I refuse to be skint forever!!

menina

Well I can thank the snow for something, as all my money saving activities for the day actually got done!

Also got accepted for a 0% credit card which will get half of the balance of one of my cards. Should save me about £50 a month

Here's to (hopefully) a successful money saving week. Hope nothing unexpected crops up, just now i seem to have got back on track a bit.

Bye for now x

menina

Had to take the tube to work due to the snow. Fare already taken care of from my weekend top up. Fetched in my lunch from home, so nearly a NSD! Need to buy a loaf on the way home though. Musn't get sucked into buying anything else whilst I'm there! If it doesn't snow over night then I'll cycle tomorrow...

menina

Evening all, haven't been on here for a few days so thought I'd catch up...

Good money saving things for the past week:

Paid £220 off credit card

Not so good moneys saving activities from the past week:

Didn't cycle once, due to snow and knackered bike (and lazy knackered me if I'm honest!)
Bought lunch at work once.
Underestimated my ebay posting fees so ended up losing out a bit...

I've also been getting annoyed with myself for rarely managing to meet my pay £300 per week off goal. So, I think I'm going to reduce my goal target to paying off £250 per week instead. This will only lengthen my paying off the credit cards end date by a month and a half so, not too bad. Of course, if I can pay off more than £250 some weeks then I will. This past month has shown me that the only way I could realistically hit that £300 goal would be to do an overtime shift each week and for my general health and well being I just can't do that!

The only thing that has been different this month which hopefully won't be during other months is that I started it without a penny of my salary left following Christmas. Hence, I've been dipping into the £300 money for my own basic needs. So, maybe February will give some nice surprises (after I finally get paid on Wednesday).

I've also come to realise that part of the challenge of paying these debts off is OH's appalling spending habits. He's fabulous in every other way so I'm quite happy to grin and bear it for the time being, especially since in 9 months, even at the current rate of paying off, this situation should be over. Maybe more about that another time. Bit frustrating at times though!

Well, it's been a long old week, going to go to bed now to be fresh for the weekend- yippee!!

Night all xx

menina

Hello! I hope everyone is having a nice Saturday evening... I've stayed home as I cleaned it, it's cold outside and I was just too cosy to leave and go anywhere!

Been having a look at the accounts and whilst I didn't achieve my (unrealistic) goal of paying £300 per week off, as long as i pay £246 off this coming week then i'll have achieved my new goal of £250 per week (average). So cheers to that!!

Thankfully, I finally get paid this coming Wednesday, don't know if anyone else has felt it, but I found this month to be very long as got paid very early in December for Christmas! Glad that's behind us all....

Anyway, mustn't feel too pleased with myself as it's only been three weeks. Still another one week and eight months of this to go!!

So on that note, how to keep myself on track for this week...
Going to the cheap supermarket tomorrow to get things for the week ahead. I've had a look on mysupermarket.com to see the cheapest place to go and hopefully the super cheapo items I've sniffed out will be aviailable. I think I've been failing on the lunch at work front as I've gotten bored of what I've made after a couple of days, so I'm gonna be much more in tune on that this week.

Then, I'm meeting my (rich!) friend as she wants to have a look around the last of the sales. So basically I can not buy anything. End of! Funnily enough, I don't actually want to buy anything anyway. I hate this burden of debt that I'm dragging around with me that I really doubt that I could be tempted. I need to discuss her hen do with her as well, she wants to go to NYC, as of course do I, but I need to be very clear about what I can (basically can't!) afford!

So, just supermarket spends and possible travel card top up tomorrow. No doubt we'll go for a coffe somewhere, but in the abscene of any O2 moments freebies I will have a green tea. I'm aiming for 3 NSD's on the run up to Friday. Monday I need to (finally) get the bike fixed and Tuesday I'll need to buy something for myself and OH to eat on his days off.

Buy for now xx

menina

Quick Sunday update...

Spends for the weekend:

£6- nibbles on Saturday- was feeling sorry for myself!!
£12 supermarket spend today- food for work for the week
£4- No 7 wipes x2 with No 7 £5 off voucher x2
£3.95 Wasabi lunch post gym (would have fainted with out eating something!
This would have come to approx £26 which I would find perfectly acceptable.
but...
£30 afternoon tea with posh friend. Oh flipping heck!! I shouldn't have given into temptation, she would have been amenable to going to somewhere cheaper I'm sure...
So lesson learnt (I hope!) and on Thursday when I'm doing my credit card pay off I will need to put an extra £56 in from my wages to make sure we're still on track.

We also discussed her hen do and decided to go to NYC in August (she wanted to go in March initially, which firstly is no where near close to her wedding and secondly is not going to be in any way manageable for me financially. So, we've agreed on August which actually makes the best sense for all concerned. I will somehow need to find flight and spends money, but I figure if I do some overtime I can make that between now and then (and continue on my austerity measures in the meantime. )

I'll probably come back and write more on payday (weds)
In the meantime, pay for new inner tube and get very stingy supermarket essentials from cheaper supermarket tomorrow. (Didn't make it today).

Bye for now xx

menina

What a week! It's been a tough one although now wierdly if feels as if it's flown by. Probably because it's Friday tomorrow.

Not a good week on the money saving front i'm sorry to report. All good intentions of bicycling to work went out of the window as I was feeling lazy. I have bought my lunch into work every day, although this has been off set by the few times that I've gone to the supermarket after work and bought food.

I think I was feeling relieved as I got paid on Wednesday, hence feeling that I could treat myself. Also, I have not got my food shopping right at all. Of course if I do not have ingredients to make stuff I actually like to eat then I'm going to end up wasting money on food. I'll focus on this for next week as it is a recurrent theme in my moneysaving faux pas! Not sure how to go about this though... Maybe I'll try and have a look at some food websites tomorrow for inspiration. Then, I'm going to make a list, go to Asda and stick to it. I still haven't got my bike fixed (completely lazy!!) so getting that fixed and getting myself to Asda are my Saturday morning must do tasks.

On a slightly better note, I've been through the statements since my LBM a month ago and it looks like I've paid off £1026. So, it would seem that my new £250 per week paying off target is about right.

Captial one didn't come through with their offer of a £1500 0% balance transfer, it was only £500 but I've taken them up on it anyway. I'm sure every little bit helps. Better yet, the company I have a loan with wrote to me to say I'd been paying too much interest and that I can expect a £513 rebate into my current account within the next couple of weeks. So that will get paid straight onto my credit card

I'll be back tomorrow evening with a moneysaving plan for the weekend and next week!

Bye for now x

tiny_courageous

Don't beat yourself up too much on a few splurges and future plans - you need a life while debtbusting! You sound a lot like me, I'm the same age, quite similar amount of debt, trying to get it paid off while maintaining a social life as much as possible.

You're doing great so far!

menina

Thanks for the words of encouragement Tiny, it's true, you do need to have some balance and fun in life, even whilst debt busting! I enjoyed myself yesterday and know that I will feel much more refreshed and ready for the week ahead when tomorrow comes.

Money saving activities of the weekend so far:
Balance transfer of £450 came through on c/c
Paid my £515 loan rebate off c/c
Didn't do anything extravagent yesterday, but still had dinner out, had a few bevvies and a good time.

Spends of the weekend:
£20 oyster top up
£6 lunch after the gym (was out and about and starving!)
£18 Nandos (dinner with the hubby)
£13 drinks in pub
£5 Tescos essentials
=£62

Need to spend more in the supermarket later as I'm doing a roast and need food for the week ahead.

Plans for the week ahead:
Hubby going to take my bike to be fixed tomorrow. I'll pick it up from his work on my way home. Therefore, only public transport to work should be Monday morning
Take food to work with me everyday.
The only days I should need to spend are Monday (bike fixing money) and one other day when I'll get food for the rest of the week.
I'm sure I'll need to give hubby more money at some point as he's terrible with his (grrrr) but that's another story. To balance it, I'll just pay more off the c/c on Thursday when he get's paid.

Bye for now xx

menina

Quick update whilst I have a quiet moment... Also spent £9 in the pub and £14 in Tescos yesterday so weekends spends= £85.

The only way I can bring this down is to stay away from the pub and not eat out.... Slightly unrealistic to say that I won't be doing either of these things, so I am just going to make the effort to do them both less. I bought a chicken for £4 and roasted it together with some veggies I had in the fridge and it was nicer than what we'd had in Nandos the previous day, so I think that making more effort to cook at home is a good option.

Bought a block of camembert and some cranberry sauce that I had in the fridge left over from crimbo today and together with the bread which is provided at work anyway that'll do me for the week(ish!). Not bad for £1.54!

Hubby is getting my bike fixed so all moneysaving activities are on track so far... Just need to stick to it now!

Bye for now x

menina

Money saving almost going to plan so far this week- and its Thursday already I don't like to wish away the week but this one's a toughie work wise...

I'm gnawing away on my camembert sandwiches at lunch time- yum! The bike is back in good working order and I've actually been using it.

I have to public transport it to work today though as I'd forgotten that hubby and I are going out to dinner tonight (planned ages ago). That'll come out of the £20 credit put on at the w/end though. Then, I just have to make sure that the bill is not too pricey- difficult where my hubby is concerned but I will try. Whilst trying not to appear too much of a kill joy!! (Secretive money saving!)

Off to work I go...