Getting a Grip on 2013

shrimpy_80

I'm afraid I'm another Candy Crush addict! Glad I'm not the only one!

The new sig looks good Cinny, you'll have that debt gone in no time at all, you're so good with money! Must get March Madness in mine too.

Cinny91

shrimpy_80 wrote: »

The new sig looks good Cinny, you'll have that debt gone in no time at all, you're so good with money!

Or, maybe not. To celebrate my payrise, and OH getting the news his he'll get two months commission paid in one payday (will be enough to cover his car insurance, but we're still aiming for £2,000 ) we went out for breakfast and a tiny shopping spree.. I only wanted one new dress for work, but came home with four and some new makeup. Suppose you need to look good at work, right? Even wearing a pretty office dress to the family job, when I'm normally just in jeans and a "passable" t-shirt

Was nice though, admittedly it's money that could have gone towards March Madness but ultimately - I can't remember the last time we were able to go shopping and buy what we wanted without stressing. We just can't make a habit of it! And I did put £10 towards the challenge.. so that's something right!? :A

Popped into the family job yesterday, means I didn't have a day off last week but OH's out next weekend so I'll have plenty of R&R time with Ryder then. Should be getting some pretty healthy paydays too! Hoping we'll be able to save about £150, plus £30 towards my end of the month bills, by Friday.

Back to the normal madness this morning! I was slipping into a coma on the sofa last night frantically trying to figure out what day it was - sure as hell didn't feel like a Sunday, so is it Friday..? No, it's definitely Sunday, dammit! - got that feeling like someones thrown a rock to the bottom of my stomach, but this morning it's turned into an excited butterflies feeling, so I don't know what that's about!

Working until Dinner, then I get a little break. Enough time to take Ryder out for an hour, get some dinner and hopefully a cheeky nap!

Cinny91

It's OH's 25th Birthday today! As I'm a terrible liar and sneaky as two sneaky things I've been saving up, and bought him a new playstation for his big day. I did give it to him last Thursday, as he's in Manchester all today with meetings and how cruel would it have been to give a boy a new games console but tell him he'd have to wait over 48 hours to play with it? We did agree at the start of the year to not "do" birthdays for ourselves this year, but it's his 25th. He feels bad now though, that it's my birthday in 3 weeks and he didn't budget to get me anything I don't mind the slightest, it's my 22nd so not a "landmark" birthday. I'm happy with something nice for tea and some wrestling on the telly.

Speaking of birthdays, has anyone heard anything from Zig recently? She's gone quiet!

I'm OD-ing on debt busting this week, drinking the group kool-aid! One thing I read really stood out "It's good being frugal, but it's better to be intentional with your money." As to say, it's all well and good cutting back and trimming your budget to the bone, but if you're not being intentional with what you do with the savings, what's the point?

I think I need some kind of tangible something for our saving and debt busting. It's all virtual at the moment, and I think I'd just like some kind of chart - so I can knock off every £5 we clear, or £10 we save? Any idea where you can get one of those? I don't really have time to design one.

Job No2 have been lovely as ever, and have given me an Argos Giftcard so say thanks for all the extra work I've been putting in while we've been a receptionist short Putting it to one side as we want to get a microwave, so will keep an eye out for any deals.

Was toying with the idea of taking some of the dresses I bought on Sunday back, but I was trying them on again after work last night to whittle it down and all it did was remind me why I bought them - they're super flattering! Going to keep one for "best" (a.k.a. posh family dinners/my sisters wedding party) and the other three I decided to keep but filter into my work wardrobe every week. Wore a pretty 50's swing type dress yesterday, so will wear it again later on in the week and then put it to one side after it's been washed and try not to wear it again for 3 weeks. I'm a devil for wearing everything at once, and then it ultimately gets worn out. Looking forward to cutting my shifts back to three though - means I can obsess over finding 3 nice outfits a week, not 5!

Got great news this morning that my Sister's OH is over at the start of April, so once I know the dates I'm going to clear my diary up so we can go to a local pub for tea - and have a wobbly walk home. Something to look forward to as I battle on the last super shift weeks!

Be a big payday tomorrow, looking forward to getting the accounts up to date!

Cinny91

Morning World!

We've got some crazy fog going on here since Monday night, not lifted at all. After I finished work/Pilates last night we did brave it to our local Indian restaurant, so my purse is £24 lighter, but it was horrible driving even just 5 minutes down the road. Have £44 in my purse now, wanting to use this to do this weeks shopping so I can filter all my wages into either a debt payment or dooms day savings.

