Im serious this time; the debt has to go!

Eyebright

Archer0710 wrote: »

I read your post with interest as I can sympathise with the realisation that you haven't planned for Christmas, it's a truly horrible feeling. I had the same feeling at about the same time!

However it's a great feeling to know that it will be the last time and that it really can focus the mind.

I shall be subscribing as I think I will pretty much have the same goals, pay off credit card, grocery challenge (our grocery bill in too high for two people) and

I have put money aside each month onto an Asda savings card though for Christmas food and only had to put £10 towards the Christmas Shop so I recommend that way of saving for Christmas too!

My other goal is to put £50 a month into an emergency savings fund as I suspect my fridge freezer is on borrowed time. Thinking about £500 would replace most electrical things if they go bang.

That realisation was one of the most sickening feelings of my life!
There is just the two of us and the cat here, and we regularly spend £250+ in the supermarkets :eek: it's crazy! We do seem to have very similar goals, and I've budgeted £50 a month for emergency savings fund also! That's a great idea regarding savings cards, I could add extra with anything remaining in the food budget each month!

Do you have a diary? If so I shall seek it out!

Archer0710

I can imagine as you (I) feel so stupid worrying about money while everyone else went crazy. Only weight off my mind was food shop was paid for but I still haven't sorted presents your my parents but circumstances dictate I won't see them til mid Jan now.

Our supermarket spend is crazy - I have weaned DH off his Sainsburys addiction as I think it added £20 a week to the shop and we are dreadful for budgeting one meal at a time. Pooch food is bought from a wholesale place so I can't even use that excuse for bumping up costs. It's purely laziness, lack of organisation and wine that drives the budget up.

I used to put money aside and hubby extracted the urine so I stopped but this year sneaked money each month onto it which he enjoyed spending today and I was relaxed about letting him buy beer etc so it was a real bonus. He's agreed to be less dismissive over my attempts to budget this year.

Eyebright

That's great that your OH is getting on board the good ship Budget! My OH gets really stressy if I mention meal planning, so I'm going to start doing it sneakily, so that he thinks it's his idea to do cottage pie on Tuesday etc. I like to have a well stocked store cupboard though, so that actually we can be a bit flexible with what we choose to do with the "main ingredient", without having enough ingredients to feed the 5,000. We used to go Sainsbury's too, but we switched to Tescos as it is much more expensive to shop there I found. I have no problems with the quality of Tesco's, so it's all good!

My budget is shocking and doesn't even include alcohol as I don't drink and OH rarely drinks at home! It's mostly food, a lot of it crappy junk food and snacks. This budget should hopefully be good for my waistline as well as my pocket!

Great idea regarding Parks vouchers DF2014. I just worry about companies going bust and losing my money, like one did a couple of years ago. That would be devastating

debtfree2014

Great idea regarding Parks vouchers DF2014. I just worry about companies going bust and losing my money, like one did a couple of years ago. That would be devastating

Yes that is a bit of a worry but decided to take the risk and keep everything crossed all goes ok.

I have started my food shop budget at£40 a week and see how I go from there. I get paid 4 weekly so much better to keep things running that way.

My DH in all honestly is very good, he spends very little and is on board to with my plan of action.

Well I'm off to bed now, last night tonight, then off for 4

LAM2011

This is the first year in my debt busting history that I am actually organised. I used my Tesco vouchers, Sainsburys points (increased by doing nectar adpoints) and some amazon vouchers earned off surveys.


Luckily I only buy for about 3 people and xmas day lunch is a normal 'sunday dinner' for immediate family so no big fanfare. Just a nice day off - seeing to the horses, chickens, dogs and OH


Hope you have a nice day off what ever you will be doing.

Eyebright

LAM2011 wrote: »

This is the first year in my debt busting history that I am actually organised. I used my Tesco vouchers, Sainsburys points (increased by doing nectar adpoints) and some amazon vouchers earned off surveys.


Luckily I only buy for about 3 people and xmas day lunch is a normal 'sunday dinner' for immediate family so no big fanfare. Just a nice day off - seeing to the horses, chickens, dogs and OH


Hope you have a nice day off what ever you will be doing.

LAM I only hope I can be half as organised as you come next year!

I'm hoping to be, today is day 1 of the Great Budget :eek:, and I'm hoping all will be turned around from now on. I was so excited when I woke up this morning, as it's PAYDAY WOOOOOOOOOOOO!! I had a few minutes before work, so I've started moving my money around to the various pots allocated for it.

I've also created the worlds most basic spreadsheet to track my budget and where money has gone. When I get home tonight I'm going to make another one to track my savings and another to track my debt bashing efforts!
But I will talk more about the Great Budget when I'm at home, so I can dissect it a little bit more. I've no doubt I will continue to tweek it over the next few months. Also need to look out for the January Grocery Challenge so I can sign on the dotted line. Will see what kind of dent I can make on reducing the bill...

Right must dash, my very late lunch is almost over! Hope everyone is safe and warm, this weather is 'orrible!!!

Eyebright

debtfree2014 wrote: »

Yes that is a bit of a worry but decided to take the risk and keep everything crossed all goes ok.

I have started my food shop budget at£40 a week and see how I go from there. I get paid 4 weekly so much better to keep things running that way.

My DH in all honestly is very good, he spends very little and is on board to with my plan of action.

Well I'm off to bed now, last night tonight, then off for 4

You are so lucky to have such a well behaved OH :D:D
Hopefully I will see you over in the GC thread in January.
Sweet dreams, hope you sleep well. I wish I could have stayed in bed this morning! :rotfl:

debtfree2014

Grocery challenge ? Ill have to look that one out

debtfree2014

wooo hooo pay day :j and fabulous start Day 1

I have 5 accounts at loyyds, so going to sort them and move money around in them.

Eyebright

debtfree2014 wrote: »

Grocery challenge ? Ill have to look that one out

Whoopsy, yes GC= Grocery Challenge. I was in a hurry and too lazy to type the words in full...:rotfl::rotfl:
Right off to Morrisons to spend my £40 voucher on a bit of food for this week. Will be back later. Week 1 of my Grocery Challenge (even though I still need to find the challange thread and sign up), so I will try my best not to spend too much!!