NSK: The June Overhaul!!!

thriftylass

Good morning, just up feeding the baby and did all my money transfers for next month as maternity pay just came in. Did a shopping list yesterday, but not sure yet if I brave the SM with both kids today or wait till DS is in nursery tomorrow. Gonna finally start shopping in Aldi again after wasting many a penny in Tesco because I was to lazy or pressed for time to drive the other 3 miles.

NinjaSavingKat

:T:T:TGood Morning June Bugs...:T:T:T


Last day of the month! Can you believe it has gone this fast!

I would love people to add in what they have particularly learned this month or what has sunk in and taken hold of their life. Mine is fitness. I am in for the long haul now until this extra fat goes... :p:p

So I have been absent this weekend due to simple craziness. Friday was cooking / gym then cinema (X-Men) and home to bed for 2300.

Saturday I took a notion of going cycling - 26 miles later I got home after 3.5 hours in the saddle. That's some serious cardio people!!!

Where I live is beautiful so I just kept going and going and going... and then had to rush home to change and get to the cinema again ( Edge of Tomorrow ) and to bed for midnight....

And yesterday was a full 12 hours at work, with a new computer and no "remembered password" for MSE, a skatty brain and no internet (for personal email) on my phone as it ran out last week.. So I couldn't post anything...

Nothing is simple in my life. You see why I have to stay alert - something will always go wrong... :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

So for next month (tomorrow) we are entirely focused on reductions.. in line with this (can't believe I am saying this) but in order to save money and burn calories I will be cycling to the station every day and back again. I will get into more detail on my personal blog as this is getting long enough as it is....

For now I am off to look at my Nationwide account - seeing £5500 in there is rather satisfying! Keep up the good work people - you will be back in the black sooner than you think!!!


Onwards and Upwards!

abundant1972

Morning everyone...

End of month check in and what I have learned...

Hit my NSD target although overspent and fell back into bad habits by using the credit card. It was meant to be there as a safety net but actually I just used it as an addition to my budget - spending money I didn't have. I need to learn and move on.

One thing this month that I am trying to work on is positivity. Being thankful for what I have instead of always focusing on what I don't have or on what I perceive as being 'bad' in my life. There are people I have to work with who are negative ALL the time - and it just becomes wearing after awhile and draining. There may be things we can't always change or fix right now - but dwelling on them just becomes self defeating. I am finding that looking at what is good is much more fulfilling and productive.

None of us have perfect lives but they are what we make of them... Please - if i fall into that moaning trap - feel free to point it out and encourage me to look on the bright side... It's ok to have problems, so long as we acknowledge them and move on.

I really like that this forum has always been a place where we can push forward and reach for new heights and achieve our goals - and not become mired in our own day to day problems. It's much nicer to read about how people are battling their debts and being creative and positive about clearing their lives of financial hardship... It encourages the rest of us to move onwards and upwards!!!

Thanks Kat for leading by example!!!

NinjaSavingKat

Abundant - so well put...**sniffle**...

dolly84

Morning guys.

I have been to the gym this morning, my legs were aching when I arrived from cycling Saturday and running yesterday but I survived.

Yesterday was supposed to be a SFD but it wasn't. DH has lost 3 stones this year and all of his clothes are dropping off him, he actually looks like he has been ill when wearing some of them iyswim, so we went to a retail park and he got a pair of jeans and a t shirt in the GAP sale, he got slim fitting jeans for the first time ever and they look great. Then we went to Next and he got two more t shirts and another pair of slim fit jeans, in total he spent £62. Later he ordered a pair of Converse on line, I have been suggesting slim jeans and Converse for years and he was having none of it, now they are the best thing ever. Obviously he didn't feel confident enough before.

Last April I took out a pet insurance policy with Direct Line via TCB, I have been waiting all this time for the £25 cashback and looking on the TCB site it seems that they never pay out, anyway I posted on their Facebook page and 2 weeks later I have got my cashback paid out. It was £25.25 in total and I am just waiting for it to land in my account and then I will use it to pay for some of the things DH has bought this weekend. Why couldn't they just pay up properly, I will never use them again and looking at their FB page lots of other people feel the same about them for various reasons.

Today will be a SFD come hell or high water. The sun is shining again, 2 days late but better than not at all, washing is out and I will get out for a lovely walk with the dog after lunch. I'm not working today but will be very busy all day tomorrow and into the evening.

MagicCat

Hellooooo June Bugs on our last challenge day.

Apologies for AWOLness over the weekend - I don't know what is happening with out broadband, but it keeps disappearing - so we reset, start a new network and password on advice from provider and then it disappears again. Thank goodness for work!

Hope everyone had a good weekend. Fmess and Traveller - thanks for your comments, and your stats Fmess - I had a vague idea that was the case, but not in so much detail. Definitely thought provoking!

And Fmess - many congratulations on being 30% paid, that's fab!:T

Thrifty - hello, glad you and baby thrifty are well.

Dolly - well done on the payout - i find twitter and facebook are really good for getting companies to do what they're supposed to!

So...this month for me has been a bit of a disaster, Can't wait to put June behind me and carry on. I made my debt payments and savings towards CCs, but no extra. Still finding grocery shopping a challenge, but on the positive side it is down on where it used to be. Exercise has not been too bad considering I was away visiting for a week and didn't do any formal exercise. However, I'm 5lbs heavier than t the start of the month, and really need to lose half a stone to fit comfortable in my clothes. Really disappointed as I was hoping to be looking good at family events in July, so people I haven't seen for ages and some I've never met and was hoping to make a good impression!

But... I am feeling really good. The support on here is amazing, and the kind responses from people who have taking the time to share their thoughts/opinions about starting a family has been so much appreciated, and really made me begin to feel the things I want to achieve aren't hopeless. July has to be a better month, and I feel I can move forward. thank you all, and particularly NSK - you are all stars. :A

Abundant - I am totally with you on the positivity and your post was so inspiring, July needs to be a month when I focus on this! I will prompt you if you moan, please do the same for me!

Hope to see you for July - have just posted but if not I will be cheering you all on and be back for August.

xxx

SFD 7/16
Exercise 18/20
Groceries: 221.02/180
Petrol 80.14/90
Personal - toiletries, prescriptions etc 22.15/20
July accommodation 146/150
Entertainment/week away 218.64/200
Birthdays/Father's Day 38.29/35
House 300/50:mad:

MrsGSR

As it's the last day of the month I thought I would pop in to say that I have clocked up more SFD and I have achieved all I want to this month. Ending on a high and checking back in for August.

apple_muncher

What have I learned from June?

- That planning and looking ahead make a big difference to me being able to cope and enjoy being alive.

- I have learned that I really really enjoy my crafting and hunting down a genuine bargain in the charity shop - I simply cannot pay full whack anymore!

- That time spent with dd is precious and such fun - roll on September when I work 3 days, not 4.

- That people on here are such an inspiration - abundant put it so well! And mothernerd never ceases to amaze and inspire me. Likewise NSK. Thank you one and all!

CEW

Hello June Bugs,

Well the last post from me for June. A bit of a mixed result this month I'm afraid with some wins but also some losses.

In summary:

SFD - 12/15 - not too happy with this as I had quite a few stupid spend days for silly things I had forgotten to get. I really need to plan better to make sure I have everything I need until my next planned shopping trip :mad:

LTW - 18/18 - This is now second nature so I am going to stop counting this in my challenges. I do have a few £'s on my catering card at work just in case I do forget to take my lunch with me one day but this has been sitting on there for quite some time now :T

Exercise - 14/15 - This is always going to be a slightly difficult challenge doe to my MS but I'm quite pleased with this and aim to improve over the coming months. On the plus side I read an article in June relating to exercise at work and have been trying to implement some of the items into my daily routine. I have succeeded with the posture side of this to a large extent and must say it does seem to have helped :T

Groceries - £152.82/£150 - A very little over budget but this probably links into the high number of little top up shops during the month. I'm counting this as a failure as I was trying to reduce the budget so going over even by less than £3 is not a success :mad:

Fuel - £120.08£150 - This is a success as we had a few long trips in June and we still came in well under budget :T

Personal - £71.28/£50 - Not good here. This covered various medication and some badly needed underwear for OH along with a few treats for me :mad:

Gifts - £90.46/£100 - A little under budget and with lots of family birthdays and a wedding I'm really happy with this :T

Social - £90.46/£150 - This included an overnight stay for a wedding plus drinks and a long awaited day out at Marwell Zoo for OH and myself so almost £60 saving on budget I think is my biggest success this month :T:T

The main thing I learnt in June is that even if you budget for your expenditure life can still jump into the mix and screw it all up for you BUT because you have budgeted you can often find a way around the problem without throwing everything into chaos.

In June I had a shortfall in my rental income of £410 made up of a £60 lease renewal fee I had 'forgotten' would be deducted from the rent and having to pay £350 for a new washer dryer for the property BUT thanks to these challenges I was able to work around this with a little bit of juggling and only moving one payment back a few days. This does mean that July will be a little tighter than I had anticipated though:eek:

Sorry for the epic post. See you all in July

Chez x

Fmess

What I have learnt from the June Challenge is that I can be very weak willed and I'm too impulsive. If I want something, then I get it/have it. I have managed to cut out most personal shopping spends e.g. clothes, as I avoid going shopping, but food shopping, takeaway and eating out are still problem areas. I'm also not surprised they are all food related, and they most probably link to the fact I haven't lost any weight since mid march. I really need to decide on what my goals are and somehow, keep them in mind all day everyday.