The Ultimate February Challenge

Mancman86

thriftylass wrote: »

Exactly, plus we got a friend who does catering and it's amazingly yummy!!

Thriftylass: - We are currently planning our wedding at the minute as well.
Check out : http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/cheaper-weddings :money:really does think of everything.
I think using friends for various things is the best tip :money:gives. We so far have a friend doing the cake for free, photos at around 2/5 of the standard price, mate rates on flowers. Venue booked.We also possibly have cars sorted, as my grandad has an amazing BMW which he said he would be happy to drive one of us in , I love the BMW but would prefer a helicopter or aston martin When booking a venue if you can look at booking midweek say a wednesday or thursday - cheaper by far, but companies are beginning to clock onto this fact now, also dont tell the company its for a wedding tell them its a celebration (When they know its a wedding we found they double the prices)
My best mate who ive known for 23 years is gonna be my best man he cant wait, hes trying to plan already.

mayfair1985

Ooooh Wedding talk!

We got married in 2011. In total we spent £1500 and it was the BEST day. We had a quiet wedding and a loud party with a buffet after. Nice and local and exactly what we wanted. Neither of us are religious and didn't want the whole ceremonial aspect of it, we just wanted to be wed. And it was perfect. A lot of people disagreed with what we were doing but after I told a few if they didn't like it they didn't need to come the moaning soon stopped. A few people didn't come and it didn't detract anything at all from our wonderful day. In fact, I didn't even notice they weren't there! So my advice, and i know it's hard, but do what YOU want, have what YOU want and don't let anyone else dictate YOUR day to you. Tada!

My wedding dress is still wrapped in the loft, I just haven't quite got the heart to sell it yet......

Ninno820

karmachilovething wrote: »

I have a spread sheet which is a monthly spending diary. I have dates running vertically on the left and across the top different catagories (Bill/rent, groceries, beauty, clothes etc.) including each of the CCs I have. So when I spend something I add a row and then put a little name ("Sainsbugs" or "Petrol" etc.) and then the amount in the right column. And it all totals up automatically at the bottom.

I have a spreadsheet with a front sheet which has categories down the side and monsth across the top. Each category has its own page and the totals linked to the front page. therefore I can colour in direct debits / planned spends / food and petrol / credit cards etc as the payment is tracked through the bank account whilst looking at the front sheet for the summary. The formulas also calculate each month how much has been paid off the debt so that I can track the success. I too check the spreadsheet every day!

Today is another SFD - I have taken surplus food from last nights dinner for lunch - this saves on time and thinking!

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi all. I need to do my mealplan for 1st to 15th March then create a shopping list and I HATE doing it. Boring boring. Hubby says why cant you just repeat the same mealplan every fortnight but it doesnt work like that because I need to fit it around things we might be doing.

Thrifty, we went to a brilliant budget wedding last year. They had posh afternoon tea (think dinky sandwiches, lovely cakes and cream scones served on old fashioned china). Then a fish and chip van turned up to serve supper. It was very brave but fantastic and we loved it.

Glad you have got something sorted with the dress Kat.

Sigh, got to do that shopping list, off to Aldi tomorrow. Need to get Mothers Day presents and nephews birthday pressie too. Off to make a start, watching the One Show and blathering on to you lot isnt getting that list done!!!

PurpleJay

Morning all, I am at home this morning with a pooly boy who has been throwing up all night - lovely! Had to strip bed and wash half a dozen cuddly toys and the duvet as well. He has been in with us since about 2am and is still the big bed. He hasn't been sick for about 4 hours now so fingers crossed, that will be it.

I am going to work at lunchtime and then staying late to make up my time. Hubby is at uni this morning and is on sick duty this afternoon!

On a brighter note, I have just had cheesy chips for breakfast Yum!

I also plan to spend an hour sorting out my budget or at least working out what I have on over the month and doing a sort of diary to see when my spend days will be. That way I can hopefully plan things together.

I need to get my head around spreadsheets. I had some basic training in excel about 15 years ago but have no idea how to write a formula. Any suggestions on where to start for a complete newbie?

Avon has been delivered this morning and I completely forgot about it so hadn't got my returns ready. They will have to go next time. Going to unpack that this morning too.

Confession - yesterday I bought a pizza, a chocolate cheesecake, a roll of brown paper and a small skinny suger free hazelnut latte from Costa! I was tempted to buy a magazine to read while I had the coffee but bought one of those 20p I papers instead. The paper was rubbish, but the coffee was heavenly (and the cheesecake when I got home)

I am out for a meal tomorrow night with 3 other ladies so the 1st of March will be a spend day. Today is also a spend day as I am almost out of calpol for the li'l man and needed to order some bags from ebay to post parcels (although technically I will add this on to postage costs).

Will try not to buy anything else today!

Will update more later.

Living_a_good_life

Morning all,

Purple Jay - hope your wee man is still feeling better - sickie bugs through the night are the pits! Re excel the best formula I can recommend is =sum(all the cells you want to add together) Geek moment of the day!! I think there is a ready made spreadsheet somewhere on the giant site - someone will know!

Yorkshire lass - thanks for the reminder about mothers day - going to have to give that some thought!! Hope the meal plan got sorted - I now have to meal plan along side the school lunch menu - there have been a few days when DD has been less than impressed at almost having the same thing for lunch and dinner! Good school dinners though and all the meat from the local butchers so "neigh" chance of any nasty surprises!!

Thriftylass - so pleased that you are getting married - I was lurking when you got engaged and it made me smile. I noticed you are in Scotland - I come from there and my parents/brother are all still up there. How traditional are you getting - are you kilting up your man?

Well I've done my work hours for the month - currently debating what to do - start on next months hours and get ahead or tackle the cupboard of doom - I know there will be stuff to fleabay in there but if you don't hear from me in the next couple of days then I'd appreciate a search party!

Have a good day all,

LAGL xx

Mancman86

PurpleJay wrote: »

I need to get my head around spreadsheets. I had some basic training in excel about 15 years ago but have no idea how to write a formula. Any suggestions on where to start for a complete newbie?

PurpleJay ,If you send me a message on here with your email address in I can forward you a copy of the one i use that works fine for me

thriftylass

Living_a_good_life wrote: »

Thriftylass - so pleased that you are getting married - I was lurking when you got engaged and it made me smile. I noticed you are in Scotland - I come from there and my parents/brother are all still up there. How traditional are you getting - are you kilting up your man?


LAGL xx

Well, I'm actually German, but hubby is an irish weegie, as I call it. I'll definitely want him to wear a kilt (Been dreaming about marrying a man in a kilt since I was wee ). Have to look into the ceremony what would be traditional and what I'd like.

squinky

Hello all! Last day of February I'm sorry didn't really keep up with all the posting but am pleased to report a mostly successful outcome to the challenge.

Kat - sorry I meant I only had £95.50 for the month (barring the money I had allocated for my hair appointment) so that's what I had to stick to. I did actually get paid on 25th but kept up with the challenge as I'd already pinched £20 from that for February! As for the free food I guess it all balances out as we are the hosts next week. Sorry about the dress, I hope the event is fabulous, it sounds like it will be!
Abundant - that sounds like an amazing idea, having a decent amount of money to give to them when they are old enough to appreciate it is fantastic.
Siouxsie – good work with the make up counter freebies. I must confess I find them rather intimidating!

So challenge wise I have brought my own lunch to work everyday and even squeezed the budget to get some biscuits for the office for meetings etc. I gave a homeless person a hot drink and also gave another one a snickers. I’m sure they would prefer fags, they asked me for money. I downshifted on the deodorant, I’m not sure how cost effective this is though as I feel like I need to use more of it! I stuck to my £155.50 spends with a little bit of jiggling around and only pennies to spare but I didn’t make £50 on eBay, in fact I still I haven’t even listed my items. Fail!

Thanks to everyone for all the support & good luck to those debt busting and carrying on with the March Challenge. :T

Living_a_good_life

thriftylass wrote: »

Well, I'm actually German, but hubby is an irish weegie, as I call it. I'll definitely want him to wear a kilt (Been dreaming about marrying a man in a kilt since I was wee ). Have to look into the ceremony what would be traditional and what I'd like.

Wow with that many traditions to choose from you'll have a cracking day!! Hubby and I celebrated 10 years last year - our wedding was done on a fairly tight budget as we were in our first jobs after uni and buying our first house. It was still a lovely day We wanted people there rather than posh nosh and were able to have the reception with three course meal at our old uni which has fantastic grounds and it was loads cheaper than anywhere else. Obviously in the summer hols when the students had gone home!!
Anyway dont start me off Aim for having the people there that matter and ending up married - anything else is a bonus but enjoy enjoy enjoy

Right back to the cupboard of doom...... Eek xx