Mind change to debt thanks to MSE forums!

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Fantastic on doubling your Christmas fund budget this month! At this rate your little girl is going to be spoiled rotten at Christmas! :rotfl:

I'm very impressed with your new found plumbing skills! I'm not sure I'd be able to do anything like that myself - I'd be too scared of making the problem worse! Well done you

I know what you mean about paying more for less food. I suppose it's just a case of getting into the habit of saving the leftovers and throwing away as little as possible.

You're doing so well! :j Keep it up! xx

sassychick2014

Thank you! I've got to make sure that once I've got to my target for Christmas I stop, that's been the problem before. In fact last year was the first year (since kiddie was born!) that I was able to get 95% of Christmas with cash rather than credit and that was a major achievement.

I learnt a good lesson yesterday. I bought 2 food items not on my list last week and both didn't get used in time and so I had to throw them out. Was only a few quids worth but it's not the point. Was good in a way as makes me more determined to stick to the list, although I now have no tea for tonight! Raid the cupboard time as determined not to go and buy anything!

RainbowBridgeReturns

Yes you can call me Rainbow, and I'll call you Sassy, if that is OK. I think they are both cute names. Your food bill is incredibly low, and it sounds like you eat well, i'll be listening in for tips.

I thought I was doing incredibly well cutting my food bill down from £550.00 to £350.00, but it looks like I still have the highest grocery bill on MSE. Lots to learn.

sassychick2014

Morning Rainbow

There's only me & my daughter and she doesn't eat much so I only have to cater for 1.5 adults really. If there were more of us then it would be different.

I am really chuffed that we were under budget this month though. I had set the budget below what we'd been spending as well so that's a bonus. I'll tell you what it was that did it. We've not had any junk food this month except one chippy tea (and that only cost £4!). The lack of junk plus the walks to school (another one today!) has also meant that not only does my budget look slimmer so does my tummy!

Tonight is sofabed night and we usually pig out and sometimes have takeaway pizza (£12) but tonight we're doing pitta bread pizza (£1.44) and it tastes just as good! Maybe I should put on here what we have for tea too as that will encourage me to keep that side up, what do you think?

Hope you have a nice day

RainbowBridgeReturns

I think that is a great idea.

What I like about your diary is that you are enjoying the journey and creating an even better lifestyle for yourself and your daughter than you had before, at a lower cost. I think that is the key to making changes stick.

Well done! What are your goals for February?

sassychick2014

Thanks hon. I'm also including my daughter in some of this so that she can learn the art of saving and responsible spending (ouch! responsible!?) so that when she's an old !!!!!! like me she doesn't have to do this.

I haven't set my budget for February yet. I'll do that today though. I'm just having a mad moment as just found out I'm not being paid today as I was supposed to so trying to work out how much I can throw at the mortgage (due today!) without them going mental at me. One of the downsides of self-employment I guess but frustrating all the same.

I also saw a monthly summary on FinanciallyUnsavvy's diary which I thought was a great idea so will be doing that too. Prob this afternoon. I'm supposed to be working atm but am so cold & stinking headache that I'm gonna go have a hot bath & mug of tea and then start work. I may not get paid but at least that's another perk. Can't imagine doing that in a pub, which was my job before!

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Morning hun

Just looked at your budget figs on your signature - you really have been under in everything haven't you! That's fantastic, well done :j You need to teach me how to spend only £80 on groceries! What do you typically buy in a week?

Sorry to hear you won't be getting paid today - that sucks. Hopefully it won't be too long a delay though? What do you do?

Hope your headache clears and you have a good day xx

sassychick2014

Heya

I've got to update my figures today but I'm still under in everything. This month I saw things on offer that I know I use often so bought those, for instance, a £5.75 bottle of coffee for £4. I drink way to much coffee - around 6 cups a day - so I bought 3 jars of the stuff, saving £1.75 on each which, theoretically, means I got a jar for free! I am however trying to reduce my coffee intake and am only allowing myself 4 a day with 2 cups of tea. Anything after that is squash. Hey, perhaps that's why I've got a headache! lol.

The other reason it's so low is it's just me and my daughter. She has a packed lunch for school so I bulk bought all the drinks/snacks from 99p store at beginning of term. Aldi also had some fruit hearts for sale at 49p a box - they're £2.09 each at Co-op!! So obviously I bought what felt like the entire stock! I spent just under £3 saving nearly a tenner. I've also taken to only cooking what I need, measuring out rice/pasta etc, and freezing whats left to make some free teas. We've had 2 or 3 this month - a first! I also keep things like bread in the fridge sealed to last longer as we don't use much bread. It's mainly for school pack-up but I've been making a little bit extra tea & sending her in with that, such as pasta.

Stuff like washing powder, toiletries etc go under groceries which was £13.51 this month. I buy mainly own brand stuff and use only 1 tablet per wash.

With regards to work, I work in online promotions for companies which is great as I can arrange it around my day & kiddie. The only thing is when the big companies don't pay the little companies on time. There's nothing you can do about it either as generally the person I deal with has no control over when invoices are paid. I have money in the bank so it's ok but this bill pays the mortgage!

I will also be copying your summary and putting that up on here too. But for now I must pretend to do some work so I'll catch ya later - have a good day!

sassychick2014

Hi everyone, I have a question.

Today I took back the hose that I bought when doing my plumbing on Wed as I didn't need it, therefore reducing the cost of the work I did to £6.44. Even more happy.

I got the refund as cash so went to the Co-op to buy my groceries which came to £5.18 - leaving me 82p change.

My question is this. Technically I didn't spend anything so would you class this as a NSD? I would because although I did spend money I ended the day with more money than I started it!

I'm now going to do my summary, Feb budgets & update my signature - so exciting!! Am I getting boring or what lol

sassychick2014

So, January's budgets were:

Food £90 Spent £80.91 - Saved £9.09
Groceries £20 Spent £13.51 - Saved £6.49
Clothes/luxuries/other £150 Spent £146.56 - Saved £0.44!!
Petrol £40 Spent £30 - Saved £10

February's budgets are:
Food £90
Groceries £20
Clothes/luxuries/other £100
Petrol £40

I've only reduced the clothes/luxuries/other section as there are no birthdays this month - January saw 4! I did want to reduce petrol but I have my car back now & want to assess the petrol spendage properly. It had been at the garage for 2 months being repaired and the courtesy car was a lot smaller.

Save for Christmas Target £25. Actual £50. So chuffed with this! February's target will again be £25.

Looking at my debts I realised that I'd already made payments before I joined on here so they're all the same so although it's a bit miserable that I can't update them I will do in a few weeks.

Now to do my signature! Have a good one everyone