Diary of a Struggling DFW

EverTheOptimist

Well done on getting below the £500 mark on the CC. :T It feels like such an achievement when you get below certain milestones doesn't it. It won't be long before its gone completely.

Good luck with your food budget. That's still an area I / we struggle with.... I say we but its really only me that follows the MSE way. I really need to get into meal planning as we tend to decide what we fancy on the day then buy any ingredients we need for it, which isn't ideal.

Eyebright

EverTheOptimist wrote: »

Well done on getting below the £500 mark on the CC. :T It feels like such an achievement when you get below certain milestones doesn't it. It won't be long before its gone completely.

Good luck with your food budget. That's still an area I / we struggle with.... I say we but its really only me that follows the MSE way. I really need to get into meal planning as we tend to decide what we fancy on the day then buy any ingredients we need for it, which isn't ideal.

Thank you!! Even though it is only just under £500 it still feels great, I think psychologically it just sounds less. I've just discovered this weekend is free listing on ebay (for some reason the emails about this end up in my junk folder, so it was only by chance that I saw it), so hopefully I can finally get some stuff listed to sell. All profits are going to paying off the CC.

We are in the same boat! My OH has not had his LBM, and I can only do what I can with my money, though I organise all the bills so I can try to keep them down as much as possible. This weekend is a sterling example of my OH's lack of a lbm. He knows perfectly well that we are going to need the roof or least quite a few parts of it reslating before winter due to nail fatigue. And that we are in the process of having the gutters replaced. Is he saving for this? Of course he isn't!! He doesn't even have a savings account...he instead, has gone to Twickenham for the W/E to watch the rugby and no doubt spend a fortune getting very drunk with his mates. Then next week he has a friend visiting us from Cheshire, and they will no doubt spend a small fortune on booze again!!!!!!! :mad::mad::mad: In the meanwhile muggins here is planning exactly what she NEEDS (and only needs) to spend to be able to save/pay off as much as possible.

We are rubbish at meal planning and managing the food budget too..I started in April and I've just finished May as I am onto my June budget now, and I have gone over each month despite my budget being a very generous £250 for 2 people! Still I'm DETERMINED that this month I will come under budget. A lot of it I think is a) lack of meal planning, we decide on the day like you and b) OH's refusal to try smart price/ SM versions of certain products (coke and teabags being the most expensive examples I can think of off the top of my head! He nearly had a fit on Tuesday when some 27p smartprice teabags appeared in our online shop until I informed him they were for me to take to work. I honestly can't really taste the difference, tea is tea to me, though I drink it with quite a lot of milk and don't like it too stewed so maybe that is why....

This post has rambled on quite a lot!!! :eek:

Eyebright

And I've just realised I wasn't even finished! :eek::eek:
In my post yesterday I started musing on what I need to buy this month, basically what I need to spend/buy out of my surplus money this month..

I did my budget yesterday and after the bills and my food budget and weekly spend money have been accounted for, and the money I squirrel away has been saved I am left with £334 and a few pence. Out of this I want to buy:

• Few new bits of underwear (£10 max spend)
• Get my hair cut (£25)
• Buy new duvet set for the bed (£30 max)
• Week off (£35) <----this amount was set as it takes the total for everything to a nice round £100 :cool:

So I should end the month with over £200 left over. That's my goal for this month. To have £200 left in my account when the dust has settled. It is nice to have targets, yes? I touwld be a fantastic boost for me if I could as I can put half into the savings for roof and half can be chucked at the CC, which would take me closer to £300
Feeling quietly optimistic but as always OH will no doubt scupper my plans!
Incase anyone is wondering why I haven't accounted for the £34 it's because I've realised that I haven't accounted for helping OH with the petrol costs, which I said I would start doing, so that can go towards that!

I'm also looking forward to seeing what cashback we get from the Santander 123 account and CC this month. It won't be much as we set it part way through last month, but hopefully we will get something!
In my week off I also need to go to the bank and downgrade my personal bank account, as I don't need to be paying a tenner a month for it! That will then be another £10 available for debt busting! Every little helps!!!

Hope everyone is having a lovely BH weekend :beer:

Eyebright

Forgot to mention earlier that yesterday did end up being a NSD after all as I just couldn't be bothered to go into town! I did go this morning though as needed bread for OH's return from his rugby fun. I was going to nip into Lidl's as I like their meat but I went into town for 10am and then remembered they don't open until 11 :rotfl:
So I nipped into the Co-op and just bought a loaf of bread and got the PG Tips teabag offer (240 for £2.54 I think it was, reduced from £5.00!). Teabags are something we will always use so I'm now set for teabags for the next 2 months easily.

Feeling a bit down at the minute though gently broached the subject of menu planning with OH earlier, as I told him I was struggling with our £250 food/cleaning budget for 2 people when really it should be a piece of cake. Well he was not impressed with, "eating from a rota", and made it very clear to me. Why can't he be MSE savvy too? We could acheive so much more if he would just think and be more careful with his money. He thinks if he has it, then it should be spent. He has no savings and no intention of saving from what I can gather.

