Debt Destruction December!!!

Calling14

White rabbits.

December is here and working to budgets.

Food going to go for £150

Petrol £30 as tank pretty full

Beauty £20 that's me not getting hair cut till Jan.

Pets £25 as need doggie food this month, plus extra bedding bunny.

Going out set in stone £25. Once spent that staying in or going home early:rotfl:

Well dog walking awaits.

Fmess

Morning all,

I love the start of a new challenge

Today is a spend day as I'm going to meet up with some girls I used to go to school with (although I guess we are all ladies now!). I was hoping this was the social occasion I could cancel but my best friend is going and I'm doing the driving so she wouldn't let me back out. Refusing to spend no more than £25 on lunch, drinks (non alcoholic for me ) and parking. Unfortunately it's in a city centre so imagine parking will be expensive

I'm going to try and not attend a Christmas get together next weekend instead. I've got two get together a planned for the same weekend so I can think of lots of excuses not to go

My budgets are already slightly spent as payday was a week ago for me and include most of the Christmas shopping, which is now done

My official DFD is down as May 2018, when my loan finishes. At the moment I'm paying off a 0% ccard as well which expires in June. I'm aiming to have paid 10% off my debt by this New Year, 50% off my 2015 and have all of it paid off by 2016

Bring on the Challenge!

Ps I think this debt busting is turning me insane, I woke up this hoping to have a cold or flu so I couldn't go out!

shyspender

Pinch and Punch for the first of the month!

So, going through the rules:
1 - No problem
2 - 15 spend days - should be okay with this, found myself on Friday trying to plot out what the spend days/drinking days would be on a calendar, and then juggling things to get the most out of them
3 - Food Budget £120, came in under budget for November and other than some fresh stuff, I should have enough to make it through
4 - I've added my presents budget to what I think I will need for outings and travelling costs
5 - Have £70 rolling over from last month the rest will be taken out when I next come across a cashpoint, apart from the present budget, that's staying on card payments to keep it seperate
6 - I don't have any work do's planned, or outings, the only thing I will be doing is going to to the local with my family
7 - Two of my friends are going through a rough time at the moment, so instead of a food donation this month, I have put a little Christmas box together for them, some nice things for the festive period totalling £25, so this one is done
8 - Going to Aldi today, I actually don't want to make the first day a spend day but needs must, to buy baking stuff so that I can make cookies and muffins, and I suppose some mince pies and sausage rolls, lol
9 - Will dig out a notebook today
10 - Currently set as June 2014, but I know if I can slide more to the CC I can beat this date
11 - Shouldn't be an issue here, I've got a weekend away planned before Christmas week, but will buy travel snacks from the supermarket on a SD and have no plans to spend anything whilst away, have even planned fuel days around SD's
12 - Getting lunch items today too, to last me the month
13 - I hate shopping, other than groceries, with a passion, and I hate busy bustling shops even more, so no chance of me going anywhere near a sales sign!!!

Good luck everyone, let the cutbacks commence!:T

cottage_retreatist

Hello all! Yay! It's December! It's my favourite month of the year - I love when the ground gets all frosty and you can wrap up warm and it's the only time of the year I go to church but I will go to the carol concerts!

And this December were are going anti-consumerist in the retreatist hovel (sure NSK will approve)!!! Me and OH are not buying each other presents and apart from two things all other presents are purchased/made. I am not going to the Xmas work party or doing secret Santa!

And we will be aiming to live off 30 quid til OH's payday on the 15th!!!! Because my aim this month is to get our debt to 13k or below by the new year!!!! Debt free day-estimated at June 2014 (up from December 2014 when I starting this debt busting!!).

And the notebook-on the computer! And the goals!!!! Can we share them?
1. Become debt free!!!!! Hell yeah!
2. Start saving same amount we bust on debt each month - aiming for 60k savings by 2017
3. Look after myself more (tend to defer to OHs needs rather than my own-don't start!!!!! )
4. Try for a little retreatist!!!!!!
5. Puppy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH has promised me a puppy! I'm hoping. We can get it next year!

So today will be a NSD! Kinda didn't feel the drive and motivation last month but this month were going all the way and not letting Christmas stop us!!!! Good luck everyone!

