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

tizerbelle

If you've not downloaded YNAB yet don't pay for it when you do - download the free trial for 34 days - its the full featured YNAB not a limited version - play around with it and see if it is for you before you actually put your hand in your pocket.

Either way do make some time to watch the video tutorials in the Support section to ensure you understand the YNAB methodology and how to use it best. If you can join one of the free online classes while you are in your trial period and you may even win a free copy of YNAB!

Have a super day with your daughter today.

mooomin

The other thing is that you should keep an eye on the Steam summer sale. I've seen YNAB under £15 there before. That's normally June/July time. I'm not going for the trial until mid-June and then going to buy it (hopefully) on sale

HappyNow

Hi Seasidegal, I've just finished reading through your diary and what a brilliant start you've made!

I share your love of M & S food, but agree it's pretty dear. Have you signed up with greenredeem.co.uk? If you fill in their questionaires/quizzes etc you earn vouchers for £5 off a £25 food spend at M & S. It's dead easy - I earned three vouchers on the actual day I signed up! You can only use one voucher per purchase though.

So yesterday I went to M & S and bought two of their £10 meal deals (choosing carefully to select the ones that serve four, not two!). Came out with two large chickens, a ratatouille, a pack of rosemary potatoes, a raspberry trifle, a large apple pie, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of white wine, a large cheese and onion pie and my favourite chocolate cake in all the world, all for £20.82 after the voucher, and most of it is freezable.

Worth doing if you have guests to feed. Those of us who are Keeping Up Appearances can happily leave the M & S packaging lying around :rotfl:

Seasidegal58

Good morning everyone!

Hi tizerbelle and moomin - thanks for the tips on YNAB. I'm going to have a go on the free trial tomorrow. I did the initial tutorial the other week and am going to sign up for the others. I have a 20% discount code so I will use this.

I had a lovely time with my daughter earlier on in the week. On Tuesday I had the day off as we were off to the fashion exhibition, meeting her boss for early dinner afterwards, then the three of us were off to the theatre. My daughter had stayed at mine the previous night but then there was a bit of a crisis for her at work which she had to sort out – it could all be done online, but it stopped her finishing off writing a speech she was giving on the Wednesday so we ended up missing the exhibition so she could finish her speech, but managed to get up to London for dinner and theatre. We were also booked in for the theatre on the Wednesday evening. The reason we had two successive nights at the theatre was to see the two plays that the RSC were performing of Hilary Mantel’s two novels on Thomas Cromwell and Henry VIII – “Wolf Hall” and “Bring up the Bodies". I loved the books and the plays and performances were the best I’ve seen in a long time – absolute knock-out!

Anyway, it’s the end of week 4 of Scrimp Month 1 and very happy with the final outcome!

As I bought a couple of extra bits when my daughter stayed the night I was slightly over my food bill for the month by £1.53. Thanks a bundle Happynow for your suggestion on earning M&S vouchers through greenredeem. Though I’ve not gone the online survey route because of the time it seems to take, I will definitely give this one a bash as I can save the vouchers for some nice bits to put away for when my daughter stays or when I have visitors as you have pointed out (I do miss M&S cookies!).

This week my ad hoc spends totalled £88.22 , which made me £29.72 over budget for the week :eek: ! I spent a lot more this week as although I was treated to dinner twice by my daughter (she will never let me pay for dinner!), I paid for taxis and drinks. I also had some toiletries to buy and had lunch yesterday with a friend I used to work with and who I had not seen for while.

All in all scanning over what what I spent ad hoc for the whole month (apart from the theatre tickets and things that actually have budgets like birthday cards, hairdressers (that was on Thursday night) etc):

• Taxis - £36.60
• Drinks Out (Alcoholic!) - £36.50
• Toiletries - £29.24
• Newspapers - £19.60
• Charity Donation - £10.00
• Dry Cleaners - £4.50
• Lunch Out - £15.28
• Brolly – 50p

The costliest things on the list were the drinks and the taxis and I had been lucky enough to have been treated on dinners out, plus some drinks and transport! Just shows how these things mount up!

Week 4 has been the costliest week of the month by far, but because I have scrimped on the other three weeks, I have actually came in under budget for the whole months in respect of ad hoc spends by £81.12 :j. Together with the extra £15 in my paypacket through the tax/NI reductions (I got paid yesterday as the 25th (my payday) is tomorrow Sunday), I have today paid an extra £96.12 on my Santander1 balance :j !

So the scrimping has really paid off! I would have never had anything like the above left over at the month end before I started this debt journey so a big thank you to everyone who has sent their good wishes and fabulous tips. :A

dawnybabes

That's brilliant - shows it can be done :-)

apple_muncher

Well doen seasidegirl! Awesome savings in just 4 weeks.

Chrysalis1976

Fantastic savings, well done!

So glad you enjoyed the theatre, shame your daughter had to work a bit but at least you didn't miss that and dinner.

It won't be long and you'll be in the 29's.

C x

in_need_of_direction

Hon, it's thanks from all of us too. Just seeing the progress you're making keeps me engaged. Keep up the good work.

in_need_of_direction

Also, thanks to happy now. Just signed up for green redeem. The first m&s voucher is on it's way. When that's used, it'll be another £5 to overpay the mortgage.

mooomin

Well done A great result for your first month :j