New Mission, New Diary

snowscreamer

Great news! We weren't at that point yet (half way there) but I hated budgeting with income I didn't have yet so much that I added a new debt category which is income being spent before we have it and put in the amount we are currently behind every month (~£2000) and started marking our income as next month's income already! As soon as the credit card is paid off I will start budgeting towards getting this down to 0, hopefully should only take 3 months.

Sounds like you're doing just fine; YNAB is amazing...

MoneyMission2015

I have also just realised my debt is now under £10k & will reduce even further again with this months payment. I can't remember the last time my debts were under £10k so I am happy with this. Even though I know it is still too high, it doesn't feel like such a weight around my neck anymore. I feel like I can manage that amount very well and because I know how horrible it is to have such a high amount of debt, I know I wont get to that point again.


The annoying thing is, one of my 0% cards only has £240 left on it so I could easily dip in to my savings to pay that off, but because all the money in my savings account has a purpose I don't want to do this.


I'm going to start setting targets again now because everything is going so well. Going to have a think about it & will update again shortly.

MoneyMission2015

I had a bit of a cringe moment yesterday.


I printed some money off coupons off the internet for some cleaning products. I was going shopping anyway & knew I needed to stock up so for the first time ever I remembered to print the vouchers to use. Got to the checkout and once the checkout lady had put everything through, I handed her the vouchers. She had never seen them before & didn't know whether they accepted them, so had to call somebody over. I was stood trying not to make eye contact with the people behind me who were looking annoyed that they had chosen the one till that had some weird lady with her coupons:rotfl: . I almost just took them back off the lady & told her not to bother, but the person she called over suggested she try & scan them. She scanned them & they worked, so all was sorted.


I've never had that problem before because usually the coupons I've used have been ones that the store have given me, but these were manufacturer coupons from the internet & you could see from both ladies faces that they had no idea if they were genuine or not.


I have to get over it & just deal with the fact that it's obviously going to happen again. Maybe I should be proud that these people are obviously not as money savvy as me, after all it did take £2 off my total bill.


A few months ago I watched a few episodes of Extreme Couponing, which is based in America. It's much more full on over there & they have much better deals with coupons. Over here there are so many rules & restrictions when using a coupon and most of the time the coupons are for things you wouldn't usually buy anyway, so I think that's why it hasn't really taken off as well over here. I remember watching one episode where the lady bought £1000 worth of stuff & because of all her coupons it came to around £6!! These people are professional couponers though, they spend their whole lives scouring newspapers, internet, store magazines etc for vouchers & they stockpile everything. I can't help but think their diets must be quite bad though because the food coupons are always for things like frozen pizza, frozen burgers, crisps etc. It must be great if you're having a party or something but I prefer a bit of variety in my daily diet. There was also one woman who used to buy things just because she had a coupon, even if she didn't need them. She had around 20 packs of nappies even though all her children were teenagers. Madness!!


Saying all that though, I would love to be able to save more money on our groceries and I wish there were more coupons available for me to use.

MoneyMission2015

Mini targets for this weekend are


1. Bake some cakes.
2. Clear a few more things from the playroom.
3. Find somewhere to put our shoes!
4. Try & hang as much washing out to dry as I can, rather than use the tumble dryer.
5. Get a few more ideas sorted for Christmas gifts.


I think that is enough for this weekend as we have plans on Sunday so I only really have one day to do stuff around the house. I do have a day off next week but I want to keep that day free to take DD somewhere.


Everything is looking good on the budgets front. Most of the bills come out at the beginning of the month, but there are a few things that will come out next week and a few more at the end of the month. They're all covered with the money in the bank so I don't have to worry about them, plus OH gets paid weekly so all his wages can be allocated to next months income & I can start sorting next months budgets. The one good thing about next month is childcare should go down again slightly because the kids are back in school so the childminder hours are only after school a few days a week.

MoneyMission2015

Wow I've had a productive day today which is great.

I was up at 8am so a nice early start meant I got 5 loads of washing done, cleaned the bathroom & ensuite, sorted another load of stuff in the playroom, tidied & hoovered the rest of downstairs and baked some cupcakes & a coffee cake.

It was quite amusing though, a beautiful sunny day & all I was excited about was putting the washing out on my brand new washing line. No more tumble dryer for me, well until the winter at least.

I am hoping to have another productive day tomorrow. We have been invited to a BBQ tomorrow afternoon but I should have a few hours in the morning to get stuff done.

