NSK; The April Power Shower.

Maisie_M

Right have planned my goals

1. 0/20 SFD
2. £0/£280 food budget
3. £0/£50 petrol allowance
4. 0/11 LTW (two weeks holidays for Easter)
5. 0/3 Lunches out (one with DH £0/30, one with DS1 after pictures £0/£10 and one with mum £0/20)
6. £0/£20 days out to pictures (2 with DS during holidays)
7. 0/0 takeaways, coffee shops etc
8. £0/£3 local food bank
9. £0/£10 beauty spends (getting hair cut and coloured but already paid for on Gpon)
10. Continue decluttering house – DS1 bedroom this month
11. Inventory freezers/cupboards etc and do menu plan using up as much as possible.
12. Give the house a deep clean from top to bottom, including skirtings, windows etc during my Easter holidays to see us through until summer.

Should keep me busy.

karmachilovething

Can you sign me up please Kat. I will have a good think about my goals and update.

SarahB1989 wrote: »

6. 10 exercise sessions (actual proper lyrca-wearing exercise. Walking doesn't count).

I love the idea of "Lycra-wearing" exercise being different from the other kind, so might borrow this for my goals. Although having done a weekend of DIY, I'm not sure that lycra will be the deciding factor for me!

Right I'm shattered and so off to bed.
KC

£ashcow

How did i get here?

A few years ago ds was taken ill and it was touch and go, shortly after he recovered i went into a deep depression due to the shock and for about a year i hardly spoke and was pretty much incapacitated. Dure in this time poor dh had to deal with two young children, working nights and coming home to get them ready for school along with cooking,cleaning and trying to make ends meet, whilst i sat on the sofa night and day in a haze, in his attempt to keep all the plates spinning he started borrowing money which snowballed. Anyway we got through it somehow but the pebble in the water effect still goes on, but now the ripples are getting smaller.

1) 15 SFD's
2) 10 LTW
3) £100 Petrol/Travel
4) £280 Food (2 adults 2 teenagers 1 dog 1 cat )
5) £300 Outing? (Trip from Herts to Dundee to checkout uni for ds)
6) 8 Exercise
7) £3 Foodbank
8) 7lbs weightloss
9) 15 household items to de-clutter
10) 30 hours ME time - this seems a bit selfish but i must step back and find time for myself, whether its just reading a book, painting my nails or planning for MY future.
11) Pay as much as possible off my cc (shame the council tax starts again this month)

Moving forward to calmer waters.

stewby

It has taken me pretty much all day trying to figure out my goals and plans. Going to call it BOB just because it kept me occupied long enough for me to give it a name (short attention span remember).


Backstory
My debt was pretty much me being stupid. There's no other reason to be honest. I found shopping really enjoyable (and still do) but I didn't (and don't) have the money to do it. But that didn't stop me.
I got a credit card for getting a new kitchen and bathroom and then stupidly kept using it.
Got a loan to pay off my credit card and a trip to New Zealand to see my OH but didn't get rid of the credit card, then got stressed at work and ended up spending more and more money whilst reducing the amount I was working.
Fell in love with a house but didn't have the finances to afford it so started looking at my finances and had my light-bulb moment. Sadly, losing the house was the wake-up call I needed.


Objectives
1) 15 spend-free days.
2) Budget everything (see below).
3) Pay £1000 off the credit card.
4) Complete 10 hours on wiifit.
5) Lose 8 pounds in weight.
6) Finish off the planning and have a brilliant trip away.


Budgets
* Shopping: £80 for three weeks (including £5 for the food bank).
* Holidays: £100 (away with mum, cousin and auntie after Barcelona). We have euros for Barcelona already.
* Fuel: £50 for the month.
* Savings pots: £142 (including the £35 I owe the pot).
* Mum's treat: £28 (roughly but should be less).
Grand Total = £400.
:eek:

No room for error here so roll on April whilst I still have the positivity.

lotti379

Right, here we go... :eek:
I am going to [STRIKE]try to [/STRIKE] stick to a self-imposed posting every day rule, with the exception of 22nd-26th as we are off on our travels... which is a very good incentive to be a t!ght a*** with the entertainment budget until then. Unfortunately Mr L's birthday is before then, but I have explained to him he's not getting as big a present as in previous years. We are both terrible for over-treating each other with presents, particularly birthdays and Christmas. Well, there are worse relationship problems to have but it isn't helping my financial situation at the moment!

How I got here…
Being a fool. Wanting to treat other people and myself, and living a lifestyle I haven’t [STRIKE]really[/STRIKE] got the cash for! :cool:

Goals for April:
- 15 SFDs
- Check in every day (except 22nd-26th)
- £520 covers all my spending – groceries (£60 = £20 off March’s budget), social (£200, including holiday money, birthday present, church collections and food bank.), petrol (£150 – this is going to be tight), other car expenses (new wiper blades, rest of £100 to new general car expenses e-saver), toiletries (£10, everything is running out).
- No buying bottles of wine, or other alcohol for home consumption. :A
- 12 gym sessions (3 per week on average) :A
- Finish knitting my kindle sleeve.
- Organise a new card for 0% balance transfer purposes before current deal runs out.
- Brush up on my Spanish before 22nd!
- Must sort travel insurance for the trip.
- Put pair of rather swanky d!esel jeans on fleabay, as they are TOO SMALL and so I have never worn them. I thought they were a bargain at the time and I’d “slim into them”. HA!
- Identify what on earth is going on with my career and what I want, and get a strategy in place for getting there (just a small goal this one!). Feeling a bit like I don’t deserve more responsibility at work since I can’t even organise my own finances properly… anyone else get that or is it just me?!

