Debt Destruction December!!!

Calling14

Well went to lidls early sprout fight over. Yesterday turned out to be Sfd after all. Got everything I need in now spent 18.22 on food today so doing well on my budget this month. Will check doggy food hoping it will last till 27th then got a 10% voucher to use up.

Feeling focused, decided Just to chill out today and tomorrow. Offer of meal out tomorrow and tea party tonight. Why did I buy food.

Going to start on 22p choccy bars acquired in lidls this. Have a good day everyone x

clippy_girl

just to report i have now paid credit card off and have £507 ready for dad (he wants me to pay him once per month at end of month) so total debt just gone under £3000 :beer::j:T

Calling14

Well done Clippy Girl.

NinjaSavingKat

CEW I understand now.. yes boys eat a lot so my mother says...my brother is home every weekend...;-) ..I just ate two lovely little eggs...(late breakfast - no point getting up too early eh?)..

Clippy - WELL DONE!!! You will be done in no time now! You must be super happy!

Calling - well done on surviving the sprout fight! Lol!!

Habiboo I nearly choked on my eggs reading what your dog eats....:rotfl:

Kerfuffle

Hi everybody,

I had a bit of a spendy day yesterday. Have bought some groceries that will see me into the new year so my spend of 34.54gbp has taken me slightly over budget. I might call in at the supermarket and see if I can get some fresh sprouts for Christmas Day dinner, but if they've sold out we've got frozen, and I might get some ice-cream to offer as an alternative but I haven't fully made up my mind on that one yet. Other than those 2 items I think I've got everything for Christmas dinner. Today I'm wrapping presents and writing a couple of last minute cards, and then I should be done.

Scores on the doors:-
SFD 15 /15 :j
Food 190.43/187.50 101.56%
Petrol 37.50 /75.00 50.00%
Hair /56.25
"Spend Money" 6.91 /18.75 36.85%
Post Office 10.31/18.75 54.99%
Food Bank 5.07/ 5.00 101.4%

Budget 250.22 / 361.25 = 69.26%

Personal Challenge
Declutter 21 / 10 (5 x Christmas stockings/2 x cushion covers/1 x pr trousers/single duvet/jacket/shopping bag/sold a Futon/ 3 x bed pillows + 2 x bed pillows/ 4 x coffee jugs).

Keep at it peeps, we're almost there - 10 more days :T

stewby

afternoon everyone.


thanks to the wonders of night shift, today has been spend-free day number 9!!
:j

should have 15 by the end of the month (which is still the 31st for me).

Now owe the holiday pot £30 as have borrowed from it to do some shopping. Will repay this as soon as I get "paid" (budget account).
:embarasse

Hope everyone is okay and if you are out shopping, surviving the holiday rush.
Hugs.

MrsGSR

Afternoon!
SFD 13 here so rather pleased with that. Spent an hour this morning going through accounts again, I've set up a few standing orders to new savings accounts and will be adding more stickers to my wall chart tee hee. Ok so I'm still paying off my CC debt which is now £359.89 but having little savings pots is helping keep me motivated, also I have had to put money aside for this speed awareness course which is £85 but means no points on my licence.
DS is really poorly with the chicken pox, he is covered and is barely eating, still they are starting to crust over so hopefully he is over the worst.
Tomorrow marks the busiest day for DH and I, we are both working so when he gets in I will be off out, tomorrow night might mean a cheeky take away cos we will be shattered.

NSK, your christmas in NI sounds magic, I could do with my mummy looking after me too, I've struggled with my depression recently and I've been coping with DH working very long hours and both children being ill and having a stubborn cold myself so have felt a bit woe is me! Still in perspective it is just a bit of a blip and it will be ok, I've got so much to be grateful for.

Well done clippy girl, that must feel good!

Calling you're much braver than me! I won't be going near a supermarket now unless its closed lol

Stewby you've got to do what you've got to do, I like to think of my savings as extra money so if things do go the way of the pear I can dip into it.

Kerfluffle I love all your percentages, I must I am rubbish with them so I always like your posts.

Right back to my poorly boy!

Siouxsie32

Good afternoon everyone What a horrible wet day it is outside - as such, I'm still in my PJs contemplating whether to venture out or not! Currently not is winning

Yesterday was a spend day for me (though Wednesday and Thursday were SFDs as planned!). I posted my gift box to NI, took my car for a winter health check and filled it with petrol so it's all ready for the long drive north just after Christmas!). Sort of on the same note, I bought myself a £10 iTunes gift card so I can get some groovy tunes to help me on my journey...It was a bespoke deals offer so it only cost me £5 - happy christmas to me ).

Interesting that you say about eating the eggs Kat - I had already decided to drop my vegan outlook when I visit my relatives over Christmas. I've been vegetarian forever so they will feed me with regular lacto veggie food. I just can't bear the whole 'but what do you eat?' conversation every day. People get fascinated with a plant based diet and I really really want the visits to be normal family get togethers rather than conversations about food. I also don't want to put anyone out. People panic at the word Vegan and think it's all freaky food that we eat...so I'm secretly hoping someone puts apple pie and custard on the menu I'll get back to normal in January - back to yoga, back to vegan food, back to normality!

