Scrimping behind the scenes - with debt of £31,000!

asparagus1968

wow, what a great job you've done this month, and had a lovely time too, well done, keep on the right track:)

Seasidegal58

Good morning everyone and thanks so much for all your positive replies to my previous post!

Bought my Sunday paper yesterday on Day 1 of Week 1 of Scrimp Month 2, plus some concert tickets (see below!,) and today will thankfully be a NSD :j .

Looking at the calendar for the rest of the month some biggie spends going on:

• Am meeting two friends after work tomorrow night so wine and nibbles will be involved here!
• Also have one of my sister’s theatre days out later on in the month – again ticket was paid for last year when the show was announced, but will have dinner, drinks etc to pay for.
• DD is also taking me away later in month for a belated birthday present weekend so some spending money will be required.
• Dinner party at friends’ next weekend so nice bottle of wine and choccies needed (M&S voucher via greenredeem will be utilised !).
• Voucher will also be helpful as my sister (who bears a passing resemblance to Hyacinth Bucket – in nature if not in looks!) – is popping round on Wednesday evening so some M&S food on the menu will be required (I’ll leave the wrappings lying around as Happynow has suggested to “keep up the appearances”! :rotfl: )
• And.... last night have booked two tickets to see the Pink Floyd tribute band, Brit Floyd, with DD later on this year as they are so fantastically brilliant! I’m buying her ticket as she is so good to me in so many ways so £82.50 to come out of this month’s dosh!

So all in all I will be turning down other invitations as craftily as I can and scrimping madly behind the scenes!

Downloaded You Need A Budget last night for the 34 day free trial. Ended up watching the start up tutorial again which they had sent to me by email and I think I will be watching the others on Credit Card debt, etc to get a fully rounded view. All I did on the budget last night was put in my categories, but am going to finish it off today and have a tinker. It’s very impressive but will need some thinking out though I think once it’s all up and running and you are used to it, it will be incredibly useful.

If anyone wants a 20% discount (valid till end July) bash into google the following:

you need a budget camel 20% discount

Right - off to make more coffee now!:)

in_need_of_direction

I think tiredness would be a reasonable justification for turning down the other invites. You do pack a lot in. I'm green at the thought of all your engagements. Enjoy

Seasidegal58

Hi inod – a couple of my events are this week – out with friends, my sister popping round and my friends’ dinner party. That’s more than enough for me for one week with work as well! The theatre day and my weekend away are later on in June and the concert is in the winter.

My drinks meet up on Tuesday came to £20 . I went to M&S yesterday lunchtime to buy some foodie bits for the evening for when my sister came round. I wanted to download the M&S voucher from greenredeem, but they would only send it by post so I couldn’t use it for the shop, but it should be with me in the next week so I can use it another time. In addition, I was also hoping to get the dine in for two for £10 in M&S but they weren’t offering it that day :mad: . I managed to get two bottles of really nice wine in there for “buy two get £4 off” – so one for the evening and one to take round to my friends on Saturday. I got some nice choccies as well for Saturday. All in all, the bill came to £25.04 for the entertaining part and £13 for the wine and choccies to take on Saturday. However, as the £13 comes under the budgeted “Gifts” category, I paid for this from that account. I managed to save some money as I turned down a lunchtime invite for some birthday drinks - well I did have my M&S shop to fit in!

Today I just bought some handcream I needed in Boots but got it one-third off .

Still fiddling about with You Need A Budget, but I think I will definitely be purchasing it when the trial ends (though I’m going to go on one of the online tutorials to see if I can win a free copy) – it’s pretty awesome.

Mysteek

Hi, just thought I'd pop in and repay the good wishes. I loved reading your diary and it sounds like you're well on your way to achieve your goals. Well done so far, I'll keep popping in as I need to be kept motivated

Mysteek

PS How did you get your gold star?

Mysteek

Ooh I just noticed, mine has just changed too

Seasidegal58

Hello Mysteek and welcome! :wave: Glad to have you aboard! Not sure what the criteria is for earning stars on MSE. Maybe number of posts!

I had a really enjoyable time at my friends’ last night. Saw some people I had not seen for ages and we all had a good natter! My friend is a marvellous cook (used to do it for a living) and the wine flowed quite liberally!I went to the dinner party with another friend and her son drove us there and then we shared a cab home so only £4 for the evening!

By the way, I finished my nerdy Sky audit of TV channels watched over the past month. Discounting the Movies, it turned out that I watched 8 channels that I could get via Freeview and 7 only via Sky. So pretty even and most of my favourite series come via Sky so will be sticking with it though will still try and beat them down when my contract finishes early next year and will drop the Movies and look into Netflix.

All in all at the end of Week 1 of Scrimp Month 2 I’ve come in £8.29 under budget for food and £21.73 under budget on the other spending money ! I’ve got a quiet couple of weeks coming up before my theatre trip and weekend away so am aiming to keep it that way and save as much towards this as I can (without alerting anyone to my little scrimpy ways of course! ).:D

As Week 2 starts today I only spent £2.50 on Sunday paper so onwards and upwards!

HappyNow

All looking good on the budget front I see! So often those free/cheap nights out turn out to be the most enjoyable. Wish I'd realised that a loooong time ago .

I've always managed to keep hold of Sky but I don't think I've ever paid full price for it since I started haggling in 2011. We need it really because we're in a rural area and Sky gives us a much better picture quality. Plus losing it would be a step too far for the family - they would most definitely notice! We usually have the basic package, then add Movies for a few months over winter when the weather turns grotty.

tizerbelle

Hi seaside, great to read how you are keeping up with the secret scrimping and still enjoying life. Those pennies saved soon mount up don't they.

I agree that YNAB is pretty awesome. Does take a bit of getting used to but once you do it is a great mechanism for supporting you through the debt free journey and keeping you on track.

Having got my loan down to under £8250 this month (was £13k in Nov 2013) I decided I deserved a treat - did I go for a day/meal out with friends? Nope! Buy something nice for the house? Nope! I bought knickers! 25 pairs to be exact (M&S £35 less a £5 voucher from greenredeem - thanks for the heads up on that, HappyNow). I was putting my laundry away when I realised that most of the sorry rags purporting to be underwear in the drawer were over 5 years old and there were some much older than that!!! They were so old, I thought that if I was hit by a bus I'd die of shame at people seeing my knickers rather than injuries sustained.