I'm a member of the forums at MoneySavingExpert (shock, eh?!) and a monthly thread on the debt free wannabe board is the "NSD" thread. The idea is that you pledge a certain number (chosen by you) of "no spend days" in the month. For some people, this might be as low as 5, whereas some members go for figures as high as 25+!
Different posters have differing views on what constitues a spend, but I think I am in the majority in classing bills and DDs as not a 'spend'. I class grocery purchases as spends though, and I know some NSDers don't.
So, you may be thinking, "Why the strictness? Why not just be generally careful about your spending but spend as and when you want/need to?"
Well, the concept of NSD is that once you've opened your purse/wallet once in a day, it's not much of a jump to carry on spending. In fact, it can be really easy to lose track. Plus, I find just being "careful" leads me to feeling deprived when I don't buy myself things, whereas making it a form of competition with myself means I'm rewarded for my carefulness!
I pledged 15 NSDs this month - fairly high for my first month I guess - but we really don't have much cash left at all, so sensible I thought... Well, I'm on 8 so far! So I'm pretty happy!
Monday, 14 December 2009
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Where have I been?!
Wow, it's a long time since I last wrote here. I guess a lot of stuff had piled up and with one thing and another, I just hadn't blogged anything. I'm back though, and this seems more significant than ever. A bit of a summary on why, and finances:
We're approaching the end of my first semester at Uni and I'm about to go into my overdraft. Now, this is undeniably doing better than many of my housemates and indeed my other half, but this is still not ideal in my opinion; it means I've spent more than i meant, definately. The light at the end of the tunnel here is that there is of course, more loan to come, at the (relative) start of January.
However, when that comes, I'll need to be paying out almost half of it immediately as rent, then there's however much we owe for gas and electricity since JULY. That's going to be a sod of a bill, I know it. Luckily in February there is a bursary due from the Uni (subject to good progress), so that adds a nice buffer. I'd earmarked it partially for a new graphics card for my pc, but that may not be so likely. My birthday's in May though, so I could always ask for one then.
Now, the reason why I've gone into uber-thrift mode is that we hate this house. I mean, really hate it. I can't wait to move to somewhere better - and by better I mean that it can retain some heat, you can't see your breath and we're the only 2 people living in it. I'm a little jealous of Richard's sister; she just moved down here and while her house is in a slightly rougher location, it's considerably nicer than ours! It's cosy, and homey and everything I wanted. *sigh*
The lease for this place ends at the end of June and therefore we need to have some cash saved; for deposits, potential referencing fees etc and rent. We should be getting £200 each back off the LA for this place, but she couldn't lie straight in bed, so I'm betting on that not happening (if that is the case though, we're already planning to threaten small claims court, don't worry) - but that does mean we need to save more. We can't afford to let up when loans come in either, if we're to save.
The good side of this is that I actually kind of enjoy being thrifty (I suspect the OH doesn't!), though it certainly is sinking in with him - he's even converted friends of his to bargain value versions of things they used to buy, looks for voucher codes etc. Good lad! And we have quite a few vouchers available for us to use too. Which is handy.
That was all a bit 'stream of conscious' really, so I'll shush for today.
Alexandra xx
We're approaching the end of my first semester at Uni and I'm about to go into my overdraft. Now, this is undeniably doing better than many of my housemates and indeed my other half, but this is still not ideal in my opinion; it means I've spent more than i meant, definately. The light at the end of the tunnel here is that there is of course, more loan to come, at the (relative) start of January.
However, when that comes, I'll need to be paying out almost half of it immediately as rent, then there's however much we owe for gas and electricity since JULY. That's going to be a sod of a bill, I know it. Luckily in February there is a bursary due from the Uni (subject to good progress), so that adds a nice buffer. I'd earmarked it partially for a new graphics card for my pc, but that may not be so likely. My birthday's in May though, so I could always ask for one then.
Now, the reason why I've gone into uber-thrift mode is that we hate this house. I mean, really hate it. I can't wait to move to somewhere better - and by better I mean that it can retain some heat, you can't see your breath and we're the only 2 people living in it. I'm a little jealous of Richard's sister; she just moved down here and while her house is in a slightly rougher location, it's considerably nicer than ours! It's cosy, and homey and everything I wanted. *sigh*
The lease for this place ends at the end of June and therefore we need to have some cash saved; for deposits, potential referencing fees etc and rent. We should be getting £200 each back off the LA for this place, but she couldn't lie straight in bed, so I'm betting on that not happening (if that is the case though, we're already planning to threaten small claims court, don't worry) - but that does mean we need to save more. We can't afford to let up when loans come in either, if we're to save.
