36 Pay days and counting

newlifeahead

Have managed to complete my mom’s tax return on line tonight. Thought I would get it out of the way while the kids are at my parents.

Also managed to get 2 new Mystery Shopping jobs for the next 2 weeks.:)

I have been thinking about what are the most important things I would like to get done by the end of 2011.

Complete my accounts assignment by Feb 2011
Pay off money borrowed from Mom £1500 - End March 2011
Pay off my sister £1700 - End of June 2011
Take last accounts exam June 2011
Pay NatWest overdraft by Nov 2011

Need to budget for car insurance March 2011
Mot May 2011
Car tax August 2011

At least start to do the following
Clean out the garage
Clean out the garden.

I would love to start selling my stuff on EBay but I don't want to get sidetracked from getting my assignment done.

I think that is it for now. If I have too many things to work on I am bound to fail.

So I hope to get my assignment started by the end of this week or maybe next.

jwil

Very :money:on the lamb :T

You're right not to set yourself too many targets for next year, I am forever doing that and failing! Better to have a few and succeed, than many and fail!

newlifeahead

Christmas is over. I have to say that I have enjoyed this Christmas. It was nice to have the family together nice and relaxed.

I did have a few days when I wanted to come on here and moan. My older sister was staying with me and decided that I should hold a dinner party. I was not pleased and really wanted to kill her (in a nice way;)) This was the first dinner party I had since I moved here 12 years ago. After all the stress I felt about the whole thing in the end I really enjoyed it. Now my mom thinks I should do it more often, but once every 12 years is fine with me.

Spending - I have only had to fill the car up with diesel so that was about £25 (need to find the receipt). I haven't had to spend on anything else so far.

I had very good news yesterday. I had a call from NatWest Bank about the complaint I made. It has now been sorted. They had re-added interest on my account for some reason. So now this has been removed and all interest frozen again. The balance is now £1020.54.

This will now reduce my debt free date by 2 months, just in time for my 37th Birthday. I will still aim for 35 pay days just to give me a little leeway but I hope and pray that I can really celebrate Christmas and New Year 2013 debt free.

I am a little worried about my central heating, for some reason the hot water doesn't get very hot as it used to. I had taken out cover for the heating system in January and the last payment has already come out. I am hoping nothing happens after the cover ends at the end of January. I am really thinking that I shouldn't chance it and just get them out to look at it and keep my mind at rest that it will be ok in February.

jwil

Glad you had a good Christmas newlife.

If your boiler is still covered, I would get it checked out while it is. That's what you've been paying for anyway!

Good news about your DFD reduction, it will be great to be debt free in time for Christmas 2013!

newlifeahead

I have been missing in action for a while so decided to come back with a little update.

I have since paid back bank of mum £1000. Now I only owe her £500 which I will do my very best to pay back in a few weeks time.
It has been a real struggle but I have managed it so far. I can't wait to give her the last £500:j

I have applied to get my credit report from Experian and Equifax. I had already done the free trial about a year ago so will get the £2 report by post.

I have managed to get the 30 free trial for Call credit.
A lot of my defaults have now dropped off. I now only have 3 remaining, two of them will drop off next year and the last one on 1/4/2013 which will be the year I become debt free (hopefully.)

I can defiantly say I have learnt a few hard and painful lesson;)

Now it is only 30 paydays and counting:beer:

newlifeahead

I have been looking again at my monthly budget to see if I can reduce my spending any further.

I currently owe £18845.89 which I am trying to repay over 30 months at £625 per a month (plus £95.89 remaining)

Then I thought if I could earn about £10 per a day extra I could clear the debt in about 25 months.

I don't think I could earn £10 extra a day but decided to look at what I am spending to see if I could save £5 per a day (£140 per a month).

