NST; January Challenge- The Money Saving Game

LoveaDove

timetrade and lindsaygalaxy welcome! You have now been assigned contender numbers!

traveller

Happy New year turtles :beer: well I'm another on having a tight month, but that's on account of the sofas now due to be paid for and Christmas. I take my lunch to work 99% of the time so that's. Ok. I'm sticking at the shred and my food budget should be 300.00 maximum for the 5 of us, a cat and my work lunches. I have bought some clothes in the sale online as they are urgently needed, but this was money given to me as a present, so not allocated. Another one just lazing today. I feel very positive and will do everything I can to be debt free by the end of August take care and good luck everyone :T

Bobarella

LoveaDove wrote: »

Sorry Bobarella - I was meant to expand on this rule- but clearly got distracted! It should have read- 'Choose your Debt Free Date Now or the % of Debt you aim to clear by January 2016.' I will go and adjust this now as I can completely understand how overwhelming and demotivating this can make some feel.

Hi
no problem. I am sure for some having the DFD worked out to the penny is very useful. I am quite competitive and love the thought of knowing when mine is. But unless I knew exactly what I will earn each month to work it out it makes it hard. I will work out my % instead. Thanks for the clarification (& running the challenge)
Bob

liltdiddylilt

Eek I missed this!!

Count me in please hun!!

Really happy with the 18 SFD's as I scraped my 18th on the final day of December so have hit that target 3 months in a row now should be a doddle this month.

Starting as I mean to go on, the money for my new macbook came out this morning. £939.60... :eek: - I will plant myself on the naughty step as much as it has been planned, and thought about (I got logged out of the secure login 6 times in 3.5 hours before finally ordering...) I didn't have the money out of my Regular Saver and so have left myself a little bit skint at the beginning of the month. Am hoping this pushes me to be more frugal than ever

So:

SFD: 0/18
Groceries: £35.29/£150
Travel: £0/£15 - normally I try not to budget anything here but I have to cart some very heavy stuff and a £1000 laptop to and from work, so I have to be sensible.
Social/leisure: £0/£40
Birthdays: £0/£20
Misc: £939.60/£1000 :eek:

I will go back and read through now. Walking to work and LTW are both givens bar the 2 occasions I am planning on taking a tonne of stuff to & fro. Foodbank now has a donation set to go each month so £10 gone there anyway.

I've got a spreadsheet of a meal plan for the 'week' which includes breakfast lunch and dinner for me, Jelly & Him where applicable really need to use it!! Will set about figuring out what needs to be eaten this week and go from there.

Have spent the morning clearing out cupboards, sorting out toiletries and meds etc and have thrown out a bin liner full of confidential paperwork which will go to work to the shredding plant asap start as you mean to go on eh!

Lots of love to all, and a Very Happy New Year!!

nannygladys

Can I join this month please, my guests go back tomorrow so I will be able to work out my budgets then and a grocery budget. I want to pay all my remaining debt off by September as I would like to retire this year but I need to get rid of the remaining £2330, so I need to be really strict with myself to achieve this.

Happy New Year to everyone and I hope 2015 will be a good positive year for all of us.
Nannyg

cupcake-queen

Count me in please, I aimed to clear my debt in 2014 and failed miserably so gave up. Now seems a great time to start a fresh.

LoveaDove

Bobarella wrote: »

8. You will aim to achieve 18 Spend Free Days (SFDs)

I honestly think most days are SFDS according to those rules.

Bobarella you sound like you certainly have a super DFW head on your shoulders and already have some superb money saving habits! I hope the rule will make the SFD's achievable for most, but you can always make these tougher if you wish to challenge yourself further? E.g. Planning spend days on the day your direct debits go out and classing the direct debit as a spend. In regards to prescriptions and medicine, I wouldn't want anyone to deprive themselves of these in the name of gaining another SFD.

Bobarella wrote: »

But can I check. How does paying for the bus work? I don't buy a weekly travel card as it's triple the price I spend. And sometimes I pay for my journey in tips. So the days I do pay for the bus I would normally class as not spend days as it's an essential which if I paid in bulk once a month would mean I barely spend some weeks. But let me know.

How often do you use the bus a week? Do you have a travel budget? Could you make any savings with the monthly pass? I budget for fuel but I tend to fill up my car once a week on a Spend day.

LoveaDove

LINKYPIE2009 wrote: »

I'd like to join please - was only going to try for 10 NSD's this month but in the spirit of a fresh start and new year etc....I'm going for it!

Super attitude LINKYPIE2009! We'll be here to cheer you on! :T

rb6ac

Happy new year and thanks for adding me to the challenge

- Set ALL of your budgets at the beginning of the month
- Document your spends
I've just sat down and created a budget spreadsheet with my OH. We haven't tracked our grocery spending before this month, so are going to go for £250 (of course we are hoping it will be much, much less but gives us a starting point!). Travel for me will only be a London zn 1-3 monthly ticket this month. Savings £500. Social, leisure and birthday costs are quite high, I have the following birthdays: dad, brother, best friend and my partner. So estimated presents and nights out come out as £288 but I will work on it being less by looking out for good deals etc I must say that creating the budget really opened my eyes to how much I spend and it's (hopefully) the motivation I need to stick to this challenge!!

Tomorrow's jobs:
- Pay money to your debts first
- Donate £3 to The Trussel Trust

- Time to get moving
My pledge is to walk to the next tube station along on my way to work in the mornings, or to get off a stop earlier. This is further than you might think!

- Share your 2015 Goals- financial or other.
To end the year with £5,000 in saving and to follow the 'flylady' thread (on the old style board) in order to be a domestic goddess!

Best get on with meal planning

stewby

So.... I have actually done not too badly in December as I had £34 left in my budget account. This is the account that I have full control of and that I normally destroy within two weeks.
This is a massive achievement for me and I am feeling brilliant about it.


Account has taken a hit already as January has seen the addition of a new solo pot. We are going on holiday to London (the four girls again) in December so I have started up a pot to ensure I have spendings for it.

So... pots/budgets:
Xmas pot = £31.
Holiday pot = £50.
Bongo pot = £50.
Nodnol pot = £50 (can't help but think of red dwarf).

Food = £60 (total is £120 but split between OH and myself).
Fuel = £40.
Illegals = £30 (hoping it will be a lot less than this).


So, that is my plan for my £400 budget account. There is some money leftover which I am hoping will be leftover by the end of January.


All pots have now been filled by OH and myself so feeling pretty pleased. Hooray!!
:j