Third Time Determined!

lurvlyloz

my name is lurvlyloz and i have the same problem as you!

i have had to start doign my shopping online and not going into supermarkets on my dinner or popping in on my way home. i'm a nightmare if i do. i can go in for a £1 something and come out with a £25 shop! crazyness!

karmachilovething

So yesterday was a sucessful NSD :T and I'm hoping for the same today.

I overslept this morning, and os my plan of cycling to work had to be thrown out! But then I'm also going to go to the gym and do the spin class I have booked - was thinking of not bothering, but as I'm in the car I will make the effort.

I also called Aqua and got back into my internet banking for that card. Just so I know what's going on with the account. Once we're in 2013, the plan is "not much" but will be good to see it all the same! And it was part of being organised and in control of my finances, ratehr than them controlling me.

Other than that not much new here. All Christmas shopping done, just a couple of things to wrap and a couple of things to craft. It's my Dad's birthday on the 1 January, and since that will be under full Spending Fast rules I am making his present. So that will keep me occupied the next couple of evenings.:D

lurvlyloz

good news on getting the banking organised. not much is good and good to see that not much is happening rathe than laods and debt increasing

have fun at spin

StressedSteph

Hi Karma,

Good to see your plodding on. Guess buying some mark down stuff from Tesco isn't too bad as I guess this will help you cut down on the next weeks shop. (Theoretically)

Maybe you could set yourself a 3 or 6 month plan (depending on size of your full freezer).
You could challenge yourself to only buy fresh & store cupboard items, and live out of your freezer. You could reduce your food shop budget to force you into doing this.??

We have a freezer full of meat, so I only buy fresh & store cupboard stuff. I have managed to get it down to £70 per week for a family of four. I am sure I could maybe squeeze it down to £50, but only started in November and have been trying to get bits in for Christmas every week.

Good to hear theres not much going on except trying to be frugal :T

I will stop bugging you now, will check back in tomorrow see how things are going xx

karmachilovething

lurvlyloz wrote: »

have fun at spin

Urgh, spin almost killed me yesterday Loz! It was definitely an occasion where the best bit was finishing! Also, I always find that I need to eat more the next day (raised metabolism I guess) so I do wonder if it's saving me money :rotfl: Maybe not but it healthy for me and so that balances out

StressedSteph wrote: »

Maybe you could set yourself a 3 or 6 month plan (depending on size of your full freezer).
You could challenge yourself to only buy fresh & store cupboard items, and live out of your freezer. You could reduce your food shop budget to force you into doing this.??

I will stop bugging you now, will check back in tomorrow see how things are going xx

Hi Steph! Feel free to come bug me any time you like!

Yes the plan is to live off the freezer and cupboards for a few months next year. I think I could definitely do 3 months, but we'll see how we go.

I did get all the stock into the freezer in the end, and in the re-organisation found a pack of sauages - even more food :T Also I keep telling myself that a full freezer uses a lot less energy than a half empty one, so it's even more MSE :money:

Sucessful NSD yesterday and hoping for another one today. Tomorrow and the weekend will be spendy - work Christmas do (probably a couple of drinks, and a shared taxi) tomorrow, and then weekend up to Nottingham to meet BF's family :eek:

lurvlyloz

karmachilovething wrote: »

tomorrow, and then weekend up to Nottingham to meet BF's family :eek:

pop in...i'll crack open a bottle

elantan

Im really enjoying reading you working through things

karmachilovething

Thanks Loz and Elantan for dropping by, and your kind words. As good as the offer is Loz, I don't think dutch courage is really going to be a sensible plan!

Feeling a little deflated today actually. I bank with B4rclays, and they do a weekly update on your balance every Friday. It's quite useful and this month I've been happy to see it's not been dropping nearly so fast!

But, I'm now within spitting distance of my overdraft (£60 ish). Which is better than recent months where I've gone over it. It is an improvement. And it should be plenty to see me to the start of my new month/new year.

But I got a Christmas bonus on the last pay packet (about £500 after tax) and so I was hoping to be able to do some over payments this month. I suppose I have really- going over my overdraft that had to be paid back. But I was hoping for better.

It might just be that the first month was always going to be slow. And probably the next few as well. I'll be fine, but right now not feeling so great about it.

karmachilovething

Sooo long time no write . . . but the festive season is like that right.

I'll do a little summary update and then a post for the past couple of days:

So Christmas was quite frugal, didn't go out much and a lot of relaxing so many NSDs

Then up to Edinburgh for Hogmany with friends which was great. Took the BF, which was an experience for everybody :rotfl: but really it went pretty well (as did visit to meet his family too, thinking about it)

I had a slight money hiccup though - my bank had sent me a new debit card in November, but because I'd booked my train tickets to Edinburgh on the old one I had to take it with me as proof/claim, and I didn't want to take two with me. Buuut because I'd not used my old one for a week or more over Christmas, and so my bank helpfully cancelled it! :mad: But actually wasn't so bad, I tracked down a branch of my bank and took out cash for the whole time, which I think helped me avoid overspending like I normally would. Came back with money still in my pocket :T

karmachilovething

So since the beginning of the year, I've had a little bit of a money hiccup . . .

I pay the rent for my house and my flatmate pays me back. But he's away at the moment, and hasn't sent me his share yet, but with all the bank holidays all my early month payments are coming out. It's a bit of a "perfect (financial) storm" resulting in a max'ed out bank account :mad:

And I'm annoyed at my flatmate, but while he's partly responsible, so am I because I'm not financially stable enough to be able to handle the oddity occurring. Besides I wasn't going to be spending anything this year anyway, so I don't need any money :rotfl:

All in all it makes me more determined to get to a stage where this stuff won't completely throw me. Onwards and upwards for 2013!