Debt Free by THIRTY!!

debtfreeby30:S

Woohoo I've finished work for two whole weeks now!!! :j The suns out too, hope it lasts. Need to make sure I keep to the money saving while we're off, got a couple of trips planned but I have a bit of money saved to cover the majority of that. Bought some new jeans yesterday as my old pair were no longer black and had a hole in. Spent £22.50 which is about half the amount I would have paid before my money saving days. Also treated myself to a £3.50 lunch from M&S AND a magazine. Very naughty of me but it was first day of next months credit card statement so as long as I don't go over my monthly spends budget it's all fine!!

Need to do my monthly review of May's spending. Definitely went over my £225 target

Yey for holidays though!!!

WifeandMummy

Hope you have a lovely holiday and the sun shines for you! Xx

debtfreeby30:S

Thanks W&M, the sunshine is being shy this morning I hope he puts his hat on later!!

Just doing my spending review for May, I set myself a budget of £225 which I went over and I only hit 22 NSDs for the month too. Baaaaad DFW!! Here are the figures:

Groceries & Household £136.20
Toiletries & Cosmetics £35.22
Clothes £11.47 (for fancy dress outfit for friends bday)
Cut & Colour £60
Postage £11.20
Gifts: £28
Going Out: £35.89

Total: £317.98 :eek:

Well over my £225 target and it even creeped over my £300 allowed for spends in my super tight debt slaying budget.

So I bought gifts for my friend's new born and her other two children, that's not a crime! And I went out for another friend's birthday where I had to dress up and pay for a couple of drinks, entry to a club and food out beforehand. Again, this isn't a crime and I don't think I went overboard on either but I do feel a bit guilty about them. I'll take the guilt as a good thing but won't hold it against myself for the new month!!

Happy with food & household, it's a lot less than I was spending when I wasn't actually paying attention to what I spent! Plus I had a bad month meal planning in May!! Cut & Colour is a given every 2 months, I'm not prepared to give it up so got to suck it up and make do. Toiletries are a little expensive but my skin is really playing up at the moment so I've bought a couple of tried and tested products I've used previously in a hope to sort things out. All in all it's not too disastrous.

As I'm off for the first two weeks in June it's really important I keep to my money saving targets. I have had feelings of "I've been trying for ages I deserve a treat" but I must keep hold of those feelings. I'll only feel carp when my monthly spends credit card bill is way too high! Got some pennies put away for the fortnight so need to make sure I stick to that budget. I'm going to set myself an NSD target of 15 as I'm off work for half the month and a spending budget of no more than the £300 I generally allow myself each month. This is after I spend the £200 I've put aside for our trips so should be totally do-able as long as I'm sensible.

Game on!!

debtfreeby30:S

First day of our actual holiday time and the sun is shining!! :cool:

My application to 1st Direct requires me to send some ID so they can verify my address. They are quite strict on who can certify your passport or driving licence but after a quick search on here I found it was very easy to order a PAYE coding notice from the tax office so I've called and sorted that this morning. Was on the phone for 13 minutes listening to the menus and on hold music, clearly very efficient

Bought a couple of summer tops yesterday as I have nothing decent that fits me properly, spent £20 on three tops but not happy with one of them so going to take one back today so that's £8 back in my pocket. I have no summer-suitable shoes at the moment so may allow myself a purchase when we go to Edinburgh tomorrow. Feel quite guilty about buying myself stuff but at the same time I keep getting pangs of just saying "blow it all, buy everything you want!" Managing to keep that under wraps at the moment. Must not lose it while I'm off work!!

Went for a bike ride yesterday, it was great, I've let my running slip in the last week thinking "it's ok I'll make it up while I'm off" Need to make sure I do!!!

debtfreeby30:S

So we're still in Edinburgh, heading back this afternoon. Think we're going to go to the museum today as its free and we spent loads on touristy stuff yesterday

Need to make sure I don't lose my head and spend any more unnecessary money while we're off. Got a couple of things planned for next week but hoping the sun stays out and we can just chill without wasting the pennies! I did buy myself those summer-suitable shoes I mentioned, took a couple of days over it and settled on an £18 pair from Nxt rather than a £40-50 pair with a label on. That's good right?!

Payday a week tomorrow so I can make some more inroads to the debts. Will be down to a single figure number of months left to pay on my loan which is exciting!! (Small things ey?!) The months seem to tick by so so fast :eek:

debtfreeby30:S

Had a nice chilled day today, went for a bike ride with a picnic. Meant to be going out tonight but feel bad when I think of the money I'd spend. I have £200 left from my budget to last the rest of the month. Not too terrible but not great either. Not got that much planned so just need to keep my eye on things.

A quick update on our water leak from a few weeks ago - UU reckon it cost us £473 based on our usage from the last month after the leak was fixed. Need to try and get them to reduce it as I don't fancy paying it all!! They've told me a couple of times that the usage has always been high for the flat so my argument will be that they should have told us when I put my name on the bill. Will see how that goes down...

debtfreeby30:S

Need a moment to moan... Didn't go out last night, I got dressed but then got mad at my clothes and shoes and got mad at the thought of having no money and just flopped on my bed and refused to go. I was nearly in tears for no real reason other than I was being pathetic!! Think I'm feeling really chubby at the minute and have done for a long while so when it comes to getting dressed up I just don't feel like it. Grrrr stupid stupid girl! BF was worried for a fleeting moment but I sent him on his way out the door and he didn't return until 2am this morning so clearly he had a good night. He offered to pay for my night and buy me a new top as a treat today but that's just silly! Bless him though. Not really sure why I'm feeling so sorry for myself, it's not like I got into debt without knowing what was going on or put extra weight on without knowing I needed to do something about it. Bike ride or run again today I think. And I need to meal plan and go shopping. Food shopping on a Saturday :eek:

debtfreeby30:S

So feeling less mardy than Friday night/yesterday morning!! Went to a BBQ last night which was nice, the sunshine is still around so no excuses to be moping about. Need to properly look at getting rid of this blasted chub!! Went for a quick bike ride yesterday and think I need to go again today!! Wondering whether to look at joining a gym but thinking I need to get a couple of months regular exercise under my belt before I start spending that money. BF has expressed an interest in gymming it too so at least we could encourage each other to go. Got better things to spend the pennies on at the moment though...

debtfreeby30:S

Did 6.5 miles on the bike yesterday, I shall attempt to do the same tomorrow too. It was raining a bit this morning but now the sun is peeking through the clouds. Been awake since around 5 this morning, I've got stupid hayfever which is making me sneeze loads and my eyes and nose are so so itchy. Aaaargh!!

Not much to report money wise, waiting until payday on Friday and then I can sort some overpayments out. Until then I'm still trying to be a complete tight butt. Actually quite hard when you're sat at home all day having some chill time off work!!

debtfreeby30:S

Just to say I sent off my ID and proof of address to 1st Direct yesterday so hopefully that will go through ok. Also sent our camera off for repair as it was playing up in Edinburgh. It's under warranty so fingers crossed there'll be no problems there.