The Ultimate February Challenge

YORKSHIRELASS

Poodlegal, I have days like that too. Just keep chipping away at it, it will go down eventually - well thats what I tell myself!

And mmm, having a social life and paying off the debts is hard, unless you have friends in the same boat which I dont.

So yesterday I wanted to get some baking/batch cooking done. Put the dishwasher on, heard a funny noise and saw water pouring out of the bottom of my kitchen cupboard!!! To cut a very long story short we had a piece of old pipe that had worked loose and wouldnt go back together. In the old days we would have called a plumber but my clever hubby sorted it with £8 worth of stuff from the DIY shop and some you-tube videos!

Everything in the cupboard was soaked though and it took ages to get it sorted. Sunday afternoon written off.

Today was a SFD, worked some extra hours so tired now. Not even checked my online banking today but its a day off tomorrow so plenty of time to catch up.

nanell

*comes running in......* Am I too late for this month??? I've just been so busy, havent been able to get near a computer. I've checked the rules and I've stuck with it so far, so pretty please can I be added??? i did so well with January and want the success to continue. Will update sig if Kat allows....

NinjaSavingKat

Ooooh no access to comptluter this morning! Updates sooooon!!

NinjaSavingKat

Just a quickie.. PG I feel like you!! I have had enough of my job and want to go to Australia with 3 weeks of travel before it. However.. I don't want to take this old life into the next so to speak. I sometimes wonder what on earth I'm doing.. Should I really be doing this in one year?? Am I going to die en route??

Then I realise just how much I want to go travelling.. Get out of this year debt free and start buying new clothes again!!

I am not sure these are great words of wisdom but you are hitting on what all of us feel! I'm tired, I have no-one to lean on, I am working 6-7 days a week and where an I.. Still in debt.. But slowly I will make my life better for me..

Everyone has their down days.. Go an get an ice-cream on a cone.. ( always cheers me up ).. And take a deep breath.. What is it you want? How much debt have you got? And more importantly why?..

Then get back on it!!! Swear NEVER to get into debt again and keep plodding with us.. We are in the same boat..!!!

Happybeingme

abundant1972 wrote: »

Welcome to newbies Rebekah and Happy

Thanks for the welcome abundant1972!!

Well I've had my first spend day ~ £111.52 on food restocking empty cupboards/fridge/freezer and DS2 has a haircut later which is £6 off my 'spend' money.

I just wanted to say thank you so much for letting me join this challenge. I've always been an 'impulse' buyer and am now thinking before spending which is a HUGE change for me. I'm finding it easier to say no and walk away! :j Long may it continue!!

Marylea

Grrrrrr my new job is keeping me busy! hence my lack of checking in here....must tryy harder.

Feb has got off to a good start money wise, busy job keeps me away from spending too much, although I accidently booked a flight to Tenerife for April..........not sure how that happened!
No matter, will be meeting a MSE friend there and we don't go mad spending.
Batch cooking is going well, no bought lunches and some weight loss!
I must find the time to update signature and see whether I dare reduce my overdraft further or save it as a 'buffer'.

Looking forward to catching up on posts later.

nannygladys

Just wanted to post gas and electric units so I can keep a track of them, I will record them weekly and see if I can use a bit less as I cant afford my DD going up and I know all the tarriffs have now risen, so saving units now in operation! I usually read them once a week on a Tuesday and have done for the last year (sad!!!) anyway....
Gas = 4 units
Electric = 28 units
The gas is down on last week as I had a couple of days without the CH on, but the electric is about the same.

On the stove I have cooking some lentil and tom soup for my lunch and then I will make a stew for tonight. I have run out of butter after I tried melting it in the microwave and blew it up:rotfl: so having dry bread now until Friday - my next shopping day.

Not sure what else I can do to cut back, I dont earn very much and still have the normal bills, taking a pt job seemed like a good idea at the time but it means very little money to pay off the debts:( still onwards and upwards and if it wasnt for MSE I would still be spending as if I worked full time.:eek:

Jxx

thriftylass

nannygladys wrote: »

Just wanted to post gas and electric units so I can keep a track of them, I will record them weekly and see if I can use a bit less as I cant afford my DD going up and I know all the tarriffs have now risen, so saving units now in operation! I usually read them once a week on a Tuesday and have done for the last year (sad!!!) anyway....
Gas = 4 units
Electric = 28 units
The gas is down on last week as I had a couple of days without the CH on, but the electric is about the same.

