I am very happy with this.. up 4% since April... got off to a bad start in May but got back on track - 16 of the 31 days were NSD :-) I'm just gonna try to maintain it at this level going forward as I don't think life's little happenings will allow me improve it much.

My average daily spend on discretionary items in April was Eur 11. In May it was Eur 8.87. This is also a big improvement :-)

Well.... time to just feel good for a while !! :-)

Hope everyone has a nice wkend !!

The moment is here.... I AM CC DEBT-FREE !!

Well actually I've paid Eur 43 too much when paying off my CC so the CC company owes me money !!

This is a very serious situation but because I'm a friendly person I'll do the following:

Not charge any interest for 6 months....
Charge 10 % from 6 - 12 months....
Charge 20 % from 12- 18 months....
Charge 30 % from 18 - 24 months...

And if they dare miss a payment, I will of course charge a Eur 100 missed payment fee, add it onto the balance and increase the overall interest rate to 35 %....

that's just the kind of helpful guy I am....hehe

After about 5 years of always having a CC balance in the thousands, it is currently at Eur 42 !! Will be paid off in full by next Friday all going as planned :-)

Anyways, the big 3-oh next May - have been thinking about making a memorable trip to celebrate the cutting loose of the boy Shane and the welcoming of the man.

What I have planned is as follows:

Take approx 3 weeks off work end of April/start of May 2009.

Fly Dublin to New York - spend 2/3 nights there visiting family and friends.

Fly New York to Lima/Cusco in Peru.

Spend 3/4 days trekking on Peruvian horses (luv horses !! ) getting down n dirty in the Peruvian countryside - trying to breathe in as much beauty as possible.

Wanted to visit the famous Machu Picchu site - but then I have read on the net that it is being damaged by tourism so might not visit for that reason- jury is out at mo.

3/4 days white-water rafting - never done this before.

Then rent an apartment in Lima for 6/7 nights to enjoy the city culture and nightlife.

Then back to Ireland.

I want to have all flights, horse trekking, white-water rafting and Lima apartment paid for before I leave...without borrowing in any way. I also plan to have all spending money saved b4 I go.

How to do this ? Well, I have a savings account with Eur 270 in it for overpaying my Personal Loan (I got a Loan of 13,400 last March over 5 years at 270 a month - my plan was to save 270 a month so that I pay it off in 2.5 years). However when I listed out my monthly outgoings, looked at my spending diary since April 1st and looked at my normal salary income... my outgoings are actually higher than my income !! It must be the overtime I've being doing at work that is keeping things pretty balanced.

Anyway, no room for further savings. So basically I've decided to change the Loan Overpayment savings to the Peru savings.

For spending money, I am going to buy $150 dollars every payday ( every 2 weeks) so I'll have $3,300 spending money when I leave... which will be LOADS n LOADS..

This will mean spending Eur 200 more per month than I currently am so I'll have to look into where I'll get this.... it's just occured to me that I won't be paying approx Eur 45 CC interest anymore :-) so that'll help.... more Overtime I guess... if it's going.

Details aside, I really feel I will get a lot from this trip on a personal level... so I consider the saving effort worthwhile and a positive thing as I can focus on improving the things in my life that money can't buy....

Would love to hear from any of you that have been to Peru/ South America with any hints/tips....

Guess I'll have to dig out the Do-it-self Learn Spanish tapes !! lol

btw... I'm also interested in learning to dance the Salsa in the near future... does anybody know if the Salsa is big in Peru ??

Got my car serviced today... was expecting to be paying anything up to Eur 500 but it only cost Eur 145 !! Yeaaahay !

Had to travel to a neighbouring town to get it done so it was sort of a day out:

Spent Eur 10 on haircut, Eur 4 on tea and scone, Eur 20 on groceries for the house and got Eur 20 of petrol on way home. Not frivolous spending... well maybe apart from the tea and scone :-)

The local court was in session so spent half an hour there observing an interesting case about a man who was caught driving with no insurance... love this real-life stuff... glimpses in other ways of being.
Saw a heroin addict being remanded in prison - he actually wanted to stay in prison. Before he was called to the stand, I knew he was an addict... the sunken eyes with the dark patches underneath... and only a young man... such a pity.... makes me realise how lucky I am.

Also today made first payment into a new savings account I have started for future accomodation expenses. Basically my idea is to pay the same amount I pay in rent into a high interest savings account every month. I have no desire to buy a house at this point. The plan is by doing this...I will never have to worry by having a roof over my head.. because effectively every month I am paying for a month's rent in the future and with the power of guaranteed compound interest it will grow into a sizable fund in say 20 years. At that point, I could nearly buy a home outright or travel the world renting as I go.... ahhh Freedom... I love the smell of it :-)))

This was gonna be my 4th NSD in a row... however my colleague is running in a mini-marathon and she brought in her sponsorship card so I gave her Euro 2.... wow I sound like a right old Mr Scrooge !! lol ... I know it is for a good cause :-). I only think twice about it because I was on course to beat my NSD record (4 days)

Cashed in my Regular Savings Acc and received Eur 1894. Today I transferred all this to my CC account via Internet Banking. When it arrives in my CC, my new balance should be less than 100 coz I made a Eur 50 payment a few days ago....soooooo

I AM LITERALLY WITHIN DAYS OF BEING CC DEBT FREE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-)

On a roll at the mo.... made it though the weekend without spending anything.... & I always find it easier to have a NSD on a working day as there is less time/opportunity to spend.

I know I will have to pay to have my car serviced on Thursday so I'm gonna try hard to keep Tuesday and Wednesday NSD as well...

If I do, that'll be a record - 5 NSD in a row !! :-)

Quiet enough evening today... had no plans made for this weekend. The main reason is because I have my car booked in for a full service next Thursday and this may cost anything up to EUR 500 (with Main Dealer).

I don't mind spending money on servicing as it will hopefully mean that it will give less mechanical problems - I intend to hold onto this car for as long as possible.

Anyhow, after walking my two dogs today, I just drifted around the house and felt a strong urge to drive to McDonalds and get a nice takeaway to perk myself up.... but then I remembered how poorly I am doing so far this month as compared to last month in relation to No Spend Days.... so I made some toast instead !! :-)

Pretty happy that the NSD thing helped me stop comfort-eating... for today anyway !! hehe

Amazing weather in this part of the world !! The hottest its been all year !! :-)

Well it was my B-day last Friday -29- so went out with my brother and a friend for a few drinks... only spent about EUR 14 the whole night but ended up more drunk than I intended/wanted to be... something to do with a friend buying me double vodkas I'd say !! Anyway hungover on Saturday.

Yesterday off to the West of Ireland for a night in Achill. Spent about 4 hrs walking, enjoying the beautiful scenery and taking photos. Went out to dinner. Out for few drinks (help me sleep in a noisy hostel !!). This morning out for a nice walk on the beach... nice breakfast out and home.

Total Cost: EUR 68.25

Am pretty happy with this. I think I got good value for my money... also visited somewhere I'd never been b4.

I am planning to take more Saturday nite holidays to parts of the country I havn't been b4. If the weather is good, I might consider bringing a sleeping bag and sleeping in the car... less noise and cheaper... I'd probably get a better night's sleep.

I'd love to show you photos of Achill but I have a film camera and so will have to wait till the film is all used up and then get them developed. Can scan them onto the computer at the point. Thinking about getting a digital camera but will wait until I have extra money available in my current account - God knows when that will be !! lol

One of the places I have in mind to hit is the summer-long Lisdoonvarna Match-Making Festival... should be a lot of fune!! :-)