21 days of pain!!

charhen19

I put £2.15 into the poppy appeal tin at the memorial ceremony (I already donated to several others and bought poppies).

Then I spent £2.96 on milk and veg leaving me with 4p in my purse until midnight 👍🏼 🤑

ImpulseSpender

Glad you got the win you needed, makes standing around all morning worth it.

Good find on the 15p, every little helps!

charhen19

Thanks impulsespender - it sure does all add up!

We ended up having kievs (YS from the freezer) and star wars pasta shapes in tomato sauce for lunch yesterday :rotfl:

Only the one ebay item sold and I'm just waiting for payment then can post.

charhen19

Day 12/21 and a new week.

4p in my purse but I shall draw out £20 for today and tomorrows £10 per day.

Breakfast - crumpet (YS from freezer)
Lunch - leftover chicken from yesterday, mixed with red onion and mayo to have on ryvitas
Dinner - gammon steaks (YS from freezer), frozen veg, fried egg & I'll slice and fry/saute the leftover roast potatoes from last night

Things to think about this week:
*will need a petrol top-up at some stage (goodness knows where it's gone this month)
*I need to pay a £20 balance for a Christmas meal by 20th November
*friend's son's birthday Friday 16th - still undecided as to what to do
*will need a few minimal food bits

This will be the toughest week yet I think! Still, I still have plenty of main bits of meals in the freezer so should just need accompaniments. We have no evening plans and I'll get to the gym at lunchtimes to avoid the shops and the pub!

£20.04 to last until midnight Tuesday.

charhen19

I've put the odd 4p towards my penny-a-day challenge.

Forgot to say that we saw the chap to pay the earlier-than-expected bill on Friday evening - so by saving a little of my daily allowance each day I managed to find what was needed in plenty of time, phew!

I've been paid for the ebay item which sold so that's wrapped and ready to be posted on the way home. It's such a good feeling to get some money for something which is no longer required and feels great to clear the house a bit so why do I always put off listing more items on ebay?! It's actually so much easier on the app these days than it used to be when ebay first started - must make a concerted effort to list more items this week.

We are down to 3 dishwasher tablets left and I refuse to buy anymore during this challenge!! I know that the dishwasher is a luxury so from now on I'll wash any large and not-too-heavily-dirty items by hand and only use the dishwasher when it's jam packed full every couple of days. I'm thinking Thursday, Sunday and then Tuesday as a rough plan. (We don't normally use it every day but I guess we have got a bit slack in packing it to it's maximum potential).

charhen19

I spent £5.93 in sains on the way home tonight - mainly winter veg for a beef stew in the slow cooker tomorrow. I stuck to my list and it was 7p cheaper than when I’d checked online - so 5p into my 5p bottle, 2p towards my penny-a-day challenge and £14 in my purse until midnight tomorrow.

charhen19

Day 13/21 - just over a week to go!

Will need to get £10 petrol tonight on the way home. OH has to go into town for a meeting so won't be home until late - meaning I can get on with my chores indoors and then catch up with my soaps!

Breakfast - YS crumpet from the freezer (these will run out soon, I promise :rotfl:)
Lunch - pasta 'n' sauce meal (from my desk drawer, bought on offer and stashed for emergencies)
Dinner - slow cooker beef stew - have packed it out with loads of veggies and pearl barley (beef was YS)

Can't anticipate any other spends so after the petrol I should have £4 in my purse until midnight

Choccygirl123

Well done charhen! you're doing amazingly well, especially being able to find the extra money for the tradesman. You've nearly made x

enthusiasticsaver

Great challenge and brings back memories of how I used to manage our money years ago when our kids were small and I literally had to account for every penny spent. I did it in 3 day blocks though (0.5 of a week) rather than daily. Menu planned for the 3 days using just one type of meat at a time so minced beef for example and making 3 different meals out of it and either freezing it for later on in month or having two or sometimes three days running. Minced beef is a great one as spaghetti Bolognese, cottage pie and beef pie or homemade burgers always went down well with the children.

You are doing brilliantly. When is the DMP due to finish?

charhen19

Thanks choccygirl and enthusiasticsaver.

My DMP is due to finish July '23 - that will have been 12 years and 10 months from when I started it :eek: (thanks to dear ex-husband who ran up credit card debts in my name)

A brief outline:
* I could have gone after half of the debt in the divorce however he could then have gone after half of the equity in my house (my house before I met him, tiny mortgage). Believe me I looked at many, many scenarios for this and at the time the DMP was the best option for me.
* This is the reason my OH and I have mainly separate finances - we don't want to link ourselves financially on paperwork at the moment.
* I managed to make an over payment in the summer of this year (around 2 months payments) and hope to put my penny-a-day challenge pot towards it at the end of the year.

To be honest part of the reason I'm doing this 21 days of pain challenge is to prepare myself for next year when I hope to do 365 days of pain and to pay it off in full. This is an extremely tall order.

Plans so far for making extra payments:
*penny-a-day challenge again
*£1 a week bingo challenge
*I am due £500 back in March - a security deposit I paid for a hen weekend - to go straight off DMP
*council tax, water rates & home insurance all have a few months a year off - this money will go straight off DMP
*continue making monthly payments

Even taking all of this into account (and without any emergencies) I'll still need to find an extra £275ish a month. I have very little ways of making extra money as I'm already on the DMP, which is how it should be (I've exhausted most of my ebay options but will continue when I find any bits and bobs) and so it will have to mainly come down to spending less.

I'm trying to plan ahead for this so things to think about/get in the habit of:
*I'm MOH at my best friend's wedding in April - in preparation for this I've asked my OH for vouchers for a local salon for Christmas so I can get a spray tan/lashes etc before the big day
*another friend (hairdresser) said instead of a Christmas gift she'll colour and cut my hair before the big day (I didn't ask, she offered)
*if I continue in the habit of going to the gym in my lunch break I can reduce my gym membership to "off peak" saving £15 per month
*really trying hard to be conservative with the gas/electric - unfortunately my OH can't grasp the concept that if a room is empty, there is no need for there to be a light on in it. I'm working on him whilst trying not to sound like I'm nagging :rotfl:

Wow - sorry for the rambling post! Any other ideas most welcome