Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

The revised Frog list now has 57 items on it, 1 of which has been crossed off. DH and I had planned to put the Christmas decs away on Monday night and completely forgot! They are packed away in the guest room so out of sight out of mind. Will probably be the weekend before we get around to it now.

I missed running club again due to the weather and will miss Thursday as DH will be in late from work. If I am to complete the 6 week course I need to be doing the runs on my own as the running minutes are going up a lot now.

I have 2 meetings today but I am determined to get my CV signed off before 5pm today which will be another Frog crossed off.

I am making an effort to use up the fresh bits and avoid waste and it is going well so far. I am making a sausage casserole in the slow cooker to use up some old carrots, a purple sweet potato and cupboard bits. I may improvise and add some butter beans to bulk it out a bit and serve with some spring greens that need using. My cooking mo-jo disappeared a couple of years ago and I am hoping it is on it's way back as I saved a lot of money cooking meals and snacks from scratch and enjoyed it.

After reading a frugal/money blog elsewhere I have pinched an idea and have decided on a small challenge for February. I am going to reduce my spending by 10% in February compared with January (excluding the roof spend). I estimate this will be about £400. We don't have a huge disposable income after living expenses so it won't mean I have all the £400 spare as some will be in the 'pots' I won't have spent out of if that makes sense. Maybe £100 - £150 will be extra cash to go towards repaying DPIL/EF.

Most of the savings will come from the food budget, no water rates, no hair cut for me this month and low/no home maintenance spends. We will have an increase in the family fun budget due to DH/DS at a pre-booked event that was a Christmas gift and a meal out for DH birthday.

XSpender

The CV is finally done and has been uploaded to 2 sites:j

My bonus arrived which is less than expected. Part down to a mistake on my calculations but I believe they have miscalculated as well. I will need to check dates/payslips to check if I am owed another £200 gross.

We won't be able to repay DPIL in full (they are not expecting the money back until the end of March) as we wanted due to the smaller bonus but I want to really push to see if I can repay £1000. It's the shortest month of the year, our food spending is going down an could go down a lot further, DH is spending less on fuel, DH wants a takeaway instead of a meal out for his birthday which can be covered from the normal fun budget and we have no other expenses that cannot be covered by our normal budget. The 10% reduction challenge will help with this too.

We also have a few bits that we could sell and hope to raise another £100 from this. I will also use the £100 I had restarted the EF with as paying the DPIL off is more pressing.

I am very tempted to just withdraw the £1000, repay it and live on what's left! I'm just not confident that I have budgeted correctly/covered everything, trust we won't spend and we won't end up short so we end up using a card.

Am I brave enough to do it??????

I need to check that the payment I made earlier to the Sains card will cover the monthly payment and that we don't have water rates to pay.

The finance documents have arrived for the finance that has taken a year to sort out. The first payment of £70 will be due at the end of the month. This pushes our debt total over £21k but if we can repay the £1000 we will be back under £20k. £1600 of this is the furniture finance which I had taken off the total a while back until they sorted it out and have now added back on.

apple_muncher

Phew to finally getting the CV in a usable state!!!

XSpender

apple_muncher wrote: »

Phew to finally getting the CV in a usable state!!!

Just got to wait for the linked in profile and the covering letter now!

XSpender

I don't know what's happened to DH but he seems to have found his frugal gene!:eek::j I hope it lasts!

He persuaded me to go to Aldee for the weekly shop today, saying that even with a £10 voucher it would be cheaper than Mr T. He also asked me to buy their beer at a fraction of the cost of his usual brand and not to buy him the usual snacks!

DPIL have told us not to pay any money back this month as we only borrowed it last week. We will still aim to save £1000 this month if we can although I have had to pay water rates I was hoping were not due this month. I have added the furniture finance, now that it is finally set up, to my debt total in my signature. The balance should come down by over £1000 this month, a good bit more if we hit the target for the roof money.

Hitting a grand is a good incentive to get on with selling some bits.

DH has also asked for a home made chicken curry for his birthday tea tomorrow. This has gone from a pub meal to a takeaway to a chicken curry for which we have everything in although I may buy a pack of poppadums as a treat

I have decided that instead of saving up to pay the carpets off quicker I am going to OP the bits and bobs and TTs to DH CC to reduce the balance before we have to BT at the end of the summer. I think it will be more motivating to do this too as I will see the total debt balance come down if only by a little.

