Fighting to be Frugal

Silly_Spender

Well after my shift this morning I was naughty.

I had £5 in change in my pocket which was going to be used on essentials until Friday, and instead, I have 4 rolls of Fruit Pastilles, a pair of Magic Gloves (which I wear at work but get worn out after a month or so) and a pack of dried vegetable treats for my Degus.

So no change left, and also no NSD today, and I also came to the conclusion that I'm safer using my card than having cash on me. When I have cash on me, I tend to think of it as more 'spendable' though I know this shouldn't be the case. Taking that into account, I'm going to start trying not to draw cash out whenever possible. Or maybe try and keep a strict budget and draw a certain amount of cash out for the week for personal spend and not draw out or use any more.

There was nothing to round down today as nothing has come out of my bank, so I have stuck another £10 from my Current account into the Argos fund!

So excited for payday on Friday so I can work out the budgets and see how much I have left to play with / put into debt funds!

Going to try very hard for an NSD tomorrow as I should be going bowling this Wednesday so that will definitely not be one. Will only be £5 for 5 games though so very cheap really and as there should be 6 of us going, it should last quite a nice amount of time! No doubt I'll buy a drink or something there but with my frugal head on, I won't be spending willy nilly

wegle

Naughty naughty on the fruit pastilles!! :rotfl: I can't talk though I'm a sucker for sweet treats!!

Change is hard not to spend as it's kind of like not real money. If you had a sealed pot you might have thought twice, because you would be thinking "I could spend this or I could put it in my pot!. I just use an old coffee tin that I pinched from work.

I love how we all used to be excited for payday so we could go out and spend some money but now we're all excited so that we can do debt repayments!! :rotfl: Another two weeks for me and it can't get here soon enough!

Bowling is such good fun! I haven't been in years and keep saying to hubby that we should go but the nearest to us is in Torquay or Exeter which means at least 30 min drive. Our knackered old car probably wouldn't make it!! Will maybe have to get a group of us together one night so we can all bundle down together.

I can't believe you're at 20% already!! That's such good going. Just think if you carry on like this in less than 4 months you will be all clear!! What a feeling!! :j:j

Silly_Spender

Yeah I guess I would see change differently if I had a pot. I did have a look in Home Bargains for those tins you have to use a can opener to get the cash out but there weren't any in there =/ I'll try Poundworld or something I think.

I've not been bowling myself since February I think, or may have been last year! I can't remember now.

I will be really happy when the Argos is cleared yeah and hopefully it'll be a lot quicker than 4 months too, but I know the overdraft is going to take a lot longer!

Sorting a lot of things out I can try to sell on eBay now, we'll see how that goes. Not sold anything on there for a long time so will be exciting

Silly_Spender

Have started to list items on eBay. Really excited about them actually! For the most part, I decluttered a lot of my life when we moved into this flat. One thing I did keep though, was a large collection of Magic the Gathering trading cards, which me and my OH used to collect and play together with quite a lot.

They've gone unused for around a year or so now and having looked through some of the rarer ones, they are actually quite valuable! I have quite a big stack to list, all separately or in some cases, sets of 2, 3 or 4.

Intending to put all the profits from these towards my overdraft and Argos fund

wegle

Woo hoo!! Seems like an eBay kind of night. I've just finished listing a load too. Sometimes it's hard to get rid of stuff that has sentimental value but its a shame for something that was once loved to sit hidden away when it could be bringing joy to someone else. And also if its valuable.... Show me the money!!!!!! Hee hee!!

Silly_Spender

Been a bit of a naughty day today! Spent about £16 on groceries, and thinkin about it now, a lot of it was maybe unneeded.

It started because my OH's mum came into work and asked if I could get some leggings for his sister and she'd bring the cash to me after work (so I could use my staff discount) so I said I'd get them and just sort it out with me later on.

Then I thought I'd grab some cheap (not as cheap as they could have been I know) sandwiches from Aldi for a few quid for the OH as he's going to London tomorrow and we don't have any sandwich stuff in. Also ended up getting part-baked baguettes so I could make some french pizzas tonight, as well as a few bits for the freezer from the special buys in Aldi.