Talking of custard, I'm visiting a friend tomorrow night and I've volunteered to make dinner (he feeds me all the time and won't take anything in return) and I was thinking of making a desert as well...vegan deserts aren't much to write home about - anyone know anything decent? Miss Kat, I'm sure you have something special up your sleeve you could share I was thinking of starting Christmas early and going for a very un-vegan bread and butter pudding, with custard...ooh, and ice cream - I'm not sure I'm a natural vegan. I definitely miss ice cream! I know there are some nice vegan ice creams out there but nothing beats Ben and Jerry's Caramel Chew Chew!

I have one gift still to buy and the thought of driving to the nearest town - more accurately, the thought of finding a parking space - is making me want to stay in my PJs There's always tomorrow!

So it looks as though I'm going to get to the end of the month with a little bit of cash left. That's good cos next month is wall to wall expenses! Much tightening of the belt (actual as well as metaphorical!) will take place. Make the January challenge a tough one Kat, I think we can all handle it!!

One piece of good news to follow on from my computer woe (if you haven't been keeping up: went to Apple store. Negotiated discount. Card got declined (new card, large purchase, Amex blocked it). Bought online on Black Friday via John Lewis. Got a better discount. Failed JL's internal security checks (still no idea what that means). Order cancelled. Finally bought one with small discount. Fell in love with it.). Anyway, the JL order which got cancelled was ordered through a loyalty scheme at my work which would have earned me £50 worth of points. I got an email yesterday to say my points have been confirmed :j No idea how this happened, but the points are in my account so I'm going to convert them to an Amazon voucher and buy a new heater! Whoop whoop, free heater

Hope you're all having a nice day and not caught up in the pre-Christmas headless chicken rush! I just decided I'm staying in my PJs and I shall google a nice vegan desert I can make for tomorrow. Might have to nip to the supermarket later for ingredients - thankfully Tesco is open til midnight (so I can watch Strictly uninterrupted )

Bex296

Hey all, hope you're enjoying the madness that is the last weekend before Christmas! Anyone who has been brave (foolhardy?) enough to brave a supermarket, well done, they're horrible today!

In terms of the challenge, I've been very bad, I'm afraid. Am at NSD 7 (yay!) as of yesterday, but had a bit of a splurge in supermarket today.... So now food spend is at about £218/£200 , and today although I got a lot of meat and some sensible stuff like milk/cereal, everything else was probably not utterly necessary.... Lots of Bad Things like chocolate and peanuts and a couple of nice puddings because it's Christmas, and even if we're having it at parent's house there are the days in between.... Oops. I also got OH lots of beer, as one of his Christmas presents is a 1 litre beer tankard. He's not a massive drinker, but has recently got into craft beer and gets very excited if he sees a good tankard. And as there was nice beer on offer and I can't really give a glass without something to go in it... :beer:

Anyway. I'm now shamedly looking towards next month's challenge and hoping that the combined penny-pinching nature of January generally, and OH and I getting back on the diet wagon will help me stay on the budget wagon a little better...

fyggy

Hello hello.

As it was payday yesterday for us both I've been doing our budgets for Jan. as expected I got paid less than usual (£250 less in fact) as I was sick in Nov and so missed a lot of unsocial hours.

Had two SFDs on the trot, bringing me to 12/15. Today will be a spend day as we're out for drinks later. But managed to cut it back as MSE as possible- having dinner in before we go, then our friends are coming here for drinks before we go out in town and his Dad will drop us in, saving cash on taxi fares :money:

As per the rules for this challenge, and I would've done them anyway, I have been doing my 2014 goals. There are a lot and they're sectioned!

FINANCIAL GOALS

1. No new debt
2. Pay off 1/2 CCs - £3600 = £300 PCM
3. Pay for car insurance upfront
4. Strict budgets done each month with good future planning of known expenses
5. MSE- continue my DFW Diary, these challenges and using the website to be money savvy

I have other goals too, which I thought I'd share with you:

HEALTH AND FITNESS

1. Yoga- I have done a bit of this but it's always either conflicted with my shifts and schedule or not fit in around my other training commitments! I'm really looking forward to get back to this in the new year when I start my Mon-Fri 9-5 job
2. 14% Body Fat. I have lost 30lbs, many many inches and dropped from 34% to now 21% over the last 18months. This is an ambitious target but I really want my hard hard work in the gym and kitchen to physically show through (ie abs etc!). I'd be happy with 16% tbh.
3. Tough Mudder. I completed this last year. I want to do it again and it not nearly murder me in the process. This means changing my gym work 3 months beforehand to train for it and lots of running. It's in August.
4. 60kgs- I am currently 56.7kgs. I dropped to 55kgs and kept losing weight still. I want to put on some more weight, but not bad weight. Muscle mass. So far I have managed to put on 3lbs of muscle. This means continuing my weight training, which I love!
5. Complete Roaccutane course- This is a Consultant only prescription medication for my long suffering acne face! I've recently started on it and it's side effects and hoops for which I have to jump through are quite unpleasant. It's a 6 month course and I'm 9 weeks in. Here's hoping it'll work after 7 years of unsuccessful treatments.

Budgets all in order. Better go and get myself presentable for our friends invasion soon!