The hilariously over-optimistic goals I am setting myself in 2010....

dalleDF

Had such a lazy day today. Had a really nice morning hanging out with the boy before he went to work, and then I put my head down for a snooze around 3pm and didn't wake up til 8pm! I must have really needed it. And at least I didn't spend any money.

Defrosted some freezer veg, ribs and salmon which will be lunches and dinners tomorrow, although OH is talking about a roast dinner in the pub, so we'll see.

I've had a really spendy week, managed to rack up another £100 or so on my Barclaycard so have added it back in to my signature. This was spending on a haircut (via Quidco, and offer on Wahanda, and I haven't had one in about 6 months so it was badly needed!), a Morrisons shop, paying for our dinner on the night OH took me to the theatre, and god knows what other cr*p. Not very pleased with myself. Still on track to clear everything on 25/02 but I have to really stick to budget during March, and this includes not overspending on our trip away. Using the CC to make up little extras outside the budget is not going to be an option anymore, as that's how I ended up in debt in the first place.

The good news is that today is day 50 without alcohol, so a bit of a milestone. I am going for 180 days in total. 4 days till DFD.

juicyjackieb

Congrats on the alcohol free milestone! And I'm super excited about you getting to being debt free!!!

dalleDF

Not long to go! As soon as I pay it off I will start a new diary which will be dedicated to savings goals! Good work on your savings pot Jackie, it is growing so quickly!

dalleDF

MSE-o-sphere, I need your advice.

Tomorrow is meant to be my debt free date, when I will be clearing the last £700 or so of CC debt. However, I really want to invest in Neil Woodford's new investment trust before it becomes oversubscribed (which it will very quickly). The minimum investment is £1,000. I can't touch my emergency fund as it is locked away until July, if I use it I before then I will lose the 6% interest rate.

However, I do still have that 0% offer from Barclaycard to transfer cash to my current account. So I could borrow it at 0%, invest the cash for hopefully a decent return towards the house fund, and then pay the balance off over the next couple of months. SO it means extending my DFD by realistically 2 months, which obviously I don't really want to do. But this could be my only chance to get in to this investment opportunity, which I am convinced is a good one.

Just by writing this out I think I have talked myself out of it. Clearly I just do not have the money and I should accept that. But does anyone have any other thoughts on this? I just need a second opinion.

stepuptothepl8

I think you know what we're all going to say you don't have the money now, and investment opportunities don't always work out in any case. Pay off your debts, be debt free and jump around and :j:j:j celebrate. And then take a breath, save some money that you potentially don't mind losing, and then look for a good investment. :money::money::money:

juicyjackieb

I agree, pay the debt build a nest egg to potential invest in the future, there will be many other opportunities over the years, I don't think this will be the "one that got away".

dalleDF

Thankyou for your wise words, you are both quite right of course. Have scheduled a payment for tomorrow to clear the CCs as planned!

dalleDF

So today is payday! Woo hoo! Have paid £362 off the Barclaycard, waiting for a refund on something which will clear the remaining £30 of the balance hopefully by the end of the week. I have reduced the limit on that card to £1000 as it is the only one I plan to keep but I don't want to be tempted to run it up again.

Have set up a payment for £300 towards the Lloyds card, that should go out later today and will clear it.

I don't think it will feel real until the payments actually clear so I will leave jumping up and down for a couple of days. Have this little smiley in the meantime....:j

juicyjackieb

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I'm so excited for you!!! Well done for getting here, I hope you are beaming!

dalleDF

Today the £300 has gone off the Lloyds card so I have called up and closed it and chopped it up into teeny tiny pieces. :T

The £362 has also gone off the Barclaycard, leaving a balance of £45.03, and there is a refund of £44 which is due to go back on it in the next couple of days. Have just sent £1.03 to it to clear the rest, so it should be gone very shortly. :j

I got a sample in the post of a bottle of posh moisturiser which was a freebie in exchange for a couple of product reviews, very MSE as I have just about run out of moisturiser in my stash.

Went out for a dinner (50% off with Tastecard!) with three girlfriends tonight which was really nice, one of them announced she is preggo so that was a lovely surprise. We all had soft drinks so I only ended up spending £16, which was under my £20 budget.

Also filed my small claims forms online, the man's got 2 weeks to reply so we'll see if anything comes of that. I'm not holding my breath but the cash would really come in massively handy right now. Cross your fingers for me!

Am expecting £32 in Amazon vouchers as payment for some survey projects I did, hopefully that will come in soon as I have my eye on some new Kindle books.

Not feeling as euphoric about my DFD as I should - think it's because my budget still looks rubbish and I have yet another really tight month to wish away. Or maybe it hasn't sunk in yet. I am still compulsively checking the budget....!