Yesterday was payday. Nothing exciting. I paid both catalogues and the last of one of the Bnpl items - a hoover- that hubby bought this year. Just one more item to pay off now.

I've updated my sidebar. I'm hoping that by June 2017 most of the catalogue debt will be gone, and I can put that money towards my credit card. Hopefully I qualify for another 0% card, but I'm not counting on it, just in case.

Husband switched bank accounts a few months ago. We were both rewarded 100. I've transferred mine to savings (holiday fund). Need to sort hubby's PIN before we can transfer to my bank, then to savings. He's lost it. I told him that I'm really going to have to save if we want to go *anywhere* in February. Nothing will be going on a credit card (only if hell freezes over, or pigs fly).

SG's is a great consumer. She keeps asking for every single toy she sees. I told her we'll be writing a list for Santa. J, thankfully, is none the wiser.

I'm on my phone, so excuse the typos.

I picked SG up from nursery today and she told me that her feet were hurting her. After I dropped her off at home, I went to tesco to pick up an emergency pair of trainers for her. I found a pair half a size bigger than she was wearing, on sale for two pound.

I've been using the Notes app on my iPhone to keep track of spending. It seems to be working.

I finally added another ten pound to my Asda Christmas savings card. This should cover the cost of what we spend at the butchers in December - hopefully.

It turns out that my mum actually didn't have a stroke, at least according to her specialist. She is getting an mri soon to confirm or find out more.

Spoke to a random guy at work today. His partner works in the same place as me too. He was telling me that every two years they take their entire blended family to Florida, costing them 9k. He suggested I do this in the future with the kids (we were talking about holidays) I said that we'll take the kids to England first since they've been nowhere.

I think that's all.

EF:
144.61
+_9.50
________
154.11

Holiday Fund remains the same: 40.00

New Balance: 194.11

Things are a bit tight this month. Hubby and I are making sure to use up everything we have. It'll be cheap meals until payday in a couple of weeks.

My cousin is hoping to get married this year, so I'll need to budget for that. The kids aren't in the wedding but I'll still need to make sure that they look good. I don't even know how much kids formal outfits are so I'll need to research that.

Loan payment is due out next week. I'm so excited for it to be under 7k.

I still keep getting letters from the catalogue company, so my account must not be closed.

I've got two different savings funds to keep track of now. I was going to write it down in a notebook, but thought I'd keep track on here too. They're in the same savings account.

EF:

125.11
+19.50

________
144.61

Holiday Fund: 40.00

Tota savings: 184.61

During the first few months of the year when we were struggling, I withdrew money from the EF. Slowly trying to replace that.

I am still doing my best to meal plan. I'm sometimes finding they're not going exactly to plan because we have more leftovers than I thought. I've been waiting until we actually run out of an item before buying another, so this is helping to stop us having to throw out food because we haven't managed to eat it in time.

I'm still tracking spending too. Next pay, or in the near future, I need to set up an entertainment and misc category. They're both not in the budget yet I've bought things that can count as misc and when we go bowling next week that will be entertainment.

Dh phoned me when he was on his way home from work yesterday. He told me he had the letter from the council with him that said we had overpaid, and that he was going to go into the office to speak to someone about it. I didn't think there was any point but he wanted to try.

When he came home, he told me the person he'd spoken to had phoned someone to discuss the debt. She told him we can repay it back at 11.10/wk. I will probably still use snowflakes for it - when they are redeemed and in my account - because it wasn't in the budget. I now need to add a column in my spreadsheet for this. I don't want to drag this out too long, but at least it is kinder to the budget.

I think I need to do save for birthdays too. I save for Christmas each pay, so birthdays should be saved for too. I think my problem is that I don't want to try to save for too much and then fail.

I'm not sure that I'll meet my emergency fund goal this year, especially as I'm diverting snowflakes. But I will try my best.

Today is payday. The first thing I done today was check my bank balance - it's looking healthy, for now anyway - then pay a few bills. I paid my catalogue bill then I paid £30 to my BNPL item (£35 to go, due 13/12 which is my next payday, so need to make sure I have money the day before)

I logged on to swagbucks and have managed to earn 6SB this morning. Thanks to reading CCF's post I realised that I don't have to let the videos play the whole way through.

I need to wrap MIL's birthday presents today since the meal is tomorrow. All in all, we spent 99p on her and that was for her card. I bought wrapping paper for 20p a few months ago so I will use that.

I'm waiting on both credit card statements to update. It will be CC2 first then Capital One.

I got a letter yesterday from another catalogue wanting me to join. "Get £15 off your first order of £35 or more" No thanks. They must send their letters out at this time of year because I've never had one before. They obviously know people rely on them for their Christmas shopping. I've got almost £30 of rewards to use in my Littlewoods catalogue so that will be used for a couple of toys for SG.

