Debt Destruction December!!!

MrsGSR

Hey clippy girl looking forward to the race

I forgot my goals
1. Both DH and be debt free by October.
2. To have at least £300 left in our joint account after bills.
3. Garage clearing throughout the year in preparation for garage conversion and selling/donating/passing on stuff we don't need.
4. General well being and happiness. We've had a difficult year for one reason or another with various stuff going on so I really hope life is more balanced next year!
5. To have £800 saved up for Disneyland Paris in Feb 2015.

Siouxsie32

Happy Sunday evening everyone :xmassmile I do love December. I don't know if it's the end of another wonderful year that I like, or the fact that it's almost another year. Or maybe the holiday season? Or perhaps the fact that it's only 24 days til payday? Who knows, but I'm starting the month on a happy note

So, my budgets are as always:
Food £100
Misc £100
Petrol £60 (actually, that's an increase of £10 but petrol's more expensive and I'm finding £50 doesn't fill the tank any more!)

My debt free date is 31 December 2014 - a massive task and each time I work it out, using my maximum overpayments, I'm still left with around £3k at the end of next year so I'm upping the ante, Kat stylee, and getting ready to kick some serious financial butt! I feel a diary coming on....

I'll have a think of my 2014 goals. Coming up with five was tougher than I thought - couldn't get past 1. Become debt free

My MacBook saga continues to the December thread (for those not following, after negotiating an unheard of discount directly with Apple my credit card got declined :mad: so then I got an even better deal with John Lewis on Black Friday and this time the card was fine but I didn't pass JL's internal security checks and my order got cancelled - what????). I'm beginning to think the universe is trying to tell me something! Since when was it so difficult to spend money?!!

Reporting today as SFD number one Oh, and some ebay items are ending shortly so hopefully there'll be a little cash coming my way! It's free listing weekend again for those with a declutter in mind!

EyesWideOpen

:jAnd we're off!!! :j

As a preparation for December I have made a meal plan. My downfall has been lack of organisation as well as being tired, dealing with baby etc. The meal plan and batch cooking should sort this.My meal plan, in case anyone's interested, until Christmas is going to be:

Sunday - Stew (will use lost of veg, pulses and some meat of some kind, e.g. chicken one week, pork the next)
Monday - Left over stew
Tuesday - Pork sweet & sour stirfry with rice
Wednesday - vegetarian soup (lentil soup, tomato or leek and potato)
Thursday - Pasta dish (bolognese or pesto with fish)
Friday - Home made pizza
Saturday - hamburgers, bangers n'mash or cooked chicken

This plan will use up lots that I have in the freezer and cupboards and will, hopefully, only require fresh stuff. Now to see if I can keep to this...

SFD 1/15
Food budget 0/300 – I will get down to this figure!!
Drop one Christmas outing/party – I have only one planned and it is part of my eldest birthday present so can't drop this (going to watch a Phanto). It has been paid for and I will stick to a strict budget of £10 for the extras that might be wanted (treats, drinks and the like)
Batch cook – okay will make Christmassy treats rather than buy them.

Debt free date – 31.10.2014
This debt free date is to include all credit card debt and my overdraft. The personal loan and mortgage will be tackled after this point.

No entry in the sales – As where I live for work is more expensive than the UK and we're going back for Christmas I have planned to stock up on some clothes we need but I will go through the list and make sure I buy only what is strictly needed and not let myself be lead astray by wants. Budget for this is £50 for me and £50 for both children. I will try to go below and will also wait to see what the girls get for Christmas.

I've got another expense this December which is the Christening of my youngest. Rather than have a meal in a restaurant we are holding a little celebration at a family members house and are doing a buffet and cake. I will try to keep costs down and have a set budget for this for £200. No idea if this is high or not as we had our first daughters christening at a restaurant and we definitively spent more then.

Christmas gifts 0/100

Food bank 0/5

Charity Christmas gift 0/10 - I want to take my eldest daughter to pick out a present for a child her age to help her understand how lucky she is to be expecting quite a number of presents and who has never been without food, warmth or toys. The present will go to a local charity (same as food bank actually) who will distribute nearer to Christmas.

