Starting again, with more motivation?

strandedinaber

Oh dear, cars always interfere with savings/reducing debt, I find!! Definitely could be worse though, and keeping your spending to £3 this weekend will definitely help. Well done on your hard work!

Bex296

Cars are definitely not great for debt reduction!

So, been a busy week work wise so no posts... Not much to report as I only got paid today! Kept costs down all week, and got paid for some work from last month yesterday, so yay double payday! Still need to chase my expenses claims though.

Hm, what to do this month? Christmas rather throws a spanner in the works but I have a strict budget so I WILL stick to it. I think budgeting rather than extra work is the way forward for me until my thesis is done as I don't really have time for extras! On the other hand, a thesis to write is the perfect excuse to be antisocial and lock myself away until March once Christmas is over, so should make it easier to cut corners.

CC payments not as high as they should be this month as my sister is having problems at the moment. Not wanting to go into details as the situation is her business and also not her fault, but I have lent (probably given!) her £200 while she gets some stuff sorted out.

Seeking out some December challenges to help keep me on track...

Bex296

Budgets for the month all done, and I'm religiously recording everything I'm spending so I can see where it's all going... Christmas presents are all done in a mammoth spree with DH on Tuesday evening, a bit of an overspend but since my Christmas/spending money pot were one and the same I will just have to cut back a bit elsewhere- started tonight by declining a wine tasting session. It would have been fun but I have a sore throat so can't talk much, and it's £10 not spent!

I've joined the NST December challenge which will hopefully help me stay on track, and all the outings I have planned are cheap - I'm driving to the pub at the weekend, so soft drinks for me, and other events include a duvet day with DH instead of a day out, and a friend's house party, which only requires a bottle of wine.

I've also been exploring cheap Christmas trees, and if we get a 5 foot one we can save £10, which seems sensible. I know artificial ones are cheaper in the long run, but real ones are so lovely and they *smell* like Christmas... And, apparently, greener - apparently one needs to use a fake tree for 10 years to come out ahead of real trees in that respect. And since next year I WILL be debt free at Christmas...

Anyway, off to nurse a medicinal tot of whiskey now, and to wrap some of the spoils from Tuesday's shopping spree!