How will you celebrate being debt free? How do people stop from sliding back?

Vicky496

Yes that's right, I'm up at 3.30am and online shopping!

I'm not even tired, I just sleep weirdly at the moment...

Good news is that I didn't spend any of my budget - I got a baby bouncer and microwave steriliser that we needed for free using clubcard points which were worth double on their website

Even the delivery was free

Feeling pretty proud of myself!

Vicky496

Well I did have a bit of a naughty spree at lunch today...

Got talked into eating out for lunch with a friend (£6.95). I don't begrudge this too much though as I very very rarely eat out.
Then I felt all angelic :A as I had found some scratch cards I'd been given last xmas and luckily they were still in date! So made £12 (so far I thought yay I'm in profit!).

Then comes the 'oh dear'.
Because I passed Jojo and couldn't resist (was still feeling like I was actually being good) and spent £38 on things that you could argue we needed, but I know really we don't. Sigh.

The rest was necessary though: milk and fruit from Coop for £4.30.

Vicky496

Ok. I've just transferred the £12 into my ISA as a good deed to make up for naughty spends.

Vicky496

Need to keep reminding myself that I can shop without spending!

£1.24 Tesco voucher (from a price match)
Free hot drink & cake at John Lewis
£2 left on an Accessorize gift card
£1.67 on my Nectar card
£6.50 in Clubcard vouchers (worth 2x on boost, or 4x on restaurant vouchers)
£3.02 on Boots card

Vicky496

Going to do the £10 a day challenge in September...

Go on then, I'll give it a go again... it's been a while!

Put me down for £300 (£10 a day).
Though I will be giving birth at some point so I might not quite make it
Any help for the maternity leave fund would be good right now!

Here's my ideas!

I'm going to sell my microsoft surface RT tablet... possibly to CEX as I don't want the hassle of doing ebay - unless someone has another easy option that pays more?

I'm going to clear out and go through all the books we've accumulated (I hoard them) and use ziffit (with the help of DH to pack them up for me!). I looked at amazon's trade in scheme, but they don't have as many books listed and you get vouchers rather than cash (and I hardly ever use amazon).
Then I'm going to go and get a library card!

I'm going to also track my grocery savings and vouchers used.

I think I'll also count roadkill (picked up lost pennies).

Was also considering doing a car boot sale, but I don't think I have the stamina at the moment. So instead I'll start to fill a box with stuff to go to a car boot in a future month.

Also, if the baby is running late and I get bored I have a box of monsoon clothes that will never fit me again that I might spend the time to put on ebay.

Do people count monetary gifts? e.g. from birthdays?

All this should be enough to get reasonably far in the September challenge and/or start me off on the challenge again in a future month!

Oh also, I'll keep working on surveys... but I won't count it til it pays out (I seem to have been doing onepoll for YEARS).

Oh, and quidco cashback payments.

Vicky496

Spends for today...

£2.70 on lunch (gah! should have taken a packed lunch!)
£6 on parking (had too much to carry to take the cheaper bus option)
£10 towards the wedding present.

I also transferred £1.37 to my virtual sealed pot

Vicky496

I've just been looking at how much I've spent in the first week since pay day. I need to remember that this is a 5 week month.
Maybe I need to allow myself a little more to live on in 5 week months.

So I spent £77.19 in the first 7 days (not including VSP savings).
That leaves £295.89 for the remaining 4 weeks - or £73.97 per week.
So I need to spend a bit less than I did this week.
Biggest unnecessary expense this last week was on baby stuff.
Of course lunch for £6.95 was also unnecessary and cutting out buying lunch in town would also keep me in budget!

No more buying baby things we don't need!

And no more buying lunch at work!

Vicky496

Ok, so here's the update post-weekend-away!

Make £10 a day stuff:
+£1.70 from Quidco
and saved £1.83 using clubcard fuel points

Spending diary:
-£13.13 for petrol
-£10.68 McDs for me and DH
-£1.10 water and polos (groceries)
-£2 charity

VSP:
£7.28 transferred to virtual sealed pot.

Vicky496

Today I've been scouring the house and my brain to tidy up the lost bits of money!

Premium bonds
Discovered a forgotten £50 in my premium bonds account (remnants of wedding savings from a long time ago!). Have withdrawn £49 and left £1 in there to keep the account open in case I want it again someday. Should take 3 working days to clear into my current account and then I'll pop it straight in my ISA.

Oyster card(s)
Discovered there was £2.05 on an old oyster card in my purse. Have printed off the form to claim the refund (including £5 deposit used to get the card originally). I think there may be other oyster cards a-lurking in the back of a draw... off to have a tidy up

So that's going to be an extra £56.05 in my savings very shortly :T

Pregnancy Freebees!
I finally took my voucher into Asda for the second bounty pack. You get the first one from your midwife, then take the voucher to a shop for the second one (have been holding out until I passed an asda as they give you a free item of baby clothing with it). I think the third you get when you give birth.

So in the mum-to-be pack I got:
-Elvive shampoo and conditioner free samples.
-Cussons stretch mark cream (too late!!), bubble bath and hand gel, with some money off vouchers.
-an asda branded nappy and 5 pairs of socks (0-6 months)
-travel sized pot of sudocrem
-baby purchases magazine
-voucher for a half price angelcare nappy bin in argos (£7.49 instead of £14.99... better check first that's not secretly a worse deal!)
-Fairy non-bio liquitab (1 wash worth)
-hooded baby towel from persil/comfort
-pen
-ocado money off vouchers (£15 off a £60 shop and then £10 off a £50 shop)
-detol wipes (20) sample pack with some decent looking discounts on the vouchers that come with it.

Pretty good haul I say!

Vicky496

Yay first £5 from my Halifax account in aaaages!

They don't give it to you if you've used your overdraft... shows I've been extra good

Straight into my savings