I am currently paying for my milk to be delivered by the milkman. I started this a few years ago as my kids were a lot younger and I was always running out.
I am currently paying the milkman £2.22 for 4litres of milk to be delivered on Monday and Thursdays. I have just looked on Tesco and Asda websites and it is only £1.25 for the same thing. What have I been doing.:eek:

I have now cancelled my delivery as from Monday, so for this alone I will be saving about £104.76 a year.

I can't belive I have been spending £239.76 a year on just milk:eek: This is on top of my normal weekly shop.

I feel so silly. Thought I was doing well. Now I see there is room for improvement.

Anyway, I will be saving £19.98 from this
I will also try to reduce my weekly shop to £30 a week. This should save me an extra £40 a month.
Just had a wage increase so I will save that amount £27.85
I will ask my kids dad to pay for half of their out of school activites club. (I don't get any maintainance anyway.) £24

So far that is a saving of £111.83 a month.

That's a start, just need to find or earn an extra £30.

Sky contract is up in May, I am currently paying £15 half price offer. If I am not offered this again I will cancel and save the £15 a month. Then I only need to find an extra £15 to meet my monthly target.

I will really try and see if I can do this as this will reduce my debt free date by 6 months.

newlifeahead

Back again with an update.
So far I have paid back my mom all the money I borrowed:j
I am now on the road to paying back my sister. Have already paid back £500 so now only have £1200 to go. This is a real struggle due to tax credits have gone down and everything else has gone up.

Tried to get an update on my balances yesterday
Natwest Bank £977.13
Barclaycard Mastercard £3260.65
Egg £6347.97
Barclaycard visa £5920.53

My Natwest overdraft is with Intrum Justitia they had a balance of £1006.07. For some reason 2 payments have gone missing, so I will call back next week to find out if they have found them.

Total credit card debt is now £16506.28. I can't remember the last time my credit card debt has been so low. I am getting there.

So my total outstanding debt including what I owe my sister is now £17706.28. Since December I have cleared £3408.58:)

Just need to check how many more paydays to go now.

keggie

Just caught up with your diary. You seem to be doing really well.

We too use a milkman and pay far too much - keep telling ourselves that it is our contribution to keeping britain british and helping dying traditions. Might have to look at the savings over the year like you did though and think of our debt before such grand gestures!

newlifeahead

keggie wrote: »

Just caught up with your diary. You seem to be doing really well.

We too use a milkman and pay far too much - keep telling ourselves that it is our contribution to keeping britain british and helping dying traditions. Might have to look at the savings over the year like you did though and think of our debt before such grand gestures!

I would tell myself the same thing, which might by why it was hard for me to cancel it. I now have to put getting out of debt first, which is a shame.

Only 28 more pay days to go:j
Would love to shave a few months off this but I will have to look into this at a later date.

Looked back at my diary and forgot I made a list
Complete my accounts assignment by Feb 2011 - Outline sent off to be marked
[STRIKE]Pay off money borrowed from Mom £1500 -[STRIKE] all paid
Pay off my sister £1700 - End of June 2011 - have paid £500
Take last accounts exam June 2011
Pay NatWest overdraft by Nov 2011

[STRIKE]Need to budget for car insurance March 2011 [/STRIKE] Paid in full.
Mot May 2011
Car tax August 2011

At least start to do the following
Clean out the garage - I am not looking forward to this
[STRIKE]Clean out the garden.[/STRIKE] Did this over the weekend. Got rid of the rubbish, cleaned the slabs and replaced the decrative stones. Total cost for revamp £16. Garden looks fab for the first time in years.;)

I just have a little patch of the garden to do, hope to add some flowers and maybe some solar lights (depending on cost and budget of course.)

I have been to slimming world and have lost 1lb. Taken the kids to the dentist 40p paid for parking.

I have about £37 to last me for the week. Kids are off school so it will be the park and library for fun.

Little_bit_dizzy

Just found your diary - well done for staying so motivated.

Hope that the scrapbook idea is still going well and that you've had a lovely day with the kids.