NST Challenge - Spring is here!

Fmess

Good morning all and welcome to the April challenge. Let's get our budgets etc posted and get plans set for the month.


traveller - sorry to hear about your mum and your not so helpful siblings. Hope your mum is feeling much better today.


stewby - ha ha, typically I read the first line of your post and was so shocked I didn't read further down for a minute :rotfl:


Budgets

Food = £200 for 3.5 weeks at home and 5 dogs and a cat


Personal = £200 this includes £50 for holidays spends (ice creams etc), a new pair a trainers, necessary beautician visit before holiday , a few vest tops from town (only clothes I'm letting myself buy for the holiday), taxi to the airport and a new book for holiday.


Petrol = £55 only two weeks at work this month and had some petrol money left over from last month Going to fill up today as I need to spend on other things anyway.


Pay towards debt

Paid £498.82 towards the loan so far - that's an overpayment of £250, but also put another £60 from tutoring so far. Any more tutoring money will go towards it too


Spring clean

I started this on Monday, did the kitchen and the lounge a little bit. This afternoon, I will be doing under the sofas and the blinds in the lounge this afternoon.


Look after yourself

1. Exercise at least twice a week (this does not include dog walking)
2. Take multivitamins everyday
3. Exfoliate and moisturise at least once a week


Hope you all have a great day. Let's keep off the naughty step this month, just think how happy you'll be if you get to that DF date sooner

littleskintdragon

Happy April

So heres how April is looking for me

Budget until 25th

Food 0/120
Petrol 0/60
Other 0/70
Holiday (not sure how much saved because its in an unopenable tin and i lost count! :rotfl: ) lets say £70 because when i stick my phone torch through the slit at the top i can see 2 x £20, a £10 and a £5, and theres loads of £1's in there. I plan to add £66 to it this month.

Xmas/birthdays - i need to start budgeting towards this, will set up a d/d today!

Sfd's 0/15
Ltw 1/12

Spring clean - did 3 x upstairs windows last night to begin.

3 healthy commitments - read, walk/run at least once a week and eat healthily.

In other news my debt went below 10k yesterday :T a step in the right direction at least!

WelshKitty85

Happy April everyone!

Traveller sending get well wishes to your mum.

Budgets for the month are:
£3472.40 credit card overpayment
£250 shopping
£120 fuel
£50 Easter holiday fund
£200 fridge freezer
£50 brothers wedding

I WILL do better with SFDs this month!

I WILL take lunch to work & uni (& drinks & snacks).

I WILL avoid coffee shops, cafes etc apart from one which is preplanned. I will be taking the children to the best ice cream parlour in the area for their treat on the weekend after their fantastic parents evenings. I won't even feel the slightest bit guilty about it because my children are fantastic and they are worth it! It is coming out of the Easter holiday fund.

Decided we can't avoid needing a replacement fridge freezer. If it decides to give up on us completely then all the food in there will be wasted and we will have to pay the council to remove it. As it is, I can try to sell it as faulty. I have budgeted £200 but am hoping I can get an extra 15% off from home base over the weekend to make it closer to £160. FIL is giving us £50 'commission' for selling his car on Facebook and I am due £150 from switching bank accounts so that should cover the cost anyway.

Another expense this month is my brothers wedding. I will be spending about £30 to get my hair and nails done on the day and will need some money for drinks. I am making cakes etc for them for the day so that is my present to them, although I may put £10 in a card towards their honeymoon too.

Will make a start on spring cleaning today. I still have decluttering to do, mainly mine and the children's clothes. DD has outgrown most of hers but I need to sort through what she has before I buy any more.

3 commitments to look after myself:
I will do some sort of exercise every day, even if it's just 30 seconds planking to build up core strength.
I will make time for me and use it to look after my skin better.
I will put my all into my uni assignments as my future depends on them being the best they can be.

sazzlebgood

sign me up please will try to sign in more this month

littleskintdragon

Can i ask u all something please -

I was just about to set up savings accounts with a small amount going in every week, xmas/haircuts/clothes/car service/insurance etc - but then realised i wont have this money to pay towards debt. What do you do? Part of me says do it, you'll have the money there for next time u need it, and anotjer part says put it towards debt, as then i'll be paying less interest, but next time I need Insurance for example, i wont have the money again??
It seems a no win situation for me??

WelshKitty85

littleskintdragon wrote: »

Can i ask u all something please -

I was just about to set up savings accounts with a small amount going in every week, xmas/haircuts/clothes/car service/insurance etc - but then realised i wont have this money to pay towards debt. What do you do? Part of me says do it, you'll have the money there for next time u need it, and anotjer part says put it towards debt, as then i'll be paying less interest, but next time I need Insurance for example, i wont have the money again??
It seems a no win situation for me??

I think Martin usually says to pay the debt first. However, I have been saving whilst paying off debt. My reason was for my own mental well-being that I know if something comes up (like my fridge freezer dying!) then I can pay for it without resorting to more debt.

WelshKitty85

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/pay-off-debts

liltdiddylilt

Stewby that made me :rotfl: - you nutter!

littleskintdragon I think everyone has a different way of doing things and there is no right or wrong particularly. What you have to do is be realistic with your monthly budgets at the end of the day. So if you know something will cost £240 annually, save £20 per month up for that, and so on. I can see why it might seem a vicious circle if you are continually using credit to pay the annual or ad-hoc stuff off. I guess it also depends on your ratio of credit to debt, as the better that lies (i.e. you have £2000 credit limit, and have spent £2000 or you have £2000 and have spent £1000) the more likely you are to be given better credit rates, 0% deals etc in the future, so it might be worth ploughing your savings into the debt just to try and get better rates? Does that make any sense?

Day 1 of April, and day 1 of my LTW. I had seeded wholemeal bread and some ham with a packet of crisps, a pear and a banana. Not exactly setting anyones world on fire there.

Should be a SFD. Dinner is day 4 of the chilli con carne :rotfl:

Check back in with you later guys. Back to GABRIEL. xx

littleskintdragon

Thanks lilt and welshkitty, ive set up a monthly payment to an empty savings account for xmas/birthdays/insurances(car/dog/house) haircuts, car tax and car service. We'll see how this goes

I think it would be different if i was using this as a savings account for purely saving purposes, in theory these are all things that should be budgeted for anyway. Problem solved

WelshKitty85

I didn't get the job. I am now panicking about how I am going to pay for everything on my part time hours.