Gonna start doing that again too. They increased our DD from £67 to £106 after christmas, I guess the 67 was a bit low for over the winter months and we just changed to them and I wasn't sure I accurate my estimates were on what they based their original DD. 106 is not too bad and it should come down soon too. Over christmas with parents staying and someone being home for 3 weeks the heating was on non-stop, whereas now it's on a timer again and lower which helps a lot. Will read every 8th of the month to keep track. Our bills are now a bit easier to read but it's still easier to just see the units each month.

poodlegal

Thanks Guys i'm actually feeling much more positive today it was wierd yesterday just felt like I was drowning and its not like me to be 'woe is me' i'm normally fairly hardcore maybe it was pmt or something:rotfl:
Back on the debt busting now- we have tonnes of debt slowly built up by having kids, a falling down house and only having 1 income for few years until the kids were at school. However loans and stuff are going down nicely its the cc i'm trying to hit unfortunately the ccs are my DHs guilty pleasure, we had in the past consolidated, then run them up etc etc....:( in fact hes still not great hes a spender by nature, easily led and talked into stuff and a bad influence on me. We are in the situation where family dont help much either by in the past borrowing off us and then not paying back or doing things like paying for us to go on holiday but then we still need spending money/ car hire/ etc etc dont mean to sound horrible there but we knocked them back one year and I felt really heartless as they were saying about the kids missing out etc we are going away in the summer but it will be the last time until we are df.
Anyway, i've split the debt into chunks and the first one im concentrating on is the 4 grand one (on my sig) which is at a higher % so needs to be shifted. I'm trying to clear the OD at the same time.
like you say Kat once we are out of this mess never again and my children are already very MSE they are excellently trained in spotting yellow stickers from a mile away!

PurpleJay

Afternoon folks. It has been snowing furiously here but thankfully is easing off now.

Loving to read about all the batch cooking going on. I love doing it, very theraputic! Today I have made a cauliflower, pasta, cheese bake thing out of an Abel and Cole recipe book. I slightly over cooked it but am sure it will taste good. This was going to be for lunches or the freezer and we were going to have potato and onion pie for tea. However the pastry had been in the freezer to long and had gone a bit crumbly and there was only half a pack so would only have made the top or bottom of the pie or a pastie! Anyway, I used the bit that looked ok to make jam tarts and I now have a bowl of onion mash in the fridge. Not sure what combination we will be having for tea and also not sure if DS will be here as he might be having tea at his friends where he is going after school. I think if everyone agrees, we will have the cauli, pasta bake and save the mash to have with sausage another day. DS is not a fan of cauli so we will see. Also made some buns with dodgy pinkish purple icing. I tried to make purple by mixing blue and red colouring but it didn't quite work!

PG - the potato and cheese bake is basically slices of potato, cheese and onion layered and then baked in the oven. I have done it with cheese sauce too and with slices of tomato which is also nice. As with most things, I tend to make it up as I go along. Hubby usually makes his version in a frying pan which cooks quicker though you have to watch it or else it burns. Usually served with baked beans or maybe green veg, or even just bread, yum!

Glad you are feeling more positive btw PG Hugs to you and Kat and anyone else feeling a bit pants. There is light at the end of the tunnel x

I have had a spend today (confession). I bought a used DVD of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets from Ebay for £3 including postage. I am quite pleased with myself though as I was soooo tempted to buy the 8 disc boxed set on blu ray for £28 and didn't DS is to young at 6 to watch them all anyway and we do subscribe to love film so I could get them from there. Oddly, the only one they don't have is the chamber of secrets (which we have almost finished reading)! I have returned 2 discs to love film today (well put them ready for hubby to post) which we have had since before xmas and updated the rental list so hopefully we will have some goodies coming soon. I am also going to check with hubby what he is paying because I am sure we have the subscription where you have live streaming (which we use loads), discs in the post and games. We don't tend to get games so if I am right, I will get him to downgrade. Might save a few quid.

I have tidied out 4 handbags today. You never saw such rubbish. I have thrown loads of receipts away, tissues, notes and broken pens and crayons. I found necklaces, bracelets, hair scrunchies, various condiments(!) and £16.30! I have thrown 1 away and the other 3 are all lovely and tidy now. However, I now have an urge to replace the one I have thrown away which was my general everyday bag. I have a work bag (for work ) and a small handbag which is ok for popping to the shops but not big enough for a notebook, and also a clutch bag which I use to go out in the evening. I have other smallish 'going out' bags but there is now a gap. I will see what I can find on ebay I think. In theory, I have £16.30 to put towards it....

I have had confirmation that my new mortgage rate has been set up. I need to ring a number to sort out the overpayments which I shall do later or tomorrow.

Right off to make a cuppa and put my leg up a bit. I have been on my feet to long today with doing the cooking and now it aches.