The good side of this is that I actually kind of enjoy being thrifty (I suspect the OH doesn't!), though it certainly is sinking in with him - he's even converted friends of his to bargain value versions of things they used to buy, looks for voucher codes etc. Good lad! And we have quite a few vouchers available for us to use too. Which is handy.
That was all a bit 'stream of conscious' really, so I'll shush for today.
Alexandra xx
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
On saving money as a student...
And in the sense of 'putting some of it away', I mean. Not in the 'I paid less' sense.
It can be really hard to save any money when you have almost none anyway. Tonight though, in what could be seen as a rather optimistic gesture, I made a little saving box (out of the FireBox box that my dad's birthday pressie came in!). It's basic, the only thing I really did was cut a slot in it and shut it... But that still counts, right?
I grabbed my purse and decided to try to follow my mum's rule of anything less than a 50p piece goes in - so 20ps and under (well, it's what she does when she's actively trying to save, everyday stuff often drops to 5ps and less).
So, as of this evening, my little saving box has £2.12 in it. I'm strangely pleased. If I can keep that up, it'll eventually become some real money!
I'm also tempted to sign up for Lloyds Save The Change scheme, where:
So yes, I'm not saying that Lloyds savings accounts are good rates or anything, but that's not really the intention - what I'm thinking is that I won't really notice it happening but when my money is getting uber-tight then I'll suddenly realise I have a little extra pot of money there...
It can be really hard to save any money when you have almost none anyway. Tonight though, in what could be seen as a rather optimistic gesture, I made a little saving box (out of the FireBox box that my dad's birthday pressie came in!). It's basic, the only thing I really did was cut a slot in it and shut it... But that still counts, right?
I grabbed my purse and decided to try to follow my mum's rule of anything less than a 50p piece goes in - so 20ps and under (well, it's what she does when she's actively trying to save, everyday stuff often drops to 5ps and less).
So, as of this evening, my little saving box has £2.12 in it. I'm strangely pleased. If I can keep that up, it'll eventually become some real money!
I'm also tempted to sign up for Lloyds Save The Change scheme, where:
Every time you use your Lloyds visa debit card, we'll round up the amount you
spent to the nearest pound and transfer the difference into a Lloyds TSB saving
account.
So yes, I'm not saying that Lloyds savings accounts are good rates or anything, but that's not really the intention - what I'm thinking is that I won't really notice it happening but when my money is getting uber-tight then I'll suddenly realise I have a little extra pot of money there...
A brief introduction...
Hey guys... Well, I say hey guys as if there's anyone reading this but you never know... Maybe someone will!
Anyway, a bit of an intro! I'm Alexandra, and I'm 21. I'm a student and I live with my boyfriend and our friends in a big shared student house. I'm about to start Uni for the first time ever. It's big, but I'm really excited about it. Everyone else in this house, including the boyfriend, is a second year, due to return to Uni just after I start.
This feels like the first page of a brand new writing pad. I like that. Must do a header though. Something... anime, probably! Need to brighten the place up a bit, or else all the skintness shall make it too drab!
Ok, introductions and handshakeyness over, onto why I'm blogging. I won't lie, this is largely for me though if anyone gets anything out of it, I'd be delighted.
I think I'll put my first real post in a seperate post to this, for clarity's sake! Me, OCD much? Nooooo....
Anyway, a bit of an intro! I'm Alexandra, and I'm 21. I'm a student and I live with my boyfriend and our friends in a big shared student house. I'm about to start Uni for the first time ever. It's big, but I'm really excited about it. Everyone else in this house, including the boyfriend, is a second year, due to return to Uni just after I start.
This feels like the first page of a brand new writing pad. I like that. Must do a header though. Something... anime, probably! Need to brighten the place up a bit, or else all the skintness shall make it too drab!
Ok, introductions and handshakeyness over, onto why I'm blogging. I won't lie, this is largely for me though if anyone gets anything out of it, I'd be delighted.
I think I'll put my first real post in a seperate post to this, for clarity's sake! Me, OCD much? Nooooo....
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