Drifting in a Sea of Debt

BettyBones · 17 April 2016 at 1:29PM

endoftheostricheffect wrote: »

Hi Betty! :wave::wave:
I've just read your shiny new diary! You sound like you have done so well! I'm new to the DFD- but it's people like you that inspire me so thanks for that!
Good luck on your weekly goals! Such a good idea... maybe I should do that too.:D

Thanks ET (can I call you that? lol) I've just caught up with your diary and you're doing fab too! Having a few weekly goals keeps me motivated when there's no actual debt repaying going on

joeyjimbles · 17 April 2016 at 3:40PM

Another shop app for your phone is receipthog - works on the same principle as the others but you just get points for uploading a photo of your purchases rather than actually having to buy anything. I've just started it and it looks like a slow burn but it is pretty quick and its all pennies I didn't have previously so that's got to be worthwhile.
Another little money spinner for you is Prolific Academic - a survey site that has studies on it. You are prequalified for most things so you won't waste your time and then be told you are disqualified halfway through and they pay pretty well for the time taken. I make an average minimum of £5 a week from there - and this week I've made £16.
Well done on tackling all this, your diary sounds so positive and normal - looking forward to joining you on your journey.

BettyBones · 19 April 2016 at 9:21PM

Thanks Joey

I'm keen to find out more about these shopping apps so will definitely investigate receipthog.

BettyBones · 19 April 2016 at 10:26PM

Yesterday was a NSD. Yay! And I also got paid last month's work expenses so I paid £30 off my Capital One Card and stuck £120 into my savings account towards my rent. I pay my rent every 4 weeks so next month I will have to pay it twice in the same month. Boo!

I also managed to not only download the NHS Couch to 5k app yesterday but also complete the first run on it. The plan was to throw my running gear in the car straight after work, drive over to the ex's to spend some time with DS and then go for a run before returning home. However, I threw my running shoes in the car but completely forgot to throw anything else in. So I ended up having to borrow some kit from DS. Although I was quite chuffed that I could actually fit into the running attire of a 14 year old... I wasn't at all chuffed with what I looked like. Picture Rocky in his grubby grey sweat pants complete with grubby grey hoody and you're pretty much there. Needless to say, I waited until after dark before I ventured out of the house.

Today wasn't a NSD unfortunately. I had to pick up some bread, milk and cereal at lunch time but I did resist the urge to pick up a pain au chocolate whilst I was at it. No point running like a boxer then eating like a sumo wrestler :rotfl:
.

BettyBones · 22 April 2016 at 9:02PM

It's Friday night! Has everyone got their party pants on? No, me neither

I'm pleased to report that I've managed 2 NSD's this week. It would have been 3 but I couldn't resist a shop bought ham and mustard sandwich at lunchtime. It was only £1.80 though and I'm working in London this weekend so that will be another 2 NSD's for me as it's an all expenses paid trip. :T NSD's are actually harder than they seem, aren't they? There's always something that you need to buy... bread, milk, petrol, ham and mustard sandwich... I 've discovered that the best way to ensure a NSD is to just not leave the house! But I suspect that's not sustainable.

On the money saving front... I had plenty of food in so didn't bother to do a weekly grocery shop. Just picked up a few bits at the beginning of the week and made do with what's in the cupboards and fridge. And as I haven't been out much this week I've also got away with just putting £10 worth of petrol in the car. So total spend this week has been less than £20 :j

note3 · 22 April 2016 at 10:26PM

Hey just read through your diary. You've done fantastically so far! Hope I can say the same in a few yrs

NSDs are hard...guess leave your purse at home if you're going somewhere you don't need/don't want to spend money?

