not quite a light bulb moment...

wegle

Hey farnesbarn!

Well done on your mini LBM!

I know what you mean about wanting to have the best for your children, especially considering the environment you work in, and I totally get about not cutting back to bare bones. However think how much you could give your children if for a few years you did and got everything cleared? £550 a month actually to be exact!

Cutting back doesn't have to mean going without. Debt busting is a bit like being on a diet. You still need to eat but you swap for healthier versions with less calories, in debt busting you swap for cheaper options with less ££££s.

Anyhoo, I'm subscribing so I can follow you along on your journey! Xxx

farnesbarn

I am sooo pleased with myself!! My £100 per week budget has meant that 3 days before payday I still have £38 in my current account which quite frankly would usually be well overdrawn by now!! I just have to get through until Monday but that should be easily doable.

Bad news - someone (one of the daughters?) left the freezer door ajar and it wasn't noticed for at least a day (its in the garage) and so I have had to throw away the entire contents of the freezer grrr.

Good news - have managed to wean the husband off of his tumble drier habit lol! It has only been used once in the last month! Also managed to stick to my £100 budget even with buying eldest dd her winter onesie thanks to good old primarni!

Payday monday and I want to pay off the nationwide cc which I know will be a stretch but I can just do minimum payments on the others for this month and I just need to continue with my £100 a week budget.

What has really helped me to stick to my budget is using the local fruit and veg shop instead of supermarkets and the 99p shop - it's amazing what you can get there and you can go into other shops safe in the knowledge that if you can't buy something (eg shower gel) for less than a pound then you can pop and get it for 99p in the other shop. It's my new favourite shop lol!!

looking forward to payday

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farnesbarn

I have just been reading a thread on the old style forum called something like '5 old styles pleasures today'. It was really lovely reading it and I thought what a good idea in life in general to remind yourself of 5 positive things in your day. Sometimes things seem all bad but I think the negative elements seem to take up too much of our focus. We just need to concentrate on focusing on the positives.
So today I have enjoyed the following frugal pleasures
- lovely morning on the beach with the children and dog, weather was beautiful and we had a picnic cup of coffee and did lots of rockpooling.
- lovely lunch at inlaws with all the family,
- took children to play in the woods at the bottom of our street this evening taking advantage of the light evenings while we can!
- washed bedding and got it dried on the washing line and put it straight back on, smelling all lovely and fresh.
- not spent a single penny!!!:D

So payday tomorrow and I can finally start to make some payments.

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farnesbarn

Pay day today!! I have paid the nationwide card off in full! And I've paid £50 off one tesco card and £60 off the other. Onwards and upwards! So the breakdown now is -
- tesco credit card 1 £1700
- tesco credit card 2 £5940
- virgin £12000

Total is now under £20000. My little pot of cash for Christmas now stands at £30 and I've already bought most of the presents for other peoples children, leaving just my immediate family.

Loving this diary giving me motivation and keeping me on track.:T

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farnesbarn

Oh and I must remember my 5 frugal pleasures for the day

- lovely sunny evening when I left work
- took dog in the woods after work
- dog is sat on my lap being all cuddly
- lovely hot bath after a day at work
- dinner made by oh and ready for when I walked in the door

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farnesbarn

Pay day today!!! I have paid £200 to one tesco credit card, £190 to the other and £216.60 to the virgin card. This brings my total paid off to 6% which I am pretty happy with. Obviously I would love it to happen quicker but there we go
Totals now tesco 1 - £1500
tesco 2 - £5750
virgin - £11,800
My spending budgets are going very well just need to keep plodding on!

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Mara_uk7

Well done you, Youre doing so well, And a pay rise due next month ! Whooppdeeedoo !

wegle

Well done you! You're doing amazing!! It's such a great feeling when pay day arrives and you can chuck money at the debts. I really like your 5 things idea as well. It's important to focus on the things in life that really matter.

farnesbarn

well first day of half term - we went trampolining which cost £10 then had a subway which was another £10 eek school holidays are not easy to do cheaply! however, when we came home we took the dog for a lovely (free) walk in the woods and saw all the branches blown off the trees during the storm! The little stream in the woods was more like a full flowing river as well. So total for the day was £20 which isn't too bad and since I am at work tomorrow the lovely grandparents will be in charge and I can save some money:p

Love school holidays and I have been squirreling away some money from the last few months so we can have a nice time. Happy days x

TRAVELBUG_2

Hi Farnesbarn, well done on the debt repayments!, your doing great! loving the 5 frugal pleasures that you've added to your diary, i might steal this idea if you dont mind, i agree that we need to find more 'moments' that give us plesure instead of constantly feeling that we need to spend wads of cash to enjoy life.. will be following your journey..

TB.