The final push to financial freedom

Cloudy456

Whoops, hit post when I meant to delete that last part sentence! Not sure anyone is reading my ramblings but please ignore that if you are!

I_want_a_baby

You are doing so well!

My guesses....

I am pregnant
I am pretty tired
I am pre-empting paying out for something
I am present wrapping for Christmas already
I am prepared to cut back further

Come on, don't keep us in suspense...lol

Cloudy456

Ha to be honest I can't even remember what I started to type... Definitely not the first one though, that would not help with the money saving!!

Managed a NSD yesterday and should just spend £1 today on another running group session. I finally got round to listing some things on eBay last night, only five small items but I have more to do at the weekend, mainly clothes I'll never wear so may as we'll get rid of.

I'm getting tempted to make a small payment to the cc but I'm nervous of doing that so early in the month and then leaving myself short with 3.5 weeks to go until the next payday and going overdrawn. So I'm holding off for now although anything I make from eBay will go straight to the card!

Have a good day fellow MSE-ers!

I_want_a_baby

Why don't you transfer the small about you would have sent over to card into an online savings account (an empty or new one). Add your ebay sales and any other small savings you can make and then transfer it at the end of the month when you know you've made it through?
Count your outstanding balance as your card less the savings so in your head it's already allocated. This means in an emergency you can get the money but I doubt an emergency will arise just tough choices on how you prioritise your spending.
Well done, you are doing great!
IWAB x

Cloudy456

Thanks IWAB – that’s a good idea which I might think about doing. I think for me, I just love seeing the balance on the CC website come down and if it’s still in my bank I know it, even if it’s in a different place. Once it has gone to the card, it’s gone, and that’s where I really get the satisfaction from!

I managed to only spend my planned £1 on running group yesterday but nothing else. I had another great session, I’m so into my training at the moment and loving feeling myself getting stronger. It really helps mentally too, I feel like I’m being strong with myself on the money front for the first time in ages.

Saying that…I was a bit naughty today, I didn’t have anything at home to take for lunch so I bought a sandwich and crisps in the coffee shop nearest the office for £4.50! This was from the food budget but still, totally unnecessary and could have been a 50p tin of soup from another shop instead. I have no explanation for the slip up other than being too lazy to walk further for something cheaper and also just being tired and wanting an easy end of week treat. But I will make it up to the food budget this weekend by doing a frugal shop for the week ahead and doing some batch cooking. We’re actually doing really well on our food spending this month compared to normal so I’m not beating myself up too much about the sandwich. Our normal budget is £250 for all groceries but as part of my new money saving mission I’m going to try and keep that to about £200 and send the rest to our honeymoon savings at the end of each month. The food budget is separate to my own funds for debt busting, but I find my new frugal ways spreading in all directions. And actually, it is linked to my own spending budget because the more we can save for other things from the groceries money, the less I have to find from my budget for those other things!

Tonight is just going to be a quiet night in with the BF (hopefully avoiding any trick or treaters!) then BF is away tomorrow night so I will have plenty of time to myself this weekend to be productive. My plans are to put some more things on eBay and fill the freezer with delicious and frugal meals to have in the week when we get in too late to cook from scratch. I also want to clean the house from top to bottom as I always feel so much more relaxed and happy when my surroundings are nice.

I hopefully won’t spend anything from my own spending budget over the weekend as my only social plans are tomorrow I have a friend coming round for coffee (I invited her over instead of meeting in a caf!, very MSE!) then on Sunday my mum is coming down to visit but I’ll cook us lunch at home.

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend and happy Halloween!

Cloudy456

I’ve had a great weekend and managed to stick to my non-spending plan which is amazing! Had a lovely afternoon having tea and cake with my friend and being at home rather than out in a caf! was actually really nice as well as money saving. I had a nice visit from my mum yesterday and made us lunch at home. Other than that, I spent loads of time cleaning and organising the house and had a mammoth batch cooking session so the freezer is full of some nice easy meals for the next couple of weeks. I had a £6 off supermarket voucher so got a relatively big weekly shop for £42 – so still on track to come in way under budget on food this month although I did buy £10 of petrol out of that account.

I had a £30 voucher for a shop that my BF was buying something in so gave it to him in exchange for the money, so I actually ended the weekend with a healthier bank balance than I started it with! So I decided to round my credit card down to £2,800.00 which meant paying £44.63. That leaves me with £92.45 to live on for the next three weeks – it will be tight but I’m doing well so far so feeling fairly confident.

So, I have now paid off 10.2% of the CC!

I'm aiming for a NSD today - my batch cooking at the weekend included a big pasta dish for lunches for a few days, so I brought that to work. Tonight I don’t have any plans other than catching up with the ironing - wild times, but at least it means I shouldn't spend anything.

I’m really battling temptation to spend on some new running gear at the moment as I’m really low and have to keep washing and wearing the same things. But I’ve been strong so far and am trying to use this as extra inspiration to be DF - it's added to the mental list I keep of the things I will enjoy when that day comes!