What have I been doing for the last 10 years???

MuffinTops

Hello Domayne,

Well done on reaching your goal for January. You're doing so well with your savings.

That's a huge amount you could save a year! But maybe you wouldn't enjoy life as much if you did that? There's always a balance to strike, isn't there?

Yay to no fillings this time, and for booking up your next appointment. You're so much more organised than me. I had to cancel a recent appointment and haven't yet made a new one! Best do that as I had a root canal late last year which needs covering or something like that!!!!

What a great start to 2015 for you! I need to start my diary up again to get myself in gear and organised.

Domayne

Hi Muffintops! :hello:

Thank you! - I have more saved now than I had debt this time last year so I'm happy about that

Quite honestly, I don't think I'll be able to save the full 13k over the year because I pay for things like dentist trips, my laser course, holidays etc out of that, not out of my personal spends...which I probably should, but you are right, you definitely need to balance life and fun as well as just debts and savings I think...I could die next week and the money would be useless to me. Though I suppose it could at least pay for my funeral so it's not totally useless....
I had this conversation with my mum a few weeks ago when my aunt died. If I die before her, she'll donate my body to science research and keep the money LOL...Gotta love morbid conversations! But I'll be dead and not needing my body wherever I go so :P

I'm aiming to save between 8-10k in 2015, anymore would be a bonus!

This year is my best friends 30th birthday (October) and we've been planning to go to Las Vegas for years for it and that certainly won't be cheap and will probably take a chunk out of the savings....but I don't know if this will happen now....

She recently got into a new relationship, they've been together for around 3 months, things are moving super fast and they are talking about buying a house together this year! :eek:

So she said she doesn't know if she will be able to afford to go....tbh, if she doesn't go, it will save me a lot of money....but I will be annoyed with her because we've been planning this for so long and she will give it up for some guy she barely knows :cool:

You should definitely pick up with your diary again! Even if no-one reads/comments, I find it does keep me on track and more focused on things - Like last year when I started with the debt busting, I could see on here how each month I gradually got more focused and more money went to the debts and not my usual rubbish

I'm hoping it will be the same with savings, Although I won't be able to save £1200 every month, that was only because of the extra holiday days I had left from last year

Yesterday was a NSD, even though I'm not really keeping track of them, Today will be a NSD too but only because I left my purse at home!
Really needed to get milk on the way to work today but I had black coffee instead, It didn't taste very nice but it definitely woke me up! :rotfl:

Domayne

I've been thinking about getting a new credit card.
It's been a year or so since I last had one and I'm now in a position where I feel like I can trust myself not to overspend on it and go crazy.
The reason I was thinking about this is because after I finished paying off my credit card, My noddle score was at 4....Now it's at 3...

I have absolutely no credit/contracts whatsoever, I also have no bills that go out in my name except for pet insurance/netflix and I don't know if that makes a difference?
The only thing really putting me off is paying even 1p to banks/insurance/payment protection and all that stuff. But I do want a good credit rating as I will most likely want to buy a house some time (In the very distant future.....)

Domayne

Woo Finally Friday!
I have never been so glad to have a week almost over!
Work has been a complete nightmare and everything that could go wrong has gone wrong! I'm looking forward to a weekend of nothing but sleep this weekend :rotfl:
My office just called me and asked if I will work this Sunday but there is absolutely NO chance! Even the thought of some extra pennies cannot tempt me!!

Finally pay day and I can now update my totals!

Total savings for Feb - £401.38
Total savings so far - £4118.56

I will most likely need to take some back out within the next week or two to pay my friend - We are going to Rome for the second May bank holiday weekend which she will book on her credit card and let me know how much I owe her - Most likely around £300-£350.
She did send me details of flight + hotel which came to £304 but since she is organizing for 4 people, she left it too late and it's now £324 and still not booked...so by the time she does book, who knows what it will have gone up too...

It's been a pretty spendy fortnight this last fortnight! I've been out for 3 dinners, lunch with my sister last weekend, having to buy a very late xmas gift for sisters fiancee since I didn't see them over the holiday period, the £60 I spent on my game and the £30 morrisons shop - I had £30 left today from my spendy account after managing to save £100 from the last fortnight....my laptop is slipping further and further away xD
It's ok though, I know I will get one eventually, it's not a desperate need and at least I haven't dipped into savings!

