Just Say NOvember 2013!!!

Kerfuffle

NinjaSavingKat wrote: »

MORNING!!!
**Snip
Kerfuffle............. oooooooh supermarket vouchers. I would be happy with £100's worth of them. Where are you roughly and whats the weather like... you are in the USofA aren't you or am I being thick...I am sure I have asked you before so apologies for being a skatty kat...:rotfl:


Who goes to extremes here?? Please tell me I have an extreme cheapskate lurking at least... come on spill some craziness for NSK....

I'm off to refill my hottie..........

Onwards to Debt Freedom....

Not a skatty kat at all, I don't know how you remember so much, I read the thread every day and still don't manage to keep up with everybody's news

Anyway, here's a reminder about me: I'm a Yorkshire lass living in Canada, exact location is approx 45 min drive from the USA/Canada border so you were nearly there :rotfl:

Weatherwise: On Monday evening we had a snowfall warning of 20cm expected. We didn't get any!! Although 50 km away it was a whiteout and people couldn't get through. We had cancellations at the hotel as people were having to turn back. I live work in a ski town and the ski hill is due to open 30th Nov, from what I've heard the conditions on the hill are very good :snow_grin

Re Extreme Cheapskate - I wouldn't say I'm extreme, or a cheapskate, but I will admit to be a penny pincher and frugal. I think it's all relative to how you've been brought up and your experiences in childhood. I spent a lot of time with Grandparents who had lived through the war years and rationing and some of their habits were second nature to them. I know I do things that my Grandmother used to do, and I often think back to my time with her and in any given situation I'll wonder what she would have done.

Avogirly

Hello!

My motivation has been slipping over the past couple of days. I haven't broken any of my budgets, but I just can't get my head into money saving. Today I didn't have the inclination to make my lunch which means I am definitely going to have to break by SFD to get myself something to eat. I also need to take by 20 things to the charity shop and I also must list some stuff on eb@y to sell.

Does anyone have any little hints and tips to help drag myself out of this slump?

clippy_girl

I will have a look Kat at the model tonight. I went for the most basic but they do do high spec.

Re phones, prob a good idea to do a 6 month or 30 day plan, would be worried if phone broke being stuck in a plan

Not sure if I would get a mac now as just sooo much! Have just got kindle fire hdx so only really using laptop for spreadsheets. Will use for mystery shopping report prob but not had any in the last week. Think I would be open to getting a different phone than an iPhone now but I have the 5 so long way until I need one. I'm also going to keep this till it breaks

karmachilovething

Siouxsie32 wrote: »

For the next 5 days I can get 15% off the Macbook so it would cost around £800. made now stands at £71.12

Siouxsie: what's the 15% off deal for macs? Mine is dying, and I was thinking of replacing in the next couple of months . . . I'm totally a mac girl, even though I know you can get a simialr spec cheaper on a Dell or something.

MrsGSR wrote: »

Giffgaff are meant to be good but if you have an iphone i think you have to pay for it to be unlocked.

MrsGSR If you're on O2 you don't need to unlock to get on giffgaff. Something I'm thinking about doing too.

SFD today, although I have spent expenses (again! Although thankfully no train ticket this time) but I don't count these as they ae reclaimed.

kangadoo

Avogirly wrote: »

Does anyone have any little hints and tips to help drag myself out of this slump?

SPREADSHEETS! Ahem. I may get overexcited about my spreadsheet. (Only the budget spreadsheet, mind you. All other spreadsheets, like the ones I have to do for work, can go away and unmentionable themselves!) :rotfl:

But the most motivating bit to me is knowing that everything I save, from 18p here and there to £300 is actually contributing to reducing the amount I owe.

I move ever spare penny I make (qmee, apptrailers, Swagbucks etc) into a different savings account as soon as it hits my account, so it's ringfenced and I don't get lazy and think I'm loaded with my extra 18p! I like trying to work out the lump sum I can move over from my main account at the end of the month if I spend less money - I had thought £300 was the maximum I could do by really cutting my spending, but it looks like it might actually be more.

At the moment I have a date in January that things have to be juggled for to reduce the size of a loan I'm going to have to take out, and while that is depressing and worrying me a lot it's also a good short-term motivator - making and saving as much as possible by a hard deadline. You've made a HUGE dent int your debt so far Avogirly, and your DFD is SO CLOSE, but maybe some short-term "challenges" to yourself ("pay off £X by...", "save as much as humanly possible by X") might help? More little steps and fewer big, vague-future-oh-whatever-what-difference-does-one-lunch-make? steps

Just my 2p worth... wait, no, give it back, I need that 2p!

Avogirly

Thanks kangadoo. There are some really useful tips in there. I think it is just the daily grind that gets me down. I have done all the big things and now it's just, like you say, the little things that will all add up and make such a difference.

You can have your 2p back!

AutumnLeaf

So, I have returned from the frozen north and the totals are looking something like this:

Food: 190.00 /180.00
Christmas: 32.80/120
Flat repairs: 40/60 [pleased this is well under budget]
SFDs: 13/25 [Will go for 20 now I think]
Make 100: 41.25
Lunch: 11/20


Otherwise spends break down as:
Gym: 25.00 / 50.00
Hair: 90.00/ 80.00
Caledonia: 92.56/ 80.00 [Hmm. Helped a family member out with £10 which pushed me over the edge but saw loads of folk and had a lovely time, spending half of what I might have otherwise]
Misc: ?/80 [Will need to tot this up at end of month]

AFDS: 12/25
Gym Visits: 4/12 [oh dear!]

So I had a lovely time visiting my family and catching up with friends. Spent money every day and went out twice – lunch with my Mum and drinks with a friend. Suggested meals in with another friend and my sister. Worked out really well as they are both trying to save some cash and we probably had a better catch up because we weren’t interrupted by waiting staff etc.

I did come of cropper on some silly things: I had to pay £14.00 to check in a bag (in advance not at the airport) and buy some new pants (£6.00) cos I’d run out. I’m usually really good at packing so I was annoyed about this. On the upside, I got some new pants…

The trip also affected my money saving on Tuesday. I got the flight home from Scotland at silly o’clock in the morning so I had to buy breakfast, lunch AND dinner to eat at work as I was off to an event straight after and had no time to make it home. I bought absolute junk in my sleep deprived state and ate far too much of it. Over £10 :eek: although that did include milk for the office. Back to my trusty (and tastier) soup and pitta bread today.

The good news is I have definitely cleared my card and nothing else will be going on it this month. I’d also have met my £100 savings goal but I’m putting £90 to next month’s annual gym membership instead as this will save me far more versus monthly payments than I’ll earn in interest. Should have £50 to save so that’s something.

Right, 10 days to go. I’ll need to step out of the bar and into the gym…

MrsGSR

karmachilovething wrote: »

Siouxsie: what's the 15% off deal for macs? Mine is dying, and I was thinking of replacing in the next couple of months . . . I'm totally a mac girl, even though I know you can get a simialr spec cheaper on a Dell or something.



MrsGSR If you're on O2 you don't need to unlock to get on giffgaff. Something I'm thinking about doing too.

SFD today, although I have spent expenses (again! Although thankfully no train ticket this time) but I don't count these as they ae reclaimed.

Thats good news! I'll be doing that when I'm out of contract next yeat

Calling14

Autumn leaf well done on clearing your cc.

Nothing to report here, 2 more sfd including today must food shop tomorrow or I will look like Chilli.
Cancelled my hairdressers appt today so 15 pounds saved, didn't really
need it anyway.
Will catch up later on everyones news. Not far to go now folks.

MrsGSR

Kerfuffle wrote: »

Re Extreme Cheapskate - I wouldn't say I'm extreme, or a cheapskate, but I will admit to be a penny pincher and frugal. I think it's all relative to how you've been brought up and your experiences in childhood. I spent a lot of time with Grandparents who had lived through the war years and rationing and some of their habits were second nature to them. I know I do things that my Grandmother used to do, and I often think back to my time with her and in any given situation I'll wonder what she would have done.

This is so true. My parents were very frugal as were their parents before them. I've always been frugal going for bargains, reduced stuff etc but haven't been particularly good with managing money.