Im serious this time; the debt has to go!

Eyebright

I appear to have acquired my first ever MSE badge! :D:D how very exciting, I am a Cashback Cashier or something! I do love TCB, Quidco and my 123 account!

Today I have been busy, and a little bit spendy bought 2x new cushions for the lounge from Wilko's as they were 20% off, and a refill for my air freshener. So £17.30 spent in total. Also bought nieces birthday present for MIL whilst I was out as she is pretty much housebound these days. £40 put on 123 CC for the cashback. She has already given me the money for it. So that's sorted. I've transferred money from my account into the joint account to cover it, and will use the £40 in cash.

I checked my bank this morning and I have £210 to last me for the next 12 days. Well £192.70 now I suppose...:o I've been thinking and trying to work out what spends I have coming up before payday to account for. Ideally I want as much of the £210 left as possible so that I can get more Christmas presents for my family, as they needed to be sorted in the next 4 weeks!

I've got a day off on Friday with SIL to go shopping. I need a new winter coat, as I have nothing suitable and I can already feel the nip in the air, as well as the rain :eek: saw one that will do in Primark for £25. Also want a pair of ankle boots, which I'm sure I can get from Primark. Budgeting £15 max for them. I only seem to have sandles and flipflops! Will probably also need £5 for lunch.

In the evening also going to see Al Murray at the Theatre and having dinner at the Beefeater beforehand. Tickets already paid for, and SIL owes me £29 for hers, so I can add that to my £210 budget thinking about it, and can put it towards the evening meal. I'm secretly pleased as I'm working the next day, so have an excellent reason for not going out drinking in town afterwards! :cool: Budgeting £50 for the evening, but hoping for less though.

Also need to put £5 into the birthday club at work.

Need to sort niece out with a birthday present and post it. £15 including postage.

Postage for the bits I'm selling on ebay. Hopefully £10 will cover the few bits I've sold, and that will be recouped when I transfer the money from Paypal.

So in total that comes to £142.30 by my reckoning. So subtracting that and adding the £29 I'm owed I should have £96.70 left at the end of the month. I'm challenging myself to make it at least £100 left.

The profits from ebay will probably go towards my Christmas fund. I know I need to hit the debts, but they are 0% and once I've got all my presents I can start focusing on blitzing them.

Need a lie down after all this plotting and planning and thinking!

Night all xx

Eyebright

Good evening diaryland,

Whoop, today was a NSD, though I have done an online shop with Sainsbury's. Will count the spend tomorrow when it actually arrives and I know the exact amount. I had a £10 off £50 shop e-voucher that also included free delivery. So total spend this week was £40.50

Posted 2 ebay items today, the other 2 items have been paid for, so can post them out tomorrow. Well... OH will do it for me, as he is out and about doing deliveries for his job means I can enjoy my lunchbreak without having to do battle in the post office.

Made a lush dinner this evening. Completely HM, from scratch chicken korma with basmati rice. Used up LO roast chicken from roast yesterday. Pretty cheap to make as well. It was so yummy! Tasted just as good if not better than take-away.

Tomorrow I need to pay birthday club money, and write and post niece's birthday card. Just remembered that I gave niece her present when I saw her last month. She is only 3, 4 next week, so I don't think she will mind or understand when I send a card. Will remind SIL what I did though, so she doesn't get miffed. Just once I wanted to watch her open her present from me. And she loved it! Anything Peppa Pig is amazing in her book, bless her! So that will save me £15 in my budget, as I bought the card ages ago, and I'm positive I've got a stamp in my purse :j This will really help my budget outlined yesterday!

11 days to Payday...

Eyebright

Well, better hope I keep to my budget and have that £100 left come end of my pay month, as I've just spent £21.98 on a Christmas present for my dad.

So £78.02 left of the End of Month Start Christmas Shopping Budget! Bit of a mouthful lol

Eyebright

Evening diary,

Today I was good, and there have been no unexpected spends. Put money in for the birthday club at work, though there are two birthdays this month, not one, so it was £10 :eek: but it's ok, as I'm still up from already having given niece her birthday present.

Pretty proud of myself, as I was given the Avon book to look at late last night, and I nearly succumbed to ordering a nail varnish on offer for £3. I didn't though, I have loads already, and can only wear it on weekends due to work!

Went to the gym tonight, having missed all last week. A girl I natter to was in as well, trying to convinve me to go to an Insanity class with her on Monday night. It's £5 for an hour :eek: so I said no thank you! My gym membership is paid annually, I get 10% NHS discount, and all classes are free. So not very MSE to go elsewhere for classes :money:
OH made a lush (and mahoosive) pasta bake for dinner tonight. Had a big bowlful each, and there is more than enough for dinner tomorrow too! Do love it when we manage to stretch meals further. I haven't ordered much meat (just a pack of Gammon steaks) on the Sainsburys online shop this week, as there is more than enough in the freezer. Need to start making room ready for the Christmas goodies!

Right off to dry my hair before bed. Then plan and plot some more! 4 things on ebay this week, and all have bids on them :j so definitely some extra money to be allocated somewhere.

10 days to payday...

Eyebright

Yesterday was manic, so no time to post. Today will be more of the same I suspect. Niece's birthday, so will be at SIL's house this evening. Plus point is that we get dinner:D

Just dropping in to say I'm still pootling along. Yesterday was a NSD, and today should be as well! Friday however will not be

8 days to Payday...

Eyebright

Friday was REALLY not a NSD, I spent a lot more than I wanted to, but had a great day, and need the odd one or two of those every now and then to keep me sane!

