I refuse to be skint forever!!

menina

Money spent last night- zero!! Dinner was on the boss, fantastic! Hubby has been complaining about the lack of supplies in the house (drinks, dog food, toiletries, cleaning products) so I will have to make a token gesture and go and stock up on said items after work tonight. At least last nights dinner money should cover this

Also paid £350 of c/c yesterday.

Oh and also, it's Friday, how fantastic! Off to work I go, hope nothing happens to put a downer on things, quite likely mind you given the week we've had there.

x

menina

Went to Asda after work last night, to appease hubby and make the cupboards a little fuller. Could've waited till next week, but anyway, it's all stuff we'll use eventually. Spent £28. Think I'll have to give in and do a big internet shop soon, as the cheaper brands sometimes aren't in store and it'd save the travel expenses overall.

I'm meeting a friend in a bit but that will probably only cost me the price of a coffe/driink. Meeting hubby after he finishes work for a bit of a knees up. Can't bear the thought of giving too much money to the bar though (hubby is not a fellow money saver) so I may hail back to my student days and pop a few shots of something in my hand bag to keep us going. Don't know if such purse friendly things are available these days, I'll need to have a look in the supermarket on my travels today. Also, strictly no taxis tonight, it has to be the night bus. We're then off together tomorrw so I may do us a roast again to avoid dropping the inevitable £50 in a restaurant!

I have around £700 I want to have paid off my c/c by the end of Feb so I'm just trying to keep that in mind. I have a feeling I won't be able to pay off anything at all next week as we have a weekend away. Still, hubby has 2 more paydays and I have one in that time frame so I think it's achievable.

Have a good Saturday everyone x

menina

Think I spent about £40 last night. Not the end of the world! Where I've given up drinking during the week, I am more of a cheap date at the weekend!

Thought I'd post a kind of SOA to see if I'm missing a trick and could save money somewhere...

Income- £2349 pcm (after tax)
Outgoings:
Rent £980
Mortgage contribution £135
Loan £375
Natwest c/c £73.90
Santander c/c £82.46
Sofa loan (0%) £60.80
Gas/electric £40
Water £25
O2 mobile £32
Orange mobile £36
My gym £54.95
Hubby's gym £54.95
Professional things £22
Dental insurance £9.95
Sky package £58
TVLA £12.12
Private banking £15
Account fees £20

2349- the above= £261.27 left over.

I then use hubby's money (£480 per week) for enjoyment (mainly his, mine comes from spending as little as possible!) and to pay down debts. He is perfectly happy with this situation as he is even worse with money than me and has been known to spend his whole months salary in a few days!

I'd appreciate any comments on how to get my outgoings down....

The gym is actually more of a bargain than it looks as it is actually worth £150 a month each and it's for a swanky gym that we spend a lot of time in. I look at it as a cheapish way of enjoying free time. I'd get rid of the sky and have freeview but hubby insists on having a big TV package. I can't get Virgin in my building so my leaving and bartering powers are limited there! My O2 contract will be up in March so I'll get PAYG. The sofa repayment will be done in December.

If I carry on with my goal of paying down £1000 a month then I'd be credit card debt free in mid October. I'd love it to be sooner though. But how?! I don't have anything to sell on ebay (well I do find the odd item of clothing but nothing major.)

All I can think of is:
Cycle whenever possible rather than taking public transport.
Keep a firm grip on the grocery shopping, shopping around for cheapest deals etc.
Always take lunch in to work.
Keep social activities to cheaper venues.

Overtime. It's going to have to be done I work Monday to Friday and my job is quite draining so the thought of sacrificing up the weekend, not good. However, I do have 9 days annual leave coming up this month and next. So, I am planning to use a minimum of 4 of them to do extra shifts. This should get me around £140 per day. Realisitically, I need to just squeeze in as many as I can.. *sighs*

Just need to get the fire a bit higher in my belly and go for it!

Happy Sunday peeps x

menina

So, the new plan is, to try to earn enough in overtime shifts to pay off my santander credit card, whilst sticking to plan A and paying off a minimum of £250 per week on the others. Means that all credit cards should be paid by mid July. £3000/approximate pay per shift=20 shifts. So four per month until mid July. Slightly unrealistic in the normal scheme of things, so I'm going to take 4 annual leave days per month in which to achieve this. Luckily, I'm using up this years annual leave and then it all starts again in April so I won't need to use it all up just on this!

Must make sure I get up in time tomorrow to go pick up some uniforms or this little plan will not be able to hatch at all!

menina

Urgh! Terrible couple of weeks on the money saving front. My husband spends money like there's no tomorrow. Need to get it sorted without sounding like an old nag! Money saved last week= £0. Money saved this week will be =£0. I'll be back for more musings over the weekend...

menina

Well, I haven't been on here for a while, basically since my weekend away on the 16th from when my money saving went out of the window!

