So close...yet so far away

westiemum

After lots of hard work and thanks to years of lurking on this forum, I've managed to clear all of my debt, apart from two small amounts.  I'm so excited to almost be at the point where I am debt-free and can building up my savings.  However, a friend has asked me if I want to buy their car off them, at a good price.  My car is technically fine, a bit expensive to run, but it is 10 years old and the last MOT/Service cost £500 - costs are only likely to go up in the future...  So I'm thinking the friend's car is a good investment.
However, I don't want to use all of my savings to buy it, or take on more debt, so I have to raise the money by the end of April.  This will probably be possible, but it does mean that I will need to control the purse strings for the next 7-8 weeks!  I'm hoping this diary will help me reduce silly little spends that do add up...

Regular income: £2570 pm
Debt:
Sainsbury's Bank: £286 (0%) - paying off £20 pm - just going to chip away at this for next few months, then when car, iPad are paid off and I have more savings, pay off in full - prob. September
DP's iPad (3x£140 payments to go) - will be paid off in May
Mortgage: 86,709.93 at 3.09% (cannot wait to remortgage) - currently overpaying by £200 pm (monthly payment 602.03)
Savings:
3100 Premium Bonds (do NOT want to touch this - emergency fund)
350 Stocks and Shares ISA
2175 Marcus
100 cash on hand
300 across 2 bank accounts, just for small everyday emergencies
Plan for car: total price 5500
Sell existing car: would be great to get 2250 for it 
2175 Marcus
750 saved from end March payday
So...need to find at least an extra 325, maybe more if i don't get 2250 for my car.  I can use the 100 cash and 300 savings, but I will also need to find money to no doubt pay for an admin fee/increased premiums for the insurance...
Plus I will need to find money to advertise the car for sale...
Let's call it 500.  I can probably scrape the odd £100 from my everyday spends over the next 2 months.  The car will need to be paid for by 28 April, frustratingly just 2 days before payday.  
Worst case scenario, I can get a small amount from a money transfer card, rates are around 3.99%, but I'm so loathe to pay to borrow money! Or, I could ask my partner, but I really don't like doing that, although I know he would give me the money in a heartbeat!  I'm very independent!!  And actually, I like the challenge of all this - I know I am in a relatively good position compared to some.

westiemum

So, thinking now about my everyday spending over the next couple of months.  I really want to stop all the silly little spends, so I want some NSDs, so as little leaves my account as possible.  However, there are unavoidable spends coming up.  Food is taken care of by my partner so I only have to account for personal spends:
I have £201 in my Monzo account, to last until payday.   Also have £7.22 in Boots vouchers and £36.70 in Costa points (Costa is a weakness of mine, so this is relevant!).  I also have about £4 on a Costa gift card and £4 in Yoyo wallet to spend on food/drink at work. **alert - just read that there is a problem with Boots so their points can't be redeemed for the moment***
Threats to spending:

• Today - working from home but will pop to shops at lunchtime with DP and will no doubt pop into Costa (our only vice!)
• £14 for cinema with friend on Sunday (luckily friend is super-frugal and won't want to eat or drink before or after the film)
• Next week my uncle is getting married at Gretna Green, so I am in up in Scotland for 2 days - exciting!  I have bought a wedding gift, have my outfit sorted and they paid for the hotel, dinner and breakfast.  It's a very, very small wedding (3 guests plus bride and groom) and none of us are drinkers so it will be a very sedate (but lovely) wedding - no large drinks bill!!  However, I will need to get more petrol (£25) and maybe get lunch on day 2 before I head back.  I will take a packed lunch and flask with me for the drive up.  I do also need to get a card and some wrapping paper.