I will need to find DH V1rg1n card again and re set his on line banking.

XSpender

I have managed to get a load of frogs swallowed this week It has meant that the housework has taken a back seat but it's not that minging I cant wait an extra day or 2 to run the hoover round.

DH and I sold 2 bags of DVDs today and raised over £50 which has been put straight into the pot to pay back the DPIL. DH sold a couple of his own gaming bits and we have about £40 of CDs to take to the shop's other branch as they didn't take CDs at this smaller one. DH has also sorted out an old camera of ours to sell too as they will buy that too. This money will also be going to the roof loan too but the branch we need is in the city centre we won't go for 5 weeks so we can tie it in with when I get my hair done to avoid 2 parking charges.

Mothernerd on the NST challenge has reminded me that I also have a sewing machine to sell which I have used once Just need to find somewhere that will buy it.

DH has offered to take charge of the food shopping next month as he believes he can get it under £300:eek: I dread to think what he will have us eating but it would make him realise how much he spends on beer and lunches at work. I may be too much of a control freak to let him do it though :o

Honeysucklelou2

Wow, well done, that's impressive getting things sold.

XSpender

I was hoping for a NSD today but will pop to the little co-op to get DH some chocolate for his birthday tomorrow.

The roofers are here completing the lower level work:) It is much warmer today and the sun is shining so hopefully nicer working conditions for them than for the scaffolders who took the structure down in the snow last week.

I have a sneaky suspicion that a part of the extension DH thought wasn't getting done is getting done which will be fab:T If it is it is a frog off my list as it would have stood out as not being done and I would have had to do something with it myself. Fingers crossed it get done. ETA: It has been done and looks great :T:j

I have identified 10 frogs on my list to complete this week. The list has grown to 63 and I have completed 12 and a half so far. A lot better than I did last month. Some of the remaining ones are bigger outdoor jobs and we need better weather for them or need to be split in to smaller parts.

I received £10.50 of Mr T vouchers this morning and still have a £7 off £70 shop voucher to use too. This would bring me under budget for the week and I could stock up a bit, especially on some GF bits and meat, and reduce the rest of the month's spends. Careful meal planning and list making required on mysupermarket. I do have another £7 off £70 voucher for the week after but will go back to Aldee after this week.

apple_muncher

I almost suggested that you let dh shop for a month. But then realised that he might inadvertently poison you! Shopping isn't simply going armed with a list...

XSpender

Either DH or I have got a place in the GNR:eek: There is a pending transaction on the CA for 1 entry fee but neither of us have had an email yet to say we are in. We should find out by the end of the week but I am still checking my email account every 2 minutes.

DH is hoping it's him and I am sitting on the fence as I am disappointed that I have missed a couple of weeks with the club of the C25K and am too far behind to catch up as this is the last week:( Next week they run 3 x 5k with the Sunday being a race. I am going to start again this week from where I dropped off but, as DH marathon training starts this week, logistics may be a problem.

Once I am up to 5k I will go back to the club and run with the 5k group. I hope they are not too fast as I am a bit of a plodder.

I paid a chunk off CC3 last month and was hoping the DD wouldn't come out as the payment amount wasn't showing on the account on line but it has. Oh, well, it's £112 off the debt I have had to use some of the money put aside for the roof so £900 is looking more achievable this month than £1000 unless I raid all the pots and we stop eating Either that or we find some more stuff to flog.

DH is definitely changing his mindset around spending. He wants a new running watch with HR monitor built in so has saved his personal spends, his birthday money, sold his old watch and some bits and has enough to buy one and for his night out with his friend on Saturday. Previously he would have bought one and expected the 'account' to cover it or said he would 'borrow' next months personal spends but then would spend it on something else.

I had to have a word with the headmaster this morning about a second incident with DS and a class mate. Do you know you are getting old when headmasters, like policeman, start looking really young?

We were able to have a good look at the roof work in the light this morning and it looks great, it has really made a difference to how smart our house looks as well as being much needed repairs.

We are going out for tea tonight for DH birthday at a local pizzeria for happy hour. 3 courses for £6 each.:D Still money in the family fun budget to cover it, just, as DH has opted for 2 cheap meals for his birthday rather than 1 much more expensive one involving 3 courses and wine.