Debt Destruction December!!!

Kerfuffle

Calling14 wrote: »

White rabbits.

shyspender wrote: »

Pinch and Punch for the first of the month! :T

Calling14 and shyspender - These made me chuckle, it must be the child in me;) Happy December everybody

MrsGSR wrote: »

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

MrsGSR - Nope you sound perfect

Hi everybody,

Here are my plans for December:-

I've left my Hubby's petrol allowance out of the figures this month as it was causing aggravation getting the details from him. As I know he keeps within his allocation (cos I give him the cash ) I'm not going to include him.

I have another hair appointment for December even though I only went in November, I'm debating whether to cancel it though and re-book for January.

Budgets
Food 187.50
Petrol 75.00
Hair 56.25
"Spend Money" 18.75
Food Bank 5.00

Challenges
SFD 15

Planned Christmas Outings - I only have one to go to and it's totally free so I don't want to cancel this one. If I get invited to anything else I'll probably turn down the invite.

Batch Cooking - I love batch cooking, it feels so virtuous

Notebook - I already have a spare one (I'm a stationary addict ) but I'll have to have a think about my 5 goals as my main focus is my mortgage.

Debt Free Date - My mortgage free date is Feb 2020, which is 6 years away, I was playing with the figures the other day and am hoping to bring it forward to 5 years. To meet my target for 2013 I have to overpay 2595.80 this month, I have some earmarked from last month to include in this months payment, and I've put a request into work to cash-in my holiday pay, the rest will have to come from being careful and frugal.

Spending to a minimum - I try to live my life by this , but there's always room for improvement.

Lunches at work - I have no option than to do this as I can't get out of work to buy anything, sometimes I'm really lucky and get fed at work if we have a banquet on.

No sales - I'm not planning on going to any sales, and I'm also going to extend this to groceries so I'm pledging not to buy any groceries/toiletries just because they are "on offer ".

Personal Challenge - Declutter 10 items

Sorry for all the waffle, I never seem to keep my posts to a reasonable length.

All the best for December everybody, good luck :T

TiptoesDB

Hello, Hello, Hello shiny new challenge! How exciting.... I never know whether we are supposed to do this or not, but here's my plans:

1. Ready to go! SFD today to kick things off...
2. You will aim for 15 SFD's only. Should be okay…
3. Food budgets will be set in stone. £180 for us.
4. We’ve set up our spend money column on the spreadsheet – and have allocated £80 for the events that are already planned and organised. No more.
5. We can’t work with the envelopes, so will have to skip this one. We are better with no cash at all and all monies spent has to be with off the Joint Account Card so we can track exact figures better from bank to spreadsheet.
6. Drop one Christmas outing/party DH already pulled out of his formal work one, and is having a cheaper one with colleagues he likes. I am not having one at all. We haven’t got any others lined up as we are stay at home scrooges!!
7. £5 of your food budget will be spent on the local food bank. Will do!
8. Batch cook now, gonna start the Xmas cake next weekend!
9. Get a notebook. Spreadsheets work better for us for recording spends. 5 Things to achieve - 1) get fitter, 2)get debt free, 3)5 year plan, 4)see old friends 5)get these darn cats to like, or at least tolerate, each other
10. Choose a debt free date. Now altered from Oct 2015 to Oct 2014!!!! whooooop! (will try for this at least)
11. Spending will be kept to a minimum easy – no rip off drinks out of us!
12. Lunch will be brought from home everyday. No exceptions. Easy
13. NO ENTRY to any sales in the month of DDD. We’ll be looking for a few specific items in the Jan sales, but they are planned and will be bought with any Xmas money / vouchers. Hate sales shopping anyway!