BettyBones · 27 April 2016 at 6:13PM

Thanks Note3

I don't think I've ever been out of the house without my purse. It sounds a bit scary, having absolutely no money on me at all, but I think I'll give it a try

Well I'm back from my weekend in London and can report that it was a very MSE weekend indeed. All accommodation, meals and travel paid for by work so I didn't have to spend a penny and I took/stole the complimentary tea/coffee/sugar/smellies from he hotel room to top up my supplies. Is it stealing when they're 'complimentary'? I don't know . Oh.. actually... yes I did have to spend a penny... and I had to pay for the privilege. 30p is what it costs now to use the toilets at Waterloo Station. Back in the 1980's it was just 2p! I wonder if I can put that on my expenses? I might try putting it down just for fun... although work will probably insist on a receipt before reimbursing me :rotfl:

So what other money saving have I done this week? Well not a lot. Yesterday I went the other way and splurged on a slow cooker for £18. Is that a good money saving idea? My thinking is that using a slow cooker instead of the oven will probably save me money in the long run because they're cheaper to run? Anyway, I so loved the idea of being able to sling everything in it before work and have dinner on the table as soon as I walk in that I bought it. So if anyone has any great (easy to do because I'm a hopeless cook) slow cooker recipes... then do please throw them my way, At the moment I feel like that person with 'all the gear but no idea' lol

Well tomorrow is payday (yippeee!) so it will be time to pay down some more debt, take a look at where I'm at with it all and give a financial update. I wish I could keep better track of it all but time always seems to run away with me... hence the need for a slow cooker I reckon

BettyBones · 29 April 2016 at 9:43PM

Debt totals last month:
Tax Credits: £782.46
Capital One CC: £390.00
Santander CC: £1,397.51
Halifax CC1: £2,500.00
Halifax CC2: £3,090.00
Tesco CC: £1,500.00
Total Debt: £9,659.97

Debt totals this month:
Tax Credits: £652.10
Capital One CC: £360.00
Santander CC: £1,347.51
Halifax CC1: £2,400.00
Halifax CC2: £3,090.00
Tesco CC: £1,400.00
Total Debt: £9,249.61

So that's £410.36 of debt cleared this month and I've also dumped another £250 into my savings account taking the total of that to £1,000. The plan is to add another £300 to this next pay day and then use it all to clear the Santander CC before the 0% rate ends on June 20th. Sorry Santander but you aint getting a penny in interest out of me! Mwuhahaha!

I also dumped another £50 into my emergency/holiday savings fund taking the total of that to £812.51. I'm praying that I don't actually have an emergency in the next 14 months or my plans to be debt free and using that money to cruise off into the sunset next year will be well and truly scuppered.

And so begins yet another month of living on a budget of £60 a week for food, petrol and entertainment. Oh well... nothing worth having comes easy I guess...

Have a great debt-busting bank holiday weekend everybody xx

Orange_Ena · 29 April 2016 at 11:58PM

That's a brilliant debt reduction, nice work :T

Have a great bank holiday

BettyBones · 2 May 2016 at 5:14PM

Can't believe the bank holiday weekend is almost over. Where did the time go? Back to work tomorrow. Sniff!

It's been a funny weekend. On Saturday DS took his girlfriend to the cinema and then ex DH and I picked them up and took them to the carvery. I had a £20 evoucher for the carvery but ex DH took us to the wrong kind of carvery so I couldn't use it. However, because of his mistake he offered to pick up the whole tab so I ended up paying for nothing except half the tip. And I still have my voucher :j

Yesterday I popped along to Tesc0, did a 2 week shop and spent £30.55. I had a 'spend £30 get £4 off voucher' so total cost was £26.55. When I got home I paid the full £30.55 off my Tesc0 cc... so essentially I'm using Tesc0 vouchers to pay my cc bill

Today I popped up the shops to get some popcorn and snacks for DS and his girlfriend (DS paid for them) and I had a quick bimble round the few shops that are open today. I saw a draft excluder that I really wanted but even though it was only £4.99 I was chuffed with myself for resisting the urge to buy it.

Walking home I was questioning whether I actually even need a draft excluder. Especially as we're just about to head into the summer! But I decided that if there's £5 left in my entertainment budget by the end of this week then I'll go back and, if it's still there, I'll treat myself to it. You know you need to get out more when you consider a draft excluder to be a treat! :rotfl:

Drifting in a Sea of Debt

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