Tomorrow my automatic savings transfer of ten pounds will transfer. I need to increase this but I know I need to reduce debt too. I don't want to increase then have to take money out of savings.

Today was payday. We got to see the damage a week off sick had on hubby's pay. Not good. Spending has to be kept to a minimum. Hubby suggested putting bills on the credit card - no way! We will just have to deal and get through this, it will be a learning experience if nothing else.

When SG is sleeping later I'll be meal planning and writing my shopping list.

The only thing I have accomplished so far today is to change the date of my automatic savings transfer. When I first set it up a few years ago, I could only transfer money either monthly, quarterly or yearly. Well, I had a look today and there's a four-weekly payment option, which matches when I get paid. So I've changed the date of my automatic transfer. Now it will be £10 every four weeks rather than every month. I was going to increase it a few months ago, but I never. Part of me was thinking just to delay the payment but if I start doing that I'll never want to save money. It's an evil cycle. And there's another part of me that thinks "you can do better than £10".

During this pay period I will not be paying anything to my BNPL items from the catalogue. I hate it but I had to cut a few things. I've also reduced our grocery budget and household spending. If I could think of something else to reduce, I would. Oh, obviously snowflaking towards debt is not really happening. Again.

Wow this post is sounding depressing. I can think of a few good things though:

- hubby's friend paid us back the money he owed us (£10)
- I had money left in the bank before payday
- our cupboards are full, should only need to think of a few staple items to add to the shopping list

I always have a productive mornning on payday, mostly because I pay all my bills online and transfer money to savings online. This morning I've also been to the shops and back. I had to pay mine and hubby's xmas savings to my work colleague. She finishes up today for her holidays so I had to give our money to her. That's another thing ticked off the list. And it's not even 9am yet (almost).

My auto savings transfer and my normal savings were added to my Moving Out Fund today (£30) New balance: £479.15 My no spend month definetly helped my savings.

I paid extra to both credit cards this morning. With credit card 2 I'm taking a new approach. I added the minimum payment and interest. I paid that amount (£78) to the card. They also charge me for repayment cover, which I agreed to when I first got the card, but I haven't accounted for that. I figure two out of three isn't too bad.

It's the the last day of June and I haven't spent a penny I think that my NSM has been a success, despite a few setbacks - namely my windscreen and breakdown cover.

Here's what I spent this month:

£35.78 Beginning balance
- £2.78 (savings transfer)
+ £781.76 (wages)
- £13.00 (dental plan)
- £25.00 (savings transfer)
- £160.00 ("rent")
- £300.00 (hubby)
- £65.00 (credit card 2)
- £41.00 (credit card 1)
- £56.00 (catalogue)
- £70 (cash withdrawal)
- £20.00 (cash withdrawal)
+ £300.00 (cash credit - hubby)
- £2.40 (ASDA)
- £4.50 (candles)
- £45.00 (dentist)
- £70.00 (windscreen replacement)
- £50.00 (DH debt to MIL)
- £16.76 (AA)
+ £105.00 (cash credit)
- £90.75 (6 month road tax)ras
- £50.00 (savings transfer)
- £22.31 (phone bill)
+ £45.00 (dentist reimbursement)
- £98.42 (car insurance)
- £18.90 (Harry Potter tickets)
- £16.68 (AA)
+ £20.00 (money from mum for tickets)
- £49.04 (savings transfer)
= £0.00

Extra transferred to savings = £101.82


Cash envelope balances:

petrol £50 beg/£29 remaining
packed lunch £10/£3.40
snacks £10/£2.24
= £35.36 spent/ £34.64 remaining

I decided to add everything saved apart from small change (5p, 2p and 1p) I added £20 to my car fund and £14.40 to my emergency fund. I put the small change into my money bags which I'll take to the bank soon and add to savings.

All in all, I've done better than I thought I would.If my windscreen didn't need replaced I would have saved £70 more, but that's life. Now all I need to do is think of my July goals.

Yesterday was payday. After paying bills I added £45 to savings, so that was £20 extra. Also, the day before we got paid I transferred the money I had left (£8) I love adding to savings. I'm going to have to write down when I add to savings so I can keep track of it.

I'm going to withdraw money for petrol and a night out we've got planned for next week and put it into envelopes.

I got my car back today. I can feel the difference. I'm hoping I won't see the inside of a garage for a while now.

One of my goals for this month is to add extra to savings. I'm determined to do this. When I look at everyone else's savings, mine is pathetic. Well that will change soon. I'm going to find money, which is already there, and add it to savings. There's £20 there, for a start, that I can add since I'm not paying for Love Film until July. I'm sure I can find some more to add.

