Balancing not just the budget

kerri_gt

Good to hear from you Rosa. I think its the time of year where its easy to get a little bit disorganised - I certainly feel it. sounds like you've been planning / thinking about any spends carefully, well done on the fleabay sales - its annoying when people don't pay but they might be away / not have constant access to the internet / waiting for payday etc. It happens.

Rest up, and don't beat yourself up over a little lack of organisation, you're going the right way with the right mindset still x

RosaBernicia

Thanks Kerri

I think it's all going to work out eventually, we have more help coming in as of Monday and I've already said I'm not doing full time secondment after mid Jan so already pretty much halfway done. I'm also hoping that the new bod will cover Christmas as they live nearby - so that would enable me to go up north after all .

The fleabay buyer thing is a bit odd as they have some positive feedback from the last couple of days but also two warnings from other seller that they just don't pay so have messaged again and if I don't get a reply by the weekend will open an unpaid item wotsit. Anyway all a learning curve.

Managing not to spend except on chocolate lol - so just trying to eat it slowly and make each Hotel Choc trip last several days

Rosa xx

RosaBernicia

Well my credit card is still swamped with expenses but I've got a few weeks waiting to come through and will get up to date this weekend. I've got my beloved YNAB all sorted so everything else is in order

Anyway the exciting thing is that once I've got the expenses paid back and use some of the overtime that should be coming in... I think I can get at least sub £4K by the end of the month. I'm sub £3K on the 0% card and sub £1,300 on the other one so will throw all spare cash at the smaller card. Because I don't know quite what my overtime etc will come in at, I don't quite know how much will be coming in this month and next but I would be thrilled if I can get rid of the smaller card altogether by February.

This means there is now the strange and wonderful prospect of 2015 being my last year in debt (except for the car loan owed to parents and I'm not sure I'd manage to clear that as well). It's a surprisingly odd feeling but I think I like it

RB xx

RosaBernicia

I was very happy to get an interview for a new job this week. And quite excited as it would be a significant pay rise.

And then I worked out that actually it wouldn't be. By the time I take off tax and pay for a season ticket on the train, even if they let me work from home two days a week... I'd be worse off.

It's a bit of a revelation as for so long I've kept working and thinking that taking on more responsibility was going to help me get what I wanted. I'm not so sure of that any more, and I've also realised that all this practice means I'm not scared of living on less income :rotfl:

So I've got one more application for a higher grade job to put in. And one which is a lower grade than now, less hours, somewhere I'd love to live and near friends. Guess which I'd rather have.

I think I've decided where I want to move to which is a huge boost to actually turning things into plans. I'm on call over New Year's Eve, so it will be a quiet one, and I think I will spend some time working out what I want to happen in 2015


RB xx

RosaBernicia

Well all that overtime might just be worth it

Just got my paycheque and it's far more than I had dared to hope for - I wasn't sure what the overtime was going to work out to with tax, and I hadn't even bothered trying to figure out what the antisocial hours allowance came to.

But anyway it's enough to completely wipe my last remaining interest bearing card in almost one swoop :j . I haven't completely zeroed it, there will be about a fiver left to wipe off next month - I don't have online access for that account so wasn't sure of the exact amount to clear, so will pay it off completely and close it next month.

There is even enough left over to also make a sizeable dent in the very last, currently 0% card. But I'm hanging on to that until I get my expenses all sorted on the day to day Visa and can clear that off, then will fling all the remaining spare at the Last Card. I should also have overtime etc coming in January's paycheque, though not so much because of the holidays. So that will come off the Last Card too :T

I'm not sure this has quite sunk in yet, I may be debt free by the middle of next year...


Rosa xx

kerri_gt

Yay, fab news Rosa early xmas present. I bet it feels fab going into 2015 with just that one card remaining x

Shoe_Gal

Fab news Rosa :j:j:j

RosaBernicia

Thanks Kerri and ShoeGal, it does feel fab but still hasn't really sunk in I think...

... though I am now eyeing The Last Card and wondering how soon I can get rid of the !!!!!!!

It's only just occurring to me that getting debt free will be almost like getting a payrise in itself because all that money will be MINE to keep for the future, not have to be paid out to cover the past . Not that I resent the things I spent it on in the past, they were necessary and useful (since it was mainly education and driving lessons!), but it's nice to feel more in control :T


Rosa xx

vasseur

Wow...I go away for 6 months and when I come back you are almost debt free :T It certainly is a lovely feeling.

2015 is looking great already :beer:

RosaBernicia

vasseur wrote: »

Wow...I go away for 6 months and when I come back you are almost debt free :T It certainly is a lovely feeling.

2015 is looking great already :beer:

hi Vasseur good to see you! :j

Wow, yes, the last six months have been rather full of changes. And I've made huge progress on the debt in the last year or so . It's a wonderful, free kind of feeling to be able to ask myself how much I will want to save and what I want to do about holidays in this coming year!

Here's hoping for more good changes in 2015 :beer:


RB xx