The Big One -My debt-free by 30 journey

SilkCutSilver

Monday again. Not feeling too great today so feel a bit of a quiet night in with some DVD's coming on.

Am stupidly skint as my flatmate still owes me for the bills this month...grrr. Not that it makes much difference as all that money is earmarked for the credit card bill anyway...........

On a lighter note I felt I needed a MS boost so paid a random £5 off my capital one card - looking forward to next month when it should have a '1' in front of it and not a '2'.

I was also MS all last week as I made my lunch every day. Didn't manage it today but going to plan to do it for the rest of the week.

Also shouldn't be doing anywhere near as much travelling in the next few weeks -which in a way is bad for the money saving as I have to actually buy my own food, but will be good for staying on an even keel -it's quite hard to have a budget in the week which is six times what your personal budget would be and then go back at the weekend and try to live on your own money. Also it means I can actually meal plan and do monthly big shops which I always find saves me money instead of nipping out to the supermarket every weekend and not being able to buy anything which doesn't last more than two days.

Off on holiday on Saturday which is luckily All Inclusive and shouldnt require much funds. I can't WAIT now. I also paid for this out of my wages and for the first time in my life - NOT on a credit card or using money I hadn't yet earned. The holiday is paid for outright in cash so that's something to feel good about.

This was a bit of a depressing post I do apologise!

SilkCutSilver

You see in my miserable grump I forgot about some other good things:

Did a Mystery Shop on Saturday which should go against the CC. £10 should be in the bag soon.

Also £9 in Green Metropolis now. Aiming to add some more books tonight in the hope that more volume may help sales. May also put some on eBay if I can muster up the enthusiasm. Getting together some additional funds may mean the credit card may have a '0' in front of it before too long instead! :T

SilkCutSilver

Does anyone else feel like sometimes with this it's one step forward two steps back? I'm just getting to the point where I feel I'm making some progress with my debt free journey and starting to get a bit of a cushion behind me money wise for the things I want to do so I don't have to take out more debt - and then suddenly you find yourself back to square one again.

This morning I have discovered -I am £140 short for my credit card bill next month -I REALLY have to be more disciplined with the money in that account. I seemed to have managed to stop using the card but I keep taking the money out before the bill is paid and then not having enough. It's annoying as I work it out nearly every day to try and make sure I'm on tracvk -but AMEX is so damn confusing and with expense payments and things it's so easy to get myself in a muddle.

Also BT have decided to give me a bill for £54 which i swaer I do not owe them. Hoestly, nothing is ever an unexpected letter in the post saying 'We owe you £54'!

SilkCutSilver

OOh they cancelled the charge after I phoned and complained. Woo! Another step forward for SCS!

SilkCutSilver

I just added 45 books to Green Metropolis -sadly this isn't even HALF the ones I want to sell (not including the other 200 I don't!). Also discovered at least three books I own two copies of. Now I know where all my money went......

SilkCutSilver

The library is a great idea - I used to use it loads when I lived in Newcastle, but then I got to the stage where I had read everything and all the books they got were the same old. Never thought about reserving. I may have to look into that. Especially as I think my local library now has extended opening hours til 7pm. Going to have to check it out!

No more sales just yet...waiting and hoping though!

Oh and I just got a £45 mystery shop for this weekend before I go on holiday. Very pleased!

CaroleM_3

Hi SilkCutSilver,

If you have an oxfam book shop near you they are brilliant, the paperbacks are all £1.99 or £2.49 and they normally have a good range too. I'm addicted, I dont read as much as I should but when I do they are always the first place I go to.

Also, for the expenses, could you record what you spend in a spreadsheet, and include the payments going out and dates and so on, so you would always know how much to leave in the expenses account? Sorry, I havent explained that very well, I mean 2 columns, In and Out (or Credit/Debit) in the In put your payments(put them in as soon as you know how much and when, even if it means putting them in in advance), in the Out, put what you spend on it, as you spend it. Then have the Out subtracting from the In and it should show you how much to leave in the piggybanking account.

Sorry if that is teaching you to suck eggs(or makes no sense whatsoever), but I have a slight spreadsheet obsession and feel they are the answer to everything (possibly even the meaning of life)

good luck with everything!

SilkCutSilver

Hi CaroleM - thanks for stopping by.

I used to buy my books from Charity shops but I have found in recent years they are still quite expensive (my local shop charges £3+ for a book) and quite often there is a glut of books from the same authors which I have read (Barbara Taylor Bradford, Catherine Cookson, Patricia Cornwell etc). Unfortunately I read too much for writers to keep up!

I ove your spreadsheet plan - I think the main thing I need to do is just be disciplines with not spending from that account and make sure it is always set aside to pay the CC bill. If there is extra in it that belongs to 'me' then I think I need to just let it build up and keep it there as a cushion so that I don't get myself into a great stinking mess again - it's so easy with a credit card and hundreds of pounds sitting in your acount each month to go off the straight and narrow!

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep you updated

SilkCutSilver

Another one on GM - that's 4 now!

Raquela

wah hey for book sales! sorry have been quiet, have been actually doing work for a change ;-). Spect I better find my diary and do an update!

I love my local library as well, it's soooo much better than Nottingham's was. It's a nice place to visit, pretty good selection to browse, and yep, nice catalogue to browse through! However, I still do an amazon wishlist to browse, cos I prefer that, then I use that to refer to when I search the library catalogue from home ;-). Not sure how much it costs to reserve books here, but think it's more than 30p.

Oops, that's reminded me - I have a book that's overdue, eeeek!