Debt Free by THIRTY!!

debtfreeby30:S

Loan payment and Nationwide credit card minimum payment went out today so I can update my signature!! It's the simple things that make the day better when paying debts!! It's also been another NSD too (not counting direct debits or debt repayments!), pretty happy with how these are running up at the moment. Just shows how far a little planning goes!! And how unnecessary a lot of spending generally is!! Need to be sorting out where my overpayments are coming from now until next payday. May need to be a little imaginative... Think I may have £35 spare in my account so that will have to find its way over to the Barclaycard. A nice £15 to round it up to £50 would be nice, just need to locate it now!! Will see where that goes...

debtfreeby30:S

Hmmm... feeling very restless today, wanting the debt figures to drop but just don't feel that's happening fast enough! Felt exactly the same sometime last month so clearly it's just a regular pattern forming. I'm itching to update my signature and tick payments off my list but I can't yet!! Need to be more patient and disciplined - it is happening and things are going down. Slowly but surely.

Need to go have my lunch... mmmm yummy cereal Must lose the chub must lose the chub!!

debtfreeby30:S

2 more NSDs, not spent anything since Saturday and won't be spending until this Saturday (getting my hair done - my roots mean it is still an essential I'm afraid). Think I've made my 15 in March target and I should be pleased. Instead I feel bored and fed up! Can't let this get to me, need to push through it and get excited about seeing the balances coming down again. People are noticing and making comments - one of the guys at work yesterday asked if I needed anything picking up in town and before I'd even answered he said "oh no, you're not spending any money are you?" No real biggie I guess but it adds to the fed up feeling. BF's weekend off this time around, planning on going for a walk on Sunday and it's his turn to cook (once a week on a Friday - his choice of some kind of treat!) tomorrow so I can chill after work. All I'm doing is "chilling" at the moment as its another way of saying "I have no money!" Aaaargh in such a moaning minnie mood

debtfreeby30:S

So here I am again... still not spending any money :j This is a good thing!! I guess I should look at it more positively instead of getting down about the time debts take to clear. I have paid off the Barclaycard (or will have by the time my DD goes out) £410 more this year so far than I would have sticking to my fixed amount of £150 per month. Plus I have not added to the debt by getting my spending more under control and all the while kept up with all other payments too. Guess if I look at it that way things look a little rosier. Things aren't going to happen over night simply because I think a couple of months of being sensible cancel out years of overspending and living beyond my means!! In this for the long haul. Another positive thing is hopefully with the changes in personal allowances I will have a little extra in my wages every month - I shall add this to my fixed DD payment to the Barclaycard too. Perhaps that will take a little off my DFD target!! Onwards and upwards and I apologise if anyone is reading this as I sound like a right idiot feeling sorry for myself and moaning!!

debtfreeby30:S

Guess what?! It's Monday again!!

So my weekend went as planned, only spend was the planned cut & colour at £60 (left a tip) and then had an NSD yesterday. Went out for a few drinks on Saturday but BF paid as usual and I hardly drank anything anyway. Bad move when everyone else drank loads! I was sat watching them dance like a right grumpy sod but never mind. Went for a carvery lunch yesterday too but again that's BF's domain so he paid - think this month will be the first month he may have spent more than me!! Perhaps cos my grocery budgeting has gone so well this month!! Although I shouldn't speak too soon as you don't know what's going to happen... My cashback cc will reset this week and I'll go through what I've spent on what throughout March... see if I've kept within my constraints, I think I've done well on the food shopping but not so much on everything else

Got a wedding night do on Saturday and I'm going to take the whole Easter weekend off this year (usually end up working most of it so will make a nice change) shame the weather majorly sucks!! Most of this week should be made up of NSDs though as I'm wearing something I already own (not sure what yet but there's plenty in my wardrobe!!)

Good luck to all those debt busters out there!!

debtfreeby30:S

Just dropping by to report another NSD yesterday!! I'm beginning to wonder how I ever spent so much money on just nothing in the first place. You definitely don't need to spend on a regular basis to get by in a month! Soon to be month end roundup time, see what I've spent and where

debtfreeby30:S

So my cashback credit card used for monthly spending has reset and I've jotted up what I've spent on what...

