NSK; "The Janus Illusion".

Shady2307

Well it’s finally the end of what has seemed a very long month! I am declaring today a NSD already as have brought no money with me and am determined not to spend anything so I can have 15 NSDs. I am very pleased with that.

I have updated my totals and have spent £78.72 less than what came in which much be the first time ever for me. I usually spend well over my wages. Sadly that extra money will just be swallowed up by my overdraft and not put into a savings account, but that is the eventual aim for the future! I had to spend a lot on some extras this months for a forthcoming trip so hoping to have more left over next month.

My biggest achievement this month has been to quit buying takeaway coffees, used to spend a fortune on them. Thanks to a gift voucher, the J*hn Lewis card offer and the W*aitrose free coffee I have managed to spend nothing on coffee this month. So pleased with that. Have also not spent anything on sandwiches when out and about which is good as they always taste awful anyway. Forward planning more!

My main target for next month is to tackle my supermarket shopping, I spent £94 this month which is ridiculous as there is only one of me and I need to meal plan better as I always end up chucking stuff away.

Well done everyone and here’s to the February challenge!

thriftylass

Payday today, hooray. But it looks weird in my account as I pooled all my monies in my current account ready for the account switch (they were only in online savers and a measly paying ISA). That way I only need to transfer one account and just open new saver accounts with the new bank. But it means I have to live in my spread sheets for a while as I can't rely on what I see on my bank statement.

Today should be another SFD, so I made my target. Also took lunch to work every day, donated to the food bank, downshifted 5 items at least, cycled most days (might give that up next month as bump is too big, so not sure how to make exercise target). Went over my budgets, but I know why and hubby gave me his first contribution to the wedding fund. So all in all not a bad month.

We'll maybe visit friends over the weekend up north before there are too many of to crash at theirs, so might not be able to check in for a couple of days.

EDIT:

Actually today won't be an SFD as I need to pop into Boots for an pregnancy related issue, but it's more medical and beauty related. Which means my beauty spends were £0 this month.

MrsGSR

Am going to post an end of the month review thingy later. Suddenly my seasonal work has stepped up a gear and this morning will be spent on social media, exciting stuff!

thriftylass

Don't you love money making schemes of shops. Went into Boots and there were 5 different products to choose from for what I needed. Ranging from over £6 to £3. The most expensive one had a massive sign attached "save to use in pregnancy". So I picked up the cheapest and went to the counter and asked, and guess what, that one is fine too. Cheeky.

EmilyTee

Final Check in for January

And I have to say I have done waaay better than usual glad I signed up for Feb!

SFD: 13/20
Lunch to work 15/21
Exercise 9/15
Food £38/30
Petrol: £25.02/£35
Beauty Spends £1/£10

:-)

PheoniX

Hi everyone :wave:

Not long sat down to catch up with all your posts! Have had a tiring few days at work and now have days off to relax

Missyv30 Sorry to hear of your unexpected cost! If you both keep chipping away at it and keep doing these challenges to save money you will get there.. I promise

Traveller Well done for getting shot of CC1! :beer:

Thank you all for your uplifting responses :A It has been really lovely being able to share the journey with you because not many people have known of my debt or the true extent of my debt, so this little thread has been a safe haven, being able to be open and honest about finances with like minded people in the same boat :A

Kat I dont think the fact that Im DF has sunk in yet! I still have a couple of months of financial commitments to go so maybe the penny will drop after that! I honestly thought that after repaying the debt I would be looking at where I could next spend my money and finally get the things I have always wanted.. But the whole debt busting experience has been a sobering one and for the first time in a very long time I have reached a mindset where I dont want for anything and truly appreciate what I have. I have everything I need in the people that are around me and the little possessions I own.. At this moment in time, I have no desire to set targets or goals. I want to enjoy what I have (and what I have always had but not always realised it) and carry on living a frugal and simple life from day to day.. whatever money I save in the process will be a bonus.