:beer:xxx

littleskintdragon

Please count me in!
Xmas shopping is done, so i have no excuse to go shopping now!
Have a busy day planned today, but will pop back later and plan.
I ordered food online last night to be delivered tonight because i wont have time to pop to the supermarket. Only bought essentials, and then trimmed that down 2!

Bex296

Hi everyone! So here are my goals for the challenge so far, in writing so I can't change them!

2. 15 NSD. I didn't manage 7 last month, here's to a bigger challenge!!
3. Food budget (in here is also cleaning stuff etc etc) £180
4. Spend money: Diesel £215 (sounds a lot but I drive a LOT for work and work at home if I can), Xmas presents £60 (most shopping done now, a chunk of that is postage to distant friends/relatives), Xmas stuffs inc. tree/decorations £50 (hopefully will be a LOT less but OH may be hard to persuade re: a needle drop tree! I tried to be frugal last year by buying a potted tree to last but the hot summer and my lack of a green finger killed it ), Going out/anything else £80 (chunk of that is train tickets, boo)

5. Not strictly speaking sticking to this as I have money in three different accounts for this purpose, so I am treating those accounts as the envelopes with the help of a spreadsheet on my phone! Not one extra penny will be transferred.

6. Will have to think about this one, mine and OH's work dos are free, only other gatherings are at friends houses and therefore also free (will take wine already in rack, and not buy any more). I am going into London twice but have already paid for one event and the other was bought for me so seems a waste of money to back out (though train tickets expensive even with railcard, hm). This one will be a challenge!

7. No problem
9. Will have a think!
10. DFD April 2015


So that's me.

Good luck everyone!! Hoping to glean some inspiration from you guys as looking at previous challenges you're all hardcore, I could learn a lot!

MrsGSR

And so it begins!
After last months this month will be a little easier I think
1. 15 SFDs yep, can do this. All the Christmas shopping is done bar a few bits. Decided to make things for adults.
2. Food budget £220. In addition we have £100 saved through DHs work for food and drink so although I have set the shopping budget for this month, it looks like it might be carried over to January.
3. Personal spends £80 I didn't allocate the last few months but felt this month I should because I was denying myself of things that I needed.
4. All money sorted into envelopes and pots for the month.
5. Was invited to two work parties but chose not to go because I couldn't justify spending money on food that I don't like or spending the evening with people I wouldn't choose to spend time with oh and I hate christmas parties and secret santas.
6. I've looked on the local food bank website to see what they need so will go and get them later today.
7. Batch cook, need to make pasta sauce for the children.
8. Note book- yep my list is all written in my budget notebook. I'm not into spreadsheets I'm more a paper, pen and calculator girl.
9 DFD 26th April 2014 is my personal DFD, the rest of it is DHs so his DFD is October.
10. No sales- easy peasy. I HATE the post christmas sales also I have precious little time with my family over christmas so that will not be spent in a busy city.

I sound like a scrooge don't I?:rotfl:

cottage_retreatist

No you don't MrsGSR!!!!
You sound like a very clued in lady!!!!
I also hate Xmas parties-well any form of enforced enjoyment-I know how I enjoy myself and it's not playing 'party games' in a pub function room!!!!!

Xxx

Sedge123

OK, I watched the clock tick over to midnight and knew that was the start of the challenge - so here goes:

1. SFD's - I can manage this one with a bit of effort and planning although it may be a little bit of a challenge.
2. Food is set at £500 which although is more than we would usually budget for the month we do have 11 people for Christmas so I'm hoping we can stick within this increased bufget.
3. “Spend” Money - Will be tracking this through the weekly spends challenge (Hope that's OK Kat?) as if I put the whole amount in for the month I am likely to go a bit crazy in the first few weeks and leave myself with nothing, this way it means I should be a bit more in control.
4. Drop one Christmas outing/party - only have one Xmas do which is my work one and free. Will have a think about this one.
5. £5 of your food budget will be spent on the local food bank. WE do have one locally so will investigate donating
6. Lunch - can do this one!!
7. Sales - I hate the sales and we don't need anything so will be steering well clear.

Think that's about me, looking forward to getting started....

Bex296

Aims for 2014:

1. Save and pay for wedding (£6998 to go, this is technically a joint challenge with OH!)
2. Pay off credit card 1 (£888) and pay off credit card 2 (£851.11)
3. Pay off personal loan (£792.15)
4. Save £800
5. Get fit enough to run a half marathon again (at the moment I can just about cope with 5k!)