July Spending Round Up

I nearly made it. I lasted for 5 days without spending a penny, but on day 6 the call of the coffee became too much. Never mind, I'm happy with how it went.

I had to get resourceful with the food at home, but apart from that, and having about 10 miles of petrol left in my tank Sunday evening I made it. I wouldn't want to do that every week though, it felt it a little too restrictive.

My spending outside of that week has been a little (naughty) high.

July Budget/Actual

£800 Bills (joint stuff here) / £800
£904.32 Loan / £894.23
£18.00 Sponsor/ £18.00
£171.18 Daughter/ £160.49
£180 Food/ £193.47
£60 Petrol/ £61.50

Extras:
Lunches and Coffee £17.01
Book £3.78
Pizza £20.99

August should be an interesting month as I have two weeks holiday. One week will be on holiday in Washington, the other will be spent at home painting our garden fence, if it ever stops raining. Holiday spending will come from the joint account, which I keep totally separate from my personal account, but I do want to have a frugal trip.

Subscribe: Get updates by email or RSS feed here or follow my progress on twitter here

A No Spend Week

I was naughty last week, buying lunch and coffee on three occasions. It was all down to laziness, and not making myself something before I went to work in the morning. This week I'm planning on a total no spend week. No spending on anything. I have petrol in the car and food in the cupboards. I (we) will make do with whatever we have. I currently have £4.87 in my purse and I aim to have the same amount in there Sunday evening.

Have you ever gone a whole week without spending? Do you want to join me?

Subscribe: Get updates by email or RSS feed here or follow my progress on twitter here

Worst Case Scenario

I didn't mention it on this blog before, but last month I survived a round of redundancy's at work. My boss assured me (afterwards) that I was never going to lose my job, but having it hanging over me for two weeks was no fun; I'd started to imagine the worst.

This is the first time that my job position has ever been under threat, but I don't think that it'll be the last. It's time to up my game again. This week some of my colleagues have still missed important deadlines and I'll never understand why, why would you want to give the people above any reason to put you on the list for next time?

I'm so glad that I'm nearly debt free and I'm so glad that dh and I made the decision to save a large emergency fund at the beginning of the year.

Subscribe: Get updates by email or RSS feed here

July Debt Reduction Update

I've sent the £700 snowball from my pay check leaving a debt balance of £6,297; the direct debit payment doesn't get paid until the 27th so I have a little time to wait for a further reduction. In the mean time I working on making a little extra money, snowflakes, as I'd like to get below £6k in July.

Subscribe: Get updates by email or RSS feed here

The 5 Year Plan: Master To Do List Update

I focus a lot on my goals. Reading this list keeps me going. Having goals to work towards keep me motivated.

Finances:
Pay Off Debt - This continues to be my daily focus. Once this is gone I will have £800-£1000 extra a month and be saving about £70 in interest. Win/Win
Pay off our mortgage - Work in progress. £123k to go, was £138k
Save one year of living expenses - Target £18k, saved £10k
Save a travel fund - Target £5k, saved £651
Continue to build pension funds - Ongoing money taken from salary every payday
Build passive and alternative income to £500 a month (New goal) - work in progress
Save over 50% of our income (New goal) - work in progress

Housing:
Finish all renovations - Ongoing, need £3k hope to complete in 2010
Sell our house -Still undecided, might hold onto for eventual rental income

Work:
Improve the infrastructure in my department - Done

Downsizing:
Reduce our belongings and not add to them - Done
Live totally clutter free - Not quite but getting there

Simple and Greener Living:
Streamline every area of my life - Hmm
Eliminate the unnecessary - Hmm
Learn to garden - Hmm
Reduce our impact - Trying hard to

Portugal Living:
Rent or buy small and simple in Portugal - not yet
Learn Portuguese - some basic words
Contact and gather knowledge from b&b owners - not yet, still undecided if what I want to do
Take a cookery course - not yet

Healthy Living:
Lose weight - lost 10lbs in 2009!
Deal with a health issue - Hmm

Some goals are progressing well, others not so
Get updates by email or RSS feed here