The Big One -My debt-free by 30 journey

Knitty78

Looks way too complicated for me, but good luck. :money:

SilkCutSilver

Hi Knitty78,

It probably is :rotfl:but I am going to give it a try and stick to it for a few months to see if there is an improvement - my current budget just doesn't seem to go into enough detail and I end up seeing over £200 spare at the end of every month but actually ending up with about 35p . Also hopefully if I set myself some micro budgets (ha! consultant speak me?) then I can start looking at ways to save in each area i.e. buying books from tesco instead of Waterstones etc. Fingers crossed!

SilkCutSilver

Morning,

As today is the first day of my new budget plan I'm feeling quite positive. The sun is shining and I seem to have found myself working from home due to an unscheduled landlord visit and a parcel expected. Planning to go into the office later.....

So far today I have listed 11 of my latest books just read on Green Metropolis - quite pleased with my self for that and now hoping they will sell. They are bar a couple all in the bestseller chart or new releases and all in just read once condition so fingers are crossed someone wants to buy some holiday reading :T (i'm SilkCutSilver on there too if anyone is a keen reader). I have a couple of brand new ones somewhere which would be good for gifts..I might have to dig them out later and list them too (freebies from my old flatmates job).

Just off to pay my bills on tinterweb and hopefully start getting some control over my money!

SilkCutSilver

So satisfying updating the signature!

SilkCutSilver

Oooh ooh sold one already! That could be a record!

SilkCutSilver

Another £100 off the overdraft. Sneaky Halifax hadn't reduced it by £100 last month as I asked but now it's officially at £1200. Another £2 in the reward pot.

No more book sales...grr..was hoping to get some while I'm at home and able to post them straight away.
Still waiting for the Citilink man too..........

dottyanne

well done you, you seem to be plodding along very niceley indeed - things going well?

SilkCutSilver

Yes thanks not too bad. Seem to be getting there slowly but surely and feeling good about chipping away at the debts.

So far this weekend have spent:

£10 on drinks on Friday night
£10 on Oyster (as budget - need to add another £10 to be up to budget)
£4.10 on train ticket to town yesterday
£21 on getting my hair done for today (BF is playing at a festival in London) out of the Hair and Beauty Budget
£13 on socks for BF
£43 in Tesco on food etc. (need to review budget based on this not being a very big shop!).

Today will no doubt be a bit pricey but I'm hoping my VIP status will lead to free-ness. I'm a rubbish drinker anyway so I won't be able to handle too much alcohol but a taxi home at 5am may be a bit of an expense.....

SilkCutSilver

Ah Wednesday. Middle of the week and only a week and a half to my hols.Yay.


Well yesterday I got poo'd on my a bird..and not just on me but down my top! HOW embarrassing! Following that 'good luck' incident my card got swallowed by the machine (nothing to do with funds for once - apparently even though it didn't expire until 2012 it had expired because Halifax now have a new type of card which I was supposed to get. I pointed out to the nice man that I was not in fact a mind reader and it would have been nice to know this beforehand..banks.....grrrrr..anyway new card on it's way)

So far this week on the money front.

Discovered the piggy banking budget is working quite well for me. I have a lot less money this month because of my silly blow out last month so I'm not quite doing it perfectly but have made a start. I definitely need to up the food budget next month as well as start to put some money in a 'pot' for entertainment. Considering in the last week I have spent £10 on Friday night and £60 on Sunday I can't convince myself that I don't need to! Sunday was a special occaison but even so - this now means the rest of the budget is squeezed, so next month I think I'll put some aside for drinks etc just to be sure.

Still waiting for the 02 card to arrive for proper grocery/food budgeting and Halifax won't send me a card for my 'books' fund until I have put in £100..why???

I have also updated my spreadsheet so I can see how much I'm acheiving with putting some money away in savings and the DF reward pot/£2 coin fund. I have found this is quite motivating.

Sold two books on Green Metropolis but was annoyed with net profit of £1 so consdering bundling them and putting on ebay instead. When I return from hols I think I'll put the beautiful pink phone on there too as I saw someone sold one for £75 at the weekend -not to be sniffed at.

I made my lunch today and it would have been a NSD except I got hungry for something sweet so bought a cereal bar from the canteen - one whole pound that was! BF is cooking for me tonight but I might see if he wants to make some cheap flajpacks or something as snacks are costing me a fortune!

Ooh in 'other news' I am not in Weymouth this week. Which is bad for the pocket (£30 travelcard!sob!!) but good for the stress and tiredness levels. Last night I actually got to cook, sit down for dinner and watch TV in my own home with my BF - a total novelty. Loved it.

Right back to work. Hope all is well with everyone else.

SilkCutSilver

OOh another book. I was too quick to dismiss GM I think! That's 3 down...another 100 odd to go..going to list some more this evening and maybe some of the old uni books and BF's old designy books ('1000 Chairs'...zzzzz) on AbeBooks buy back.