The October Awakening!

NinjaSavingKat

NannyG sincerest apologies ... I was convinced I added you with glee cause you were back but I have definitely done it now...

Fmess

Today, I found a tiny notepad in my desk drawer at work which is ideal for my spending log Unfortunately, I was so excited I let out a squeak of delight and everyone in the room laughed at me oh well!

NinjaSavingKat

The October Awakening is about to begin...
Be prepared, be ready and do your best..
The only limits in life are the ones you set yourself.
Break every limit...

Let The Games Begin and May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour.

stewby

So... looking at this October challenge and decided to break it down and see what is achievable for me. And here it is:

*You will aim for 20 SFD (Spend Free Days).
I am going to include petrol in mine as it is part of my budget account and normally i do everything all in one (get food and petrol at the same time).

* Pay off debt first.
Going to bit the bullet and pay £200 off my next account. As this is my first attempt at budgetting, I am going to give the £200 to my dad and he will hold on to it for the month, he is very intelligent and impressively strict so it is doubtful I will ever see the money ever again.

* You will create a spreadsheet and budget EVERYTHING.
Will attempt to do this but (please don't laugh) I can't work excel or do a spreadsheet so I will do what I always do and make lots of pretty tables using pencils and rulers and write it all on there.

* Get a small spend diary.
I tend to stockpile books (I really like the oxford ones) so finding a budget book will be easy.

* Set your food budget now then reduce it by £20.
Okies. Deep breath. Budgeting £50 for fuel gives us £130 for food for the month. That's about £32.50 a week which seems do-able if we drop our brands as planned.

* Clear out your cupboards of food before buying more.
Honestly, this one won't really work as I am very fussy and we have a heap of meat in the freezer that OH will eat but I won't. Same with tinned stuff such as tuna.

* £3 of food will be donated to the local food bank.
Easily do-able. There is a food bank at tescimos so it will be no bother to get a couple of extra things when we do our shopping.

* Budget for outings, birthdays, Halloween parties, trick-or-treater treats and meals with friends.
I have very little social life so the plan is to budget in one take away meal for the month (either pizza or chinese) so my poor OH sticks with the plan. We do have one birthday (so that's about £22). We have sweeties for halloween.

* No eating out.
This one we will achieve, with the exception of a take-away one night. I can't force OH to cut everything at once. He would just get fed up.

Bring your lunch to work everyday.
Easy. As far as I am aware there is no canteen at work. The plan is to have breakfast and lunch at work (cereal, sandwich) and convince OH to make me supper three days a week.

* Choose a DFD.
According to the snowball thing, it won't be until next October before I pay off my debts. I plan on making it May 2014. Would prefer it to be February so I can turn 30 debt free but that is just not possible. May is the month before we go to kos and I would quite like to have paid for the holiday before we go.

* Use up all your beauty products BEFORE getting any more. No more than £10 allowed on beauty spends for the month.
No problem. I tend to prepare for the apocalypse so I have a lot of stuff in a cupboard. I also don't wear make-up so costs are minimal.

* Try to make money from ebay.
Not going to try and sell anything as I am not allowed ebay (Dad's rules which has probably saved me from a much worse debt).

Hope this makes sense. Feel free to help me out if anyone has any suggestions. Let's hope I have achieved all this and am still feeling this positive by the 31st.

Frugal_foxy_2

All ready to go, good luck everyone.

My DFD is 01/08/2015
My food budget for October is £200
My debt repayment this month is £1300

Daisychain1

And we're off :eek: Good luck to everyone this month. We can do it :

Well today was always going to be fairly straight forward. I have nothing to do today except go to work and come home again, so SFD for me. Lunch, as always, will be taken with me.

Yesterday I sorted the freezer and cupboards and made a list of everything we have in. From this I have been able to come up with meal plans for the next 2 weeks so only fresh groceries should be needed. For some crazy reason OH loves food shopping so my challenge will be to keep him away so I don't end up with multipacks of crisps and chocolate !!

Anyway, here's today's update

SFDs. 1/20
No Eating Out. 1/31
Take lunches to work. 1/18 (I have a week off this month)
Food budget 0/£180

Have a lovely Tuesday

DC1

shyspender

Good Morning,

I don't get paid until Friday, so can't make a payment to my debt until then, but I am hoping to be able to pay between £200 and £300 to my credit card.
I have no plans to spend anything before then so should get a few SFD's under my belt before that.
My debt is the credit card. I balance transferred from an old Credit Card to Tesco with the intention of paying it off whilst at 0% and then using it for my grocery shopping, and paying it off immediately. Except, I kept forgetting to pay off the shopping. I stopped using it at the start of this year so haven't added any purchases to it, but the interest has kicked in on it.
Food budget is £180. It is only just for me but it includes all household stuff too. I am hoping to come in under this, but as it's the first month, I thought it was best to be realistic.
Since starting to read the 'months' a couple back I have sourced a food bank, just need to check their latest list and make the purchases.
I have no major trips planned so should easily achieve my petrol budget, I can normally get through a month with only one fill up.
Lunch was made last night. I hate when I give in and don't make something, because I have to buy a baguette, which is nice, but I could actually get two lunches out of, and it is not the healthiest option. Plus, when I buy a baguette, I tend to then buy some crisps, and some sweets and maybe a milkshake, not good for the pocket or the waistline.
I have one day out provisionally planned, but it may not actually be in October, still confirming the date. it is going to be in London which means travelling expenses too, but that is in the entertainment budget.
I know the AFD's were last month but I saw a poster on a train the other week for 'Go sober in October' so that is what I am doing, to save on money and the waistline.
My budget doesn't include bills, because they are all Direct Debit and I don't count them in available money. My plan is that when I get paid on Friday, whatever is left, leaving me a little cushion, will be put to the Credit Card. The budget is just to stop me reaching for my wallet without thinking.
I'm actually taking my budget out in cash on Friday and that's it. Any money left in my pocket on Friday is going into my new sealed money pot.
As for the spending diary, I'm a techno geek, so I have apps and a notebook on my phone. My phone is always with me, an notebook would get forgotten.
I'm excited to be signed up for this challenge, but also a little nervous.

Fmess

Morning

Happy 1st October

My info
Household is me, OH, 4 dogs, 1 cat
We have 2 cars and a mortgage on our house.
We both work full time and are in our very late 20s.

My debt was accrued due to silly over spending, my OH being unemployed for a short period last year and a trip to Australia this year. About 80% of the debt is mine (all of it is in my name) and currently I'm the only one paying it off. OH is currently on a much lower salary than me and his previous job so until he manages to find a higher paid job or promotion I am doing the debt busting.

Have just made a £100 debt repayment off the ccard to signify the start of the challenge . I also paid £188.82 off my loan on pay day last week so that's £288.82 off the debt this month I'm hoping to pay off more like £450 a month but it's car tax month this month and MOT at the start of next month so have put £200 from this pay packet in a pot ready for these.

Hoping for a SFD today, although running a few errands for OH, but told him he must pay for these

KittyBoo_2

Is anyone having trouble editing their signature? I can't get mine to show.
This is what I am planning for the month and will add it as signature when I've sussed it out. Good luck everyody.

Avogirly

Good morning everyone! Just checking in for the day. All budgets and lists and sfds were worked out and written in diary yesterday.

Quick question. I have £800 in a savings account. £600 is for my skiing holiday but should I use the other £200 to pay a debt off or should I keep it for any emergencies that may crop up. Thoughts please?!