No More Procrastination..DFW is my Destination!

lemanie

nellis10 wrote: »

I could...and it would be cheap and FREE! But I want pretty shiny things!! I know I know...I'm naughty...but I want to play with new things! :rotfl:

I'm not knocking it, I have a stationery weakness , oh just show me rows of things in a rainbow of colours, smelling new and papery...:o:rotfl: (I had a Petite Typewriter/Post Office as a child, favourite toy, EVER:D)

nellis10

Morning All!

The month is now half over and we are heading for payday in exactly 2 weeks!!

I have £80 left of Grocery budget and my stores are very low!! But I am determined to eek it out a bit longer before I do another shop!

nellis10

OK, I really need to do daily posts and keep myself from sliding into old habits.

I've taken out £80 for the remainder of the month for grocery shopping...however I've also bought a bottle of wine and some little beers with that money...Friday was a "treat night" and saturrday I went to my pal's house and brought some little beers.

But really I am sliding back into the habit of buying alcohol (I'm not an alcoholic but I would say I drink more than I am comfortable with) for "treats".

The other side of the coin is, that although the little beers were only £3.49, that's £3.49 out of my grocery budget! Yes I could take it out of my "Spends" budget, but I refuse to....if I drink my grocery money, I have less food I can buy...so it's a wake up call.

Gosh, this sounds like I drink like a fish, I don't, I can go weeks without alcohol, but when I do buy a bottle of wine, I will drink it that night, with soda water...maybe that's my problem, I should stop buying soda water as it goes down far too quickly and thus I drink wine like it's lemonade!! Same with little beers that are only 4.5%, you don't realise you are drinking so much because they are only little bottles, so you have 1, then another, then 4!!

Anyway, suffice to say I have put back on 2 out of the 7lbs I have lost and I am NOT happy about it.

I need to refocus my efforts. Short term "treats" are eating (literally) into my long term "happiness" and I don't want to go down that road again....I don't want to wake up in 5 years nad think..."I must go back to MSE and start getting rid of my mortgage again"

I am doing Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps Program (not buying his course, just using his philosophy - except when I can find one of his free audio books on Youtube )

I completed Baby Step 1 before I read about Dave Ramsey - £1000 in Emergency Fund, so thankfully I skipped that step.

I am currently on Baby Step 2 - Snowballing the debts - One has gone this month, the smallest, and I am not working from next month on the next smallest, with a goal of being credit debt free by December 2015.

Then I move to Baby Step 3 - Building the Full Emergency Fund of 3-6 months expenses. I will open an NISA for this and will try to max it out as an aim for Baby Step 3....I doubt it will be done in one calendar year so I expect to be there by December 2017.

Then there are 3 steps that can be done concurrently...

Step 4 - 15% of your wages in a retirement fund (again I will use NISA and I have a pension at work that I will up my % contributions as salary sacrifice so I don't miss it)

Step 5 - College Fund for Son - I will pay heavily into his Child Trust Fund/Junior ISA with an aim of having £8,000 in there by the time he starts University - Need to have that by Sept 2022.

Step 6 - Pay off the Mortgage - I should be on a repayment mortgage by the end of this year (currently trying to get from Joint IO mortgage with mum, to Single Repayment with me). So by Decemeber 2017 I will start to look to really pay this down with any spare cash I have left. I will start, once I get my repayment mortgage in place of overpaying £50-100/month from the beginning, just to keep it going, depending on what I have in he bank and can make in additional income (from goodness knows where!!)

Step 7 is Build Wealth and Give - I will choose a charity close to my heart at the time, and set up a DD for them. Building wealth - I shall have to look at the time at what is the best medium risk, good ROI vehicle.

Anyway...a rambling post, but one I needed to make to refocus who I am and where I am going.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I can improve on anything I have stated here, I am all ears

Thanks for reading xx

ShirePiskie

Don't beat yourself up for a start, you're realising where your 'weak spots' are, which is a great step to changing habits.

