NST - January. Bobs post bauble debt busting challenge

crazy_cat_lady

Hi Bob - sign me up would you please?
My aim for January is to see if I can survive a budget without any income from dh at all - that is what is likely to happen by Feb. So everything else works in towards that - NSDs, stretching, planning, freebies etc. So my stretch target is to have £700 surplus by the end of the month, which feels almost impossible at the moment, but I've done it before and will do it again.

apple_muncher

Must.try.harder - I sell my home-made toys/christmas decs at school fairs. The first one I ever did was scary! Putting myself and my creations out there for all to see. And I was concerned about having enough to fill my table - which is no longer a problem! For you, I guess it depends on the size of the items you are upcycling. Would gumt or your local fb site be any use?

Crazy_cat_lady - so good to hear about your whole family time away together. Glad the parcel arrived and you like it . Hope the next few days see things fall in to place for 2016.

Well, January will of necssity need to be a careful month, so 21 NSDs is perfect.

I have already paid to the mortgage, and we are now in the 39s :j.

My intentions are to get shot of the mortgage asap so that dh and I then have security and freedom and choices.this is probably going to be scuppered in Feb, as we are expecting dh to be made redundant - he has only been with this company for 2 years, so no massive payout!

Daily check-in is good.

Monies already given.

Diary is a work in progres - my 'outings' tend to be parents evenings a work :rotfl: but this month I shall be going for a back massage with a friend to say thank you to her for having dd after school for me.

Groceries - no Cmas excess to use up, unfortunately, so the usual amount.

Get somthing for free - an offer is on the table for a bike for dd. However, I shall be giving money for it - despite it being a freebie - as the friend is struggling.

Make extra - I have accepted work for the exam board, but that doesn't happen until May, so I'll be keeping an eye out for roadkill.

Credit report - don't think I have ever checked this! I'm one of those people who the cc companies contact to cancel my card, because I haven't used it in months/years!

And the s t r e t c h target? About £150. But I'll put it into our savings account instead of paying it off the mortgage, so we can access it easily if we need it in the next few months.


Roll on January!

The_Only_Girl

1. NSD's - I did not manage to track/count my NSD's during the last 2 months so as we start 2016, I will aim to hit the target of 21 NSDs.
2. Debt Repayment - I have been DF since August but I am currently working on saving for the fully funded Emergency Fund (equivalent to 3-6 months living expenses around £12,000). All of our gazelle intensity as a family goes into throwing as much money into this pot. Yesterday my husband and I came to a decision - to close our cash ISA's which are only earning 1% and put the money into a higher interest rate (3.9%) current account, separate to our main account where wages go in and bills come out. We also opened our individual regular savers account (interest rate of 3.9%). We have already out £400 into these accounts as soon as our wages hit the bank last week. Our stretch target is to save and or earn extra £150 this month to add to the EF.

3. Goals. I have three main goals in January: a). Hit the £150 stretch target for the EF b). Maintain work-home-leisure life balance c). Lose weight (at least 1 lb a week)

4. Check in every day. I won't be doing any more night shifts or weekend shifts starting January so I am hoping to set a well balanced daily routine to enable me to post at least once a day.

5. You will donate £5 to a good cause of your choice. - already done. As per my previous post, I regularly give £80 to my chosen charity (my local church) and we have extra £50 for donations in our monthly budget for other charitable needs. When it doesn't get used, they get rolled over to the next month so we always have £50 in the pot.

6. Plan your diary. We have a couple of birthdays in January and my leaving do at my old workplace on the 22nd, which have been budgeted for in the birthday and entertainment funds, respectively. We used to go to a lot of parties and other social obligations but my family has had to learn to subtly avoid going to these.

7. Grocery Spends. We have reduced our January groceries budget to £350 (a £100 drop from December). We have plenty of food in the freezer and the pantry and hubby and I are both determined to use them up first before going grocery shopping. We also plan to do more YS shopping to live within this meagre allowance.

8. Get something for free I love this part of the challenge and will definitely do as many wombles as we can.

9. Earn extra - I definitely need to do this, I have already turned down some opportunities for overtime in my old workplace because I feel it would jeopardise my focus on my new job so I would need to do more selling on selling websites. I gave tote bags as Christmas presents to my sisters in law and close friends and they suggested that I make some more and sell them.

10. Check your credit report- i have never done this before so it would be interesting to see what my credit file looks like. I need to do some research on how best to do this without costing an arm and a leg.

Mrs_Toast

Please can I join in again Bob? This challenge has been the most helpful in my debt fighting in the past so need to get on it again. NSDS are something I definitely need

chocolatelover93

Bob - have PM'd you

chocolatelover93

Already got my first three things!!
Anglian water man has just been and given me a free washing up bowl, shower time and shower head

clippy_girl

Eeek not off to a great start as my ybs money manager has stopped working and I don't know the log on details to my tsb saving account. Just set up first direct online banking and think I'm going to switch to them for £125 and then I will move sone savings there. Will need to reset Barclays, nationwide and tab. Think I need to write down the usernames/user numbers as I can generally answer the questions!