Phew! I think that should keep me going for a bit! :rotfl:

mooomin

How did I get here?

Initially it was through spending without paying attention, then through Mr Mooo not working and me trying to cover all our expenses while renting a flat and earning less than £1000 per month (not possible!). Then there was the consolidation loan, then the next one...eventually there was nearly £10,000 worth of debt :eek: Thankfully it's all paid off now and thanks to being made redundant a couple of years ago I have a reasonable amount in savings as well as being debt-free.

Sadly, my most recent job just ended so it's back to being unemployed. I want to get back in to work as soon as possible and the budget listed below allows me two months of this spending before I have to break in to my ISA savings. That is NOT going to happen.

Challenges:

• 15 NSDs - I won't include food spends in these as I'm at the mercy of Mr Mooo when he forgets he's eaten all the bread :rofl:
• Post daily on the thread.
• Declutter 100 items from the house. They have to physically leave the building to count - not just sit in the spare room.
• Apply for at least five jobs a week
• Get a job
• Pay for any spends at the coming craft fair only using money from things I've decluttered and sold. No extra spending! :money:
• Transfer bank account to Halifax for the £100 incentive.
• Exercise 20/30 days

Budgets:

• All direct debits: £650
• Travel (bus): £40
• Food: £150
• Petrol: £100 (normally much less but we might be visiting family)
• Misc spends: £160

Total: £1100

I'm aiming to spend much less than the £160 on miscellaneous things, but it's what I have leftover so I'm going to use it as a measure of what to spend. I normally don't track spending daily at all, so this should help.

My £20 mortgage overpayment is included in my direct debits. It's not a lot, but every little bit helps. Ideally anything I don't spend will go back to my savings account for next month.

[Deleted User]

Hi folks,



Apologies for going AWOL on the March thread, lots of reasons posting regularly became difficult. I am back now (please can I re-join you Kat) and a little in shock. I have just inherited some money, which means I can take my formal debt down to under 2k (if all my sums are correct).:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j I only received the money at midnight but have already paid off 3600 to empty a CC that was due to end its 0% in the middle of April, and am just working out how it is best to split the remaining money (all between debts – with perhaps the exception of a £20 celebratory fruit and veg shop (luxuries we haven’t been able to get during my lock-down food spending March & April)).



I feel a little overwhelmed that someone has literally wiped off a year of my DF journey for me. We have made so many sacrifices in the last 2 years to plod away at this. I have been so proud to be tackling it by myself, and taken so much joy in the little pleasures of paying something off or saving money. Don’t get me wrong, these habits all need to continue as we have some way to go yet. But just like when you get towards the top of a long climb, go round a corner, and see you still have a way to climb, but at last the end is in sight, that is how I feel this morning. Like I might be able to wake up and not feel sick with worry tomorrow, or brace myself against envelopes through the door, or just have all the extra hassle that comes with never truly feeling on top of anything. By this time next year, I should be DF (formal and informal) and saving!!!!!!!!:j


In other great news, my paying guests left today with lots of invitations to visit them in Germany, donating all of their leftover food to us , and having introduced us to some lovely people who live in our own city who we will definitely meet up with again. We have really genuinely enjoyed their company. I would never be sharing my house with strangers if it wasn’t for this debt free journey, and how much poorer our experiences would be! Before that, I was excited yesterday to receive three vouchers being handed out for free tea and coffee at our nearest farm shop, which will enable me to go out with my lovely friends for a drink soon.



April is an exciting month for us. We are going on holiday (DD, a friend, and I) and DD has done much of the planning. I gave her flights to our destination as her only Christmas present last year, and several friends gave us museum passes instead of gifts at Christmas or my birthday to help the holiday happen. By travelling with a friend we can split the apartment costs, have more flexible options for doing things, and it also dilutes us being together 24/7 for 8 days! We are staying in some a1rb&B apartments (using credit we get for letting our place through that site), in a convent (we are not religious but it was as cheap as the hostel, and I want to see the nuns behind the scenes, having breakfast and the like!) and finally on the last night in a youth hostel. We have paid for all of the accommodation already, except the youth hostel, and also for our train between the cities. We have been paid by our last few houseguests in euros so that is our spending money.



So my goals in light of all of this news:

1. 15 days NSD – this will require a lot of forethought and planning, given we are away for 11 out of 30 days. These are not my strong suits, but I think having to be super organised will reign in any splurging that might be tempted. I don’t want to go backwards just because I’ve been given this big boost forwards.
2. Build running up to 5k. This is baby steps for me to get back to regular exercise after months of ill health and recovery from operations.
3. Empty the loft to strip and re-lay insulation. The re-laying I think is happening early in May, but all of the preparation should fall into April.
4. Review budgets and ‘spend’ this gift between debts wisely. Ensure payments are upped on remaining debts so I keep our belts tight, still paying as much off each month, and calculate the new DF date J
5. Work out a clear daily budget for our holiday spending money, so that I can enjoy it without guilt. We are very unlikely to spend on ‘things’ as we have to carry it all, but I would like to be able to ‘do’ lots whilst we are there, and enjoy a couple of meals out
6. Complete executive training course at work (lots of pre-reading and essays…but put up in a training centre with pool, free food, for a week – very excited about the MSE elements of this just as much as the career investment).

NinjaSavingKat

WOW! Just reading these "self-imposed" targets is amazing. So proud of you all sharing your journeys as well. I will post more when April officially kicks off at midnight!

savingkatie

can I join please?
new here but reading through the past challenges and would like to give it a go x

apple_muncher

Have just caught up on the goals and reasons - so inspirational! I'm still working on mine but should be done by tomorrow... Don't want to be late on my first day now!