Shiny new debt diary - at the foot of the mountain!

Money_mayhem

Keep up all your hard work....and get you OH to save for your trip.

Mm

marietje

Thanks! You're right, his idea is to pay money off the card to then be able to pay for the trip. We might as well just save for it!

A £6.36 PAD for today. I also reduced my credit limits to remove any temptations...

marietje

Made a PAD of £5.25 today but failed spectacularly on the spending front. Went to the fancy coffee place around the corner with a colleague (well, tomorrow is another day and it was nice to catch up with her). I also spent £3.75 on a sandwich and juice, and £6 on two pizzas. I really have to get organised and start bringing packed lunches. It's much nicer too.

I'm getting an Ocado delivery tonight (15% off!) which should see us through for groceries for the next two weeks or so. We've spent £190 on groceries so far (including the two pizzas...) and I have to say that this is much less than ever. The key is buying realistically because every top-up is a temptation to buy unnecessary things.

I'm also doing a bit of decluttering at home and in my office, which feels very good. I'm not much of a hoarder but I always feel a bit guilty about adding to the rubbish mountain. I guess the solution is to recycle, which I already do, and try do reduce packaging, which seems to be half of what I throw out these days!

The other question on my mind is the survey websites. I used to be very active and got lots of vouchers out of it, but I can't motivate myself any more to do it. I just claimed a £5 voucher on one site and I'll probably close my account. I'll keep swagbucks going but I'll just focus on debt-busting before I look at it again.

marietje

PAD of £8.58 and a total of £20.08 so far this month. I also managed to stay away from the coffee place around the corner, so an extra £2.25 will be paid off the cards tomorrow!

I decided last night to join weight watchers online. I've done a low-carb diet before (with success!) but the weight is creeping back up. The good thing about their new plan is that you can incorporate low-carb principles. It's not exactly money saving (although I'm hoping to get £40.40 cashback!) but I think it will help me stay away from coffees and crap. I discovered that my favourite coffee is 2 points, so that's an incentive to stop buying it, apart from the ridiculous cost.

I also called a mobile company about a long overdue cashback cheque of £35.75. They're issuing it now although it will take 6-8 weeks apparently. Still, better than nothing!

marietje

A PAD of £14.65 today! Some money from Amazon cleared and yesterday's coffee plus a few extra pennies to round down my account.

I should be able to buy the Sunday paper with loose change so I might be looking at an NSD tomorrow and Monday! I'm not entirely sure whether I can do the NSD challenge but this might be a start.

My OH is expecting a few invoices to be paid very soon, so we should be a lot better this month than expected. I've also convinced OH that the money he's saving up for tax is better off on an account that pays some interest rather than the 0.000001% that he gets paid now.

I realise that these posts might be a bit boring but it really helps me to do something every day and to give myself small challenges (2 NSDs, limiting the amount of fancy coffee I buy). Otherwise it's too easy to fall off the wagon...

Wishing you all a good weekend!

marietje

Made a PAD of £10 and it still looks like a NSD today! I paid for the paper with pennies and found a few other coins in the process. It's probably not technically a NSD but the cash was just lying around and this is a first for me.

Weight watchers is also on track and I think it can help me save money because I've already discovered that it's only going to work with packed lunches, meal planning and cutting out the pricey crap. I made a lentil soup from the store cupboard, which is healthy, filling and free!

I also decided to set myself a few mini goals which I will update in the first post of this diary. I'm not entirely sure what I'll do when I reach a goal but I'll think about. Suggestions are welcome!

Mini Goals

I'm hoping to reduce the Amex balance to £2000 at the end of February!

M&S balance reduced to £6000
Amex balance reduced to £2000
M&S monthly interest below £100
Amex monthly interest below £25
Total CC interest below £100
PAD: £1000

marietje

I thought of another challenge, not buying fancy coffees for 22 days a month, which should save me about £50 (and more because I won't be tempted by other treats...

marietje

I'm working from home today and I'm not planning to go anywhere near the shops so hopefully another NSD today. Made a PAD of £19, which includes money saved on coffee and a newspaper yesterday.

I found £1.40 while tidying up and more 1, 2 and 5p coins, so hopefully that will help with future NSDs!

I've finally decided to suspend survey sites in the meantime. I have too much going on right now to do those as well, but still managed to claim a £5 voucher that I had outstanding :-).

Money_mayhem

Your doing great...no fancy coffees for 22 days! Little challenges like that are great for motivation.

Keep up the great work :T

marietje

Thanks MM! I think it really helps to have these small challenges. If not, I would be buying fancy coffees at least once a day and now I'm accountable.

Another big thing, I just applied for a 0% balance transfer credit card (with shaking hands). I got an email saying 'your application has been successful' with a limit of £5000 but I don't really believe it until I see it. I hope it works out because it means that I would save a lot of money. Fingers crossed!

If it works out, I'll immediately close down the empty card and reduce the other card's credit limit accordingly. I know it's way too tempting to start spending on it again and I've learned my lesson in the past.