Although I do need to go get Ryder some new fleece blankets for his crate and in the kitchen, I'm still hoping to save £100, throw £50 at the debt and leave myself with a little fodder in my bank account so I'm not circling the £0 mark.

Decided to combine my challenges into the one MM challenge. Boosted the goal up to £1000. £800 for savings, £200 for debt clearing Must remember to take my zapper cheque to the bank today, so I can pay that into one of the accounts when it clears.


Downloaded the shop, scan, save app this morning from the weekly email. Off to claim my free maltesers after work! :happyhear

Cinny91

Passed the £200 mark on the MM challenge :j Paid £100 into savings and £50 off one of the accounts this morning. Aiming to get to 25% of my goal on Friday's payday. But I'm still uncertain of what I'll be getting paid in terms of the payrise so I can't bank on anything yet.

Also managed my mini challenge. I spent £29 on the food shop, and found fleece blanket bundles for £4.99 and (hopefully) they won't show hairs too much They get cleaned every day/other day but it doesn't help with Huskiness! And I finally got the zapper cheque into the bank. 3 ticks for 3 jobs right there!

Most importantly, I got my bumper box of free chocolates :A

Had an email from Quidco to say I'll be getting a teeny payment into my account soon - £4.76 but I intend to pay it straight off one of the accounts when it gets paid in.

Busy morning today so I better not ramble! Need to quickly wash the breakfast pots, get some laundry put on the clothes horse in the spare room, figure out what on earth I'm going to wear to work later and get the devil hound walked! Only a tiny shift at work today, but I've got the new receptionist shadowing me so I need to be on the ball making sure I do everything properly so she doesn't pick up my bad habits.

Hope you all have a nice day!!

shrimpy_80

Morning Cinny! You are doing brilliantly on the challenge as always. I really need to find my eBay mojo! I kept making excuses after we moved, like the camera cable was packed up somewhere and the battery was flat etc etc, but now I'm all set up and have a box in the spare room ready to go. Might try to do a few tonight after work, or at least get the photos taken as that it the most time consuming bit. Need to crack on if I'm going to cash out on it in March!

There is a thread somewhere for clearing your debt a % at a time and I know the girl that started it was sharing a chart of 100 squares if that's any help? Or you could go with the faithful ticker? What kind of divisions were you after (if you know what I mean)?

Tete_en_l'Air

shrimpy_80 wrote: »

Need to crack on if I'm going to cash out on it in March!

Eep- true! Although it's the listing bit I hate not the photos

You're making loads of headway Cinny well done, and it's nice to get things ticked off a list

Birdie85

Well done on all the ticks! :T

Hurrah for free chocolate too!

I need to kick myself to sell some stuff on ebay too. I find the whole thing really stressful; I worry about getting good photos, writing a good description, whether or not it'll sell, if it goes for a good price, getting it packed up and posted quickly enough, whether or not it arrives, whether or not the buyer is happy... can't settle until I get the feedback!

Kepp

I have real eBay block too

In my procrastination research (I know!) that I posted about on Tete's thread, there was something else interesting that I read - the fear of getting things perfect stops us doing things.

A bit like Birdie said, I know that in an ideal world I should list for 10 days, ending on a Sunday night, therefore list on a Thursday night. But I constantly miss that deadline therefore do nothing. I also worry about all the things that Birdie said too. But, it would be better to get some money than none!

Maybe we should all crack on - we could be a group of imperfect eBayers!

Cinny91

I've spent too many years on this forum to not be motivated by a good list, Tete!

Been umming and ahhing over getting another Dave Ramsey book for the past few weeks - his leadership one as I think there will be some great things in it to apply to the family company. As it's only been 1 week of my Dad being back in the Directors seat and he's already wanting to take out loans on 4 new vans. Personally, I'm not impressed Was on the verge of getting the kindle version (which saves a couple pounds) when I thought - Audible! Signed up to the free trial, with £4 cashback, and the book is now happily downloading away to itself :j Will transfer the money saved off the debts after I've been paid tomorrow.

Forgot to say earlier. I have £6 left in my purse from shopping yesterday, over the weekend it should get hiked back up to the £46 mark again, so I'm going to try my "purse pennies only" challenge with next weeks shopping too

The drizzle's stopped a bit now, and Ryder's snoozing from his walk, so I'm off to give Little Car a little clean inside. I popped him through the car wash yesterday. Never again mind, his wing mirrors fell off! :rotfl: They clipped back on okay.. so fingers crossed they stay there!