Everything was going fine yesterday until I got into the car to get hubby from work. My steering was really heavy as I was reversing out of the parking space,so I think there's something wrong with my power steering. I was telling people at work that I'll need to take it to the garage this week. However, from what people have told me, it might have something to do with the fluid. I really hope it's easy to solve this problem.

Apart from that, things are going well. Before I started work this morning I bought a few things to have on my breaks: snack packs of mini oreos and a snack pack of grapes. I had a coupon for the grapes, 50p off so they only cost 50p

But it is already spent. This morning I cleared CC1!! I also added my first £25 to savings, it felt good. I paid my other credit card and catalogue too.

I'm not done spending. My tyre may finally get fixed today. I had to phone the AA and upgrade my membership, someone is coming out soon. That was £66 I wasn't planning on spending. I phoned the garage, they have my tyre. I think it will need to go on CC2 when I pick it up. So depressing. I had roughly £50 extra and I've used it for AA.

I'm going to focus on not buying anything at work for the next four weeks. That will save me some money.

One of my goals is to increase my regular savings. This is my plan:

1. save £25 4 weekly
2. DH will save £18 4 weekly

We get paid thirteen times a year. So we should end up saving £559. I will add any extra money that I have. I haven't cancelled my £5 auto savings. I checked my bank account and I can't set up a transfer for every four weeks, so I will just have to transfer the money over on payday.

As for Christmas, I will pay £10 each payday towards vouchers until October (through a woman at my work this time) I'm also going to start a Christmas savings card.

The car maintenance fund will probably start off small.

Happy New Year everyone!!

My first auto savings of £5 hit today, taking my new balance to £176. I should have done this at the start of the year, not the end. It feels good though, knowing that my savings have increased a little.

I have £47.90 left in the bank. £18.99 is for Love Film. I need to take money out for the engagement party on Saturday (£20 max) That leaves me with £8.91. Ouch. I already have £20 put aside (was meant to be used for taxis for the party last week but wee got a lift)so hopefully I won't need much more, say £10. My orginal budget for the party was £30 anyway. The extra would just be for taxis, although it would be good if we got a lift there.

I forgot about an extra expensee I will have when I get paid: my friend's leaving night. A girl I used to work in the same dept as is going to Thailand in a few weeks then she's going to Australia. She won't be back till 2012. The leaving night is at a pub so it won't be too much, and it's on a weekday so it won't be a late night.

Today - well yesterday actually, it's past midnight here - was payday. I paid the usual bills online, transferred money to MIL.

I took my change to the bank. I had £6 worth of change. Also on Thursday I added £15 to savings. That takrs my new total to £171.

Hubby hasn't given MIL money towards his debt yet. That's causing a problem. The reason he hasn't is that we know we will have a meal to go to for her birthday so we will need money for that. I would pay for both of us but things are tight this month for both of us. When we came in tonight, she had her notebook out and it looked as though she was working out his debt. It's driving me crazy. I wish we had our own place. I'm expecting there to be a new sheet of paper left for hubby with his new total (should match ours though) The only new thing should be the catalogue. He is going to give her money, just not today.

I paid my xmas savings (£45) so they should be upto date.

Bought MIL's birthday present. Spent £20 in the disney store for pyjamas and a mug. The mug will be her xmas present. DH spent a lot on candles for her birthday (money which would have normally gone towards debt)

I bought cereal bars, crisps and fruit for my packed lunches for the next four weeks so they should last.

I can't wait till our debt is cleared and we have increased our savings.

Ordered DH a dvd online for xmas, it was on sale (£7.99)

It was my friend's wedding on Saturday and we actually came back with money!! Originally we had over £20 left over but I had promised my mum we would give my uncle taxi money so we came back with roughly £10. I asked DH what we should do with the money? His answer: put it into savings. It's only a small amount but I'm pleased we didn't spend it all. I'm going to go to the bank soon and put the money in.

We have a few new people at work. I think this means there will be less overtime in the future, although no sign of it stopping soon.

I love online banking. I just transferred £4.04 from my current account to my savings account. It's a small amount but it means I've saved something. I would have transferred more over but I'm still waiting on a couple of things coming out of my bank this month (roughly £44 worth)

Bought another dvd for my mum for xmas again today. £2.70 I'm keeping track of my xmas spending in a small notebook. I've only bought things for my mum so far but I know what I'm getting DH. In fact, I'm hoping to order it soon, just so I know I've got it.

I'm so pleased I've added to savings! Now I need to update my sidebar.

Today I set up a regular transfer from my current account to my savings account. It doesn't start until next month. I've made sure that it will come out of my account on the same day each month. It's only a small amount (£5). It was originally going to be more but spoke to DH and we agreed it's best for me to start off small. I don't know why I didn't think of doing this sooner. I know many of you guys regularly transfer money to savings. I'm obviously going to do my best to add to savings each month, and clear debt, but at least this starts me off.

