The October Awakening!

thriftylass

luckyginger i thank people usually if it is topic related post about spends etc or useful tips.

No SFD today. Took DS for his 28 month check up today and stopped at Tesco on way back as we were out of milk, yoghurt and fruit, mostly YS but still £8.31, what's left over will come with us when visit friends for a long weekend north so it doesnt go off. Also the light came on in OH's car so stuck a fiver in.

Made a large chinese stir fry for tea that will do for another 3 lunches.

fyggy

I have been laughing at this thread. Pan lids! I love it. Well I suppose they are energy saving, therefore MSEy, but a full deposit over them?! Lol.

NSK - Not to compete atm. But I may be swayed after the UKBFF show! I have lost 3kgs more than I wanted to! Got to my goal weight and was like, yay. Then it just kept dropping off! So annoying, so trying to "make gainz" as they say in #fitfam (I'm a twitterer) - put on weight but lean muscle weight. To the untrained eye I look skinny, but I'm not. Anyway! Get those nippers on you. I personally use fancy scales. You'll just have to hang fire and jump on the New Year bandwagon of "I want to get fit" instead as you'll be DF by then! (Whoop!)

Tomorrow I shall go and haggle with the local phone shop about replacing my very smashed S3 screen. They quoted me £65. I fell over. Looked on eB.ay and it's £40 there. So I shall go forth and haggle, as I would prefer to spend my money in my own town. Totally Locally and all that.

Today has been a busy old day in work. With some shocking job news which whilst has made me angry, has reaffirmed my decision to apply for a job at a different place, rather than stay where I am. To work, in fact, at the same place as DH. We are in the same profession but always worked at different places... The reason I've been indecisive about the job I know is coming up is because, whilst it's a promotion- higher basic salary, I will no longer do unsocial hours, so therefore I will actually take home approximately £300 PCM less even though it's a £2000 pa pay rise! DH did the same thing earlier in the year and it took a while for us to catch up, hence the CCs getting a beasting in the meanwhile. So I'll have to look at the Budgets and work out how we can afford the loss. Hhmmmm!

SFD- 2/20. Woo!

Superdopsa

Hi all. Checking in with my first SFD of the month - and the first of many I hope!

Went out for a run this morning. Packed lunch at work. Tea from the freezer - I must remember to take something out for tomorrow's tea as well.

Hoping tomorrow will be a SFD day as well. I am hoping to go to the gym before work, I have my bus pass to get to work and will have my packed lunch. When I come home it will be time for tea, then crafting and television. What a thrilling life I lead!

I would like to learn how to create a signature too.

And it is nice to know that I am not the only one who has been stockpiling toiletries (in my case shower gel, body lotion, shampoo and conditioner). Why? Are all the chemists and supermarkets going to run out of it all?

Check in again tomorrow.

Maisie_M

Checking in for today

SFDs: 1/20 - first one today :j
Food budget: £0/£280
Donation: £0/£3
Planned outings: 0/1 Meal out for birthday with OH (paid on voucher already)
Takeaway £0/£20 - Chinese to celebrate birthday with children,
Take lunch to work: 2/20 sarnies yesterday using up last two finger rolls and left over lamb curry from Monday's dinner today - yum.
Beauty spends £0/£10

Moneymash

Ok so here goes,

The Rules.

You will aim for 20 SFD (Spend Free Days).
Yep fine, if I plan meticulously.


Pay off debt first. Yep done, I have made two overpayments to my loan one for £20 that was left over from my budget last month. However, this £20 seems to have disappeared in to the ether as it is not showing on my loan balance. I know I didn't reference the OP properly but it was sent to the right sort code and account number. I will give it a few days and see if it is deducted from my loan balance if not, it's off to the bank I go. In other news I OP'd £535 towards the same loan from my pay day on Monday, now this has hit my loan account, all good. I also OP'd the bcard by about £24.


You will create a spreadsheet and budget EVERYTHING. Yep done, nerd that I am I have had my debts spreadsheet since May 2011. It also contains a break down of annual/one off payments. My rent and when it's due (includes the 4 and 5 week months and storage costs that are due every 4 weeks). I've had my pay and budget spreadsheet since March 2010, for each month everything is accounted for.


Get a small spend diary to keep in your bag. I have so many little blank notebooks and A5 books, people have bought me over the years, can I find any now, no I can't. It will be a waste if I buy one, will keep looking.

