Sunday 30 September 2012

£100 challenge: week four and month one

Monday: £20.90 groceries (from Aldi, obviously!)
               £22.00 dress from ASOS
Tuesday: £11.50 plants and firewood from the garden centre
Wednesday: £2.80 book for Christmas present
                     £6.08 earbuds
Thursday: £15.17 petrol
                 £28.00 blouse, slippers and groceries from Sainsburys
Friday: £15.00 flowers, cider and chocolate - I was staying with friends in London and these were my
             offerings for the evening
Saturday: £13.50 ticket for National Wedding Fair at Earls Court
                £5 Oyster top-up
                Approx. £30 on ludicrous amounts of cider and comparatively meagre amounts of food in a
               pub, which we 'popped' in to for 'one drink' at about 3 in the afternoon, and left at 10pm.
Sunday: £6.50 breakfast in a greasy spoon cafe in Crouch End
TOTAL: £176.15

Oops.  The overspend was almost entirely due to spending the weekend with my friend - and bride-to-be - Cara in London, overseeing my bridesmaidly duties.  So, erm, I'm sure it's an allowable offence.

This weekend is also the end of my first month of the challenge, and I've managed to pay off one credit card completely, to the tune of £398.  I would have had a further £300 saved, if I hadn't broken the rules slightly (massively) by buying a new iPhone and booking a three day trip to Amsterdam for half term.  Still, £400 of debts paid off feels pretty good, and I've not really struggled with sticking to my limit until this weekend.  I think my overspend can be forgiven and forgotten for now, but I need to be ultra-strict in the next few weeks so that I have some spending money for Amsterdam.               

6 comments:

  1. Yay Amsterdam! One of my favourite places to visit :)

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    1. I can't wait - I haven't been since I was 9 so I would imagine my impressions will be somewhat different this time around!

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  2. When I first starting reading your £100 a week challenge I admit to being a bit smug, thinking that was loads of money. And then I started writing down everything I bought. Oh. My. God.

    Thank you for doing a blog post which wasn't a ridiculously small amount (I see a lot of 'buy nothing' posts and that's great but feels so out there it's unachievable). Not feeling like you're setting an unrealistic goal has made me notice things about my spending which I'd happily ignored since I got a proper job. I've discovered I am so careful at watching the pennies and awful at watching the pounds - gig tickets, trains, theatre, house stuff all gets put on the debit card without a second thought whilst I feverishly bring my own packed lunch to work and fret about topping up my oyster card.
    Anyway, well done. Ignore the overspend this week - being a bridesmaid is hideously expensive and there's nothing you can do about that!
    Claire

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    1. Thanks for this. Yeah, I tried the buy nothing thing last autumn and it was SO hard, definitely not something I could do long-term.

      I never realised why I was spending so much, because in my head only 'real' spending - clothes, books, CDs, tickets - counted, and stuff like petrol and food went straight onto the card and was forgotten about... until the end of the month when I had no money left. Writing everything down is a scary but useful way of keeping track.

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  3. Congratulations on paying that card off! And, yes, overspending on a special occasion is *totally* allowed - for me, that's one of the main reasons I'm careful with everything else; I want to have enough saved up to enjoy myself now and then.

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    1. It feels so good to see my efforts paying off - now I just need to cut that card up!

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