Zig's new start (again!) on a budget!

chazsucks · 17 April 2009 at 11:33PM

Oh I meant to say, what are you doing at uni? xox

zigmeister · 18 April 2009 at 12:01AM

Hi Chaz!

Ha, not too sure I'll be doing much inspiring but thanks anyway! I've subscribed to your diary so I can keep up with how you do.

I'm studying to become a primary teacher

I'm meant to be writing essays at the moment but I keep getting distracted! :rolleyes:

Zig x

Dinah93 · 18 April 2009 at 10:04AM

Hey Zig,

have you considered joining the make £10 a day thread? I didn't think it was possible but have come in over the £10 a day target every single month for over a year now.

zigmeister · 18 April 2009 at 11:48AM

Hi Dinah

I've looked at it a few times but it seems impossible! But if you've done it every day then that's great!

Does it take up a lot of your time? At the moment I'm doing loads of uni work, then I'll be on a 4 week school placement so won't have much time then, but in the school holidays I could try. That's be interesting, to see how much I can make in 3/4 months :j

Thanks for mentioning it!

Zig x

Dinah93 · 18 April 2009 at 12:14PM

I work around 40 hours a week, plus 10 hours commuting, and go to the gym 3 nights a week, and take one night and saturday mornings off for painting, so it's quite easily do able on little time. Things like free scratchcards take maybe 30seconds - 1min each, it usually is only 10p or 25p per card per day, however often enough we win £1 and have even won £5 4 times now! Most of our money towards the £10 a day comes from mystery shopping, which is easy and pretty fun to do, but there is also ebay, paid surveys, slice the pie (getting paid to listen to music), dooyoo (paid to write reviews) and some people do a second job one evening a week.

zigmeister · 18 April 2009 at 4:12PM

Wow! You do all that and you still managed to find time to get rid of all that debt! I'm impressed lol :T I'm definately going to look into all those things as soon as I have a spare minute. These essays are driving me mad :mad:

I went to town this morning with my OH and managed to spend £15 which is a bit annoying cuz I wasn't gonna go with him! I bought a nice card for my Mum from Paperchase, and spent £12 in the new Waitrose. I only bought a few things as well! Some of the stuff was OH's tho so I'll try and get the money off him for that.

I have a money master plan! Hopefully I've done my sums right, but if have, I should be able to put away £400 from each of my student loan payments (after I've paid rent) and use my £200 a month wages to live off :j I get 3 loan payments a year so that's a potential £2400 over the next two years of uni!

Hopefully it'll work cuz I always seem to have a plan but they never work!

Zig x

Pamela1705 · 19 April 2009 at 10:48AM

Hi Zig,

Hope all is well with you this wonderfully sunny day. :j

I've been keeping up to date on your diary and think you are making fantastic headway, so well done on that. Trust me, I've been there as a student and it's not easy, so you are doing really really well:beer:

The one thing I've learned from doing all this MSE stuff is that small steps are the way forward. Big ones are fantastic, of course, but in my head, I can sometimes get bogged down in all the money-saving and it can be quite a lot of pressure. So I would suggest doing the small things first.

So for example, your plan to put away all that money sounds absolutely amazing, but maybe it would be best to make small steps first, eg, change your shopping habits.

I only started this about two months ago, but I never shop in Waitrose (fab quality but much too expensive) and when I do go shopping, I make a list and stick to it. The OH and I split everything equally, so it's totally fair.

Likewise, I plan what I need for the week, take the money out of the bank on a Monday, and leave my cards at home for the rest of the week, unless I actually need something. That way, I'm not tempted by any spontaneous purchases and I do have time to think - do I really need this??

I find that much easier to do than to promise myself big changes. Anyway, that's my advice, not that it's worth much!! :rotfl:

zigmeister · 19 April 2009 at 10:46PM

Aw thanks for your lovely post Pamela! It's kinda nice to know I'm not 'talking' to myself!

Well I was working today which was a bit rubbish but it's money I guess! Bit annoyed tho because I don't paid for Easter Sunday. I only work Sundays and cuz the store was shut obviously I couldn't work but they won't pay me. Not my fault they weren't open! :mad: So that's £50 I've lost.

Oh yeah, don't be silly, it's good advice!! :T

That's definately my downfall - my shopping habits. I spend so much on food! I'm a right foodie which doesn't help at all. I used to go to Waitrose whenever I could (it's a 20 min drive away) but I've been banned by my OH lol :rotfl: I think he's scared cuz they've just opened one where I live but I think I'm a bit more sensible now and can stay away. It'll just be tempting when I'm near it!

I should try that money out for the week thing, but I'll have to give my card to my OH cuz I'll end up spending on it! It's things like petrol that eat your money.

The past few weeks I've tried so hard to get into meal planning but it always goes wrong! Usually cuz I finish uni/essay writing late and can't be bothered to cook, or I've forgotten to take something out the freezer. So we end up getting pizza or kfc which isn't good for my purse or my diet! :rolleyes:
It doesn't help that my OH hates cooking so it's either I do it, or we get takeaway.:o

Plan for tomorrow...

MUST FINISH ESSAYS
Decide on next form of contraception
Try and do a meal plan
Take money out for the week
Laundry

Should be a fun day! On a good note, my arm hurts less now following the implanon removal :T

P.S Pamela I meant to ask, do you have a diary or anything I could read? I'd love to keep track of how you're doing

Dinah93 · 19 April 2009 at 11:00PM

Work out how much you spend on takeaway a week, any pizzas, kfc, little subway sandwiches etc and add it up. Rough guess maybe £40 if you got takeaway twice a week? This comes out at £2080 a year - more than your entire debt! Or enough to buy a decent used car, or go on holiday VERY nicely for two weeks. If I want to spend I think about how much I really want it, and more often than not I decide I would rather have the money into the savings account towards the next holiday!

When I had my implanon removed my arm looked black, blue and yellow for weeks! Was very unucky in that my doctor couldn't get it out, and I've ended up with about a two cm round scar on the back of my arm where he had to cut in to get it out. Glad yours has gone well, did you get another put in again? I do like not having to think about it for 3 years, but I'm growing to hate the mess it's making of my left arm!

zigmeister · 19 April 2009 at 11:21PM

That's amazing when you think of it like that. Would be great to have £2000 in savings towards a house, rather than being disorganised and getting takeaway! I'm definately gonna try harder.
Do you think it would be better though to put the money I would have spent on takeaway in a pot, or just have more left at the end of the month?

That sounds so painful! It really hurt getting it taken out, I could feel it at first which made it really sore, and she couldn't find it so had to keep making the cut bigger. But it's healing nicely now

Na I didn't get another one put in. I loved the idea of it too, but it didn't seem to work for me. I had it in for about a year, but got loads of side effects and it seemed too much of a coincidence to not be the implant! I was on the injection for 2 years which worked really well but they took me off it cuz of bone thinning. I was gonna go back on it tomorrow but my Mum thinks I should take a break from hormones for a bit. She thinks the coil but I've heard that hurts

Decisions, decisions! :rolleyes:

Zig's new start (again!) on a budget!

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