Head out of sand time! £63k to zero!

Bigskies · 10 May 2017 at 5:07PM

Hiya, howdy, hello! Good day today, I think. Had to fill the car up but otherwise a NSD. Have taken lunches into work every day this week so far, which makes such a big difference really.
Paid the balance for our little summer holiday today, in actual money from the account, not on plastic. Felt a real sense of achievement! :cool:
Otherwise, no payments so far for the last couple of days as pretty much all of the direct debits have gone out now for the month. Just waiting to see if we end up with any sort of surplus this month, but I'm not holding my breath as we've got a few family events and birthdays and so on.
I'm really looking forward to the credit card bills coming now though as for the first month, ever, in the last ten years or so the numbers should, slightly, have gone down as no credit card spends at all! :T

Hiddenidenity · 10 May 2017 at 9:12PM

Subscribed

Looking forward to following x

Bigskies · 12 May 2017 at 8:41PM

Busy busy day today. Was on a study day today and I've finally completed my Masters dissertation and submitted -woohoo! I've been doing it over the last two years, as well as working full time, so it's been a long slog, but at last I'm done. Huge sense of satisfaction. :T

And then I shampooed the carpets :rotfl:. It's all rock and roll here, you know.

This afternoon sold a pair of shoes on eBay for £72, so that's great. Hubby did the food shop, £75 in Lidl, but we needed to restock a few things, so a bit more than usual. Had a lovely curry for dinner tonight, and I'm now going to have a soak in the bath and maybe a cheeky glass of wine, as when I pulled the carpet cleaner out of the cupboard found two bottles of prosecco and two bottles of wine behind! :beer:

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend xx

Cherryfudge · 12 May 2017 at 10:24PM

:T:T:T What a fantastic day! I think those bottles had been waiting for their moment

. Well done on all, especially the dissertation. :T:T:T

Bobarella · 13 May 2017 at 12:57AM

Well done! What an achievement!

Bigskies · 14 May 2017 at 10:01AM

Another busy day yesterday, did loads of housework jobs, and put some more stuff up for sale on FB. Slow though, lots of views but no nibbles yet. I do find that FB selling is very hit or miss, and there is so much tat on there that it's hard to sell decent stuff for decent money. Shall just continue to bump intermittently and see what happens. It's stuff that it's not really worth eBaying, once you consider fees and posting.
I did buy a couple of things though, a picnic table and a camping cupboard, one for a whole fiver and one for a tenner, paid for with cash though that I had from some bits I sold the other day. They were things we need for our camping collection, so didn't mind the spends, and to buy new would have been £40 and £50.
Had a great night last night, kids had friends over and we all watched Eurovision, which is a family tradition. Free fun, yaaay!
Today I'm doing more sorting out and tidying up. Hubby is off to work soon, so quiet day at home.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend, and enjoying the stray bits of sun we are getting!

[Deleted User] · 14 May 2017 at 10:43AM

You are doing so well. I started to tackle our debt after having to move 3 times in 2 years, overpay on a small loan and transferred a large CC bill to a 0% deal. The loan will be finished in August and the CC in October. I am looking forward to having extra money to put into a savings account.

Our income is made up of work and private pensions, so comes in a bit sporadically, work pension weekly, private pension various dates through the month. We do have a decent free OD with our bank account, which just now is essential, although we pay for it.

One thing I have done for years is have a separate savings account for things like Car tax and insurance,car repairs, house insurance. I transfer a regular amount by DD each month so when the time comes I have cash to pay it with; after doing a search to find the cheapest quote, of course.

Our car is 9 years old and has been very reliable, no plans to change it, in that time we have had very little to pay out, a set of new tyres,a new sensor, alternator and this month disc brakes before it goes for its MOT.

We also do the same for holidays, although we are going to change the way we holiday from now on. Taking short breaks rather than full weeks. My OH has an account for his bowls, he puts part of his pocket money each month into it for his yearly fees and usually manages to save enough to pay for a tank of fuel when we go away as well.

With only 2 of us shopping is about £120 a month, Aldi, Lidl and Morrison. I do make my own bread, OH likes Lidl extra thick wholemeal bread for toast, he hates thin toast. A loaf lasts us a week, unless we have something on toast at lunchtime.

Bigskies · 14 May 2017 at 11:13AM

Thanks czarina, great to see how other people budget.
We have two cars, mine is a work car, so I just have to pay for fuel. Hubby's is a small runaround, and I need to start to budget for MOT and so on fo rthat, so great reminder. We've only just bought it!

Bigskies · 15 May 2017 at 10:14AM

Right. Month 1 tally up can be completed as all statements are now in.
In May, we reduced our debt by......

£1264.48 :j:j:j

Really happy as it's the first time in about ten years it's gone down instead of up.

1.99% of debt is paid off.

Cherryfudge · 15 May 2017 at 11:11AM

:j:j:j Fabulous! Well done

:money::T

Head out of sand time! £63k to zero!

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free