Saturday 1st & Sunday 2nd March - what small DFW things are you doing this weekend?

soopa_de_doopa

Ps. Not smelly at all!

anouarr

Paid an extra £3 off debts with potentially another £14.00 into my Piggybanking accounts at the end of the month.

Vintagefool

Today I negotiated a new contract with O2 which gives me unlimited calls, texts and doubles my data, all for half the current monthly cost I am paying, saving me £16 a month. Had a splurge in Primark (mainly gifts for anxious and miserable friend) and also used a lot of vouchers in Boots (saved £12.50, but spent too much to get the saving, if you follow my drift) so need to do more!

foxgloves

Hi all,
Someone asked me last week what my Big Budget Day involved. This is my attempt to answer that question:
Big Budget Day happens once a month on Pay-day or as near as possible after it. This is what I do:
1)Sign onto online banking & obtain up to date bank statement..
2)Take all receipts off bulldog clip & mark them all off on statement. Put aside any that haven't yet appeared on statement. (All receipts inc. grocery shopping, any shop purchases, cashpoint withdrawels, etc)
3)Then get cheque book & mark off cheques which have been cashed. Note any that haven't yet appeared on statement.
4)Go through list of regular DDs for previous month & mark off on statement, checking all have gone out correctly.
Am now ready to start the coming month's budget.
5)I start a new page in my 'Money Book' & write in the month, followed by bank balance as on statement printed off that morning. (I use an A4 accounting-type book)
6)I deduct the total amount of 1/12 of our bills. (I keep a note of all DD amounts at the back of my book...whether annual, quarterly or monthly, everything is worked out as 1/12 of the total yearly amount) The monthly amount is £970-ish, so I write it as a line in my book & write in the new balance in the end column. (This figure includes a monthly payment into our emergency fund)
7)Next I write in the monthly grocery amount which is £250...take it off & write in new balance.
8)Do the same for our 'Personal Spends' (pocket money, really, we can spend it on whatever we want but once it's gone, it's gone!)...currently we have £60 each per month ....take it off & write in new balance.
9)Then I take off the amount we will pay our credit cards....2 cards, both paid off in full each month. Write in new balance. (One of these cards is only used for petrol....we figured we have to buy the stuff, we may as well collect points for vouchers).
10)Then go back to any receipts, cheques, etc, which I put aside when checking statement because they hadn't yet appeared. Write them down & deduct them. Write in new balance.
11)Then I sort out paying our savings piggies. These are just envelopes....tho' I did stick glittery pink pigs on them....labelled with the different funds. We have 6, which have £200 split between them. These are: Car maintenance - £50,
Clothes - £40, Holidays - £40, Presents - £20, Leisure/entertainment - £20, Household - £30. I deduct the money & write in the new balance. This money is withdrawn as cash asap & paid into the envelopes.
12)That leaves a balance which is the money we will have left at the end of the month IF we don't overspend our budgets. This can be left to form a bit of a cushion in current account, or put into savings or used for debt repayments. When we were debt-busting, that's what we used it for. Currently, we are saving hard for a new bathroom, so I look at the balance left on my budget sheet & transfer a wodge over to the bathroom savings.

This system works for us. On the same day, I try to do all money-related jobs/admin too, such as updating dd amounts if they've changed, as that also means I need to update my 1/12 of total bills formula to keep it accurate. I also read our energy meters on Budget Day & upload them to our online account. By the time I've filed everything, it takes me the best part of a morning, but then I don't have to do much else over the next month. I do have a notebook page in the kitchen where I can just jot down any spending on the grocery budget, just so I can make sure we don't go over the agreed amount.
Hope this helps explain what I do a bit, for whoever it was who asked me....sorry I've forgotten who it was. I used this method for busting our debts, though we didn't have the Savings Piggies back then. I started those last year because we were endlessly dipping into our account for these things & I felt I needed more control over what we were spending on these areas. They are working pretty well.....the idea being that if we have spent the money in the Piggy on whatever it is, there isn't any more for that budget till the next month's amount has been paid in. It does really help us think about what is a 'good spend' & what is a fritter!
Anyway, that's basically it, really it's just a case of finding something that works effectively for you.
foxgloves x

Tiggy10

Hi all!
Small list for today:
- check banking
- tidy flat
- washing on 30 degreese
- NSD - apart from bed shopping with money loaned from my mum.
More debt isnt what i wanted but the ten year old third hand bed im sleeping on has just got too much waking up in the night with pains in my back head and neck!
- meal prep for the week so i dont buy lunch at work.

Have a good sunday all!

Candy0107

Hello folks,

Thanks to Crazy lady for starting the thread

Lovely to see new faces on the thread I've decided that I need to get back in to the debt busting ways as my credit card will be about £1,700 once I make my monthly payment (it's limit is £3,600 at 0% so I'm not desperate to pay it off super quick).

I can't believe that it is Sunday afternoon already :eek: it's been a good weekend all in all

Yesterday's efforts:

• Breakfast and lunch at home
• I was looking after 2x nieces and my nephew last night - I made a curry from scratch and sister in law bought the ingredients (cheap and healthy)
• Checked online banking
• Moved pennies into Isa to pay off the credit card
• Counted up penny jar and updated sig
• Sis in law gave me a copy of a Jamie Oliver cookbook - she discovered that she had 2 copies
• NSD

Today's efforts:

• Meals from stores (including leftover curry from yesterday)
• Looked at my budget realised I had a spare £200 so decided to put £100 to funding circle
• Watching bits n bobs on sky box rather than going out
• Doing college homework as I have to knuckle down on my course - otherwise I have wasted the money spent on fees etc (and I would like to get promoted at some point)
• Peeked at how much we could get as a mortgage and what we could buy with that
• Need to prepare for tomorrow at work - I must take lunch to work !
• Requested quidco cash payout

Will be back tomorrow, hugs to those that need them, hi to all new posters.

Take care all
Candy xxx

GettingOrganised

Hi everyone, I haven't been able to post for a few days, I hope you're all OK?

Had a very busy run up to the weekend - the carpet and wood flooring has finally been fitted (been without for over a month since the water pipe at stop tap burst) and I've been busy baking and decorating two cakes for DD's birthday (yesterday) and her party today.

Had a fantastic weekend, although not much time to be very DFW, have managed:

Cakes went well, they took a lot longer than I anticipated, but I got a lot of praise for them. I think I'll just do one next year.
DD wanted a build a bear and I used a £3 coupon for this (I also did not buy any additional clothes etc!)
We also went to the Disney store and she spent some of her birthday money, there was an offer on a thumper teddy at £7.99 (should be £18), so I got one for my SIL's baby due next month
I normally do a full buffet for family when they come round with presents, but this year we stuck to the cake and a brew
I was going to take her to the cinema, but wasn't thrilled with Kids AM film, so instead of paying to see a new release, I'll take her another time
Made meal plan and went shopping
Tackled washing and ironing pile (neglected during the week due to cake baking)
Prepared all lunches for tomorrow

I realise I've gone on a lot about savings for DD's birthday, but this would normally were any reason would go out of the window. This year, I think we've managed to still give her a great birthday weekend but on a budget that suits our income a bit better!