Domayne

I'm supposed to be on a diet...It's not actually going very well due to eating out so much. Now someone just gave me TWO 200g dairy milk bars that was left over from a photo shoot....How can I resist?!

Domayne

Had some news this week that my current company have lost the contract on the site I work at.
I will TUPE over to the new company come April 1st which is fine, I've been through this a few times in my job already but the new company pay monthly.
I've always been paid fortnightly and I'm a bit worried about not being able to budget properly. I'm sure I will get used to it but the first month or two might be tough!
Anywho payday today! I have to give my friend £320 for my flight/hotel that she booked for Rome in May, savings for niece plus personal spends all accounted for and I have moved £322.65 into savings!

So total savings in Feb - £724.03

Total saved so far - £4441.21

Domayne

Where does the time fly too?? :A
I can't believe it's been two months since I last posted
I've been really busy with this new company taking over, having to re-do lots of books and paperworks and sorting out new uniforms etc that I haven't had much time to get on the pc this month
I have no excuse for not posting in March tho! Bad dom! *kicks self*

In March, I managed to save a pretty dismal £561.52
This was because I changed up £400 to euros for my trip to Rome next month.
So far in April I have had 1 payment from the last company on the 3rd and I just received my payslip for the last 2 days I worked for them and will get £233.45 on Friday - Confused about why I never paid any tax on those two days? :cool:
My first pay from the new company will be Friday 24th.
The good thing with this company is that they pay you a week in advance, so I will get paid for the full month! :T
I don't know how much to expect though. Because I think I might end up on emergency tax and this new company did all of the paperwork for my SIA renewal, but the payment might come out of my first pay, I don't know.

April savings so far - £351.41
Total saved so far - £5354.14

Domayne

I fail at keeping up with this diary!
At the beginning of 2015, I had saved a paltry £2492.12
That was ok though! It was my first year of being debt free, So any savings at all was an achievement in my eyes really!
I was supposed to do better in 2015 though as I had had a full year of going wild in 2014 and I DID do better....but not by much.
In savings, I now have £8300 which means I saved a grand total of £5807.88 in 2015

Whilst that is a pretty decent amount, I could have saved double that had I stayed focused and on track!
Instead I went out a lot on day trips/theater/dinners etc, I went on a few holidays (Rome, Las Vegas and Amsterdam, which were all AMAZING!) I was smoking weed way too much and just generally being lazy, unmotivated and gluttonous!

But here is that old chestnut....New year, New start!
I saw this status on Facebook the other day that said:

'Tomorrow is the start of a 365 page book - Make it a good one!'

And that is what I intend to do....

My first goal this year is to stop smoking weed once and for all!
The last one I had was on the 31st Dec so today is only day 2 and I'm already struggling with feelings of boredom, worthlessness, insomnia and agitation.
But I have to do this because I got to the point where I am spending in excess of £300 per month on it!! That's £3600 per year!!!
I'm also incredibly lazy when I've been smoking, Even more so than usual and my life is a mess - My house is a mess, my paperwork is a mess, Everything is a mess and this is embarrassing but I even get to the point where I can't be bothered to shower for like a week!

Somethings have gotta change...

I have a lot of things to do in 2016, but I'm going to give myself one task at a time to tackle and not get overwhelmed!
So January is all about quitting and cleaning!

I also joined the Save £12k in 2016 thread and signed up for £8000 which is....less than I'd like, but I'm giving myself a realistic target but not too high so that I feel like a failure when I don't hit it.
I also have Morocco and Budapest in 2016 so I'm accounting for that too.

So aim is to save £666 per month!

Domayne

Forgot to mention that after pondering getting a new credit card so that I could try and increase my credit score by spending on it/paying off in full, I did get a tesc* credit card some time last year! and I have been good in paying it off in full each month.....but it doesn't seem to have made much impact on my credit score anyhow!

Domayne

Oh! and I'm now bald after a game of truth or dare gone wrong on 21st December! :rotfl: