Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

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  • Alrighty, plans for November are tight, tight, tight.

    Probably the tightest month I’ve had since I started my debt slaying journey.

    Planned spends as follows:

    Salary: £2251.61 (net after tax & NI, student loan and 9% pension deduction)

    Other Expected Income: £87.64 (from work expenses reimbursement)

    Debt Payments: £492.29 (which clears CC1!!! But, big frown from me for this particular performance :(:(:()

    Monthly Spends:
    Groceries: £205 + £15 of Waitr0se cashback vouchers (thank goodness!)
    Fuel: £40 + £5.25 from October
    Cash: £14.75 + £5.25 from October. Plus, I just found £3.60 in my swim bag. Happy days.
    Household Misc: £610 (for new boiler)
    Sport: £10
    Misc Expenses: £129 (a slush fund for work expenses, new shoes and a probable second visit to see family member).

    Immediate Obligations inc. mortgage & bills: £525.57

    Yearly Expenses:
    Health: £225 (for remaining dental treatment)

    As you can see, there is no wiggle room in my budget At All this month. Glad I relish a challenge. I wish they did that full on crying face emoji :rotfl:

    I'm hoping some of my work expenses will come through mid month, which will loosen up my the cashflow a little. I'm also due another £40 in expenses from a summer visit, but that particular institution are sooooo slooooow in reimbursing expenses that I've pretty much written off ever getting them. If they arrive, it'll be a nice bonus.

    Wish me luck!! :rotfl:
  • A crazy busy day in the office. Remind me not to arrange 3 hours of back to back meetings again. Had a nightmare parking as well - I arrived a wee bit later than usual and couldn't find a parking space so I had to park on the road and then sneak out before the yellow line came into force and move the car to a parking space (they tend to free up after 1pm - 2pm).

    Also, I forgot to bring my soup in for lunch so I had to spend £3.49 on a meal deal and a pint of milk. Grrr.

    Went via the supermarket on the way home for fridge supplies - cheese, ham, milk etc. Kept spends to an absolute minimum and will do us for lunches at home.

    Working at home for the rest of the week, thankfully, which means I can keep spends down. Will have to do a food shop at some point as the freezer is looking a wee bit empty.

    DSL :j
  • DrSpendLittle
    DrSpendLittle Posts: 698
    Debt-free and Proud!
    Forumite
    edited 1 November 2017 at 5:33PM
    This morning I did my first ever online food shop with Ocado. :T Oh, the novelty. Late to this particular party!

    I had a '£20 off my first £80 shop' voucher, so decided finally to make use of it (well, technically it expired yesterday but I found another one online!). It saves a 16 mile round trip to Waitr0se to stock up on the usual meat, eggs and milk.

    My total food shop came to a net price of £62.11, with £26.56 savings from special offers, £20 off and a free tea towel worth £7.99, totalling £54.54 of savings.
    The shop included:
    12 x burford brown eggs
    2 x cod loin
    4 x french cooking sausages
    4 x free range chicken legs
    400g of Aberdeen Angus beef mince
    4 x organic chicken breasts
    2 x 500g tubs of organic yoghurt
    400g of organic lamb mince
    2 x litres of organic milk
    plus 400g cheese, 250g spreadable butter, 190g chorizo, 1 x bottle white wine, 2 x kitchen roll, 9 x loo roll, 730ml washing up liquid, 1 x simple face wipes, 12 x 500ml fizzy water, 500g green lentils, sellotape, 3 x tinned chopped tomatoes, 500g low sugar granola, 500 ml olive oil, 1 x bbq beans, 1 x normal beans and 1.5kg bread flour.

    Super happy with this. :T

    I need to do a fresh veg and fruit shop at Aldi tomorrow to be able to make dishes with the above. Tonight's is leftovers / freezer food.

    DSL
  • Yes, you guessed, the shoes I ordered for my upcoming smart work trips don't fit. At all. So, they're being returned. They're probably a bit too high in the heel anyway for walking around all day. Need them to be comfy.

    So, back to square one. I've cast my net wider this time and ordered more shoes from Clarks/Clarks Outlet in a range of styles and sizes. And, I've ordered smart work trousers from Next/M&S, again in a range of sizes/styles. I won't tell you how much I've 'spent' on CC3 :o When I collect from various stores in town on Saturday / Monday and try on at home, I'll decide what to keep and what to send back.

    Ocado shop arrived. Will probably order like this again, or directly from Waitr0se to get Partnership Card points. I've calculated that the delivery charge (free this time) is fairly similar to the diesel cost for me driving to our local store, give or take £1.

    Other than ridiculous spends on CC3 to try and find a smart shoe / smart trouser solution for my upcoming smart work visits, today shall be a LSD - I need to nip out to get some onions, potatoes, bananas, cream, celery, carrots and garlic from Al8i so I can cook dinner. Obvs. not using all those ingredients in one dish ;)

    Back to the grind!
  • Both waitrose and ocado will send you offer codes once you are in. Ocado sends 15% if you order in the next two days, and trial offers for their free delivery smart pass. Waitrose post me them - usually £18 off a £90, have to register for the my waitrose card thing.

    Frustrating about the shoes, hope you find the perfect pair.
  • Thanks Redo! Hoping that some kind of trouser/shoe or dress/heel combi will finally reveal itself! Bloomin’ Feet and Legs! :rotfl:
  • DebtFreeDuo
    DebtFreeDuo Posts: 1,021
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    I didn't realise Ocado do a good organic range, I might have to consider them for stocking up with vouchers in the future.
    Change the way you see things and the things you see will change
  • DFD - Yup, they do indeedy! And they currently have some good discounts on duchy organic chicken and chicken breasts.
  • Been rushed off my feet these last two days. Busy work day on Friday and then had to unexpectedly travel to see family this weekend. The costs (train, food on the go) have mostly come out of my slush fund (I had sort of budgeted for it) but that is looking quite depleted. I will now have another, more expensive family visit coming up later this month which will involve trains / hotels. Not cheap. I may have to claw back some cash from next months CC overpayment to balance my books. We'll see. DF can be my emergency fund if needed until then :)

    Other than that, we have a ridiculously full freezer and will take something out of there for dinner tonight.

    My big trouser order arrived yesterday and there are two pairs that fit. Hurrah! :T

    Will need to wait for the shoes to arrive on Monday to determine what combination of things I'll need to keep / send back.

    Now need to catch up on diaries, I've been off line since Thursday!

    DSL :j
  • Morning Folks!

    Just dropping by to say hi and update on a few things. Had the boiler fitted on Monday, which all went well, but Mr Boiler Man wants to replace some pipework as a few radiators are not working properly. So, we'll need him back and we think it'll be another £500ish as he'll be working on the clock. We'll also need some remedial decoration work doing around our new boiler. Hoping DF can do the majority of that. We will need to buy paint as we have non left in the existing colour - a nice excuse to choose a different colour to freshen up the room! I'm looking forward to that. Should only need 1 tin for the whole room. Will need to come off next month's CC overpayment.

    I'm also going to visit family again later this month which is costing about £180 for the train / hotel stay. We've a poorly family member and unfortunately they live in That London, so not the cheapest of visits but worth it to be present during ill health. Will need to come off next month's CC overpayment.

    New clothes purchases for smart work events have been successful. Decided on a pair of trousers (£30), some shoes (£50) and a cardi (£35). Spent a bit more than initially planned but the three new pieces will open up my wardrobe and will be beneficial in the long run. I can wear the shoes and cardi smart casually for work. I may ring fence any xmas money I get to cover these extra spends. If not, then my £100 sales spending spree budgeted for January will be used.

    Dentist work will be completed this Thursday and then I'm away for work pretty much all next week. My slush fund should cover any expenses. I think I'll be fine.

    All in all, a rather expensive month so far!! Some of the extra costs (mainly the extra boiler work and the family visit) will have to come off December debt repayments. Frustrating but I can't do anything about it. However, the main thing is that no debt has been added, my repayments are still being made above minimums and I'm sticking to a budget. That'll do me for now :)

    DSL :j
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