I had a letter from Halifax today. They are raising my credit limit to £4500! I've only had it a few months & they're raising the limit already. I'm not going to need it though, no more debt for me.

Not much else going on really. Everything just ticking over nicely.

MoneyMission2015

I've had a really good few days :j


Friday I got home from work & in the post I had received the following:
Sample sachet of Comfort softener
Free pack of baby wipes (always handy on the run with kids)
Free sample of St Tropez shower tan cream from Boots & a money off voucher
Full size bottle of St Tropez tan foam, prep & finish and a tanning mitt that I signed up to trial.


Then on Saturday we had a very productive day getting things done around the house plus I finally got round to baking some cakes.


Sunday we had a child free few hours so had a walk around the city centre & bought a few things for our upcoming holiday (all in budget). Then in the afternoon we went along to a BBQ we'd been invited to.


Today I have had £35 of voucher payouts from a survey site that I managed to get to the threshold on Friday, so redeemed the points and the vouchers came through today. I decided on a mixture between Amazon & M&S and it means I am over the £300 mark for vouchers for Christmas. I think I'm going to up my target now to £400 ready for Christmas.


Also today I have had a big whack of expenses paid to me. I've allocated most of it to the various savings categories but am keeping some back to budget for September.


Oh and to top it all off I just read my targets that I set myself last week & have managed to cross off every single one. So woohoo to me!! It feels so good when things are going well & these targets are being met.


Time to set more.

MoneyMission2015

Targets for this week & upcoming weekend.


1. Bake more cakes.
2. Clear another shelf/box in playroom.
3. Clear the washing basket completely & put clean clothes away.
4. Pack for holiday.
5. Buy a few more Christmas gifts.
6. Do 2 surveys a day.

MoneyMission2015

I managed to get a few more xmas presents last night. It wasn't anything expensive, just some chocolates to put in the Christmas hampers I have planned for my sisters, but it's one more thing done off my list.


I was hoping to get some washing done tonight to get towards my goal of having an empty washing basket, but I was reminded last night that i'm supposed to be going out for a meal with some friends. I could do without it to be honest. I've got things I need to get done around the house, i'm having a busy day in work (I'm actually currently on an early lunch because I have meetings all afternoon) and I would rather not spend the money on food when I've got a fridge full of food at home.


Oh well, I'm sure I will enjoy myself once I am out. I just hope it doesn't end up being a late night. I will be driving anyway so no alcohol for me, but I don't want a late night because I have a day off with my daughter tomorrow, so don't want to be tired.


I am still hoping to get the things done on my target list, it just looks like I'll be doing a bit more on the weekend than I thought. It's ok though because if my daughter does sleep in for a bit tomorrow morning, I can get a few things crossed off the list before she wakes up & wants to do something.

MoneyMission2015

I ended up having a nice night yesterday even though I wasn't looking forward to it. It did end up being a bit later than I'd hoped but it wasn't too bad.

I've had the day off today & it was another productive day. My daughter didn't want to go anywhere so she just had the run of the living room, which she has taken full advantage of with toys everywhere! I managed to get some washing done, found space for a piece of furniture that needed moving, cleared out some kitchen cupboards, sorted a few more things in the playroom & had a general tidy up. My daughter and I also made some chocolate hearts by melting some chocolate we had in the cupboard & putting them into a silicone chocolate moulding tray. They look great!

MoneyMission2015

MoneyMission2015 wrote: »

Targets for this week & upcoming weekend.


1. Bake more cakes.
2. Clear another shelf/box in playroom.
3. Clear the washing basket completely & put clean clothes away.
4. Pack for holiday.
5. Buy a few more Christmas gifts.
6. Do 2 surveys a day.

Things are looking good this week. I managed to get most of the above targets done. The only one I didn't do was baking more cakes, but that was only because I visited my mum last week & she gave me one to bring home so I didn't think there was any point in having too much cake in the house because we go on holiday this week.

I had a productive weekend. I did some decluttering in the kitchen & also a little bit more sorting out in the playroom. It's going to be a long process but I'd rather get it done properly because if it was up to my husband we would just dump it all in the garage & none of it would ever get used again!

I also sorted through my daughters clothes & have another bag of stuff to give away. I also sorted out the cupboard under the stairs & found a few £ in a coat and then another few £ this morning in an old bag that was ready for the bin.

It's been a little bit spendy the last few days because we had to get a few things for our holiday but hopefully now we are sorted, apart from picking up some shampoo, conditioner & sun cream.