January's Big Financial Freeze!!!

thriftylass

Today was a spend day. Popped into Lidl at lunch to top up a few groceries for £15 and a new sippy cup for DS as his broke last night (cant quite manage without yet ), which takes me over my food budget by 20 quid but hopefully I can make that last till payday next Thursday, plus it was/is a long month and £150 was maybe a bit overenthusiastic compared to previous months. This was hopefully my last spend day although I got one left for emergencies.

YORKSHIRELASS

Wow Beckyboo thats a fantastic amount to pay off, well done.

And holidays. Sigh. We spent too much last year on our supposedly cheap camping holiday, didnt help that the weather was terrible!

Thanks for the kind words. I feel better today - and you know what, at least I can juggle things around for the cost of the tyres. There was a time when I would have just put it on the old credit card so thats an improvement I guess!

Mayfair, I feel your pain, I gave up the nails too. I found Sally Hansen nail growth miracle fantastic, OK its not cheap but a bottle lasts ages.

Ah well, I am supposed to be working - you know when you just cant be bothered. Better log off before someone spots that I am not looking at spreadsheets!!!

Have a good afternoon everyone x

stoplurking

Ok time for an update. I haven't caught up with all the latest posts yet, everything moves so quicjkly on here. A brief summary of how I am doing with this month's rules from our dear leader.

NSDs 15

Have made no purchases in the sales, planned or otherwise.
Petrol £84.50/£90
Food £160.43/£260
No canteen purchases
Make £155 - no access to ebay or overtme so £0/£155
Toiletries - essentials £4/£5
Penny Gathering £16.05/£25. I have included a random £10 my brother gave me for a treat(I need no treats during JBFF), my partner pays for the wine in Sainsburys, gives me the cash but never deducts his 5% discount so i keep that! - he knows this. other than that i have a few ££ from Adpoints thanlks to a link on here. Hope i'm not breaking any rules with these gatherings. Freebies - None

I haven't got a signature yet but my progress so far in paying off the CCs is

LBM October 2012 Total £17715.93 Balance today £16857.64.

That doesn't seem like much progress but I have a largish monthly outgoing that ends in March and the funds from that plus a couple of other items will be getting thrown at the debts so hoping for DFD of 1 January 2014, if I achieve this I will be over the moon, and it is all thanks to NSK, all the members of the challenges, and the cheerleaders of course.
Even though I cannot post very often, i know I am being watched by little Kat's eyes everywhere and that keeps me on the MS wagon.
Well done to everyone on the challenge, you are all doing really well despite any setbacks being thrown your way.
Bring on February's challenge!

abundant1972

Fantastic progress people!!!

It really does feel as Kat said that we are getting the hang of this budgeting lark (odd splurge not withstanding!).

YorkshireLass... It's a pain when the unexpected throws us a bill... I got one for £20 just to renew my driving licence... not £120 I know but annoying... However... At least we *have* an emergency fund we *can* draw on... and that's progress!!! We didn't have to put it on the CC or go overdrawn... I think congratulate yourself for having achieved that!

BeckyBoo... Am so proud of you. Despite having to face hard times - you have come through stronger and wiser than ever!!! Your post was truly inspirational. Just think when OH does find work how you guys will really take off. You have the tools as you said... not only to get yourself through this patch intact... but are now equipped for creating an awesome life free of debt. I want to thank you as much as everyone else too. Your contributions (along with everybody else's) help to make these threads work so well.

A big extra special THANKS to NSK too for making these challenges happen and for keeping us in the fold - even when we might lose our way or wander off track from time to time. You always bring us back and we all move forward together... How amazing are we?!?!?

:beer:

abundant1972

Forgot to say...

Planned spend day - petrol refill... prescription... I also slipped on the snow and fell into the bakers. I fell on to the pasty counter and the woman clearly thought I was pointing at 2 scrummy... erm... disgustingly fattening pasties... and as the exact money had also flown across the room and landed neatly on the counter she took it and before I could say a word - I had purchased them!!! Bl**dy snow - it's treacherous!!! Take care people less you too come a cropper!!!

Feeling VERY guilty (well I had to eat them... couldn't waste food!) so decided to do a mini stock up of ONLY healthy bits and pieces... you lot have even got me wandering the yellow sticker isle!!! It's stupid... I felt really self conscious... I sidled along looking sideways to see if anyone was looking... then hurriedly rifled through the piles of marked down foods desperately looking for a bargain!!!

I bagged a 35p brown loaf - BARGAIN - but everything else had fallen off the sin wagon... as there was no snow to slip on and accidently knock several products into my basket... I passed on by - *much relieved* <not> and got some fruit & healthy stuff for lunches. Still gonna use up my food cupboard stuff... but just wanted to minimize my spend days.

Still within my food budget (even if my spend budget went critical earlier in the month). Roll on Feb. Fresh start - and I can get rid of that gawd-awful RED signature of shame!!!

mayfair1985

abundant1972 wrote: »

you lot have even got me wandering the yellow sticker isle!!! It's stupid... I felt really self conscious... I sidled along looking sideways to see if anyone was looking... then hurriedly rifled through the piles of marked down foods desperately looking for a bargain!!!

I'm a recent convert. I was always a bit ashamed and stayed away from the YS. Until one week we had pennies to live on and I had to get down to Mr A's at 8pm reduced time with my elbows out in the scrum. It was that or not eating.

Then one night our friends (financially comfortable) 'caught' us in the act. They asked what we were doing, and got right involved themselves! They go once a week now and swear by it!

Since then I don't feel shame. Even though I tend not to do the whole scrum thing anymore (and it really is in our supermarkets) I'll happily have a mooch through earlier in the day. Recently I heard someone make a disparaging comment about 'scavengers who want 10p off their milk' and instead of making me angry, I actually thought to myself, 'You complete mugs, look what you're missing out on, you morons'. I pityed them, and genuinly felt sorry for them that they had that attitude. But ho hum, more 25p milk for MY freezer.

So if it helps I've been there, and it does get easier

Mancman86

When I used to work at Mr S, i used to be responsible for doing the reductions or YS as everyone on here calls them people used to come in just for these items, I couldnt believe it at the time, but now I can see why.
But be aware staff usually get the "proper bargains" like a joint of beef for 30p!!! From my point of view and an ex Mr S employee the best time by far to get these bargains is between 3pm and 4pm on a sunday the reason being stuff gets cleared for new deliveries - i.e bread, bread rolls, fresh foods, the hotfood counter was my favourite as I could get a whole hot roast chicken, stuffing, and roast potatoes and usually a few sausages already cooked for about £1.20+ staff discount:cool: this usually lasted a few days as a student. I used to do the bakery goods and some of the stuff we used to reduce such as celebration cakes down to... well lets just say well below the reduced threshold.
Hope this helps all you bargain hunters :cool:

poodlegal

Beckyboo, glad that you are feeling more upbeat and wow about the £1000! Thats good going!

A NSD for me today, yesterday not as one of the kids had school swimming so I lost a NSD for the sake of £1.50 :mad: I am too seeing a surplus coming towards the end of the month even though i've had a couple of big bills and overspend on food :mad: slightly gutted that it has to go on debt but will feel good when I look at a lower total on my cc bill what I have learned is that i'm not good at proper NSDs but I can control the spending and have a low spend day without going mad. Also, I havent had any wine since NYE :T which is seriously good going for me and i'm sure thats where most of the saving has come from. (Feel better too for it!)

nimbo

another NSD here - so that's 18 so far... (I'm not making 25 - but I'm only counting actual NSD's as the grocery thing was confusing for me)...

up to £162.40 in monies made (I'm merging the £155 and £25 as I am aiming to make £310 this month so the £180 will be included in this)...

his_missus

Hello all,

Abundant I hope you're ok after your fall at the bakers :rotfl: loving the excuse, I mean the story about how how you slipped on the snow

Well done' beckyboo, you sound a bit more positive too

Well another "emergency" spend day due to the kitties: £9 for two magnetic keys for the catflap. Don't want to leave it wide open though as we have a bully-cat who has tried to get in a few times and on the odd occasion he has succeeded, he's made a right ol' mess (and it unsettles my brood as they stop feeling safe in their own home)

Planning on doing an online shop this week. I haven't yet decided which I prefer from a financial point of view but I'm limited for time this weekend and there is no way on this earth I'm sending Hubby to the SM on his own