After spending about 9 quid in Aldi, I then popped to the local shop as they have new deals that started on Monday, including 16 soft touch Nicky toilet rolls for £3. Then I saw the coke on offer, and then Pringles, and the Gooey Maryland cookies. And spent about £8 in here too.

I'm not going to kick myself too much over it, we've been good this week, but I'm definitely going to have to try very hard to get a few NSDs towards the end of the week (I'm actually off work Thursday and Friday, so aiming to not go out on these days).

So with £17 owing to my current account from the grocery budget that starts from Friday, I'm going to make sure I'm a lot more frugal over the next month with food shopping! We still have loads in, lots of pasta, lots of sauces, and a fair bit of frozen food too. I reckon we've easily got a weeks worth of dinners in, so grocery shopping itself will be kept to the bare minimum.

Also found some absolutely gorgeous handmade soaps on eBay that I've added to my watch basket. They'll be perfect to pop in my nan's gift bag as she loves handmade soaps and they work at around £7 for 3 bars including postage! Not sure if I'd find soaps cheaper than this that look as nice but I'll keep having a look as won't be buying just yet

And while we're on the subject of eBay, I've listed a bunch more cards, and in total, at the very cheapest (they're all auctions and have listed them much cheaper than any others currently for sale) they could sell for around £180!! And I've only listed around half of them!! 10 days on the auctions (9 on the ones from yesterday) I bloody hope some of them sell!

Rounded my bank balance down today too and have put £4.06 in the Overdraft fund

Silly_Spender

So I haven't had an NSD today, but the only thing I've spent is £1 on a money tin from Poundworld, and I've popped £3.60 in change into it! I think I'm either going to save this up towards driving lessons / car or towards passport and a holiday! In the 3 years me and the fella have been together, we've not been away once!

The Vodafone bill came out today and that's all that will be coming out until Friday (payday! ) Got £25 coming back from the OH's mum as have a Vodafone contract in my name for her, as well as £20 still left in my account. £17 coming back from the grocery budget that starts on Friday too, and £5 note in my pocket!

£67 left over this month as well as all the money I've put towards debt repayment, is just shocking. It's usually pretty much all gone by now, with nothing put aside for debts. And what's worse, I've generally got nothing to show for it either, nothing important anyway!

There's quite a few people watching the auctions on eBay, so that's good news too, but no bids yet. Still 8 days left on the soonest auctions though so plenty of time left may post a few more auctions up this afternoon!

wegle

Well done on the sealed pot mate! £3.60 is a great starter. The day I started mine I searched the whole house high and low, raided hubby's pockets, got behind the sofa and found over £10!! Yes £10 had just been sitting round our house doing bug all, so get hunting!

Having £67 left over is amazing, even more amazing when you take into account all the payments you've made, it makes you sick wondering what you spent it all on before though doesn't it!

Watchers are good news, sending prayers to the god go eBay for some good high bids!!

Silly_Spender

Thanks Wegle! Yeah it feels brilliant to have that cash left over as well as having made a lot of progress with the debts! Won't have to pay my Vodafone bill out of the next pay day either so that'll be an extra £55 spare! The next time it comes out my bank will be my next payday after this one! Thinking about it, other than over the last week being frugal, I've had a few decent spends as well this month. It was Manchester Pride the weekend I got paid so I think in total I spent around £70+ then. And then on the Sunday my old tele broke so ended up getting a new one (part on my Argos card though).

I fully intend to have a few spends next month, but I'm going to try and restrict myself to only using my birthday money from my family (3 weeks time!) when we go to Cheshire Oaks. Other than this though, I don't really have any outgoings other than my anniversary!

Just popped to the shop to get some bottles of Coke Zero so we can have Raspberry Vodka and Cokes tonight (already had the voddy in for a while ) on offer at 2 x 1.75ltr bottles for £2 so got £3 change. Thought I'd get some now, then put the change straight in the pot, than go tomorrow when I'm off work, and end up spending the whole £5 on chocolate / crisps / whatever I feel like at the time.

Also found £1.10 in a jacket pocket!

So an extra £4.10 in the pot taking it to £7.70! Not going to put a target on the pot I don't think as watching it just mount up will be awesome!

HOK3Y

Well done Silly! I'm with wegle - just shocking to think where all that money used to go. This journey is definitely an eye opener and highlights a better way to live for sure. Keep going Hun! X