My goals for 2014 in no particular order:
1. Clear CC's (one at £1800, one is at over 800, not sure of the balance - must call bank) and overdraft (£2700)
2. Loose 10kg
3. Exercise 3 times a week, walk at least a half hour a day
4. Appreciate what I have and be grateful for all that is good in my life

Unsure of the fifth goal but for now:
5. Save enough money to be able to cheaply sort out my kitchen (might change to something more worthwhile)

Very long post so will stop here, happy 1st of December everyone!

rosiecheeksblossom

Good evening everyone
Well SFD no1 completed:j. Hoping tomorrow will be no2!!!
An uneventful day, washed my car, don't want to get stopped because you cant see my rear plate let alone read it. Then Ive gone on a 4 and half mile walk, so all in all good day.


ttfn xxx

Superdopsa

Evening all. Have spent today - and will update my totals tomorrow, and by then I will have worked out my goals for next year , but I think they will be similar to all the others I have seen. I also need to sit down and work out my budgets. I think I should be able to manage 15 SFDs this month. I bailed out of November because it was a bit too stringent for me. but fingers crossed I will make it through this month.


Have a good Monday everyone!

nannygladys

White rabbits everyone, I know its very late in the day for rabbits, but for some reason the internet has been down here. Anyway ....

NSD no. 1:), but tomorrow wont be as I have to get some fuel, and a bit of fruit and veg for piggy.

So
NSD 1/15:)
Food 0/100
Treat out, cancelled a visit out with a friend, we were going for a meal but will just have nibbles at her house now, so wont cost me anything:rotfl:
Found notebook so will use as a spending diary and put my thoughts down

Five things for 2014
1. debt free date will be end of 2014
2. to achieve above I need a way of making more money than just working, so will think about that until new year
3. Keep going to SW, have already lost over 2 1/2 stone but dr still wants me to lose more to be in normal BMI range.
4. up the exercise, will do more walking I think.
5. Be a happier person by doing positive things and helping people in a non monetary way

That's all for now
Nannyg

Fmess

Evening all,

Spend day as expected but only spent £15 on a reunion lunch with old friends. Parking cost a fortune (£12.10) but I gave my friend a lift and so she paid the parking She also said it was a present for tackling my debts

Goals for 2014:
I did this last year and actually stuck to some of them because I wrote them down!
1. Pay off ccard before it runs out of 0% in June (approx £1700)
2. Increase income wherever possible (tutoring, exam marking, holiday temp work)
3. Go on a holiday or mini break (my OH isn't too bothered about holidays etc so last year was the first year for ages I went anywhere (with friends, OH stayed at home) and it really gave me something to look forward to)
4. Lose 25lbs and keep it off
5. Do not buy/accept/take in any more dogs

Just realised I actually have 6 goals
6. Start an emergency fund using any spare from joint account e.g. the council tax money on the two months you don't have to pay it

Night all

tennisfanatic

Hello all, hope December brings everybody closer to their DF targets.

Long post warning....

Today has been a busy spendy day - spent £0.99 at p0undshop, £33.42 in 2 trips to A1di (couldn't carry it all in one go and was determined not to spend on taxi so got half the stuff on my list and then went back!) and £17.48 on a christmas present in h0mebase (had 15% offer today and was planning to buy next week anyway).

I've already turned down one secret santa and work christmas lunch. Christmas party (inc drinks) is all paid for apart from transport and other than that got one meal out planned for friends birthday.


Anyway my budgets for the month are below:
Food £34.41/£120 (have increased budget this month as my freezer is empty and my cupboard not far behind, planning lots of batch cooking)
Transport £0/£100 (includes train tickets for christmas and share of minibus for night out)
Clothes £0/£70 (hoping to come in under budget)
Hairdressers £0/£35
Entertainment £0/£30
Christmas £17.48/£60 (only 2 presents left to get and some ingredients for homemade presents)
Miscellaneous £0/£10

Planning to get my 15 DFD's before i go home on 23rd as don't know what plans are for spends at home. With this in mind planning for spends on 1st, 7th, 10th, 12th and 17th.... hopefully life won't get in the way of my plans.



SFD 0/15
Lunch to work 0/13
Food £34.41/£120 (including foodbank donation)
Foodbank £2.49/£5 (purchased but not yet donated)

*Jellie*

1. First SFD today
2. Food budget set and money allocated for other spends (done virtually!)
3. Have food bank plan
4. Batch cooked tikka masala (about 14 portions!) and vegetable soup. Have cooked birthday cake for DH
5. Working on goals this week and reassessing MFD
6 we have a list of items we might buy in sales if deals are good enough but they are small per- budgeted expenses
7. Turned down any costly Christmas dos. Just going to 2 where I will need to take some food. Will cover that within food budget

Great to read everyone's plans!

Mountaingirl

Just caught thus thread - please count me in - I'll fill in the details tomorrow