Money Saving Mojo 2

a_silver_lining

Urg. Just signed up for something to get swagbucks points and didn't read the small print and now it's going to cost me money. Gutted. I've emailed them but I don't think there's anything I can do. Just going to do my best to cancel and avoid swagbucks for now.

a_silver_lining

19/24. No NSD for me today as I bought lunch at work. Survived my second day of fork lift training though! Exam tomorrow, so will see how I do.

Parcel posted and after fees I have made £3.03. I have now paid 57.8% of my debt

a_silver_lining

19/25. Bit of a spendy day. I ended up buying a small tree fern to celebrate. Whoops. Just need to scrape through the weekend with a visitor down. Poor planning and plant buying has cost me about £70...

On the plus side I have sold another two items on eBay. Have done some surverys and the company I thought I was stuck in contract with me to say they would not be taking an additional payment, phew! I'm mystery shopping for the first time tomorrow too.

a_silver_lining

19/26. Not a NSD yesterday as the BIL is visiting

Posted my ebay parcels, so £8.87 profit. Need to move this tonight into my saver.

£8.20, £6 and £2.29 spent on food out and about for the day. Resisted buying a Monsoon sale dress (two actually) and making another pot at our pottery class for £10. So good over all. Told myself I had bought the tree fern yesterday and that was the big splurge.

Today I'm back to work for a day, so will hopefully be a NSD.

a_silver_lining

20/27 NSD yesterday as at work. Today I think will be a spend day as we may be going out tonight. I never go for a night out, so interested to see what I manage to spend/ not spend.

Still have £61.79 left in my account until payday, but have £35+ Cash ready for the night out. I was hoping to have £100 at the end of the month to move to my saver, but will take what I can

I sold my gumtree item, so have transferred £20 for this and the £8.87 into my debt paying saver, £161.45 extra made this month so far to come straight off the debt! Still waiting for webuybooks money to be sent over.

Going to relist two gumtree and ebay items. I can't do a lot of money making this weekend with the BIL over, but will see what I can wrangle.

...

On another note, this week I've started feeling the pinch. A good friend I don't see often enough has asked me if I want to run the Shoreditch 10k with her. It's £42.50. Another friend invited me to a festival I don't think I can make and asked me to buy her zine for £5. Work wants me to go to a £45 Christmas do, plus drink money... feeling a bit of pressure

a_silver_lining

20/29. Two spendy days in a row. Spent £30 last night on going out, plus side is that is the last of the spends for his visit.

Today was meant to be a NSD but I agreed to go on the 10k run my friend wanted to go to. Hoping the rest of the week will be NSD. My partner is off to the family so I will be eating what food we have in the house. I have a feeling it will be a fair bit of pasta and frozen veg.

a_silver_lining

21/31 one spendy day and one NSD. Have in and bought a takeaway for the guests last night visiting. I have a bad summer cold so I was craving food. Also bought a £1.50 panini for lunch. Today I'm back on track and have made lunch to take to training today and tomorrow so planning two NSD to end the month. Paying for travel but Work will refund on Saturday.

Friday is payday and a reset of my budget and NSD. I am visiting a friend but planning on walking the journey rather than public transport. I'll bring a bottle of wine or something maybe as I have a stash.

I know I started last month well and then dipped so I'm going to have to make plans for this one. I need a haircut and we are off on holiday (though have a fair bit of euro for spending) so need to have a really tight rest of the month...

Rachel24

Just read your diary and have subscribed:-) 60% paid is fantastic, hope you can clear as much as you can by the end of the year. You have lots of NSD's, I need to get motivated and do the same!

a_silver_lining

Thank you Rachel24 I just use this place to waffle and to jog my memory as to how much I have paid, it is a life saver. I will have a look and see if you have a diary so I can cheer you on too! NSD are hard, but the biggest difference for me has been NSD at work by bringing in lunch and enough snacks to see me through the day. If I pretend I'll eat less I end up buying junk food there.

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Ended last month on a NSD, so 22/32 NSD.

Today is PAYDAY! and a NSD 1/1.

£100 directly to the family loan, and £53.04 extra made money means 6214.51/10K paid 62.1%

I'm off work so have had a big read through my online banking, mobile spending tracker and this diary to assess last month. Took me an hour! :A but well worth it. I think I can now say I've had my light bulb moment as my spending has improved, but still wiggle room.

This is my total spends (Excluding mortgage, bills, saving and debt repayments)
April: 547.02
May: 454.11
June: 456.07
July: 331.89

I'm almost there to meeting my budget:

Income: 1301.73
Partners contribution: 410
Total Income: 1711.73

Mortgage and bills: 742.44
Personal Savings: 300
Debt Saver: 250
Direct Debt Payment: 100
Total Outgoings: 1392.44

Remaining Available to Spend: 319.29

When reviewing my month I can see that I could have easily spent £157 on things I normally would have said yes to, like the work lottery, my own lottery playing, a £18 paid of sale trousers I returned, £50 on my half of cat sitting payment etc. This would have taken my spending to £488, more in line with my previous months spending.

I did realise, however, that I spent £118 on things I could have said no to. There's my wiggle room for this month. Half of that was food when entertaining, a takeaway when entertaining and eating on training out rather then bringing lunch. Although I halved my eating out spending this month, I still have a way to go.


Plans for the Month
To keep focused on not eating out and bringing work lunch.
To keep up the gym more and more. To attend my free PT next week.
To work out a cheaper way to get my haircut and to think about whether I need it dyed...
To find the cheapest way to enjoy Pride.
To enjoy but spend low on my holiday and to spend low for the next two weeks so I have money there.
To chutney my tomatoes just before my holiday as I doubt they will survive without me.

Making Money

I made and saved £161.47 in July :T

I've calculated that in order to hit my debt free by Christmas goal I need to make an additional £1838.56.

Right! Great start to my challenge refresh. I've just been paid the £53.04 I have been waiting for from webuybooks.

£53.04/1838.56, now at 2.8%!

I haven't got any more pending money so today the plan is to photo and list a few more bits on ebay and gumtree. I haven't got a lot left to sell after all my selling this year...

I am toying with selling a computer console I don't use but was a big gift.... I also have old phones and mp3 players, a really old kindle. So I'm going to explore how to wipe memory and sell these next.

a_silver_lining

£300 sent to my savings, so now at £2100! Think this means I would roughly have estate agent fees when selling if I go through a normal agent. Haha. Weird way to look at it.

Ah, and yesterday was a NSD for me as will today be, so 3/3 NSD.