We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Running around in circles again
Options
Comments
-
Thank you Dawn - I think the year is only going to be as good as I make it. This year has been all over the place and I haven't done myself any favours not being consistent with myself.
On the bright side, the emergency fund is almost there! I was going to use the free council tax months to top it off but at the moment it's looking like I won't need to. The Christmas shopping is done and within budget, so I'm not going to worry about putting any money aside from this month's paycheck. That can go to the emergency fund...and now I'm wondering if I can top the account out as soon as I get paid. I reckon I'm going to just go for it...one tight month and that will see me going into 2018 with a more confident head on my shoulders, ready to really attack the debt figure.
I'm quite proud of the fact that today, after adding a few items I wanted in a 'screw it I deserve it' moment, I backed away from the website and saved myself £37. I'm glad of it too - I updated my YNAB and the money doesn't have many places to come from.
I keep coming back to my emergency fund - there's £50 sat in my tattoo fund that I'm not going to be needing this side of the new year...it's so blasted tempting. I have 11 days left until payday...I might move it over as a treat next week.
Onwards and downwards!
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time0 -
YESSSSS just seen the electricity bill - the electric company owe me £118 and it should be back in my bank account by the end of next week...and the payment is going down by £15!
So that'll be £100 to the emergency fund and £18 for a treat for us to celebrate bringing our electricity consumption down 12%
Happy dance ahoy!
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time0 -
I've updated my numbers this morning, and am feeling a little spring in my step about it. It's four days until payday - four days until my emergency fund reaches £1000, four days until I start hitting my debt harder.
I've finally signed up for online banking to view my mortgage, and I'm a payment ahead of where I thought I was. So that's helped, though being smacked in the face with how much interest is going on a month is making me impatient to skip over my other debts and be getting on with that. Each month I knock off about 20p interest I think; and I've got about 21 months left on my current fixed rate. I'm hoping as we're in a pretty good place LTV wise that we'll still qualify for a decent fix when that one has finished.
I got a bit spendy this week but I've shuffled around money on YNAB and I'm still ahead of my goals. One of my mid-term goals above was to have my emergency fund by the end of the year, and technically I will have beaten that goal by 11 days, woohoo! I've joined the pay off debt by x-mas 2018 challenge and am looking forward to getting my challenger number and sinking my teeth into this challenge. I'm also watching Frugaldom's Frugal 2018 challenge - I'm not brave enough to join in. I'm in awe of those challengers - I haven't got the energy/I'm too lazy right now. But I figure I can pick up some extra tips and save up some moolah.
Next thing on my list is getting all of my survey sites to payout, and then jacking that in. I've been working on Y0uG0v for the best part of 7 years now on and off, and I'm fed up of pouring time into it. Same goes for Valued0pinions and 0nep0ll. If I can get all of those to payout that's £100 in my pocket, then no more time suck.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time0 -
Hi
Well done on getting your emergency fund ! and good luck with 2018 debt free
how much have you made on YouGov? i started that i am on 950 points how long does it usually take for a payout?paid off £27,527.47 debt free journey began Nov 2017 DEBT FREE 13.09.2019!! EF £3500/£50000 -
Hi and well done on what you have achieved so far.
I’ve been doing YouGov for about 18 months now and have cashed out £100 in that time. It’s one of my favourite surveys as it’s quick and easy. The second £50 seemed to build up much quicker than the first.
Opinium have just paid me £25 and I’ve only been doing that one for about 4 months so that was quick. OnePoll is also good as you don’t get kicked off and I’ve just (today) got a £40 payout from them.
Surveys are pretty dull but I reckon I’ve made £500 since starting them in June 2016. It’s easy money and I just sit and do them whilst I’m watching TV.
Louby0 -
Hi
Well done on getting your emergency fund ! and good luck with 2018 debt free
how much have you made on YouGov? i started that i am on 950 points how long does it usually take for a payout?
Thank youI'm stuck on £37.75 at the moment...I'm only doing it in fits and starts though as I don't have a huge amount of free time at the computer. It's pretty much a Sunday morning gig for me
Hi and well done on what you have achieved so far.
I’ve been doing YouGov for about 18 months now and have cashed out £100 in that time. It’s one of my favourite surveys as it’s quick and easy. The second £50 seemed to build up much quicker than the first.
Opinium have just paid me £25 and I’ve only been doing that one for about 4 months so that was quick. OnePoll is also good as you don’t get kicked off and I’ve just (today) got a £40 payout from them.
Surveys are pretty dull but I reckon I’ve made £500 since starting them in June 2016. It’s easy money and I just sit and do them whilst I’m watching TV.
Louby
Thank youI do them when hubby isn't around as we don't have a lot of time to spend together and I feel bad at sitting in front of my laptop. I get booted off 0nep0ll surveys all the time, it's getting painful trying to get to £40 but I swear I'm not giving up until payout!
Hurrah for payday. I get so excited to do my budget. I've also almost run out of fun money, boo. I was going to order some craft stuff this morning but forced myself not to until I'd updated and reconciled my budget. I'm so glad I forced myself to wait as I don't have enough in the budget - buying it all then discovering that would have sent me into a guilt spiral and would have spent loads more money. I'm kind of proud of myself really, I'm not going to lie.
