Cash for The Cupcake - £600 Savings Challenge

debtfreeoneday

OOOOOohhhh exciting!

I had one of those, meant to be leaving work at lunch - ending up still being there at 5 kinda days this week!

juicyjackieb

I had a cheeky bargain today. The hose split on the shower so I cashed in a cash back reward from using my Natwest Card, £10 rewards =£15 argos voucher. I bought the hose, a lampshade and a bottle of very reduced perfume in every sale all in it costs me £3.... Very MSE! Plus now I smell like Taylor Swift apparently.

This week's looking good for the bank, not so good for the coins in my purse but I needed some frozen yoghurt after a very stressful day. Utterly justified. Nod.

juicyjackieb

OK - it's the end of the week thing

Savings

I dropped in another £50 into my savings fund, so I'm now sitting at a cracking £400 in just 10 weeks. I also threw my change into my chrimbo fund and have £20.92 which I am pretty pleased. I think by the end of summer I will have an idea of what kinda Christmas we will be having. And how much Baileys I'll be drinking :-)

I am dumbfounded and actual embarrassed about my savings because clearly up till this point I have been very wasteful financially and I have nothing really to show for it. Sigh.

Deals

Well I didn't really get any major deals this week's except I didn't do (and pay for) the weekly shopping this weekend for the first time in 6 months. It wasn't intentional, I woke up a bit unwell today and the mister did it instead. So I guess it's a deal because I didn't spend £40 in Sainsbury... Bargain!

Also I worked all day yesterday; 9 till 7. We've had a horrible backlog at work for maybe 9 months, it's quite stressful having that over lingering for so long so I volunteered to just come in, unpaid and just clear the damn backlog. It wasn't about money or scoring points, it's just about being constantly under resourced and it effecting me.

Anyways, my boss is awesome and also agreed to come in and just get on and help me clear it, neither of us get overtime pay as we are at management level and of course exempt. When the office manager found out the scale of the work and how serious it was she said she would make sure we got paid. I'm not holding my breath to be honest, it's a small company, if it happens I will be pleasantly shocked, if not it was worth it for stress being removed.

Spends

Well aside from a pizza on the way home last night I haven't really bought anything significant. I think I will cross off a couple of bits this week from my "to pay for at some point" list, probably my ticket for the Birmingham half marathon in October.

Failures

I didn't contact the bank and I didn't put anything on eBay. BUT now I don't have 10 weeks of work hanging over my head I can actually book so easy time off without worrying and do some eBay. It won't be next week but the week after.

And that's pretty much it! Looking forward to having my stepson with us over easter, although I need to start finding some fun things to do with him the the are cheap and keep him cheerful.... He's 7 and would play xbox all day if we let him. Time to trawl through "what to do with the kids"

stepuptothepl8

You are doing brilliantly, look at your total saved!!

dalleDF

Well done!

juicyjackieb

Just a quick update as I'll do a proper one later because right now I have a massive Hanover after going out last night to celebrate getting ENGAGED!

I'm happy and hungover and also not embarrassed to say that we did the official ring thing now rather than later as the jewellers had a 30% off sale... Yep that's right, MSE came into play because I will happily admit I would rather us have an extra £200 in our bank than theirs.

My fella is gonna be a total bridezilla though.... Must control him!

stepuptothepl8

Congratulations!!!! how exciting! xx

juicyjackieb

Phew hangover finally gone - what a corker... and an expensive corker might I add whoopsie

Anyway! Yes I am now engaged, happily already living together so no rush for the actual wedding which suits me. I would rather get the house sorted this year, the garden next year and see what happens after that, a good few holidays would be rather nice. Although life has a funny way or throwing those curve balls doesn't it.

... moving on... to this weeks update

I managed to chuff away £100 this week toot toot due to not buying groceries last week. I now have £500 in the pot with £100 to go!! I am now wondering what to do once I reach my goal.... carry on and hopefully get to £1000. But after that... an ISA? Premium bonds? Both?

I also added a little to my spare change fund and my Christmas pot now sits at £25.62... looking after those pennies as well as those pounds is totally worth it.

Next week I will probably save around the £50 mark as I spent A LOT this weekend; food, beauty junk and going out drinking and dancing and to be honest I have not been very mindful for the last week. My diets gone out of the window too this weekend with all the cocktails. So I am now looking to get at my initial goal in 2 weeks time however this is when we have Easter break and my stepson is with us so we may have a few trips and things to pay for.

So as of tomorrow time to refocus on good eating and good money management. I have proved time and again I am very capable of self discipline. Back on it... pounds off the scale, money in the bank and BIG FRICKING DIAMOND ON MY FINGER WHOOP WHOOP

dalleDF

:T CONGRATULATIONS!!! That's brilliant news, so happy for you Jackie!!

juicyjackieb

Ok - super brief update as I am poopered!

So pretty much a terrible week in terms of spending; had 2 sessions at the pub with food, bought 2 new bras and some spring flat shoes - Primark £6 but still it all comes out of the pot.

I managed to put in £32.34 into my emergency fund which now sits at at £532.34. I will have very little to add this week, probably nothing. Although I shouldn't have any major outgoings in the following 2 weeks budgets so I should easily get to my target by mid April... something to look forward to! I also added a few pounds to my savings pot which now sits at £28.82... pennies pennies pennies.

Again another week whizzed by without much action; no ebaying, no contacting natwest, no financial discipline. I will contact Natwest tomorrow as I should have time but the ebaying will have to wait. I assume they will have some sort of easter weekend promo for listings so I will stack it all up this weekend. My stepson is with us from Friday and I am so excited, OH will organise and pay for a big shop so that will help matters. Just need to stay on budget whilst hes with us. We have a big fair near us which will be a good day out, thankfully though he is very low maintenance.

Onwards, onwards, onwards....