Set your food budget now then reduce it by £20. For months I thought I was spending £80 pm, kept receipts showed it was higher. So I upped my budget to £112 pm , then got a budget app and realised it was more like £160-£170 pm :eek: So I am always trying to get it to hoover around the £112 mark. I bought value products last month and will continue where possible until I am debt-free.

Clear out your cupboards of food before buying more. Yes I will do this, stockpiling is a problem, given the chance and the finances I would stock pile everything. There is nothing like opening a full cupboard, it makes me feel happy and it's usually because I have bought things on special offer. I have to remember I live in a safe country, with a good legal system, and police force, anarchy isn't going to reign down on us so bad, there will be no food on the shelves and there will always be special offers.

Out of your allowance £3 of food will be donated to the local food bank. Easy.


Budget for outings. I have been asked to London to have coffee ( this messes up the next rule) with a friend that lives in London! This will come out of my miscellaneous budget, but I am not happy, there's train fare and the cost of the coffee, I can't put it off until I am debt-free and I don't want to as I would enjoy it. I may travel by coach to make it cheaper.


No eating out. Whoops, I bought a steak wrap yesterday, I couldn't help it, the previous two days I had watched 7 episodes of the Great Australian Bake-off ( I am currently obsessed with baking comps from countries who have a language I can understand), I was craving something stodgy, the wrap was the healthiest option.

Bring your lunch to work everyday. This is a well formed habit when you do night shifts, otherwise it's what's left over from the patient's suppers on the food trollies or a ridiculously overpriced vending machine.

Choose a DFD - a Debt Free Date! June 2014, which means May 31st which will be pay day, however this is a Saturday, so I will get paid on the Friday. I must remember to get the Thursday night off work, I want to check my bank account at midnight and pay off the last of my debts by ten past! Then post on the debt-free roll of honour at quarter past.

Use up all your beauty products BEFORE getting any more.
I've still got plenty of Liz Earle, but do need some muslin cloths as mine have all gone soft, the material needs to be harsher, will have to look into cheap muslin cloth. I've got plenty of other stuff due to my habit of stock piling as mentioned earlier, a-hhhm...

And just for the “regulars” who might be a bit too comfortable in these challenges.. you have to somehow make an extra £100 this month. Ok I can do this, I will get back in to swagbucks, surveys and [STRIKE]may[/STRIKE] WILL gumtree items to avoid ebay fees.

A SFD today.

Let's do this thing!

fyggy

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

Now I have read all the pages that have accumulated over the last 24 hours. Forgive me if I cannot assign names to every question / comment but I am at work and my sneaky, light-footed albeit incredibly sexy boss has a habit of appearing behind me without warning to look at my computer screen so I need to type fast...although I think he just wants to look down my top...:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:!

Katherine! I hope poor Mr Cobes isn't looking in on this thread! You remember what happened last month! Hahah:rotfl::rotfl:

MrsGSR

Right, dilemma.
Party invitation from DCs cousins arrives today, that means presents not budgetted for AND I really don't want to go.
What do I do?
Oh and we barely speak to them.

TiptoesDB

SFD no 2 here for me. OH spent a little on snacks as predicted..
Both took lunches in, although I had to eat my left over broth cold in the car with an emergency spork as I didn't have time to nip to the office between jobs as I had planned and microwave it. In the bad old days I would have caved and bought a sandwich in those circumstances... go me!:A

I also cancelled one of our social engagements for this month, we have too much going on and not enough spare money thinking of the money we'll save tho.

On the down side, when we moved money out of the main account yesterday we failed to remember the payment for the heating oil we ordered on Friday hadn't come out, it came out overnight and I was woken this morning with an alert text from the bank saying we were OD. Oh dear... first job this am was to move some of the money back to the main account :mad:

But, we both resolved not to get down and feel beaten by this, we are learning, and the spreadsheet and getting organised is happening, we just need to keep at it and get better as we go.

Loving reading the thread and all the encouragement - it's keeping me motivated and we don't feel alone in this!

thank you lovely gang!:beer:

thriftylass

For the ones that asked about making a signature. Go to User CP and on the left you find the option to edit your signature.

andrar

xJOJOx wrote: »

Well i'm thinking of ebaying some pan lids.....I never knew theres was so much vale in them!!!!

See, pan lids are in demand!