Eager_Elephant

Hi Everyone,
I would like to join this challenge for the first time and see if I can get my life straighter:

1. I will aim for 21 no spend days.


2. I need to concentrate on my main credit card – I have £107 at 27.5% and £1030 at 0%. I want to pay at least £100 to this to clear the high interest part (£7.77 came out by DD today) and by the end of the month if I haven’t spent all my bus fares/parking budget I will move this across.


3. I want to stick to my 2016 budget and with DH (finally) on board I think we can buy our current home in the next few years.


4. I often read my subscribed threads every day but rarely post – this month I will.


5. I already play the East Anglian Air Ambulance charity lottery which is £8.68 per month (just started but hoping to win as the odds are very good). I will donate £5 to SULSAR as they came out 2 years ago to help find my husband when he went missing (mental health issues).


6. I must start meeting up with my best friend every month like we used to – I know she is away in the middle of Jan so will suggest a meet up at the end. I also have a committee meeting in a pub so will definitely need money for a drink and another meeting at a caf! so may need money for drinks as food provided. Think that’s it although we have panto on Saturday – tickets purchased at the weekend, may grab tea when we leave (my children are deprived and want McDonalds!!:D).
It is DD’s birthday tomorrow, the birthday person gets to pick the meal and she wants Chinese (although will buy tonight as they don’t open NYD and then that won’t count as a January spend!!:rotfl:)


7. We have spent most of our grocery budget on Xmas – we have loads of food and drink left and only £100 in the budget to last until 25/1/16 so this is what I will stick to. Loyalty points/vouchers cashed in for Xmas so will start building this up again for Xmas 2016.


8. This could be interesting – not sure where I can get something for free but I will try.


9. I need to get back into doing surveys so I pledge to do 80% of the surveys which come into my in box. I do cashback on purchases but this gets donated to SULSAR instead (I only really spend at Xmas and birthdays). I have a reward bank account so I get cashback on DD’s – last month I got £11.


10. I last checked my credit report years ago and managed to get some things corrected – I have defaulted on my Barclaycard since then so it won’t be pretty!!

FunBrum

I've just done my last shop of this year and the last one for at least a month!
I managed to buy all the birthday cards for the next few months, at least. Plus gifts for 5 birthdays in January. Everything was discounted, and I got an extra two gifts as they were too good a bargain to miss out on.
It would have cost me £42.62, but I only paid £25.75, which was fortunate as I only had £27.70 in my purse that I had scraped together!
I'm happy to start the challenge tomorrow with a clean slate.

1. I plan on spending nothing at all in January, monthly bills are taken care of.

2. My plan is to save at least £340 during this challenge.

3. I plan to pay down a £2,500 debt.

4. I will check in every day to keep on track.

5. £5 will be donated to the Acorns children's hospice, it's local.

6. I have vouchers for free carvery meal and cinema tickets I received as Christmas gifts, so I will use them as a treat out during January.

7. I don't plan on spending ANYTHING on groceries. I rarely buy any as my sister's restaurant passes on some of their left-overs a few days a week, so I don't need to shop. I also have a fridge and freezer full of goodies so I don't see a problem here.

8. As for a freebie, I know I have a free cup of maccys coffee with my name on it! I will however, look for other free stuff.

9. I have toys and other items to pop on eBay etc, so will post them next week.

10. I haven't checked my credit report for a few years now, but will defo get onto it.

I think that's me all set to go...bring it on!!:j

jeanangeo

I've just been over my budgets one last time before tomorrow. My freezer and cupboards are pretty well stocked so I have reduced my shopping lists accordingly.

I am classing NSDs as days where the only spending is bills, designated spends (below) and emergencies.

I have 5 types of designated spend:

• monthly supplies
• batch cooking fresh produce (onions, tomatoes, corriander, etc)
• weekly fresh produce (milk, vegetables, etc)
• bulk (Costco visit every six months or so)
• petrol (weekly)

I am declaring my designated spend days upfront in an attempt to ensure I follow through on my intentions.

Monthly supplies: Saturday 2nd (partially completed)
Batch cooking 1: Saturday 2nd
Batch cooking 2: Saturday 16th
Weekly 1: Already completed
Weekly 2: Saturday 2nd
Weekly 3: Saturday 9th
Weekly 4: Saturday 16th
Weekly 5: Saturday 23rd
Bulk shop: Not required this month
Petrol 1: Already completed
Petrol 2: Saturday 2nd
Petrol 3: Saturday 9th
Petrol 4: Saturday 16th
Petrol 5: Saturday 23rd

I got paid on 23rd December which is why some of my spend days are listed as completed.

I am attempting to get by on £80 for supplies and £100 for petrol. That is a super-tight budget but I know I can do it because I've done it before.

What it actually means for me is:

• I will use from my cupboards and freezer first
• All cooking will be from scratch
• The majority of my cooking will be vegetarian
• I will buy supermarket value items instead of brands
• I will buy my fresh produce from my local market
• Nights out will be at C1n3w0rld (and I will not buy anything when I am there)
• I will not buy prepared food or any other non-essential item

I have put NSD and budget trackers in my signature. Hopefully, I will have the strength to stick to my plans. If I crash and burn, then I will re-evaluate and set easier targets for NST February . However, I will try my best to keep in mind that my dream is to be mortgage free. No ad-hoc spend can be worth delaying that dream.

Good luck to us all. See you tomorrow .