NST - January. Bobs post bauble debt busting challenge

Calling14

Sorry will post my goals when I get back to my work computer.

Fmess think you have posted exactly what I was thinking, improve, repair house, have an emergency fund in place and clear my debts completely.

Mistara well done on getting under 3.5k.

Bob no coffee found this amusing for a cafe owner. I prefer tea. :DLeftover mushroom quiche for lunch and asda curry later. Family dinner tomorrow so will do enough cooking then Turkey!

Been for 2 mile walk, snow on hills and my ears are freezing. Wear a hat advice from roving weather reporter here, in North Wales.

Itching to pay something off my debts but being cautious so may leave it today.

Claiming 1/21 sfd

luckystarr

Happy new year everyone !!!!!!

I hope everyone is having a nice start to the new year.
I haven't posted with budgets etc so thought I would do it today so here goes ...

1. I will try for 21 NSD I do struggle with these but I am determined to get into double figures

2. We owe £4488.59 on our NW loan and £700 on the overdraft. which we want to clear by the end of this year.

3. Our intentions are to have paid the above debt off and have saved a good chunk of money for a house deposit as living with MIL and need to get out ASAP

4. I will make an effort to do this as once I miss a day or two I end up falling off the wagon

5. This will be done just need to decide where I wish to donate

6. This month I have four birthdays and I will be taking my OH out for his birthday money has already been budgeted

7. Living with MIL we go halves on the main food shop but we buy our own food for Lunch for work so I am aiming for £250 this month hoping it will be less

8. Hmmm not sure how I am going to do this

9. Again not sure as majority of our belongings are packed away ... have been toying with the Idea of a second job but unsure as in full time work and college twice a week, will have a think on it

10. Not done this for ages do people still use experian ??

2016 is going to be a year of change and it will take a lot of strength and determination to achieve my goals. However I must remember it's a marathon not a sprint.

Thank you for all the support in 2015, here is to a happy, healthy and debt free 2016.

Thanks for the thread Bob.

Good luck everyone

lucky xxxxx

stewby

1. Spend Free Days: 21 days at least.


2. Pay to your debt as soon as priority spends are complete. Attempt a stretch month: Going to attempt a stretch month but to be honest don't know how well it will go as this month I finished off paying the credit card and I hope to pay a bit off the mortgage too. Not sure if I have the funds available to do it.

3. State your intentions: The plan is to be mortgage free although that won't be by the end of this year obviously.

4. Check in every day: I will try and do this but when on nightshifts, I can barely string two words together during the day. But I will try.

5. Donation: Not going to be money this month and will be more than five pounds. Our local area has been hit really badly with floods so we are going to raid the house for stuff to give them and also buy some food to donate.
One of the only positive things to come out of this flood is to see how amazing our community is.

6. Socialising: I don't really do any socialising to be honest. We might have a meal out or a chinese but nothing is planned at the moment.
The only thing for certain is that we have my parents coming over once a month for a meal.
:eek:

7. Groceries: We are going to attempt to use up everything in the freezer. We have bought a lot of yellow labelled meat recently and are going to use January to eat it.


8. Get something for free: Very doubtful this will happen but I will try (as with everything).

9. Earn extra: Very tricky to do. If I work extra this month then it won't get paid until the end of February.
I do need house insurance so hopefully can get some t0pc4shb4ck from that.

10. Check your credit report: Will do this at some point. Have never done it before but I am hoping that my credit report will be quite good.

There we go... new month is all sorted.

Bobarella

CEW wrote: »

Happy New Year Everyone

Please can I join back in with the challenges. I have not taken part since May/June last year although I have followed every one of the challenges and cheered you all on from the sidelines.

I will post back later with my goals and targets etc.

Chez x

Of course that's great

Bobarella

Lucky Starr - you can use experian yes. I use noddle as it is completely free and they email you a report every month.

FunBrum you may have a point bout wombling being better in some areas than others. A great find by another poster recently was a gift card that they found and checked and sure enough it had £10 on it.
When I womble I scan for anything that looks interesting not just coins. Pay attention to any areas the wind has dumped a lot of paper too. I had the golden find of a soggy £10 slapped against a fence last year

Calling - I know ridiculous. I love tea too but only after the sun is firmly over the yard arm
Sounds like a lovely walk. Thanks for the weather update too.

Clippy_girl - is it worth you getting an extra loaf for the freezer so you don't have to lose another NSD that way?

Stewby I hope your area will be back to normal very soon.

Fmess - hope the dogs enjoyed using their new coats.

Dolly - agree that the NSD thing can be as helpful as people want it to be. No sense in getting too hung up on it if it doesn't save money really. For example today I got all that discounted meat that wouldn't necessarily be there tommorow. I think for compulsive spenders it's a brilliant detox tool though.

Bobarella

For my own part Jan 1 here went to Mr S. I took 4 wombled reciepts with me and had them add those on for 11 points. I shopped using a list and had several coupons in my purse for extra points.
There was a lot of discounted meat. I bought a whole chicken for £3. A pack of 500g pork for £1 & two packs of 8 sausages for 75p each. That's easily a weeks meat for less than £6. The chicken will be cooked tommorow for a roast.

I also decided that as I needed new tops I'd make use of an 800 point voucher if I spent £20. (Xmas money) I was very annoyed having shopped to find the exact value and managed to get a shirt and 2 long sleeved t shirts for £20.50 that when I got to the till one of the tops had been reduced further than was marked. You would think this was good but it meant my coupon wouldn't work.!
So I've emailed them to complain and said I'd specifically shopped to benefit from the points and don't see why I shouldn't get them for that reason. My only choice was to cancel off all my shopping, go and look for another top, & possible have exactly the same thing happen.

Anyway after taking off £15 in nectar points I managed to earn 40 extra points for buying a box of eggs I'd have got anyway and as the total spend before vouchers was £43 I used a 5 x points voucher as well.
Total spent today was £28 in total but I feel I got all the essentials we needed plus freezer food so I'm pleased with that. Have almost £5 in points accrued still.

Came home and made the Christmas roast veg into a soup using the turkey stock and frozen scraps of spaghetti. It's really nice and rustic.

We did go to a coffee shop too but 1 of the drinks was free using points.

So not a NSD in the end but I feel I shopped very well.

Oh and son found 2p in road kill to start the new score.

XSpender

Happy New Year!

I was hoping to achieve my first NSD today as we have not left the house (due to me coming down with a cold at about 10pm last night!) but have purchased cinema tickets on line for DH and DFIL for tomorrow. We were supposed to be taking DS on a bike ride but he has a bit of a cold too and it was freezing so this has been put off until Sunday.

We have made use of the day in doors and have sorted some DVDs and games to sell and cleared out a lot of old paperwork and DS old clothes. The sale of the DVDs will help me achieve my 'earn extra' goal.

The SO for the mortgage OP, ISA and regular saver are due out today but will come out on Monday due to the bank holiday. The old CC has been paid off and the balance on the other old CC transferred to 0% and I have paid £58 to my holiday spending money savings. My stretch target is to live on what's left without dipping into the savings or using the CC.

We have all taken down the decorations, cleaned the living room and DH has done a massive pile of ironing and 4 loads of washing.

I have defrosted some chicken overnight and was planning to make a curry for tea but not sure what I fancy now. I will need to cook the chicken anyway so will make a big batch of SW quick and easy curry for the freezer. I work away a couple of nights most weeks so DH likes to have something in the freezer to nuke for lunch and dinner.

DH has some leaflets to deliver tonight so we may venture out for half an hour and cover a few streets.

clippy_girl

evening all, have not achieved everything on my list, too tired! cannot wait for bedtime

Did my tesco express shop, only came to £10.50 which was surprising as I got two bags full and a few things were over £1.
Bought the cinema vouchers, some cashback had cleared so I got one free and my friend will pay me for the other
Haven't done tax return, will do it another day as will only take 10 mins.
De fluffed the cat so hes looking trim again
Curry is cooking and smells yummy
Took down tree and cleaned but haven't sorted rug yet.

Bob re the bread i normally do keep a loaf in the freezer to avoid waste and having to get more but my current guests are here two weeks and like the bread untoasted so will need to get them fresh. sounds like you got some really good bargains, my freezer is full of 19p blueberries and 10p stirfry veg!

need to be more organised as i got back from tesco and went to put the WM on and realised i am nearly out of both fabric conditioner and washing liquid which means i will loose another nsd buying more. I will not do any more washing until i need to spend again and hopefully there will be enough for my guests to use!

Realised I have not stated my aims for the month-

1. Spend Free Days: 21 days at least.

2. Pay to your debt as soon as priority spends are complete. Attempt a stretch month: My £4k credit card is 0% and I pay the min of £40 and put £250 in a regular saver which be enough to clear it when 0% runs out (started paying in aug)

3. State your intentions: End year with no debt (except SL and mortgage), have a few holidays (all paid for) and build up emergency fund of £2k

4. Check in every day: Will do

5. Donation: Will buy items for local food bank

6. Socialising: Cinema trip (now free!), Indian meal (budget £20) and meal with friend for her bday treat (£15 for mine, her meal will be paid for of present fund). Possible night out at end of month but unsure for now. Will be about £25 if i go.

7. Groceries: Try and run down stores. Will aim for £80 as I have quite a bit in already (although spent £10.50 today!).

8. Get something for free: Already got free cinema ticket

9. Earn extra: earn a good amount with renting spare room on airbnb. got a few things to sell this month as well.

10. Check your credit report: Did this the other day- no surprises

PurpleJay

Hi can I join you please? I used to do these challenges but it has been a while.

1. I will aim for 21 SFD
2. I am not in debt as such but I am not living within my means. I am expecting a sizable credit card bill this month which will be paid in full but leave me short. I need to get to grips with this, I will either run up a new bill or have to top up from savings.
3. My aim is to live within my means for now.I also intend to loose weight and declutter.
4. I will try to check in every day.
5. I will donate to the food bank.
6. I have nothing planned for January. i am starting a meal replacement diet on Monday for 4 weeks (minimum) so have already postponed a meal out until early Feb.
7. I already have 4 weeks of meal replacements ready. My budget is £100 as we have full cupboards. I will still be shopping veg and salad for me and food for DH and DS(9). I had a delivery from Mr T's yesterday so should be able to keep spends to a minimum. To help I am doing dry January so won't be buying alcohol. If DH wants any, he can drink what we have in or buy his own
8. Not sure what I can get for free... Will have a think about this one.
9. I have been listing stuff on ebay to earn extra cash. I do avon alongside my main job too so am intending to try and get some new customers.
10. Will have a look at Noddle.

Today is my first spend free day :j

Off to update my sig.

The_Only_Girl

Happy New Year everyone! First NSD bagged today!