No more being "FinanciallyUnsavvy" in 2014!

misstara

FinanciallyUnsavvy wrote: »

Paperchase! (I LOVE that shop. I could easily spend sooo much money in there- I just love love love funky stationery).

I'm so with you on this one - I absolutely love paperchase and have to quickly walk past it trying not to look in the window in case I spot something I like.

FinanciallyUnsavvy wrote: »

Oh, forgot to say - received my second £5 from MySurvey today, so that brings my £2014 in 2014 total to £177 so far. Yay!

That's fab - you're doing brilliantly. :T

FinanciallyUnsavvy

misstara wrote: »

I'm so with you on this one - I absolutely love paperchase and have to quickly walk past it trying not to look in the window in case I spot something I like.



That's fab - you're doing brilliantly. :T

Thanks hun

Haha, I hear you on that one! I was tempted to impulse-buy two things in there... one was some heart-shaped cookie cutters.. the other was a magnetic shopping list/meal planner set! Managed to resist, considering I already have a shopping list pad stuck on my fridge!

FinanciallyUnsavvy

I've just tried out the Snowball Calculator for the first time.

I was a bit vague with the interest rates because I'm not 100% sure what they are - but since the CCs are 0% anyway I don't think it makes too much difference.

Anyway - it says I should be debt-free by August 2015

I can live with that I think! And hopefully I can keep bringing it down if I can keep raising extra funds through the year. I'd love to be done by the end of this year but I think I've got my work cut out trying to pretty much double the payments I'd need to make.

I based the snowball calc on paying £300 a month to debts, which is pushing the max I think. I'm not entirely sure I can manage that without a bit extra each month anyway... At the minute I'm only budgeting just over £200 and the rest has gone in from 'leftovers'. I'll have to consult YNAB when I get home and see if I can cut down on any categories so I can solidly budget at least £300 every month.

(Side note: if I had the guts to bring up with OH and suggest he moves in with me for a bit until we get our own place that'd save me £300 a month on bills and I'd then be debt free by the end of the year.. but well.. I can't bring it up so )

It also said to pay the entirety of the Halifax card off first, then throw the majority at the overdraft. If I do that, I'll be overdraft-free by the summer.. which is a beautiful, beautiful prospect! I think I may do that, because even if I have the majority of the Barclaycard still left, just to have plus numbers in my bank account forevermore will make everything seem so much better..

sassychick2014

Morning

The Snowball Calculator sounds very helpful so may have to go and find that. Well done on the Paperchase purchases though - I too love stationery but fortunately have no idea where our Paperchase is!

I have decided to not get a new washing machine as it's just an impulse buy and I have so many other things I need to pay off or buy first.

Good to hear about MySurvey too. I check my nectar points from their surveys and in a few weeks I'd earnt £8 so I'm chuffed. These points are all going to pay for Christmas food shop - sure I've told you that before so just ignore me! Am also signing up to MySurvey too as sounds good.

Have a good day x

FinanciallyUnsavvy

sassychick2014 wrote: »

Morning

The Snowball Calculator sounds very helpful so may have to go and find that. Well done on the Paperchase purchases though - I too love stationery but fortunately have no idea where our Paperchase is!

I have decided to not get a new washing machine as it's just an impulse buy and I have so many other things I need to pay off or buy first.

Good to hear about MySurvey too. I check my nectar points from their surveys and in a few weeks I'd earnt £8 so I'm chuffed. These points are all going to pay for Christmas food shop - sure I've told you that before so just ignore me! Am also signing up to MySurvey too as sounds good.

Have a good day x

The snowball calc is here - http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx Everyone seems to mention it a lot in the forums so I thought I'd finally give it a whirl!

MySurvey is definitely a good little earner - I cashed out yet another £5 last night too, so that'll be £15 in just a few weeks, probably £5 a week which isn't bad! It was slow to get going, screened out a lot of surveys to begin with, but I've had a good few weeks where I've had plenty available to me. I'm signed up to quite a few others too, so far MySurvey is the most reliable. I was liking GlobalTestMarket which is very similar, but literally every survey I've picked up from there in probably the last month (there's always lots available!) I've screened out of, so I'm not earning any points. Usually they ask you your basic demographic info then screen you out, but some of the GTM ones get about half way through the survey THEN screen me out, so I've wasted a good 10-15 minutes of my time for nothing! :mad:

Well done on deciding against the washer It would be nice to have a fancy economical one.. but the initial outlay isn't really worth saving a few pence in electric - not whilst you already have one in full working order anyway! Perhaps something you can start saving up for later in the year

Have a lovely day! x

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Morning all!

Monday monday blah blah blah etc etc

Not much to report - had a fairly quiet weekend. We went to Nandos for dinner on Saturday night - yum! Totally guilt-free treat (well, money-wise at least, not so much diet wise!) as we paid for it with a gift card that OH's sister gave us for Christmas.

Also did the weekly Aldi shop on Saturday evening. We went about 7pm, it was sooo much nicer than it is earlier on. It gets FAR too busy and I get quite stressed trying to go round when there's just too many people milling about. I didn't do a list, so I ended up spending slightly more than I intended to - still only £30, but I need to try and make sure the next two weeks I only do £20 so I don't have to go over my grocery budget. I did get quite a bit of meat though so that will see us through for more meals than usual.

Other than that not much else to say. Two weeks until payday, I can't wait simply so I can make some more debt payments and see the numbers go down again.

I'm struggling on a V-day gift for OH. I was going to make him a scrapbook but I really don't think he'd appreciate it so I don't know if I want to anymore, plus I've not really left myself much time to put it together. It'll end up being something naff like a box of chocolates or something. Eeh! Suggestions are welcomed..

sassychick2014

Oooh, Nandos, yum!! Free Nandos - even yummer!! lol

I prefer Aldi's when it's nearly empty as I get stressed at the till with the uber fast packing they insist on. It drives me mad having to go to the window to pack and them virtually throwing my shopping at me - last week some went on the floor and they seemed disgruntled that I insisted on some fresh products. But it is so cheap that sometimes you just have to suck it up!

FinanciallyUnsavvy

sassychick2014 wrote: »

Oooh, Nandos, yum!! Free Nandos - even yummer!! lol

I prefer Aldi's when it's nearly empty as I get stressed at the till with the uber fast packing they insist on. It drives me mad having to go to the window to pack and them virtually throwing my shopping at me - last week some went on the floor and they seemed disgruntled that I insisted on some fresh products. But it is so cheap that sometimes you just have to suck it up!

Oh i agree - it drives me nuts! God forbid you try and put stuff in bags as they throw it at you - all hell will break loose!

I get why they try and do it - but I really don't think it speeds things up much, if they had the usual packing bay at the end of the conveyor like normal supermarkets it would be much easier!

But yes, beggars can't be choosers - it's cheap and good produce so we can't complain too much!

FinanciallyUnsavvy

I feel like I've had a bad few days - I've had too many spendy days recently. Don't get me wrong, I'm still budgeting and sticking within it, but I've been a bit frivolous with it, with still two weeks left of the month to go and most of my "entertainment" budget wasted on NOTHING. Twice in a week I've withdrawn £10 just because I've needed to make a small £1-£2 purchase, and then once the money's in my purse it gets frittered away on crap. I need to always have a bit of change in my purse for those necessities (i.e. the other day I needed a train ticket since I'd just missed the bus) to stop me having to withdraw cash, but then I need to stop myself spending it. Urgh!

Perhaps next month I'll try budgeting a separate category of "cash" with say £20, and try have £5 a week 'just in case'. Not sure whether I'll be able to resist not spending it on crap though.. often at work I'll be convinced i NEED something from the vending machine or a fizzy drink... (perhaps once I get the diet back on track this will be kicked in the bud but that's going very badly too..)

Also I'm down £15 this month since I forgot to cancel a stupid Experian membership. I've set a reminder in my phone though so I will cancel it before the next month's payment is due. What a load of ***! Just what exactly do I get for £15 a month?! NOTHING!!

In better news I made a sale on ebay this morning, sold a game for £11 so after postage and fees I should have £7-8. Also listed a couple of other things so hopefully they sell soon too.

Although I'm in budget and shouldn't need to worry, I was hoping I'd be able to make some extra payments again this month, but aside from a bit of PayPal money, I doubt I will be able to. And my snowball DFD is based on being able to pay off £300 a month. Urggh.

I just want time to fast forward and this crap to be over with!

sassychick2014

Morning hon

Ok, so I know you're having a few bad days but the main thing I just read is that you're still in budget. That's good! If you'd done all those other bits and bobs and you weren't in budget then yes, I can see why you'd beat yourself up but you are in budget so try not to feel too bad.

We're all starting at this budget/saving/paying off debt malarky and so I think we're all entitled to have a few off days or lack of judgement. It will help us to learn to have a better future.

You're doing really well and you need to remember that. Budgeting for spare cash would probably be a good idea and maybe even have some of it hidden in a different part of your purse or bag so you know it's there but you can't see it's there.

Hope today is better for you x