I also told my husband about my credit card debt. He was hurt and disappointed that I hadn't told him before; I explained that I hadn't told him as I didn't want him to feel bad about not not being able to help. Everything is fine but now he knows I'm not going to be able to squeak past as many silly purchases.
My grocery bill is super low this week as I got a gift voucher from work. We could have anything we wanted but I went super boring and went for a supermarket one to free up some money in the grocery budget whilst still being able to buy a few special bits without feeling guilty. I'm going to make a relatively small payment to my credit card and reassess in the new year to see how much I can squeeze out of the budget. The credit card payment will round down nicely though - always like a round number!
I wish I knew how to keep up momentum between paydays. I get so impatient for the payments to go out, update my number, watch the red bar on my net worth report on YNAB to go down...then for about three weeks I don't get any of that and that's where I get lazy with spending. It's silly - I have so much I could be doing. SO many craft supplies (though we're redecorating what will become my craft room at the moment so it's mostly piled up in boxes waiting for the IKEA shelving unit to be bought and put together)
On the bright side, my emergency fund has gone into a savings account with a relatively decent (though totally abysmal compared to what I grew up with) savings rate, so that will carry on growing, albeit slowly, until my card is paid off and I have a break from debt hammering to put some more cash in there. I feel like my safety net can never be big enough.
Thank you to anyone and everyone reading - writing this is really helping me!
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time0 -
So today I've made my sexy little debt rounding down payment on that card. £2400 to go, to clear before Christmas 2018, so a nice clean average of £200 a month on top of my other obligations. I already know I have an extra £216 coming to it from free council tax months, and from whatever else I can wizard up.
It's a scary thought, how much cash I'm sinking into this debt. At least it's interest free I suppose, so I'm not giving them any more than I originally had. It's depressing and exciting in equal measure - depressing that I'm having to do it but exciting that I'm facing it and building a better future. A debt free future.
I'm also avoiding buying craft supplies. I was adamant I wanted this mixed media kit that is coming out on January 1st, but you know what? £25, plus £4.95 postage, and I'm looking at the kit thinking...what would I actually do with these things? I've got no area set up at the moment, nowhere I can dip in and out of projects, and currently an entire spare room filled up with boxes of craft stuff (while the final room is decorated and prepped for craft room/office goodness). That's £30 that could go to the desk and shelving unit I've been lusting after for the best part of a year.
Well, back to work tomorrow....time to leave the purse at home I think!
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time0 -
Well, I set my shopping limit to £52.90 (the amount left in my budget for December) and set my target at £32.90, so I could put £20 to my credit card. I made a careful meal plan, wrote my shopping list (and only forgot to put one thing on there! I'm quite chuffed), got some frozen meat out so I can cook it this afternoon to prepare for this week's meals, and ended up spending £26.19. I'm so pleased!
I was going to save it all up and make a larger payment towards mid January but I think I'll make the payment now, before I fritter it away.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time0 -
Hurrah, after some careful food shopping and a determination to eat down the freezer, I've put another £75 to the credit card. Scheduled payments have gone off the debt to Mum and the mortgage so my debt payoff is now at £2435.67 paid out of £76843.
I know most people on this board don't include their mortgage but to me, it's helping me to look at the picture as a whole and remind me of why I'm doing it. It also reminds me that I'm not alone in this - DH pays 425 a month to it as the mortgage is obviously a joint debt and the loan from my Mum is joint too.
I'm looking forward to payday (15 days) but I'm also looking forward to the next grocery shop to see what I can skim off that budget too. I accidentally bought a friend something that she already has for Christmas and she hasn't come back to me to say what she'd like instead; must follow that up with her.
Silly dog is limping. God knows what he's done - no pain that I can find so nothing broken, I'm wondering if he's trapped a nerve maybe?
Also miffed at a company - on 20th December I ordered and paid for something (with P@yp@l thankfully); got an order confirmation from them, but nothing since. No replies to emails, nothing, nada. I opened a case with P@yp@al yesterday; lo and behold my order got cancelled with no reason. No mention of refund either? I'm quite cross about it as I hate not knowing what's going on! Well, hopefully I'll get a response on Monday.
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time0 -
Whoops, had a bit of a slip up week and overspent, massively. Moving money around my budget means it's not so much of a huge deal but I cannot spend out of budget for the next 9 days until payday.
I'm pretty pleased with my debt before xmas 2018 total - 5.5% in less than a month, though I need to hit 8.3% every month. I'm getting there, I'm getting there. Looking forward to putting the free council tax right to the card. But you know what? Even if I don't make it by Christmas 2018 fully, I'll be almost there. I'll be so close I can touch it, and I'll be done before the interest free deal ends.
My weight did the same thing as my spending this last week; though I'm hoping to recover and have another week where I lose weight on my official weigh in. We'll see
Our greatest weakness lies in giving up; always try just one more time0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 350.7K Banking & Borrowing
- 253K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.4K Spending & Discounts
- 243.7K Work, Benefits & Business
- 598.5K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 176.8K Life & Family
- 256.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards