Just Say NOvember 2013!!!

PurpleJay

Hi all

Hope your weekend has been good. We have had a lazy couple of days. Not been out of the house. Mum turned out to be ok so no trip to hospital there. I was hoping to visit today but have had a dodgy tum (milder version of what M had) so didn't think we should. Hope to finish work early tomorrow and go. Done a bit of tidying, caught up with washing and that sort of thing.

Not going out has resulted in 2 more SFDs :j

PheoniX

Howdyyy :santa2:

Quick check in with 2 more SFDs before I do thread catching ups!

Friday turned into an unexpected spend after purchasing bread and ham for packed lunches to work. The pesto in the chicken pesto pasta I batch cooked specially for work tasted rank (!) so all 6 frozen portions were binned! :mad:

After an age of scrimping, scraping, sweat, struggle and sobs, and only 5 weeks to go until debt freedom, something very strange and very familiar is starting to creep in again.. Argh!! the urge to SPEND! :eek:

Last week I ordered a 'bargain' Tablet on impulse, (want not need) which I ended up cancelling thanks to a dear friend who researched the item and informed me it really was not such a smart purchase and there were much better alternatives available..

And then (!) on Friday night I spotted a sporty low milage car that I Had to Have (want not need-yet) because now was the time to change my car and such an opportunity would never, ever, ever present itself again, only to find the next day it had already been sold..

Oh my daze .. I thought this compulsive spending urge that got me into debt in the first place was cured. I hope these surpressed tendencies wont resurface with a vengance like some menacing jack in the (money)box! :eek:

Although I must admit that while toying with the idea of a shiny, sporty, sleek, low mileage motor I actually felt physically sick at the thought of continuing the vicious debt cycle I so desperately want to break after 20 years of chasing my tail on this monotonus, restrictive hamster wheel of debt.. I honestly think that the way forward for me when I am in a better position, is to keep my overdraft and credit card limits at £500 apiece because this will prevent large spends and encourage saving into an emergency fund :A

On a more positive note, 3 more sleeps til pay day! C'mon! :T

Off to catch up with the thread now, tatty bye folks :wave:

Kerfuffle

Fmess wrote: »

I need to confess (its lengthy I'm afraid, I am feeling very guilty) **snip

I now feel huge guilt;
a.) for using the ccard
b.) for spending so much in one day
c.) for buying an item of clothing

I feel like I've fallen off the wagon, although in reality everything is budgeted for in my Dec totals, but I am a day before payday so it feels wrong and uncontrolled. Its also reminded me how easy it is to spend money

Fmess - you're giving yourself a hard time for no reason. The dress was already budgeted for, you needed to buy the petrol, and you needed buy food. Non of it was a want and it all came within budget. If you feel so bad about using the card then make an early payment of the same amount, or put the cash into an envelope. Plus something good has come out it which is a reminder that spending can escalate very quickly.

stewby wrote: »

Good evening. **snip
See you all in a few days.
Hugs.

stewby - I hope you have a good time in Disneyland:D

PheoniX - Be strong, and keep the mantra in your head

Another fairly quiet day for me, no spends again and now I'm at work until 11pm so safe to say I won't spend anything before I get home,

Scores on the doors are the same as yesterday:-

Food 205.89 / 187.50 109.8%
Petrol 138.13 / 225.00 61.39%
Local food bank 4.28 / 3.00 142.6%
Hair 56.25 / 62.50 90% (Cut, colour and tip)
Works Xmas Party 0 / 3.25 (Raffle contribution - goes to local charity)
Dentist 18.75 / 18.75 (Had my appointment and no costs were incurred so 12.50 has gone to a gift contribution and 6.25 has gone into the Mortgage OP Pot.)

Total 423.30 / 500.00 GBP 84.66%


SFD 18 / 25
Declutter 12 / 20
Extra money earned/made 0 / 80.00
Misc Spends 39.54 / 0
Kilometres:
Start of challenge figure 93008 }
End of day 23 figure 94586} driven 1578km (986 miles) (I'll have to change this when I get home)

thriftylass

Good morning,

Well I might still make (have to) 24 SFD. Did my numbers and added up my receipts and my food budget is over by a whopping £114 (impulse steak pies and rabbit from butcher, and general overspending, but freezer well stocked) and the HH and other spends by 32 (needed to buy some maternity clothes). So hopefully December should be cheaper as I am away for a week, we got loads of meat in the freezer and then we are at FIL over christmas.

Tada

Calling14

Just the quickest of check in's ever as the internet in work is dropping out all the time. A whole weekend and I didn't spend a penny besides fuel which was in the budget. So happy bunny. 16 Sfd to date and today will be another one. Not going to make 25 but pleased with my effort so far, do I get a tried hard sticker.

Think a long hot soak in bath needed today, does make you feel so much brighter, sorry to hear a few folks on here are feeling as flat as I am. Walk in sunshine, well if its still about when I finish work to help lift mood. Relative with dementia, seems to be fitting more and more now. So sad. Find out later after Dr visit. Really love a night out but NO will clear 1K before xmas. Wine, bath and dvd tonight !!!!!!!!!!

MrsGSR

Morning! Yesterday was my last SFD as today I got paid and so it starts again.
I am delighted to announce that I have finally paid off CC1! :T:dance::dance::dance:

Really pleased! I have £399.63 personal debt to pay now, now the other one is paid I am going to up that monthly payment but still pay bits off when I can.

Just been shopping at hey diddle lidl, spent £38.27. Decided to up our shopping budget by £20 a month because its becoming clear that £200 isn't enough. Next week DH and I are going to frozen world to fill the now empty freezer.

I've sat and worked my budget for this month and I'm thinking that I will have about £100 left at the end of the month which is awesome.

Still need to send off an ebay item but the box I have isn't quite big enough.

Going to have a day out with DH later in the week as my parents are going to look after the kids so I'm looking forward to that. It's all budgetted for too :j:T

On a roll here and really need to hold on to feeling like this for the times when I feel so down.

traveller

Hi guys,
I've been missing in action for a while . Since giving up chocolate I experienced massive moods swings. I suffer from PMT badly anyway, so the two was awful. I have spent on two days, since not reporting in, so believe i'm still on track. Most of those have been christmas presents. But, I have been fighting to stay on course .

Phoenix-I know how you feel. It's funny, I would have normally booked a holiday by now, but the mere thought of doing it before I'm date free makes me feel sick. I did however book something-2 nights away at legoland on the premier inn offer of £29 per night for my little ones 6th birthday next may:rotfl:. 'Slightly' cheaper than the usual ones and no 11hour plus plane rides but will feel great as it's already paid for. Oh and 1 night in milton keynes for 20.00. So if anyone has any tips for Windsor and MK, please share

I got my credit card bill on saturday. This is not a debt card, this is one I use for everyday expenses. Usually it 1k plus. It was £347.00:T Bearing in mind that majority of that is food shopping I was thrilled.

One thing I was upset about-I tried to convert my brother as he is in a lot of debt. When I said he should write down his out goings so we can see where he can cut back, he basically told me to mind me own business and I haven't heard from him since! I only tried to help him, but such is life.

Another strange thing-A guy at work was saying how hard him and his wife are finding it to make ends meet. He cannot realistically afford a holiday next year. I said I'm in the same boat and probably cannot afford a holiday next year.He then done a complete U turn. He said 'oh no, it's not that me and my wife can't afford it, we just think it's best we don't 'This was after he said he has to put his vaccinations for this one on a credit card-as they were unexpected! I felt quite crappy the way he did it, but I felt proud to let it be known, I'm dealing with my issues :T

Keep up the good work everyone-not long now!!!

AutumnLeaf

Hi everyone,
A mixed weekend for me. I went to the cinema with a friend on Friday and errr…ended up spending £20 on drinks! She got there first and bought us premier seats – free popcorn, soft drinks etc so when we went to the bar afterwards, I got us a couple of rounds of drinks in return for the ticket. So probably about £10 more than I would spend otherwise

That said it has been my only night out all month as planned nights out with friends in Scotland turned into nights in and I saw the Hunger Games though. It was awesome!

Saturday and Sunday were much more MSE. OH was at the football on Saturday so I batch cooked lunches and dinners for the week - various soups and stews which will just need warming up and a delicious rabbit casserole. We also went for a lovely long walk on Sunday. OH had suggested pub lunch but we compromised on a flask of hot chocolate on the beach. Much nicer.

Looks like I am set to fail on all my targets for the month except paying off the CC but since that was the biggy, I am still pleased. May well join you again December as I really want to build an emergency fund over the next few months. My contract is up in July and while I could continue, I’m not entirely sure that I want to renew it. There’s some aspects of my job I really enjoy but others far less so and I wonder if a slight change in focus might do me some good. Will have a think about how much money I want to save and start working towards that total.

Scores on the doors are:
Food: 206.62/180 [this needs some work..]
Christmas: 50.00/120
Flat repairs: 40/60
SFDs: 17/25
Make 100: 41.25 [rather stalled on this one]
Lunch: 12/20

Otherwise personal spends break down as:
Gym: 25.00 / 50.00
Hair: 95.00 / 80.00
Caledonia: 115.15 / 80.00 [pesky hand baggage!]
Misc: 40.89 /80
Gym visits: 7/12
AFDs: Not nearly enough!