Im looking forward to being a Zombie Warrior! Good to see so many of you will be returning :T

Im orf to check that my bread is rising

Laters Warriors :wave:

Billie-jo

SFD 18/20 - Nearly but not quite there.
FOOD BUDGET - £184.15/£200 Under budget.
DOWNSHIFT - 5/5 Not too many items are branded goods and mainly shop at A!di. However we have down graded 5 items but didn’t like one of them so wont be buying in future. The branded items I do buy I usually get when on offer.
OUTINGS 2 - These were both cancelled due to friends been ill so the money allocated for them was banked. Brilliant.
PETROL £93.98/£120 - Another reason to be pleased.
FOOD BANK £3/£3 - Daughters church is a local drop off centre so she took the items in for me. It looks like a local shop may be setting something up soon but think will stick with taking it to the church. (I always wonder if the shops put it back on the shelf to resell)
BEAUTY SPENDS £0/£10 - Managed to squeeze enough foundation out of old tube then luckily found a new one in different handbag. Well pleased and another £10 in bank.

So all in all am pleased with how first month has gone and have managed to put up a few extra ££’s for safe keeping (no loans/credit cards to pay off) good luck to everyone for Feb.

MrsGSR

12/20 SFD massive fail this month, I think it's cos I find anything over 15 incredibly daunting. But still I managed some and I am learning to save up spend days and think about what I am spending and planning for it better.

152.76/150 FB I didn't think we would do it but we did! Only 2.76 over!

50/£20 petrol I really didn't budget enough at all so I put my personal spend money into filling my car. For Feb I filled my car with £50 of fuel first off so will see how long that lasts me.

5/5 brand DS I did a shop where I bought all basics range.

3.50/3 FB I bought all the basics range and got so much more for my money. I got mainly toiletries as that seems to be what they need the most.

20/15 exercise the only area I have excelled! I've either been doing the school run on foot, charging around at work or doing pilates and I feel pretty good.

25/40 spends the £25 went on the meal out the rest went on fuel.

I'm pleased that I have shaved quite a bit off the debt, paid off my spending CC in full and paid for my years car tax. I think every month life happens and things crop up, noone is perfect and as NSK says it is a steep learning curve and I have learnt something new every month.

abundant1972

Last check in for January...

It's been a funny month... I had the post xmas spends to deal with and the month has felt stretched I guess financially... I don't seem to have had my usual get up and go either... like my enthusiasm for a New Year has never arrived even... Normally I've got goals set out and aims... this year I'm just not there other than my debt free goal of course. I have a week off so am going to get back on track and re focus.

It hasn't felt like a usual January generally because it's been so mild (famous last words!!!) weather wise here... Not that I'm complaining... though I do miss snow!!!

Today was SFD number 20... though I broke into my wages yesterday... Thankfully Feb only has 28 days = 4 weeks exactly - so no half weeks between pay days that I need to account for.

I should be caught up financially by about the end of April - Annual Expenses account back on track and credit card totally cleared... Then I can focus on any extra spare cash going into bringing my DFD forward from end of October...

Goodbye January!!!... and hello ZOMBIES!!!

stewby

Final Totals for January are as follows:

Spend-free days: 20/20!! (providing I don't buy anything today).
food budget: £195.10/£140 In all honesty, we ran out of everything on wednesday so went shopping on thursday and stocked up. Should be enough basics for the month (cereal, smash, gravy, etc).*
Fuel: £40/£50!! Will stick to £50 a month for the budget though.
Downgrade: 2/5. Sorry, did pasta and battered chicken breasts.

* OH's best friend is coming up this weekend so part of the £50 was also on beer and snacks. (I didn't manage to spend £50 on just basic food stuffs).

Lessons learned: Most definitely need a shopping plan and I need to get to grips with that. No shopping list means no common sense.


The other thing is that we are officially abandoning tescimos as our shop of choice and heading for morries.
The final straw was on Thursday when tescimos tried to charge us £5.15 for two chicken breasts, £2.55 for 8 rashers of bacon and then topped it off with saving us £2.74 on our shopping.
Now some of our stuff was in 2 for £x amount range so that should have saved us money. We had several vouchers which equalled about £5 in savings as well. So that would indicate to me that they are very much more expensive than other shops.


So morries is our new shop of choice. There meat is better and cheaper so that's the plan. (nearest aldi/lidl/farmfoods/iceland is 15 miles or more each way). To help us stick to budgets, we are also going to walk there... well, once the weather is better. We have the most horrendous rainstorms here just now.


Sorry about the war and peace story. See you in February.