For the past four weeks I have been tracking my spending. I've just spent a while trying to figure out exactly how much I've spent and where I spent it. That got me thinking, I need to think of a better way to keep track. Right now I just write down what I spend in a notebook. It took me ages to work out exactly how much I've spent in one shop, although I write down the name of the shop next to how much. Anyway, excluding bills, this is what my spending roughly looks like:

ASDA £120.06
Play £6.98*
petrol £65.02**
Caffe Nero £6.70
NEXT £17
social £55.70

* I ordered a dvd for my mum for Christmas and a book for MIL's birthday
** Only £40.00 of this is what I put in. DH and my mum gave me the rest

The social category includes going out for a meal and the cinema for my friend's birthday. I also met my other friend in town for lunch. I paid a deposit too to see a tribute act next month with my mum so I guess it isn't too bad.

I think the biggest shock I got when I totalled this up is the amount I've spent in ASDA. I remember buying walkie talkies cause DH asked for them the day we got paid. I mostly buy food that I take with me to work. I also buy me and DH drink. I just didn't realise it was that much. Phew.

I had a few things to do today. Went to the bank and put £44 into savings so need to update my sidebar. Out of the £44 some of it was change that I've been meaning to take to the bank for a while. Booked an eyebrow wax for tomorrow (£8) Tomorrow's payday so we'll see how I do.

I received £30.53 cashback a few days ago from the cashback website I use. I just transferred the money to savings, so my new balance is £97.96 - almost at triple digits!!

It's the night before payday. I was just checking my bank balance online. I had £49.85 left so I transferred £29.85 to savings. The other £20 will be used to pay the deposit for the tribute night (hopefully I'll get that done tomorrow)

I added a little bit to savings today. £10 to be exact. I'll see where I am in a few weeks and add some more. It felt good just adding that little amount and it took me seconds to do it.

It will be a relatively quiet weekend. Went to the cinema with MIL last night. Spent £4.75. MIL paid for the tickets (it's my turn next time)

It was payday yesterday. I paid my catalogue bill online and transferred money to MIL.

I try and use the envelope system for some things. Every four weeks I put money into an envelope towards my road tax, one for Christmas savings and one for if I have bought anything from the Avon catalogue (but that's just to make sure I don't spend the money) I tried using it for petrol but I usually just end up using my bank card or the cash I have on hand.

I seen a few things yesterday that I would like to buy friends and family. However, I didn't buy anything. I've got a few more things to pay this month, and I need to put money into savings.

I'm going to start putting money on an Asda (Walmart) Christmas savings card. It will mean I have a bit extra to spend on Christmas. I will start this month.

OK I've been reading blogs and it seems as though everyone has an Emergency Fund. Hubby and I don't, however we are trying to save for a house - I don't know if we will manage to get on the property ladder straight away but the money saved will help when we finally get a house (even if we do rent).

I'd like to get a used car too. I passed my test nearly a year ago and due to the wedding I haven't been able to get one.

So, I'm wondering, is it even possible for us to do that?

I'm opening up a savings account tomorrow for my challenge money. I'm meeting my boyfriend after he finishes work so I will go to the building society before I meet him. My money has been in my room for ages so it's about time I put it into a savings account.

On Friday I am going to phone to try and get another driving instructor. I don't have any money until Friday otherwise I would phone before then.

My boyfriend owes me money. When he repays me it's going straight into my challenge account, along with all of the other money I have to add.

I haven't started Christmas shopping yet. Although I have been looking at gifts online to see if they are cheaper.

My advantage card arrived today, with a coupon for double points for two transactions until 12th July.

I forgot to mention that I added £10 to my ISA.

I'm in the red, I hate it. I need to get everything sorted.

I've decided I should be doing what Loubilou does and max out my ISA for 2006/07. Honestly I probably won't be able to but I'll try after the holiday is paid for to put more money in it. I got a letter from the building society today and I only put over £500 in it last year. My OH said he was going to put money in it for when we move out next year, but now I'm thinking he should just open up his own account. He says he's bad with money so he probably won't.

I'll aim to have at £2000 in it by April 2007. If I save more that will be great.

The application for the savings account arrived today. I only filled out my details yesterday so it was really quick. I've decided that I'm not going to open the account yet, especially while I'm so skint. I'll open it within the next couple of months. I've decided that I'll save about £20 a month, I won't notice that.

I checked the building society's website today and I filled in a form so that they can send me some information about the account. The money will be saved for 3 years and then I can decide whether to put it into an instant access account or take it out. I'm hoping to start this is June when the holiday's paid, maybe before then if I manage to pay it sooner - fingers crossed.

Trying to work out expenses for April, I'll write it in here as soon as I do.

Ordered two items from the catalogue, they were on sale, so that will go towards the bills next month.