Good luck to all veterans and newbies, we'll show this month whose boss eh? No falling for any consumerist frenzy, clever marketing, guilt buying for a rushed, empty and debt-full (un)happy Christmas for us... We are going to actually spend quality time with the people we love, make or buy special presents for special people and enjoy good home cooked food that we know the value of. We are also going to help someone less fortunate than us with our food bank donation. And to top it all we are going to get some more of that Monkey we like to call debt off of our backs.. Go us! :T:T:T

Determined_diva

Morning all
As always count me in please :-)
DDx

mrso2b

Can I please join? I lurked for November because I had a lot to pay out so couldn't join. I paid out for medical bills and plumbing work. I need to save now for more medical bills so a frugal December is needed.

apardion

I have a £500 roof repair bill as well as a boiler repair bill of £170 this month so belt has to be tightened and this challenge will help.

I need to get a few more Christmas gifts and that should be everything for Christmas sorted. My husband and I don't buy presents for each other anyway.

We no longer have a car so spending there is now £0

rosiecheeksblossom

1. Hello everyone, a brand new month with a brand new start so here we go----
2. 15 SFD's some serious planning needed for this but doable
3. Food budgets will be set in stone. My budget is £100, although hope to come in under as quite a bit left from November. I really need to vary my diet more tho, I seem to have the same things all the time.
4. “Spend” Money - dentist on Tuesday but not sure how much this be, 4 fillings have dropped out over the last few months, don't even want to guess how much this will be....... Need a haircut which will be £10 and need to set a budget for the rest of my Christmas shopping.
5. All money needed for the month for food or spends is to be withdrawn and placed in envelopes clearly marked for purpose.
6. Drop one Christmas outing/party Should have been in Nottingham this weekend, but didn't go because of headache, toothache and bad back. Healthy specimen I am not.... therefore probably saved myself about £100. Ive got one Xmas do to go to on the 13th prepaid, just drinks to buy. Then been invited out on the 18th, want to get out of that.
7. £5 of your food budget will be spent on the local food bank. need to find out where it is
8. Batch cook now, will give it a go.....Scary!!!!
9. Get a notebook. In it place 5 things you want to achieve by the end of 2014 - 1) pay off CC 2) pay off mortgage 3) Foot course 4)Lose some weight 5) get walking more
10. Choose a debt free date. CC debt paid - 28/2/14 mort 30/9/14
11. Spending will be kept to a minimum ok
12. Lunch will be brought from home everyday.No problem
13. NO ENTRY to any sales in the month of DDD. yep, cant be doing with crowds

So there we go, best of british everyone. TTFN xxx

Nowisnow

Hi Kat and all the Chickadees

Congratulations on your debt free status Kat - what a star!:beer:
I am a bit late but could I please join the December challenge? I usually go through money like water at this time of year.

traveller

Hi everyone! Happy 1st December to you all :j

Well my 1st challenge today, was with myself. I had reserved an advent calender for £4.99 for my youngest who's 5 at Argoos. It's a spongebob one and I knew he would love it. 'Would' being the operative word as commonsense came and gave me a much needed clout He has a lot more pressies than the others, due to him being at the end of a huge age gap of the the other 3. He will be fine without one!

My shopping for the month for the 5 of us has come in at £311.00. But I may go in and shave some of that down (asda online, I have until 11pm tonight, it's due tomorrow). Next month will be a killer month for me as my daughters drama fees are due, the gas and electric are due, so my money will be very low indeed Luckily, the kids will spend christmas with my ex and his family, as we alternate years. I say luckily, as I really am broke and determined to wage war on these debts. It feels a bit of a reprieve, not having to do a large spread. But, I did still get some extras as they will be off during the christmas break anyway.

I was very annoyed earlier. Ex promised our 14 year old son a PS4 for christmas.The pair of us are not on good terms. Ex told my 14 year old to ask me to go halves so the pair of us could give it to him for his christmas present :eek:My limit this year for each child (we have 4) is approx £60 due to me pulling my socks up. I'm not buying what cannot be paid off when the bill comes, while still beating down my debt! He went on to tell DS there is 'no way' I cannot afford 'only half'.Ds then went on to say, mum is trying to be debt free as she still has some debt from our holiday and other stuff. He then went on to say 'Oh, but I bet she's booked a holiday for next year':mad: DS then said, no we are not going on holiday next year. This really annoyed me. The agreement was between the two of THEM. Nothing to do with me! He earns a lot more than what I do and loves to look the part-well apart from the part of a responsible father :eek:


Sorry to rant, but I felt very angry, as I was sat next to my son, when he was on the phone and it became very apparent, that this was the way the conversation was going, by the answers my son was giving. It's almost as if I'm not allowed to have limits or reigns on spending-because it's christmas-how ridiculous,lol.

On a happier note I'm off to see my daughters end of year drama production, so that should be a good night. My £10 ticket was bought last month and I never by the over inflated nibbles so I should have a SFD.

Well keep up the good work everyone (hope my whinging hasn't turned you all to drink):o . Enjoy the rest of your day and keep going :T

My aim for the following year is to be debt free or well on the way, with no more than 1.5k left to clear. I owe approx 11k at the moment. Also to take time to appreciate what I have rather than being stressed over the small stuff all of the time.

Challenge wise, I'm not going to anything that will cost me money! I will not be going to any sales unless I need something anyway-which is highly unlikely.

My food budget including take to work meals will be £320.00 this month, but I hope to come under. This includes a buffer for the first part of january also as Aasda deliveries have a tendancy to not get to me if we have a bit of snow, so a slight contingency plan there,lol.

I always take food to work, so that will be ok and I will aim to be debt free by the end of 2014.

clippy_girl

15 SFD's- ok
Food budget-£100.
Spend money- £160- for everything non food and petrol. I keep £60 of this in my account to pay for things I need to get online/transfers to person organising events
Drop one Christmas outing/party- Not going on a night out next weekend.
£5 of your food budget will be spent on the local food bank- Spent £5.35 in tesco today and tesco will add 30%
Batch cook- eating healthy so i won't buy any of this. I batch cook nearly all my meals. Soup and thai curry on the go today
Debt free date- 3-/04/2014
Spending will be kept to a minimum- eek ok!
Lunch will be brought from home everyday. Fine
NO ENTRY to any sales in the month of DDD. Don't plan to!
Goals- posted these on my new diary friday night but they are-
1. Weight- Loose 17lb. To be achieved by Valentines Day :smileyhea Approx 1.5lb per week.
2. Relationship- Aim to try and find perfect partner by end of year Obv this might not happen but I need to put some serious effort into it to increase chance. Will be joining E Harmony
3. Socialising- Aim to go out to at least one socal event per fortnight even if just for midweek soft drink This will either be with friends or with the socialising group I am a member of.
4. Money- End 2014 with a balance of £0 :rotfl: Yes thats right! Plans are to get debt free, save up in full and go to India in Oct, redecorate bedroom (£1000 budget to include getting new window) and get a new fridge freezer which is bigger and matches my kitchen (budget £400). If I can do all that I will be happy but obv if I do manage to start to save that would be great!

Will have a ponder about goal 5

Mrs GSR your dfd is 4 days before mine- we can have a race

cowboymum

Can I sign up again for December please NSK. I failed a bit last month with 10 nsd, and I lost motivation towards the end and stopped posting. I have increased our grocery budget to £500 ( I know it seems like a massive amount) and I think the 15 nsd's are slightly more doable.

Plan is to aim to save up a decent emergency fund - when you are self employed this is essential I think.

DH has done a great job this week by spending £65 at Aldi. He has just popped out to get a few extra bits plus paracetamol for me as I seem to be ill again.

Haven't got any Christmas parties planned - I think me and childminder friends might go out for a meal, and DH was saying about his triathalon club one. Got a couple of fancy dress parties coming up - an 80s one for my friends 40th, and a 70s one at a friends house. The fancy dress ones are free, and the other two aren't planned yet.

Haven't looked at the other parts of the challenge yet!