NSK; The April Power Shower.

clippy_girl

me please

will work on goals.....

SiannieLaz

Hellllllloooooooooooooo All,


Here we go.....


How I got here
An over-reliance on alcohol combined with a complete refusal to learn from my mistakes. These two led to me acting like an idiot from the ages of 16 to 36. Thousands of pounds wasted, my liver pounded and no stability in any areas of my life. I paid off a huge amount of debt over about 7 years (my memory is terrible, a legacy of the alcohol abuse) which finished last June, then continued to use my awful credit card every time I got fed up. I now have DD to help keep me on the straight and narrow and am determined to be in a position to be able to buy us a shared-ownership property when I finish uni (starting 2015) and my credit record is finally decent. I stopped drinking when I was 36, but it has taken me a while to learn to act like an adult.


Goals for April
15/15 SFD
£100 food budget
30 items decluttered
Exercise 3x weekly
Meal plan and eat 3 times a day
£3 food bank
Get all paperwork organised
All a/c I do for others up to date
Keep the flat looking straight, not the current 'a bomb's just gone off' look
Update my budget spreadsheet daily
NO TV


As Kat mentioned, if I start with the above, then other areas of my life will start to fall into place. I hate being so disorganised all the time, my bedroom looks like it did when I was a teenager (more clothes on the floor than in the wardrobe) and there is always washing up. I'm constantly looking around the place and sighing heavily, so time to stop staring at drivel on the box and do something.


So as I plan to start as I mean to go on, I'm going to spend this evening tiding up so I have somewhere to start from tomorrow.


I've also just entered the Windsor half marathon in September, so will write up a training plan starting tomorrow. I'm going to start right at the beginning again, and build up slowly, make sure I'm really match fit this time.


Am so looking forward to another month with you all.


thanks loads to you all for your motivation and inspiration xxxxx

apple_muncher

I was paid last Friday and did the monthly shuffle of extra over to the mortgage and savings. HOWEVER, due to the pesky Natw3st online banking, I paid one lot of £400 twice. Of course, it wasn't human error at all!! Anyhows, since Friday, I've been pondering whether to transfer it back or try to live on 40% less this month.

I know kat would say to live on less... But am not sure I am brave enough for that... Adding up my budget and subtracting it from the amount in my account leaves a difference of £23. And no money in the entertainment budget with 2 weeks and 1 day for the Easter break...

Hmmm. I shall do my darnedest. I shall track every penny spent meticulously. But I'm lucky because I know that if I need it, it is there. This is new territory for me!

NSD - 15
Food - 220
Travel - 120 (gottago to bham by car or train)
Dd - 100
Other -30
Declutter - 60
Knit - 30
Sew - 10
Exercise 12
Organise hols to NE
Lunch to work 6
Sugar free days 25
Lose 4lbs


Sorry to witter on! At least it makes perfect sense to me! Roll on tomorrow.

luckystarr

Hello All :hello:

It's lovely to read how everyone got here and the challenges we are setting

How i got here ...

Me and OH moved in together in 2006 and put all moving on a CC. OH has always been good with money then he met me !!.We lived beyond our means and i wanted to keep up with the jones's which brings me to now ... trying to get debt free... the end is in sight, however i am still wanting what i can't have the house,marriage and nice holidays and as i am STILL overspending these dreams are not going to become a reality as i put us in the overdraft again this month by £300 . :mad:_pale_

SO i am determined to NOT to overspend and keep us in the black not red.
It's time to stand up and be counted Here goes .. my challenges are as follows

SFD 0/15
Food 0/£250
Wii Fit 0/12
date nights 0/£50
only buy one magazine this month
Books to read 0/2
Spring clean the house
Cancel my gym membership

I am determined to make this month work !!!!!
spend more time on my hobbies and with my OH not get caught up with life and appreciate the small things and less of the material things

anyway apolgies for long post off to bed night all

ilovetea

Can I join please?
Been a lurker for quite a while,now I think I'm ready to get myself/life in order.
How a few goals and targets in mind.Will it be O.K. if I post the tomorrow?

ilovetea xx

MrsGSR

Well, my plan is done for the month!

SFD 15- eek, bit scared about this but will take it one day at a time.

Shopping- bought it down to £150 this month. We have more than enough in to last the month, it's just clever cooking I need to do.

Fuel- £50 in the car already.