Al Murray was really funny, though glad we werent sat in the front few rows!
Meal beforehand at the beefeater was meh though I got a burger off the saver menu as ordered before 6.30pm. It was pretty dry and tasteless. Though cheap! Had a diet coke to go with it. Drinks were so expensive at the theatre, £2.00 for a bottle of water and £4.50 for a plastic bottle of Carling lager :eek: Glad I only bought one round...

I managed to get a lovely coat reduced to £17 in New Look, with a nice big hood. Perfect for this horrible weather! Didn't find a nice pair of winter boots, but did buy a pair of comfortable heels for going out in for £25 Also succumbed to a skirt for £10 in the River Island Sale, and ahem, wait for this... spent £55 in Primark :(:( Checked my bank account and think I've got £33 left, with £12 in my purse. Don't plan on spending anything between now and Payday next Friday, which is lucky, though it leaves less in this paypacket to use in Christmas. Though I should be able to get a couple of bits and bobs.

Right, need to brave the elements to catch the bus for work. That should keep me out of spendy mischief for a few hours!

Eyebright

Have managed to keep today and yesterday NSD's, hurrah! It has to be the only plus point to working weekends

Stuff on ebay is doing well, and ends at 9pm. Next job after updating on here is to photograph and list a few more bits to start tonight. What's selling is totalling £30.40 atm, and still has 5 hours to go! So if they make a few more £'s, then I will be really pleased.

Talked to OH today, and made some plans for the house in the next couple of years. We really need a new kitchen, ours is falling apart :eek: So we have agreed to start saving from January, and hopefully by the time we have finished paying off for the sofas we will have saved enough to sort out the kitchen. I reckon for everything we will need £3000, so long ways to go! Will have to ebay everything not nailed down I think :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I've asked my family for money for Christmas, as we save it for doing/buying things for the house. Last year in total we had £190, which came in really useful for sorting things out around the house. It's a start towards the new kitchen anyway!

5 days to payday...



Got loads I need to do and get cracking with, so I think I need a list...

• [STRIKE]Hoover upstairs[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Do some (alot) of ironing[/STRIKE]
• Meal plan and shopping list for next week
• Christmas list, what I'm buying for everyone, and what I have bought so far
• Start working out budget for next month
• What do I need to buy, what are we doing next month?
• [STRIKE]List some more stuff on ebay[/STRIKE]

Probably more things that I've forgotten, so will probably be back to update and edit the list as I remember things and/or cross things off.

Eyebright

Wohoo, I have £54.99 sitting in my Paypal account now from my ebay sales! Plan today is to allocate where all of it will go. Need to account how much I will be charged in fees too, so I don't spend that bit!

Down side is that I need to buy a sandwich for work as bread is mouldy :eek: so today will not be a NSD, and neither will tomorrow. Have the day off work, so will be posting out my ebay parcels.

4 days to Payday...

Eyebright

Today was quite a bit more spendy than I wanted it to be I really shouldn't go into town!

Went to post the ebay parcels as planned which was fine, though OH shoved 2 parcels of his my way to post also, so £14 swallowed up in the post office, and OH will never give the money for his parcel's postage!

Then went on into town, as wanted to get some cream, caster sugar, eggs and lemons to make a lemon tart. This was to use up a sweet pastry case that has been sat in my cupboard for ages. Got all the ingredients I needed as planned in Tesco Metro which was fine, and money goes on Santander 123 CC, which gets paid off in full each month and comes out of grocery budget. Then went to butchers and unnecessarily bought a pack of mince and a gammon hock. All things I will use, but not needed as freezer is packed full of meat to be used up :eek::eek:
Then I bought a bacon roll from the carvery counter in the butchers for £1.20 as I didn't eat before going into town. Then I went in WHSmith's to browse and came out with a magazine for £3.99 again NOT NEEDED!!!!

But wait...I haven't finished, because I then spent £4 on 2 lucky dips for the Euromillions tonight, and £6 on scratch cards (I didn't win). I have no idea why I did this, I rarely buy scratchcards....

So, my original goal from last week of £100 left at the end of the month is actually £9 :o:o Really disappointed with myseld right now.
Payday Friday, so I can only pick myself up, dust myself off, and promise myself to do better next month. The only positive is that for the last couple of months I have ended up borrowing from my savings to fund my spending which I haven't done this month.

I'm obtaining a notebook or a diary to keep in my bag and this will be my spends diary. Every penny that leaves my purse or bank account is being accounted for next month! I'm also going to make seperate budgets for my spending money, that is LO after paying my bills and usual debts.

Thinking grocery/household, petrol, entertainment/treats/takeaways, miscellaneous. Will look at what I've got coming in, and allocate a budget to each area, anything I have LO in each budget can then go towards debts at the end of the month!

Next month is shaping up to be quite spendy, with a shopping trip to Clark's Village, visiting my family 250 miles away, getting Christmas presents sorted and general other things that will no doubt crop up. SIL wants me to go to a Jucing (or something like that) evening on Thursday. I have no money left to spend so I guess it will be a cheap night! There's something else she wants me to go to on Saturday evening as well, but will see if I can get out of that!!!

Right, best go straighten my hair before bed, and sort out lunch for work tomorrow. LO stew so just a case of slopping some in a plastic take-away container! :rotfl:

3 days til Payday...

Eyebright

WINNER!

E.ON have reviewed my DD after I submitted my meter readings as requested and they are dropping it to £63 a month from £77! I'm £167 in credit, and have used a lot less gas than this time last year. Slightly up on electric though, so need to look at that and ways to be more energy efficient.

Thank you unseasonably warm weather!!! CH still not on yet :money: