Money Management Boot Camp ..... anyone interested?

[Twiglett]

OK the house of twig has been overspending drastically in recent months, so I'm about to start sorting it out again (took my eye off the ball you see)

I know we do style and healthy living makeovers on here

Anybody want to join my Money Boot Camp? Get control of your money and stay in control?

NB this may be well over my head though but I'm pretty good at this normally

sign-up if you wanna try .. we could start next month?

well its your parameters .. this isn't about being miserable just sensible with available funds ..

you could just have a drink some lunchtimes with friends (after surreptitiously eating tuna sarnies from home in the work loo)

but writing it all down, every penny, does make you change your attitude doesn't it?

I would have to make it the night before
wouldn't it go soggy?

I guess I could put dressing in small thing and put on (ooh will have to buy small thing now ffs)

I'll join,

My motivation to save:

deposit for a house in two years time
cash ISA for rainy day things

CD - i tell you what are great - the little travel pots for baby food.. can have a little one with coleslaw or the like.

Make it the night before if it's something that won't go soggy.

I always do the fruit salad in the morning and if having cucumber in a s/wich or something I do that in the morning to avoid soggyness

Or use Pitta bread

I made mine last night and it was OK, and I still went out browsing at lunch time. Although spent 94p on bottle of diet coke and twirl (theme?) but saved about 50p by getting them from poundstretcher not boots. And I am planning on "finding" a notebook in the children's craft drawers.

And took two pairs of school trousers back to M&S with £11 refund so actually on a positive today.

I need an external hard drive
so i have to buy it right?

You could put a beg on freecycle? Or just buy it, yeh.

do you need it? and can you live without the amount it will cost this month? if so then yes buy it if not then make do..

I used print out a sheet each month for dh and I to fill in with our spending on it. I must print one out now for this month coming.
Im really good on the whole during the week as I get lunch at work and dont spend any money in between by never having any on me at all. But at weekends I'm really bad and spend on the card without thinking. Dp is worse than me as he just doesnt seem to understand the concept of budgeting tho he has got soooo much better than he used to be.
We have £320 after bills this coming month so really need to get myself in gear. Am determinded not to spend any more than that as I want to be able to have a good Xmas.

oh yes I can easily live without the money
this is not the issue
the issue is that I spend too much
the fact that I can afford it is irrelevant
does that make sense?

Paul McKenna reckons (1) writing down everything you spend (2) using cash, and (3) thinking is this essential or just desirable before every purchase, will together cut your spending by 50%.

Tonight I'm going to drag dh to bed early so we can..........

meal plan

Then when he gets paid next week, I can withdraw enough cash and buy what we need rather than just throw any old crap into the trolley.

In that case CD - do you need it?

This thread is so good.
Went into town to get DS a coat, didn't have the one he wanted so will get on internet (but did try on others to check size). Collected photos from Boots (saved £2 by doing 3 day not 1hr). Resisted buying anything else. Came home.
Then realised I'd spent £2 in bus fare to go to town and get photos (thus negating the £2 I'd saved by not doing 1hr ).

well no I don't
but i would be pretty gutted if all my photos from the past 2 years were lost

no scatty you still saved £2 .. you'd have had to have paid for the bus fare to do the 1 hour thing too .. and at least now you know what size coat DS needs

you're all doing very well

I've spent £31 today .. food and cleaner .. am considering stopping cleaner .. but I need cleaner for my sanity and I don't iron .. oh what to do?

CD .. can you upload pictures to a photo website? or have you used all your free memory places? I do think this is about working out difference between needs and wants not making your life difficult if you have the money available

thanks Twig, nearly threw in the towel there.

I think you should spend money on the things important to you /quality of life.

If you cut back too much you give up and end up splurging (like yo yo dieting).

The key is to know exactly what you are spending money on so it doesn't just slip through yer fingers.
(can you tell I've done this befoe?)
(So how come I'm still skint? )

it takes forever to upload them I just don't have the time

TBH i think i just need something i can keep at work and back up once a week so I have safe in case of disaster

it IS good to think hard about whether I really need it thoug

have you got an ipod CD?

My dh uses his as a hard drive.

CD can you burn them onto DVDs - split them by date, that's what I did.. so I have a dvd for 2005, 2006 etc

mascara has it .. burn 'em baby

Oh I have
but it takes forever
And am running out of space
my 80gb hard drive is nearly full and I can get 500Gb for £50