Kids activities- money with drawn and placed in envelopes. DS swimming already paid for next term:)

Phone and other payments- squirrelled away for when they are due to come out.

MOT- I already have the money saved for this. if it passes then I am up £50, if it fails well I'll have to borrow additional money from the savings account to cover it.

Self enforced rules-

NO CC spending- I completely cleared my cards last week but today I booked a legoland trip for the family (which I had saved for) once the bill comes in I will pay that off completely. I always use this for shopping and pay it off right away but it makes me nervous to know I've used it iyswim? Even though I know it's paid for and I only use it for protection for big payments it panics me so it's going in a container of water in the freezer tomorrow

More decluttering- still a few cupboards to sort out here and we MUST do a car boot sale at some point because we have so much stuff. However it's a busy month for us so I'm not sure if we can manage it! We have DHs parents over mid April and various parties for the DC so most weekends will be full!

Pilates at last 3 times a week, I've been trying to do this in the last month but always have excuses for not doing it such as laziness NO EXCUSES.

Personal Spends £90, as I have taken out all monies for bills, credit card, shopping etc I have allowed myself £90 the month. I plan to spend only £45 of this so I still have an account buffer should I need it.

It's a case of really sticking to it for me, I must not take my eye off the ball.

CEW

Roll on April and my self imposed challenges :eek:

How I got here
A combination of things all happening at roughly the same time. A new puppy that fell ill in the 2 week no claims period after she was insured. She had over £15k worth of treatment and after a period of recovery passed away suddenly at 11 months old. Possibly not the best thing to do but she had a happy if short life and I don't begrudge her that. Shortly after my OH's business started to struggle due to the recession and has since been closed down. Apparently he is not eligible for any benefits so living off my salary. In truth I do have assets that I can liquidate if necessary which is one of this months challenges.

Budgets
Grocery - £150 - Kept this the same as last month as I didn't manage this last month but hope to come in under budget.
Fuel - £150 - increased from last month as I am on holiday from 18th April until 6th May so lots of family visits and a few days out.
Social - £100 - Higher than usual due to above mentioned holiday.
SFD - 15 - Hope to improve on this.
LTW - 13 - Only at work for 13 days in April
eBay - 10 - As a new seller I can only list 10 items a month. So far since becoming a seller late last year I've listed and sold the grand total of 1 item :rotfl:

other Challenges
Reclaim my small bedroom and turn it back into a study. The room is currently FULL of things. I emptied the loft just over a year ago to have some extra insulation fitted for free :money: and still need to sort out the remaining boxes. I WILL BE RUTHLESS :eek:

Sort out all my paperwork and filing including my late Tax Return :mad:

Contemplate my future as regards my current employment. There are some changes going on at work which I am not particularly happy with. Although there are no planned redundancies due to my personal circumstances I can potentially push for redundancy I'm not particularly enjoying my role at the moment so need to decide if I want to push for redundancy and if I do decide if I need a complete lifestyle change. This may take me a little longer than April to sort out but I will start on it.

Seriously think about my future. How best to tackle debts. Is it better to liquidate assets to clear them and start afresh or continue paying them off at interest free. Some serious decisions to be made.

Finally I want to reduce the number of challenges I either enter into or just follow for interest. This should free up some of my time so that I can concentrate on this challenge which I feel is the most beneficial all round challenge for me.

After all of this I may need another holiday from work in May to recover :rotfl:

Wish me luck...on second thoughts no luck necessary just lots of motivation which there is no shortage of on this thread

Sorry for the long post but once it's down here it makes it a little more real.

Chez x

abundant1972

Hey all...

Loving everyone's battle plans for April - awesome job!!!

I've set my targets as follows:

1. Achieve 20 SFDs. I am allowed Wednesday and one day over the weekend as a Spend Day.
2. Budget £40 per week for food and spends total.
3. Budget £70 fuel for the month.
   
4. Attend the gym 3/week = 12 throughout April
5. Strip off 7lbs of excess fat this month. Will weigh in each week, starting tomorrow and declare it <eeek>!
6. Gather 20 hours overtime this month.

That's my lot - I'm looking forward to the challenge. My debt repayment goes out on Direct Debit, and any spare cash I will stash towards making an extra repayment.

:T Good luck everyone!!! :T

Mountaingirl

Can I join back in for this month please? I'll think about my goals and post tomorrow - it's too late now

NinjaSavingKat

It's the final countdown... See you all in April!!