Toughing It Out this Stoptober

I must admit it's been a challenging first week this Stoptober.  For anyone who didn't know, I'm trying my hardest not to spend any and I mean ANY unnecessary money this month, in an attempt to snowball my last remaining credit card balance before the end of the year.

Usually, at the beginning of the month, the privations towards the end of the previous month are alleviated by going out and spending a bit of cash on a few treats.  This month, however, on the back of a few splurges towards the end of (Not so) Spend Less September I am trying to be very strict with myself and have so far tried to only spend money on food/household necessities, a small gift or two and the cost of posting a couple of parcels.

I must admit I am finding it quite hard, but I am toughing it out.  There have been a couple of positives though, to help me through. 

Probably the most important positive is that it is my birthday this week and as a consequence OH gave me some money last week to go and buy something nice from him.  (He does usually get me a few small surprises too, of his own volition).  On Friday, I ventured into our local high street as there was a sale on at M&S and I had seen some lovely winter jumpers reduced.  I figured that with my birthday money I would buy myself one.  In the end they didn't fit as well as I'd like, so I bought this lovely necklace for £15 instead, which makes ordinary t-shirts look like they have a beaded collar.  I thought it was lovely.

I wouldn't ordinarily spend so much on a piece of costume jewellery but it fitted the bill perfectly as a birthday treat. 

A couple of doors away is Primark and I decided to pop in and see if they had any burgundy jeggings, as the ones in M&S were £25 and they didn't have my size.  I found some lovely supersoft skinnies instead for just £8 and I liked the fit too. 

Whilst in there, I noticed that they had some lovely slouchy knits for the winter so I bought a couple of those too, one black,

one grey

both with zip up the back.  I bought an arran style sweater too,

 for very cold days when I'm out walking the dog.  I spent £42 in total, but I love everything I bought and it will be great to wear these items as the weather gets colder.  I now feel like I've had my fix of new things for a while and my winter wardrobe is just about sorted, even though I won't receive everything for a few days yet, and this has helped me feel a lot less deprived this month.  Hooray for birthdays is what I say.

There were three other positives this last week too.  Firstly, the selling of a couple of items on eBay brought in a little extra cash, which can now be spent elsewhere, perhaps on a very small treat later this month to help keep me going.

Secondly,  my credit card bill arrived last week, the credit card on which I'd made a few splurges towards the end of last month and which I need to pay off in full to avoid any interest charges.  I was  relieved to note that a couple of items of expenditure had not yet gone onto it, giving me a month's leeway and also meaning I can pay more off my other credit card this month, than I thought I'd be able to, which is very good for my morale.  This does of course mean, that I have virtually no scope to spend on this card again this month, without facing an even larger bill next month, which is a good incentive not to spend of course.

The third and final positive was that last week I also managed to get a couple of free tickets to the Ideal Home Show at Christmas event at Earl's Court in November, through Martin Lewis's Money Saving Expert website.  There were 10,000 free tickets available if anyone is still interested in applying for them.   My friend and I will thus be able to enjoy a free day out in the lead up to Christmas this year. 

So, all in all it's been a very good first week of Stoptober and I'm hoping it will help sustain me through the rest of the month.