Decreasing spending - increasing happiness

Enjoying_life_more

Enjoy your night out within budget mind.

Debts will come down and not worth stressing out about. Think so much clearer as well. Little Things all help.

.[/QUOTE]

thanks Calling - yes you are right the debts will come down and it's not worth stressing too much !

Enjoying_life_more

shaz1963 wrote: »

Hi enjoying life........just read your diary and Im loving your positive attitude :-) good luck for 2014. I myself are doing that 'end of year/new year' routine where I have bought a lovely new book and wrote down all the debts and my plans to start to tackle them.
My kids have all now flown the nest and only six years till the mortg finishes however with an underperforming endowment and a lot off cc debts Im going to keep coming on here and getting hints from you guys.
Shaz x

HI Shaz welcome aboard and thanks for your comments ! yes I think this forum is a great place for us to share ideas and motivate each other. Good luck on your journey too.

Enjoying_life_more

I enjoyed my socialising with friends yesterday ( paying for it today nursing a very large hangover) - although i'm a bit niggled with myself as I did go a little over my budget so I have decided I will cut down on food spends this week which wont hurt as I still have plenty left due to eating out at family and friends over the last week.

I've also spent today (on-line) but on Christmas presents for next year spent £36 on £72 of gifts - this money will come out of my January xmas present allowance.

On the enjoying life more front - I've enjoyed the laziest day I've had in years - watched too much tv, read some more diaries on here, had a look for some healthy meal recipes on the net (found quite a few) and finished off all the goodies in the house. Also slotted in a few tiny walks (feel guilty) with my dog - I will make up for it and do a long walk tomorrow as I want to try out my new xmas pressie pedometer.

Enjoying_life_more

First post for 2014 - the year of spending less / sticking to budgets, paying those debts off and enjoying life without spending.

Just worked out my budget for the rest of this week -and I have 30 pound food/ socialising money left. This should be plenty as no plans and still got plenty of food in the freezer/ cupboards although I do need more veg/ salad / fruit.

Enjoyed new years eve - I didn't go out as such but did some driving for family / friends and had a couple of glasses of none alcoholic stuff whilst waiting for people - enjoyed the atmosphere and made me realise I don't need to drink to enjoy myself. Nice relaxing day today seen family, read for a bit and browsed the sales online but not purchased anything !!Back to work tomorrow - it's going to be a bit of a shock getting woke up by the alarm clock !!:eek:

killerpeaty

Heya, it's good to see you doing so well. Do you have a reasonably sized freezer? At uni I used to get frozen veg instead of fresh so that I'd always have some.

Glad you had a nice time last night. : ) I didn't drink very much (one lonely beer) but was so knackered from last night that when I got home I went to bed for about 4-5 hours. Wide awake now though!

Hope you have a good day at work.

Enjoying_life_more

killerpeaty wrote: »

Heya, it's good to see you doing so well. Do you have a reasonably sized freezer? At uni I used to get frozen veg instead of fresh so that I'd always have some.

Glad you had a nice time last night. : ) I didn't drink very much (one lonely beer) but was so knackered from last night that when I got home I went to bed for about 4-5 hours. Wide awake now though!

Hope you have a good day at work.

Hiya killerpeaty - thanks for commenting/ reading

Yes good idea on the frozen veg front - I will bear that in mind as I do have a fairly big freezer although it is quite full at the moment but I could do with having a clear out and chucking some really old stuff that I know i'm never going to eat.

I'll have a read through your diary now -

Enjoying_life_more

bit annoyed with myself this evening - I've just read my gas / elec meters and found that I've used an average months usage over the last two weeks - i had intended to treat myself to a bit more "heating switched on" over the holiday period but i think i must have gone a bit too far - roughly 50 pound of gas used and 25 pound of electric - safe to say i'm back to normal now - a couple of hours each night!!

Enjoying_life_more

First couple of days back at work gone quite well! it's a bonus that the weekend has arrived so quickly but at least I've broken work in gently and not got the first day back on Monday - I should imagine there will be a few sad faces at the train station this Monday morning

Food shopping well under budget and some bargains too (reduced joints of meat in the freezer, fruit and veg still fresh with plenty of life in them oh and a naughty bar of xmas chocolate - not really needed at all!)

Also bagged a few more reduced xmas pressies for next year M n S gift sets, I got 9 for 18 pound (real price for all of them totals 92 pound) well pleased with those

No socialising out this weekend so no spends there

On the enjoying life more front - I've enjoyed my first visit to the gym this year, meeting up with relatives today to go shopping, text messages from a friend that made me laugh and the bargain bar of chocolate I bought earlier tonight. I'm now snuggled up with my cuddly little dog browsing the net with one eye on the tv. Looking forward to some long walks this weekend - hope the weather is kind and the floor not too sludgy.

EssexHebridean

Nice work on those gift sets - just got to remember where you've stashed them now!

I did the same with work - I usually don't work Fridays, but with not earning for 6 days that I normally would over Christmas, I agreed to work Thursday and Friday just gone to offset the loss a bit. All helps, and, as you say, means you're not launching back into it on Monday.

I was also hoping for some walking over the weekend but judging by the sound of things right now it may well be far too wet. Gah! Hope it's dryer where you are!

Enjoying_life_more

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Nice work on those gift sets - just got to remember where you've stashed them now!

I did the same with work - I usually don't work Fridays, but with not earning for 6 days that I normally would over Christmas, I agreed to work Thursday and Friday just gone to offset the loss a bit. All helps, and, as you say, means you're not launching back into it on Monday.

I was also hoping for some walking over the weekend but judging by the sound of things right now it may well be far too wet. Gah! Hope it's dryer where you are!

HI Essex

thanks for posting - Luckily I have a spare room so all the gifts are stored safely away i'm just pondering if I should buy a few more while they are at that price ? Hope you managed to get a walk in ? I was very lucky walked for nearly two hours and it only just started to rain as I got back. It was dark and dismal though but I feel better for doing it and the dog has done nothing but sleep since we got back