I've just done my beginning of the month calculations and I'm actually £79 more in debt than I was at the start of it

So, the reasons for this...
I hadn't budgeted at all for the Brighton weekend.
I booked our flights for our summer holiday in May. (£200).
I paid my quarterly gas bill (£156) which I also hadn't budgeted for.
General lazy and non money saving behaviour- taking public transport to work for 2 weeks, buying my lunch at work for 2 weeks.

So, I didn't even save half the money I was supposed to last month. If I'm going to get myself out of this fix, then I need to step up my money saving activities.

I took some much needed holiday from work this week, I think that tiredness was making me feel lazy and spending more money on food and travel etc. I just need to keep mentally and physically strong now because the only way to get back on target is to hit the dreaded extra shifts. I went to get the uniform organised today so when I have my next week off (week after next) and on the Easter weekend, there are no excuses. Butt needs to be well and truely in gear!

New target- the barclaycard needs to be paid off by the end of March. £1793.09. So £1000 of hubbies wages plus £250 of mine, plus as many extra shifts as physically and mentally possible. I've been quite good at getting into doing them before, so hopefully the same will happen this time.
I need to average at one a week. Here goes!

Also, need to get back into the cooking at home and cycling thing.

I hope everyone elses debt busting is going well. Let's stick at it!

Bye x

menina

Ok, three shifts booked for my days off the week after next. I'm relieved that the work is actually there... I just hope that they go OK! I also hope that I get into it and manage to book lots more (hopefully pain free!) shifts there. Would make life much easier...

I really just need to stop being so lazy. 3.20 in the afternoon and I've only just managed to have a shower. I think that because I know that I've got a lot of work coming up, I'm just enjoying the laziness while I can. I hope that's it anyway!! There's a million things I probably should be doing right now...

menina

Back to work tomorrow. I have to say (thank god!) that I do feel better now. I'd thought I was getting depressed prior to my time off (no energy, no interest in my work or my colleagues, or anything really) but on balance I think I just needed a break.

I think that the whole money saving thing was getting to me a bit too. As I have failed to clear my debts in the past, and I haven't managed to stick to targets this time around, I had a nagging doubt that it wasn't going to happen. Now that I've had some proper time to myself to ponder a bit, I have accepted that 1- I need to do extra shifts to sort this out. 2- I have gone about making the extra shifts be able to happen. 3- I have worked out exactly how many I need to do until the end of July (by which time all credit card debt will (should!!) be cleared. 4- this schedule is realistic, as I can take annual leave and just do the extra shifts on those days.

I've also accepted that- I need to cycle to work. (Been getting fat lately as well which probably adds the the down feelings). I need to take my lunch into work. I need to get back into the gym again. Firstly, I would like to lose weight. Secondly, I need to keep mentally and physically strong through the next few months and that's a good (also cheap!) way of doing so.

Goals for the week- cycle to work x4 days. Need to take the tube on Friday as I need to go further a field to pick something up.
Buy x2 camemberts today (lunch for the whole week sorted for £3). Make soup today if I have time (afternoon munchies).
Get up on time, or better yet early. Going to the gym before work would be a positive start to the day. I'm rubbish at going to the gym after work.
Speak to the big boss about starting my masters in October.
Be organised. Lay stuff out for the next day the night before- without fail!!
5xNSD

Very important and deserves it's own paragraph... Tell my best friend that I can't go to NYC in June (nothing booked yet, just provisional plans). It's OK for her as she's very rich (moving into a multi million pound property in a couple of months!!) but I am very poor and don't wish to be so forever. Need to stand my ground on this one. I may suggest going later in the year (finances permitting) to soften the blow. Think I'm meeting her at the weekend.

Enjoy whats left of the weekend folks xx

DrSqueeze

menina wrote: »

Back to work tomorrow. I have to say (thank god!) that I do feel better now. I'd thought I was getting depressed prior to my time off (no energy, no interest in my work or my colleagues, or anything really) but on balance I think I just needed a break.

Glad you're feeling better, the rest will have done you good :T

Don't be too hard on yourself, you've clearly got a plan and know where you need to make some adjustments. And most importantly, you've identified where the money is going - many people don't know how much they're spending week by week. A big part of taking control of your finances is understanding them.

You've gone backwards by £79 but that's a lot less than it might have been, and is an amount you can recover from. It's also highlighted some things you need to add into
your budget plan.

menina wrote: »

Private banking £15
Account fees £20

Might be worth looking at these and seeing why you're paying them, what you get in return, and whether there are cheaper / better alternatives.

He is perfectly happy with this situation as he is even worse with money than me and has been known to spend his whole months salary in a few days!

Perhaps the trick here is to draw up a sort of balance sheet to show him why the money runs out each month. Just a few pounds cut off spending each week can make a big impact.

Good luck, stick with it - and keep updating :beer:

mummychicken

:)Hi, You are doing well, we all slip up at times and I get low alot about the whole debt clearing, but stay focused, you will get there in the end.