£105.71 - groceries & household
£10.04 - petrol
£60 - cut & colour
£41.25 - toiletries
£9.99 - work shoes
£8,20 - food & drink at the pub
£3.10 - postage
£19.97 - QVC
£67 - festival ticket

Starting from the top - what a whole lot of good a little planning and forward thinking has done to my grocery spends!! Pretty proud of just over £100 for a month to feed two of us!! :j

Petrol, work shoes, postage and the cut & colour are facts of life (sorry about spending so much at the hair dressers but I would not look right my natural colour!!) Nothing too monstrous spent on any of those. I'm not going to beat myself up about £8.20 on a pub lunch either, I went out once without the BF no biggie!!

I spent a little excessively on toiletries BUT I did get everything for half price so technically it was £80+ worth of stuff. I stocked up on dry shampoo which I use religiously every day and splashed out on a new skin care regime (50% off voucher) which dare I say, is not bringing my face out in a rash like the previous one so all good there! Won't need to spend anywhere near as much for another couple of months so not too miffed at myself for that.

I thought I was at the end of QVC payments last month but alas no it was this month so at least these are done and dusted now.

The naughty naughty thing on the list is £67 on a festival ticket for the summer. Shouldn't have done it but we are forgoing a big holiday this year and I'm still within my £300 spending budget I set for myself (there's a couple of refunds on my card too - £19.99 from QVC and £11.25 from a moment of weakness which I returned!) The only detriment is; again I won't have much to overpay on my BC as I have to be under my £300 spending limit to have spare cash (other than cashback, vouchers etc etc). Must do better in April!! Car tax is due but other than that there is no excessive spending required (so she says!)

All in all I haven't done too bad although I could have done better. If I can repeat the grocery spends and cut down everything else I'll be doing ok! Couple more days of March and then I'll be setting my April targets...

debtfreeby30:S

Had two spend days in a row so far which feels a little strange! Bought train tickets to Edinburgh on Thursday (£46 return for both of us). This will come out of my holiday budget of £200. We're not going on a full holiday this year as we would prefer to reduce debts and just have a couple of weeks of chilling out and doing cheaper activities! A couple of nights in Edinburgh is the most extravagant plan we have. Yesterday had to get a couple of householdy bits and pieces totalling about £9. Need to plan my next big shop too as we don't have much stuff in. Will go through the freezer and cupboards and note what's there. Wedding do tonight so need to decide what I'm pulling out of the wardrobe for that! To do list time I think...

[STRIKE]Clean bathroom[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Washing up[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]One load of washing [/STRIKE]
Meal plan & shopping list - to do on Monday
[STRIKE]Paint nails [/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Pull out outfit to wear tonight[/STRIKE]

debtfreeby30:S

Well hello 1st April!

I know I say it a lot but I literally have no idea of how fast time if flying by....

Time to make some targets for this month. I did pretty well on the NSDs throughout March and did 22 with a target of 15. So I obviously need to set myself a target that will be more difficult to reach, with this in mind I'm going for 25 NSDs. No clue if I'll make it but we shall see! I think they get much easier when you actually put your mind do it and embrace the meal planning etc. So much of my old spending was clearly just unnecessary!!

And so comes my monthly spends, last month I did ok with the grocery and household budgeting but spent elsewhere when I hadn't planned to do so. Throughout April I shall aim to spend no more than £200 on everything, food, toiletries, petrol and anything else I may suddenly realise I need to purchase. This will leave me £100 extra in May to overpay my Barclaycard which is definitely needed to keep myself on track for knocking £3000 off the bill this year. I did ok overpaying in Jan and Feb but March and April need some extra effort. Hopefully I'll get bits of cashback made payable from TCB and there should be another £15 available on my monthly spends card. Got a voucher due from VO for my surveys too so this should mean I save £10 on grocery spending - I will have to be very disciplined and not just spend it as extra! I will also be upping my DD to include the extra cash in my wages after the adjustments in tax allowances kick in. It won't be much but it may knock a couple of months off the old DFD!!

So keeping it pretty simple this month, a high NSD target and keeping monthly spends to an absolute minimum.... EASY!! :rotfl:

WifeandMummy

Hi - your diary name caught my attention as I have the same target I turn 30 in 2016 and want all my debt gone! like you said in your first post I also want my life to be sorted so I can enjoy my 30's instead of robbing Peter to pay Paul all the time and just plodding through life! Good Luck on your journey, you sound like your well on track x x x