By that I mean categorising wine as groceries, not the wine itself!!!

I do it too, if it makes you feel better. Bank transactions show 'supermarket' so it goes down as 'groceries' whether it was bread and milk, magazine or bottle of plonk.

Startled by some of the similarities we share. Don't panic, not planning to go all crazy stalker on you.

Very impressed by your long term/ future goals too. Carry on!

nellis10

ShirePiskie wrote: »

Don't beat yourself up for a start, you're realising where your 'weak spots' are, which is a great step to changing habits.

By that I mean categorising wine as groceries, not the wine itself!!!

I do it too, if it makes you feel better. Bank transactions show 'supermarket' so it goes down as 'groceries' whether it was bread and milk, magazine or bottle of plonk.

Startled by some of the similarities we share. Don't panic, not planning to go all crazy stalker on you.

Very impressed by your long term/ future goals too. Carry on!

Thanks ShirePiskie! Funnily enough I was just readying your diary, and am about to subscribe!

EssexHebridean

lemanie wrote: »

I'm not knocking it, I have a stationery weakness , oh just show me rows of things in a rainbow of colours, smelling new and papery...:o:rotfl: (I had a Petite Typewriter/Post Office as a child, favourite toy, EVER:D)

ROFL - I'd forgotten all about those until reading that! Brilliant toys!

Ahh stationery addiction...I can identify there. A friend recently bought some pretty coloured fountain pen inks and I have the link to the site she got them from open on my desktop, baiting me! :eek: Also pretty notebooks - although I am now managing to only buy when I actually need one.

Good work on identifying the issue with the wine etc Nelly. Pippi on here felt similarly about that, and she now puts £5 to her CC when she "doesn't" buy a bottle - works for her.

That's a great list of targets/goals too - currently we have one relating to the mortgage clearance date, and another relating to savings by end of year, but we've never looked much further ahead than that - we really ought to - you've got me thinking now!

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

I think you're doing well too Nelly.
Keep focused on those debts first and make sure you are really aware of what you are choosing to put into your basket at the supermarket.
Every time try and ask yourself do I want this more that the satisfaction of making an op? I'd be the same about the envelopes too, do your really need them or would you rather make an op.
I'm no angel:rotfl: but I want this debt gone and I want a private bank a/c, you know the kind you need £100,000s just to be eligible!:rotfl:

nellis10

Polly_Wolly_Doodle wrote: »

I think you're doing well too Nelly.
Keep focused on those debts first and make sure you are really aware of what you are choosing to put into your basket at the supermarket.
Every time try and ask yourself do I want this more that the satisfaction of making an op? I'd be the same about the envelopes too, do your really need them or would you rather make an op.
I'm no angel:rotfl: but I want this debt gone and I want a private bank a/c, you know the kind you need £100,000s just to be eligible!:rotfl:

I am SOO with you on the "Private Bank Account" lol

it's a deal...I shall race you to be the first one to open a Coutts account! :rotfl:

lemanie

Great goals Nelly. I think becoming more aware of your spending, especially on 'treats' is a great thing and being really strict for a short-term goal is very do-able but long term you need to have a budget for them so they are guilt free. Decide what is right for you and stick to it, we'll all help each other.

EssexHebridean wrote: »

pretty coloured fountain pen inks and I have the link to the site she got them from open on my desktop, baiting me! :eek: Also pretty notebooks - although I am now managing to only buy when I actually need one.

I was given a calligraphy set when I was about 11 that came with the most gorgeous inks, teal, sienna, magenta... I still have the set and would love some inks for it, why do you tempt me :rotfl::p

nellis10

Morning everyone!

I was doing a count of how many transactions I had last month compared to this month to date.

From Pay Day to 19th last month I had 38 transactions.
From Pay Day to 19th this months I had 26 transactions of which 3 were incoming!!

I have more transactions in the beginning of the month as that is when my DD come out.

Over all last month I had 56 transactions on my account - I hope I don't go over 30 this month!! :rotfl: