Polesalot's Climb to Debt Freedom

vasseur

Made a smallish PAD of £1.61 today and have tweaked next month's budget to take into account the weekend's spends. It's all looking reasonably encouraging.

I've started saving my £2 coins again (which I briefly did at the beginning of the year and got to about £80 and now can't remember what I spent it all on ). So far I'm up to £4 It would have been more but DD has lost TWO teeth this weekend which has cost me a total of £3. I didn't have any change for the second tooth that came out so had to put a precious £2 coin in the tooth fairy box instead of the usual £1 (our tooth fairy is very tight :cool:). The temptation to borrow a pound coin from her money box was there though.....

vasseur

Barclaycard balance is down to £57.10

Got a text from CSA today to say they were sending another payment. Unfortunately it is only 2 weeks worth :cool:. Hoping I'll get another text tomorrow to say they are sending the other 2 weeks. I'm sure he (dd's errant father) is in arrears already so more is due. I just hope I get it within this salary month because otherwise I will have to tweak my figures again.

Spends today was £9.45 in sainsbugs but it did include a bottle of wine and birthday card for my friend.

I sent my sister a link of a handbag that I would quite like for xmas from her. She thinks it's really nice and wants one from me for xmas :rotfl: I bet she'll go for the black one though (safe). I'm going for the red one

I've been for 2 runs this week (cold and windy) and one pole class which is now an hour and a half long. Last night's class could have been renamed class of pain and torture. I have bruises and burns in places I didn't even know I had places

pixiechick99

I'm saving £2 coins again...beat you though, I have 6:rotfl:

Fingers crossed you get the rest of the CSA money soon. I had no luck getting money from ex through them. Luckily the flump has a job now and pays on time..my next lot coming on Monday. Unfortunately I need to buy girls Xmas pressies so won't be saving any of it:o

vasseur

pixiechick99 wrote: »

Fingers crossed you get the rest of the CSA money soon. I had no luck getting money from ex through them. Luckily the flump has a job now and pays on time..my next lot coming on Monday. Unfortunately I need to buy girls Xmas pressies so won't be saving any of it:o

None of mine will be saved either Most of this month's money is earmarked for xmas prezzies. I don't think there's a problem with the maintenance it's just they seem to pay out in an odd way. Fortunately I don't take it as a guaranteed money so when I do get something it's a bonus.

vasseur

I've just been playing around with the SOA calculator and seeing how things stack up when I'm debt free. Maybe if I'm brave enough I will post it on here when I'm DF for whoever's still reading to give me some ideas on further savings.

Must go up to bed soon. I'm trying to be in bed (even if just reading) by 10pm every night this week and I've already messed up tonight and last night. I got some chick-lit books from the library as I need to read something light and fluffy that doesn't take too much intelligence to get into . My crime thrillers were just depressing me a bit and I need something lighthearted with an almost guaranteed happy ending at this time of year. I think I do get depressed by the dark evenings and miserable weather

RosaBernicia

I can see crime thrillers may not make great bedtime reading. I love CSI and NCIS but precisely because they are silly - I couldn't be dealing with any of the really scary ones. How about fantasy if you get fed up with chick lit? A lot of those don't require too much brain power (though this doesn't apply to Game of Thrones which I haven't read fully, because I got through the first three chapters in the Waterstones cafe and had already lost track of who was who :rotfl:)

I seem to be unusual in that I love winter and autumn and get fed up with summer... to me autumn means peace, snow, boots, sweater dresses, duvets and time for thinking, whereas summer means sunburn, hassle and being expected to rush around doing stuff :rotfl: Mind you, this may have something to do with usually having had exams in the summer which takes a lot of the fun out of it. Maybe it'll be different now :j


Rosa xx

vasseur

I have made my final payment to the credit card :j I was a bit annoyed that the last couple of PADs I made got swallowed up by the interest that was added on but when all's said and done I would have almost killed to be in this position this time last year.

I can't quite call myself debt free as I'm overdrawn until I get paid tomorrow so I will update my sig then. It does still feel quite nice I must admit .

So today I have been busy working out my budget. It's not really a usual month as there are so many xmas presents to buy so I don't think things will seem normal until new year. I've shifted money round (value tomorrow) into grocery account, car account, after school club fees account and emergency account. I've paid my sister what I owe her for half mum's xmas present and I've broken the back of the xmas shopping. I've ordered dd's roller skates, plus a couple of other bits she wanted and a few things for my dad. If I'm honest I've gone a little bit mad so will really have to tighten my belt until December's payday. In a way I think it might be even harder trying to stick to my new budget than paying off the debt :cool:

Spends today (apart from the xmas shopping) was £8.62 in Mr Ms - dd has to take some chocolates into school for the xmas fair in exchange for having a non school uniform day tomorrow and we had none in the house. I decided to buy my extra grocery bits that I can't get in A1di at the same time so it does away with any extra temptation when I pop on there at the weekend.

Since being home I have hoovered all through, cooked and cleared dinner away, argued with dd over her maths homework (she does understand it now though ) and washed dd's swimming stuff. I will mop the floors before I go to bed - and I will get myself upstairs by 10pm tonight..........

vasseur

My first official debt free day :T I should really start another diary. I'd like to keep it on this board though just so I don't take my eye off the ball

Food shop tonight came to £34.95 so well within my £40 weekly budget and it included 2 lots of washing powder, xmas wrapping paper and 5 packs of xmas cards. Very happy with that. I will transfer the money over from the food account later.

Two presents that I ordered yesterday arrived this morning. At the time I was quite miffed at having to pay almost £5 delivery charge but I guess it was worth it - not that I needed them to be delivered quite so promptly but it's something to bear in mind when I'm panic buying on the 22nd December...

Hopefully won't be too much of a spendy weekend. The weather is supposed to be rotten here tomorrow so doubt I'll get out on my bike. DD has some things she needs to get done for her Brownies hostess badge which she'll be doing on Monday - the same day she gets enrolled. I think a day indoors sorting the house might be quite nice

skint_spice

Lovely to see the debt free signature - congratulations :beer::beer:

vasseur

skint_spice wrote: »

Lovely to see the debt free signature - congratulations :beer::beer:

Thanks! I'm going to give myself a few months breather (or at least get xmas out of the way) and then I'm going to join you as an MFW