Interested to read about your brother Traveller. Another debating point for the week – lending cash. There’s a member of my family who I love dearly. She earns quite a bit more than I do but lives alone and struggles to make ends meet. On a couple of occasions over the past few months, she’s borrowed money from me to see her through the last week of the month. I’ve tried talking to her about budgeting and cutting her outgoings but she’s not extravagant. She does go out to see her friends regularly but – as she points out – if she didn’t do that, she’d be stuck at home and very lonely. I can lend her the money and it’s always paid back in full on pay day so I’m not out of pocket but I can’t help thinking I should do more to get her out of this cycle. What do NOvemberers think?

ALx

thriftylass

traveller wrote: »

Hi guys,

One thing I was upset about-I tried to convert my brother as he is in a lot of debt. When I said he should write down his out goings so we can see where he can cut back, he basically told me to mind me own business and I haven't heard from him since! I only tried to help him, but such is life.

Another strange thing-A guy at work was saying how hard him and his wife are finding it to make ends meet. He cannot realistically afford a holiday next year. I said I'm in the same boat and probably cannot afford a holiday next year.He then done a complete U turn. He said 'oh no, it's not that me and my wife can't afford it, we just think it's best we don't 'This was after he said he has to put his vaccinations for this one on a credit card-as they were unexpected! I felt quite crappy the way he did it, but I felt proud to let it be known, I'm dealing with my issues :T

Keep up the good work everyone-not long now!!!

I guess he (your colleague) either knows that if he'd budgeted better he could actually afford the holiday or he is like most people keeping up the pretence, moaning about the tough times but still spending on things they can't afford. I'm the same as you and be honest and say we cannot afford such and such.

And I hope your brother comes round soon and has his LBM. He's probably like my OH years ago. You couldn't talk to him about finances, he would just push me away or stick his hand in the sand till some day he clicked (maybe through the subtle examples of my doings I pointed out occasionally)

AutumnLeaf wrote: »

a delicious rabbit casserole.

Would you mind sharing your recipe, please. OH hates rabbit stew that he had as a child but he likes my mum's recipe of roast rabbit in creamy sauce (have to ask her again how to make that). But I would like to try sth else. Just bought a rabbit for the first time in ages (hard to get here). Thank you

NinjaSavingKat

Morning ALL!!!

What a fine freezing morning it is today. I baked a quick banana/sunflower seed/coconut bread this morning and just wolfed two slices down. Shame I didn't bring more to work - silly me... Came to work in a skirt cause everything else is in the wash - stupid stupid stupid - seriously I had numb feet by the time I arrived as well cause I wore ballet pumps #willneverlearn.

So 2 SFD's completed. Payday on Friday ( HURRY UP) and I think one more spend day although might curb the urge as there is nothing urgent I need. So that urge to spend is something I need to curb as well Pheonix...

Travellor you will find many people both those close to us and those that we work with never want to be seen as struggling. The fact you are dealing with your debts make them feel self-conscious even if this wasn't ( and I know it wasn't ) your aim. Most people also assume you are dirt-poor-scrapping-the-barrell-skint if you don't go on holiday without actually realising its a privelege not a right... so your Brother will come round and your colleague you don't need to care about. He clearly has issues but your brother has his "man pride" which accounts for much more than we ladies realise. Don't worry about either... they will soon realise you are the one to come to when they suddenly realise they can't continue as they have been going on...

Fmess I have used my card this month. Gutted - but making changes next month. Don't worry we all have bumps we hit.. sometimes we hit others harder and have to pull the reigns in again the following month and make things better................OR wait until £30 lands on your doorstep..:rotfl:

Fyggy...I think a much needed cheapo bag is allowed considering how many SFD's you have compared to the Games Keeper...(me..:)).. don't beat yourself up it's not like it was a massive splurge as you clearly needed it.

SplodgeTheFirst - look around you. Everyone is struggling.. This is your first month and it's a learning curve - things won't be perfect over night as you have to get that head of your out of years of spending and into saving.. it takes longer than a few weeks normally.... Glad you are still with us.. post your struggles and share whats hit you most...

MrsGSR - WELL DONE!!!! SO proud of you!! I think you are doing super duper. CONGRATULATIONS!! :j:j:j

Autumnleaf where on earth do you live that the beach is so close...? I am going to tempt my Dad into driving me to the beach when I get home... can't justify £50 on my Mum's insurance while I am there for only 2 weeks... or can I........... Hmmmmm might check that out... However I think the hot chocolate and beach walk sounds so lovely!!!

Right I will check in with more soon.. I don't want people to think I have forgotten anyone but I am mindful of making my posts as long as my arm and you know how I like to witter....

Onwards and Upwards!!!!