The only light for me is he hates going to the SM for shopping and is happy for me to buy online. I'm just going to have to starte reducing the amount of food I buy, so he can only make something/have something from what we have in. I hope that will work lol. Still annoys me though that I have to treat him like a child and "trick" him into these things. He doesn't even do that much cooking!!:mad:

Also realised I need to re-think my budget a bit, as it's Father's Day this month!! :eek: Card and a stamp can come out of my weekly pocket money, but I need to budget £20 to put in the card to post to him (he lives 250 miles away). Also thought of a few other bits and bobs (such as £5 for the birthday club money @ work) that will spend, so I've decided to allocate an extra £50 for these bits including money for dad. So my aim is now to have £150 left at the end of the month to allocate as I see fit, but mostly to pay off the CC lol.

Eyebright

Well OH had a nice time at the weekend...haven't found the courage to ask what the dent to his wallet was lol.

Did my first online shop with Tesco yesterday, found a voucher for £12 off a £60 spend, so I ordered lots of bits that can store (frozen chicken, washing up liquid, dishwasher tabs, loo roll and washing powder) to make the order up. Really impressed with their online service and did it through Mysupermarket, and it was significantly cheaper than any of the other major shops :j just need to go and update my grcoery spends on my sig and on the June GC thread.

Have been inspired by another thread I have been reading, "£2013 in 2013"....it's abit late for me to join the challenge but I like the idea and am going to adopt it for the latter half of the year. I'm going to attempt to create a spread sheet to track any any money I manage to earn. Have also started jotting down ways I can up my income, so far came up with:

• Working overtime
• Selling on ebay
• Cashback from my 123 account and CC
• Cashback through quidco/topcashback
• Maximiles
• Survey sites (need to figure out payout points for the ones I use, and actually figure out the ones I use!!!)
• Inboxpounds (just joined, don't know if they are any good)
• Swagbucks (not been on it for ages!!)
• Interest on my ISA (will not amount to much AT ALL!!!)
• Finding money on the floor (!)
• Lottery/freepostcode lottery
• Competitions (if win cash, or if win a prize rough cash value of it should I have had to buy it new)
• Paytoclick sites (not used them before, am going to look into it)
• Anything else that springs to mind!!!!!!!
• Nectar/clubcard/boots advantage points accrued

Also got a 10p a litre off fuel voucher from Tesco which will come in handy when OH needs to fill up the car.

Right I'd better head off the GC thread...I will be very interested to see my figures on this spread sheet (should I figure out how to make it!!!) at the end of the year though.

Eyebright

Spend days the last two days, both today and yesterday I caved in to the urge to buy rubbish junk food from the shop (crisps and choccy bar), and I also paid £2.50 for my Zumba class yesterday which will hopefully offset the junk food.

Have been upping my survey-ing as well, been doing an hour or so each evening, though not having kids means I get screened out quite often! This might be a good thing as I find doing surveys the most boring chore on the planet!

Good news is that I have been offered the opportunity at work to do a course which adds a string to my bow and means I can go up a payscale, when I complete the course (at least 6-8 months I reckon). Pleased with that, so of course I said yes. So long as I don't fail the exam lol....OH asked if he could retire when I qualified and I told him NO! :rotfl:If I have to work then so does he, and the payrise won't be that much!!!

Eyebright

OH has had a friend down to stay since Thursday, so he has been spending money like it's going out of fashion being at work Thurs/Fri meant I did get sucked into the spend fest, but yesterday I was not so lucky. We had to nip to Morrison's for bread, bacon and marg, so I need to add that to my grocery challenge total. OH's friend also bought some beer for a tenner then gave me the money as I put it all on my 123 CC for the cashback we will earn! I used that tenner to buy a round drinks yesterday afternoon, then spent another £20 on drinks in the evening when we went back out for some more drinks. Not planning on spending anymore today though as otherwise my budget and goal of £150 LO at the end of the month for debt will be in jeopardy! If they go out I will decline to come with them. I do need to finish off my CPD, so I have a handy excuse :T also there is a monster pile of ironing with my name on it urrgh...

Got some vouchers come through BzzAgent for a cheese campaign, so next week I need to get the cheese in to try and see what ones to recommend to my friends etc. I was so excited when the vouchers came through as I really, really, really love cheese!!!:rotfl:

All the bills are due out tomorrow, which I am looking forward to, as I will then know exactly where I am at with my money! Will be able to see if I added everything up right!!!

Next week I have the week off work, though I am back in to work my weekend so that has taken the shine off slightly, as I only have the mon-fri to enjoy. I have a little budget of £35 for any spends. I already know I want to treat myself to fish and chips on the seafront on a nice, sunny day (fingers crossed), so there's a fiver gone already, but other than that I don't know what I will do. If the weather is nice enough, I ideally just want to sunbathe in the back garden or the beach. I can take pack-up with me if I do go out, but I think I will treat myself to an icecream too on one day!

Hope everyone is having a lovely weekend xx

Eyebright

Urrgh it's a gorgeous day here, but I can't go out to sunbathe as the bloomin' men have finally come back to finish off putting up the new gutters and downpipes, great timing hey?! I feel a bit grumpy about it, as OH ALWAYS waits until I have some time off booked then arranges things, so that I have to be the one to be into deal with them, and he doesn't.

I went to the library yesterday to get out some books to read in the garden, as a cheap way to enjoy my 5 days off. Tomorrow I'm going over to Torquay to hit Primark for the new underwear I need, and I will pop in the hairdressers and make an appointment to get my hair cut. Then will catch the bus over to Tesco's in Newton Abbot to get my free cheese fo my BzzAgent campaign. I will also have my fish and chips for lunch tomorrow, so long as it stays sunny

I've fallen a bit behind with keeping track of my spends, though all of my receipts are kicking around my purse/handbag/the house somewhere, so my next job whilst I'm stuck in the house is to sort all that out. Just need my CC statement to come through so I can pay that, then all my outgoings will have, well... gone out! Then operation let as little of it as possible slip through your fingers will commence! 3 weeks til pay day, so I have a long way to go yet...

Eyebright

I have come to confess my sins diary...:o

I HAD A TERRIBLE DAY YESTRDAY!!!!!!!!! :eek::eek::eek:
My budget has been blown out of the water, so it is back to the drawing board for me to reassess an do some damage limitation.

I did my budget yesterday and after the bills and my food budget and weekly spend money have been accounted for, and the money I squirrel away has been saved I am left with £334 and a few pence. Out of this I want to buy:

• Few new bits of underwear (£10 max spend)
• Get my hair cut (£25)
• Buy new duvet set for the bed (£30 max)
• Week off (£35) <----this amount was set as it takes the total for everything to a nice round £100 :cool:

So I should end the month with over £200 left over. That's my goal for this month. To have £200 left in my account when the dust has settled. It is nice to have targets, yes? I touwld be a fantastic boost for me if I could as I can put half into the savings for roof and half can be chucked at the CC, which would take me closer to £300
Feeling quietly optimistic but as always OH will no doubt scupper my plans!
Incase anyone is wondering why I haven't accounted for the £34 it's because I've realised that I haven't accounted for helping OH with the petrol costs, which I said I would start doing, so that can go towards that!

There were my targets for the month, though I came back and added that I needed an extra £50 for some other bits I had forgotten, namely dad's father's day card/money to go in it. So I was aiming for £150 LO. I'm very doubtful this will happen now!!!

Yesterday I decided to go over to Torquay to go and buy a couple of bits of underwear as I have lost some weight and needed some new things that actually fit!!!! If you look above you will see that my budget was set at £10...£41 later I emerged!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek: This is after I had to pay £5.10 for a dayrider bus ticket as I forgot my bus pass that I pay for directly out of my wages, so another additional expense. So I'm not going to get my hair cut this month as this will help to offset the damage.
I also withdrew £20 of the £35 for the week, but any LO I will use as pocket money for next week instead of drawing a tenner out.
The worst thing was, and I am cringing just thinking about it...I spent £100 buying Premium Bonds....:eek::eek::eek: I was reading about them and decided I would like to purchase some at some point, then randomly decided the time is now and BAM, before you know it I had put in my bank details and and bought the minimum amount. I honestly don't know why I did it... I have my CC I want to pay off, I have a ROOF to save up for! I don't know what got into me yesterday. I am going to have to be super frugal for the rest of the month now to end it with any significant amount of money to lob at my debts. The duvet set I need might have to wait as well now, I will see how I am doing a bit closer to the end of the month. I also going to sort out and list some things on ebay at the weekend to try and offset the damage.

In better news I made 70p wandering around town checking in with my Quidco app, well every little helps!! I have also done a few more surveys so it is slowly adding up to some payouts in the next few weeks I hope!

Right, I am off now to re-do my budget, will pop back on later to post it, and I will stick to it for the remainder of the month, hoping I can still end the month with £100 LO, but will confirm it's possible once I have done my sums!!!

Eyebright

So umm yesterday, though not a disaster was not great either! We kinda had fish and chips (I have been craving it all week) for dinner last night...:o
OH suggested it, then when we got to the chippy decided he didn't have any money on him could I please pay, thank you very much.:mad::mad::mad: £11 down the drain and that was going to be my pocket money for next week!

Things will be fine, I have to stop punishing myself so much, as when I do I "act out", and odd spending habits pop up, a la Premium Bonds :rotfl:. All my bills bar the CC have now been paid for the month, that should be due in the next few days, and it's budgeted for. All it means is there will be less for me to overpay at the end of the month. It's not the end of the world

I know I will feel better once I have put a few items on ebay this coming Sunday.
The gutters are finally done now, just need to wait for them to sock the bill to us :eek: I was going to sunbathe a bit in the garden today as it is my last day off before I'm back in work, but it is starting to cloud over, nooooooo!!!! Actually that's just reminded me, I need to wash my white tunics for work tomorrow as I have none that are clean! Best get on with that then....

I will be back later as I still need to calculate the damage to the budget and revise what I should have left come the end of the month (which is technically the 25th of June as that's when I next get paid!)