was groceries really that were leaching all of my spare cash, just bits here and there, and until I started logging everything I buy, I couldn't pinpoint where everything was going. Cut the luxury spend part of the grocery budget from 43% to 21% to 14% over the past 3 months. Downshifted successfully on brands, with only Farmfoods meat being a letdown, so back to Costco for that. Have enough in the freezers and pantry to last till the end of January, so only need perishables, and Christmas is sorted as I'm splitting the food bill with my sister and have already accounted for the Boxing Day meal out.

Next month is a 5-week month for me and 6-week month for DH, so things will still be quite tight till the end of January, but I don't have any direct debits coming out twice because I've shifted them around to the first 2 weeks after payday. Instead of facing the usual long January with worry, I'm feeling fairly relaxed. Going to a gig this weekend (already paid for). I have the first 2 weeks of January as annual leave so won't be going anywhere or spending anything apart from my Walking With Dinosaurs treat (already paid for). I have a planned overpayment of £260 to Natwest in the budget for next week, with an overpayment of £570 for the following month, and clearing it completely on 25th Feb. That'll be 3/7 debts gone, even accounting for the £270 road tax I have to pay, and then I can focus on Amex. My annual train ticket will be bought next week as well, Oyster is loaded for ad hoc journies, and the 2 January birthdays are accounted for.

DH is much more budget-aware and has agreed to put £100 into savings every month for car stuff from February. Dodged all work Christmas events (there'll be some mighty hangovers in the office today) and am doing small presents for my immediate team. Definitely pleased with progress for the first month of my diary and my inner geek is happy

Tiglath

Trying a new strategy from next Wednesday, as I still think I've frittered a bit this month on groceries. I spent £149 on food + household stuff, not including cat stuff but including 2 meals out. £63 was impulse dinner buys (yellow stickered where possible) because I forgot to take stuff out of the freezer in the morning. I could've done better with stuff already in stock if I'd been more organized with meal planning.

Will do the Costco trip for catfood with the debit card, and on payday I'll take out £100ish, put it in envelopes, and transfer a weekly amount to my little grocery purse, leaving my main purse at home. I know I'm much more careful with shopping and only buy exactly what we need if I only carry cash, rather than picking up 'bargains.'

Generally I shop on a Saturday for veg and lunch stuff, and buy a month's worth of loo roll at a time, so it's only really milk we'll need to top up during the week. Going for extreme frugality until the end of January - no frittering, just healthy proper meals. We're bound to be given chocolate etc for Christmas for treats. Let's see what I can shave off the food bill, but allowing myself the option of a bit more if we run out of stocks before month-end.

DH drinks a huge amount of instant coffee (at least 8-10 cups a day at the weekend) but isn't fussy on brand, so I'm going to try the Asda Smartprice 100g jars for 47p. 2 jars a week will probably do us, as I'd rather drink tea if anything. I'll start off by buying 4. I'll transfer it to an existing jar, keep it topped up, and keep the spares in the pantry. If we don't like it, we'll shift up a brand the following month, but we won't know unless we try it. I won't even tell DH - I'll see if he notices We have bags and bags of filter coffee but don't have kitchen space to keep the coffee machine out. I don't think we've used it since last Christmas, but it would make sense to use up those stocks at the weekends.

Skinflint to the max here

lurvlyloz

sounds like a good plan...not skintflint...sensible

leictina

For trying to save on shopping you could have a go and mothership's 2nd Purse system (if you search for it you will find the challenge thread), it invloves "stocking up" whilst things are on offer and then "buying them back" from yourself at full price when you need them (sorry not a very good explantion the thread has a better one!)

I have just started this and, once you get the hang of it, it seems to work quite well.....

Tiglath

I did read about the second purse thing but couldn't get my head round it which is strange for a self-confessed nerd and bean-counter! I think I'm better thinking in prices per kg/litre and just going by what's on offer which I'm likely to use in future and what's in my physical purse, but thanks for the suggestion

Tiglath

Someone (Clapton) has very kindly confirmed that I'll pay less interest on creditcard balances if I make a payment soon after statement date instead of waiting a few weeks for the automatic direct debit to come out. It went spectacularly wrong when I tried to make my Mint DD come out earlier in the month, so I shall plot how to get ahead of myself so I'm paying Mint and Barclaycard online when the statements arrive. I'm already doing that with Natwest, and am due to do it with Amex in January, so I'm ahead there. It would hurt to take a double-hit on Mint AND Barclaycard in January, as it would mean an extra £430 on top of the £270 roadtax and the extra £170 scheduled to Amex. I may delay the big overpayment of the much smaller Natwest balance so that I can double up on Barclaycard in January as well as Amex, and then do double Mint in February. I don't believe there's anything that says I have to have a DD set up, just that I make at least the minimum payment before the due date, but I'll phone both to check tomorrow before I cancel anything. Then I can fiddle with my spreadsheet once again

Tiglath

That's pleased me - redid the spreadsheet and realised I'd added £75/month for interest on the overdraft long after I'll have finished paying it off next summer.

Off to see The Damned tonight - haven't seen them since 1985. Might even have a beer

Tiglath

I think I've killed the hoover. Wouldn't suck at all in its upright state so I got down on my hands and knees with the hose bit and just about managed to do the hall before it overheated. We've taken apart every bit we can find and cleaned it, but I think it's hopeless. Useless damn Vax U90-P6-P. We got it to replace a useless Dyson Animal, and next time I'm getting a Henry.