Don't call it a dream.... Call it a plan

louby40

Kitty that's amazing about the smoking! £109 saving is brilliant.

I used to love my Sky+ box and how it would record, series link etc but you can buy recorders that do that. I bought one 2 years ago (after cancelling Sky costing me £70 a month) the make is HUMAX and it cost me about £250.

It does everything a Sky+ box does. It must have saved me hundreds of pounds by now.

Keep going, you're doing great!

upoiupou

kittykatneedscash wrote: »

So last week I managed 4 NSD's which I was very happy about don't know if I'll manage any this week as I'm back to getting the train to work.

How do you pay for your train travel? It sounds like you're buying a ticket each day. Would it be cheaper to get a season ticket?

I travel to work only 2 days a week and the cheapest way to do it is a season ticket for most of the journey then make the rest of the journey using a card for travel within the city . So even if you work part time it's worth looking into.

kittykatneedscash

Hi Upoiupou

I have a pretty cheap commute anyway it's only one stop so £1.70 single or £2.60 return don't think I could get any kind of season ticket for such a short journey, it's just annoying as it interferes with No spend days. If I didn't have train fair I would have lots!

upoiupou

Have you checked? If so, then fair enough.

You're lucky to have a cheap fare!

kittykatneedscash

Haven't updated in a few days but things are going well. I now think about money all the time and don't actually want to spend anything. I'm managing to have quite a few no spend days ( I'm excluding train fare now as that's a necessity to get to work)

I'm £12.30 towards my £40 in my onepoll account.

I've signed up to the free trial of YNAB still trying to get my head round everything I think I'm finding it a bit complicated as I'm weekly paid so I have weekly spends but monthly bills but I'm sure I'll get the hang of it.

I'm going away this weekend with my BF and my family to Centre Parcs for my mum's early 60th (not actually until Nov but this was the best weekend for us.) I'm going to try not to spend a lot but I want to enjoy it as we don't get away much all together. Each couple is taking something to cook a meal for everyone one evening each so that will help keep the costs down.

Not smoking still going ok ish I had a two last weekend when I'd been drinking! A couple I had left over I've not bought anymore and won't be doing that is it! So far £174.25 saved according to my app

Hope you all have a good bank holiday weekend and fingers crossed for sunshine.

louby40

Great update! I've been hammering the surveys too.

Got 2 x £10 Sainsbury vouchers from Valued Opinions (did this within 4 days)
£5 paypal from Opinion Outpost and am close to another £5 too

YNAB is great, hope you find it helpful. Im sure if you went onto the YNAB forums they would give you lots of ideas of how to manage weekly pay/budgets.

Kahra

I'm also a huge YNAB fan, although I remember it took a while to figure it out because it made me think about a budget differently. I've used it for about 4 years now, and love it. Also, well done on quitting smoking - you've saved so much already!

Is there any chance you could get a lodger? That could give you some much-needed room in the budget.

kittykatneedscash

I wish I could get a lodger Kahra as it would make things a bit easier but I am in the process of renovating the house at the moment which seems like a never ending job when funds are short. None of the rooms are carpeted and still quite a bit of replastering / decorating to do before I could think about getting a lodger. The house was my nana's which I bought when she died. She'd lived there for 65 years and nothing had hardly been done to the house in that time. Every room needed re plastering , new kitchen, new bathroom, no central heating etc etc. So it's been quite a big job over the last 3 years.

Centre Parcs was really good spent more than I budgeted but couldn't really be helped only had lunch out on one day.

not many plans for the weekend coming so I hope to keep it that way as it means I won't have to spend much and hopefully get a bit further with the DIY. I'm on project hallway at the moment.

kittykatneedscash

Wow where has the time gone over 4 months since my last post…… and boy has a lot happened in that time not on the money saving front as such more personal things but all impacts the dream.
In a very brief roundup I am now single . My ex had been living with me for the last 12 months and in this time didn’t contribute anything to the house bills other than contributing to food. His reasoning was that he still had a property that he was trying to sell and that as soon as it had sold he would be able to contribute towards utility bills etc. Now looking at it from the other side I am so much better off out of there, I found a lot of things out, he had been unfaithful throughout our whole relationship (with multiple people), quite controlling and emotionally abusive. Despite earning 2.5 times my income, with all expenses paid, car phone, laptop, meals, hotels etc. he was still in massive amounts of debt which he kept secret and still owes me money.

So when I eventually managed to find enough self worth ( he had ground every last bit out of me) I showed him the door. I have been in some very dark places in the last few months but time to get my !!!! together and make things better for me as no one else is going to do it for me!!

I do although have a couple of confessions to make, I have started smoking again :mad: (I’m very annoyed at myself but it wasn’t the right time to stop even though I’d managed 11 weeks) In November and December my finances were not under control and my spending got out of hand I was going out drinking and generally spending but couldn’t face being in the house on my own. Anyway January New Year new me and all that Jazz.

I have been thinking a lot about my financial situation lately, there is no second wage to fall back on, nobody to plan a future with so I need to get my ducks in a line. Initial plans are

Pay off credit card asap £952 @0% (through regular payments and any added income I can make TCB, MB etc)
Pay off loan from parents £4000
I already have an emergency fund of £1500 which I want to keep rather than use to reduce debt at the moment
I am currently trying to Konmari my house starting on clothes don’t have a lot so could end up with hardly anything
Continue with house renovations if by the end of 2017 the house is ready for carpets I would be over the moon.
Since the start of January I am keeping a spending diary of everything and hopefully updating my diary will spur me on.

I promise it won’t be another 4 months before I’m back :rotfl:

kittykatneedscash

Well I'm another year older it was my birthday on Friday so had a lovely weekend with friends and family, afternoon at a spa on Friday, night out in Manchester on Saturday and a gig with a friend last night. This meant it has been a spendy weekend but I've loved every minute. Early to be tonight though I'm shattered!!!