Jak's 'I will not spend any money on rubbish and I will pay off my debts' diary

jak

Thanks to everyone who has said well done. It's funny, I was talking to agirl at work tonight and she was saying how much debt she's in and how her husband is a nightmare with money! I could totally relate!!!!! Honestly, it is funny how it seems to fall to one partener in the relationship all the time..well that's my experience. Does everyone else find that?

Sarah- 11 days late! OMG! THey only let you go over by 7 days here.. but still! I feel like i'm ready NOW! With 7 weeeks to go! I'll be ginormous by then..lol!

Beck- that's very nice of you! Thanks but believe me I had my head in the sand for ages and ages...even now I have good days and bad! We all do! You can do it if you really focus on the small stuff! That's what keeps you going! Honestly. And it makes a HUGE difference!

beckseven

Thanks for the words of encouragement. Can totally relate to husbands being a nightmare with money as well! My husband will come home and say I think it's about time we had a new dog-shall we go and get one this weekend..not thinking that the boxer dogs we love (we lost our beautiful dog on New Year's Day) cost about £500. He is awful like that and when I put the reins on things he acts as if I am 'boring'! I do the shopping in our house and if I didn't I dread to think how much he would spend!

On the baby front I was sure i would be late but i was 10days early! My waters broke on my inlaws sofa when we went round to pick up the baby seat! They couldn't get me out quick enough!

jak

LOL. That made me laugh! Men just don't think about cash at all. I find if we have a row he'll go out and buy me something- out of our money for debts...SO annoying! I've had his cards off him now tho so that helps a lot! I'm sorry about your dog. How sad. It's losing a member of the family isn't it!
J
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beckseven

Our dog was our first baby really (v spoilt!) so it really was like losing a family member! I keep expecting DH to come in with a 'surprise' present for me like a puppy! Mind you in the past I've not been an angel I must admit (hence my debt!). One 'great' moment was when I bought a £160 Coast dress that I wore twice, then it got reduced to £75 in the Coast sale and I sold it on ebay for £60. A bargain at £50 a wear...Never again. My problem is that I used to buy things to boost my self esteem but it just left me with debts and no spare cash now! Ah well-onwards and upwards!

jak

God me to! Nothing like the prspect of a baby to focus the mind tho! When I was growing up we lived in our own rather nice house and had pets, holidays etc. Money was never free flowing but looking back we had a pretty good lifestyle! I feel bad that my little one will be living in a rented flat with no pets! I know the baby won't mind to begin with but still... That's why it's my total focus at the monment to pay everything off, save lots of money, then buy a house!
I miss having animals tho! My cat lives with my Mum as i'm not allowed pets adn I was brough up with a menagery, so I can't wait to get my own place and fill it with beasties!!!!
I know what you mean about the Coast dress, done it myself many a time! In fact, i've got clothes that i've worn once in my wardrobe that i'm determined to get some use out of before I buy any more! (Once I can fit into them again, that is!)

beckseven

What the baby needs is it's parents and lots of love so don't worry about living in a rented flat with no pets. I rescued two guinea pigs (someone at DH's work gave us a hutch) thinking about how much my little darling son would enjoy having two furry little pets but he is not really that interested in them at all (he's 2 and a half) and ignores their cute antics in the garden and is far more interested in his toy cars! They are now my little babies and I am their sole care provider! (I love them really) Seriously though, children aren't really that interested in pets until they are a bit older and the way you are going with your finances you will soon be in the position to move and have your cat back and more! When the baby is a little bit older you can use your Tesco vouchers and go to one of the children's farms-great day out, baby will love seeing all the different animals and you go home safe in the knowledge that you have no droppings to clean up or vets bills!

jak

I forgot to post my spends earlier:
£2 lottery BS
£20 Thrift BS
£1.98 Wilkos lip vaseline, washing powder -USED TIPS MONEY FROM WORK
£1.24 Tescos (3 corgettes 40p, mounge tout 69p, paracetamol 15p)- USED TIPS MONEY FROM WORK
Total spend for the week:
BS(Budgetted spends)-£31.72
TIPS MONEY (extra money): £9.22
Total spend: £40.94
No money spent on anything extra this week thank God!
Glad I bought all that pasta form Tescos the other week (10 bags like a mad woman!) It went up yesterday by 3p a bag. Is it VERY sad that i'm excited about this????

jak

Thanks Becky. Oh dear, your gineas sound sweet~! I hope you're right. It still seems strange not having animals as we always had them! Might be a TINY bit for my benefit...as well as the baby's! You must be on the graveyard shift too then...

jak

Well I've been planning my menu for the next week or so and decided that we are NOT going to go shopping until the end of June! We will go to Morrisons then and see what we can get and use the £5 off voucher- although I prefer ASDA as it's closer! - so it'll cost us money to get home! Never mind...I want to value dh contribution and use the vouvher he brought home bless him. It is so rare that he shows any interest I feel I should big it up when he does!
We should be having Pollock (caught today by dh) new potatoes and mounge tout for dinner tonight. He caught 6 so i'll cook 2 then fillet the others and freeze them. THey should do 3 mealas that way. I'm not sure how big they are...but still...
We will need some more milk today which is annoying as we'll have to get it from the corner shop as I'll be sleeping while Tescos is open and dh will be at work. Our milk planning is cr*p! we always seem to run out at the most annoying times! ASDA on Monday I think for 2 for £2 then i'll freeze 1! Hopefully that'll do us for a couple of week if dh can 'borrow' the occasional pint from work... Apart from that, we've loads of food in from our last BIG shop so i'm determined to make it last. AND I need to use up what's left in the freezer for a big shop just before the baby's due- End of June should be a good time to do it!
This week my jobs will include:
1. Boil up and cook chick peas- seperate into individual portions and freeze.
2. Buy compost and pot up all plants from seed trays into final positions.
3. Sort out budget- have money 'meeting' with dh to discuss how our budget went this month- how can we improve it? What have we paid off/still need to pay off etc.
4. Clean house- is TIP!
5. Don't buy 'stuff' we don't need!!!
6. Bank any excess budget money for Christmas fund.
7. Send dh Grans pressie and card to NZ (grumble, grumble- costs loads)
8. Make sure payments go out of our bank accounts for the bills.
9. Text landlord AGAIN to ask if he actually wants to be paid his rent?! It is still in dh account and he keeps forgetting to tell us where to send the cheque! Hopeless (tho very nice) man!
10. Do something nice (that doesn't cost anything!) with dh on his days off- Tues and Wed. Well Tues anyway as i'm out on Wed.
Ummmm that's it for this week I think....
J
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Keeping_Positive

Hi Jak well done on monitoring and controling your spends. My OH can be a pain but then again like you and Beck have and occasionally do still have stupid spending sprees!

11 days late!! I was going up the wall at 10 when she finally arrived the morning I was due to be induced.