My debt busting diary!

ScattySkewbald

Hi mfmaybe! The WW thing only showed as I think £8 cashback, however tracked as £15 (the rate it was at a few days back) so we'll have to wait and see. Swagbucks is pretty good - you can build up your swags by doing surveys, watching videos, playing games, web searches etc. Theres various vouchers you can redeem them for or you can get a payout via paypal (need 50 extra per £5). I'm managing about £10 a month without much effort which helps towards birthday and Christmas pressies - very handy

ScattySkewbald

Happy bank holiday!!!
Suns shining already :j

Quick update of May's scores.......
CC was £2203.77 now £1940.60
OD was £466.64 now £412.29

Total paid off for May =£317.52

Not bad but could do better.

Weight wise things are pants :mad: I've allowed bad habits to slip in again and am now 8lb heavier than my lightest weigh in. I have rediscovered running and am building myself up gradually. Currently managing 2.5 miles at a reasonable pace. Must get out at least 3 times a week......

Did the big shop yesterday - spent £100 but got loads of staples and meat for the OH in that, so should just be fresh fruit and veg, bread , milk etc needed.

Ordered birthday pressies for two of my friends little ones. Had a free £10 argos voucher and the toys were 2 for £15 so 2 pressies for £5 = bargain! Just need to pop and collect them tomorrow when I'm back at work.

Aims for June......
1. £400 off debt
2. Build running upto 4 miles
3. Sign up for the race for life
4. Lose 6lb
5. Swag £10

mfmaybe

Well done on moving the debt in the right direction!

I signed up to Swagbucks but not sure about it yet. Videos seem to take a lot of time for very little reward and there is a lot of giving of personal information so far. I think I must be missing the point!

ScattySkewbald

Been AWOL for nearly a month and what a pants month it's been! Been hit with a massive vets bill for one of the ponies that unfortunately his insurance won't cover as it's a reoccurrence of something I've already claimed for :mad: 8 visits in the last 4 weeks but the main thing is he appears to be improving day by day now so keeping everything crossed that he makes a good recovery.

Have only been billed for half of the visits so far. Unfortunately I've had to add them to the credit card for now. Hoping to be able to pay cash for the remainder somehow!

Have also had to fork out for a new washing machine as the old one died. My little saving pots are looking somewhat pathetic now BUT at least they were there to cushion the blow. 6 months ago all the vets bills and the washing machine would have been banged on the credit card.

So time to get back on track with the MSE ways and rid us of the debt once and for all......

A few positive steps in the right direction....
1. Listed some items on eBay - got one bid and a fair few watchers
2. Another Xmas pressie brought courtesy of swag$
3. £175 tracked in TCB - will come in very handy!
4. Submitted expenses claim at work - only £25 but every little helps

So, jobs for today:
1. Look at upcoming expenses and sort budget for coming months
2. List more stuff on eBay
3. House insurance quotes - look for a deal via TCB

Onwards and upwards!

ScattySkewbald

Well, added up all our expenses for July and August and it ain't pretty!

House insurance - approx £130 - July
Pet insurance - £200 - August
Car Tax x2 - £200 - August
Birthdays - £50 - July
MOT and service car 1- £250- July
Repairs car 2 - £250 - July
Vets bills planned / invoiced - £225 - July

July = £905
August = £400

Ouch!!!!

Have £450 saved towards car bills, £175 in TCB, £25 worth of change to pay into account and a further £220 written into the budget for July. This will account for £870 of July's bills. Hoping to make the shortfall up via eBay. This doesn't take into account the vets bills I'm still to be invoiced for though.

I've listed a couple more items on eBay tonight, so fingers crossed they make me some pennies!

cazmanian_minx

Expensive beasts aren't they? Good thing we love them so much

Fingers and hooves firmly crossed for some eBay bids.

ScattySkewbald

They certainly are Caz although worth every penny!

For what it's worth, as it was payday yesterday - here are the scores on the doors for June.......

Cc1 £2784.96 (0%)
Cc2 £111.95
Next £48
Od £477.38

Total £3422.29

Not going to compare it to May's figures - just need to draw a line and start again!

So aims for July:
1. Add as little to the debt as possible! Still have a few outstanding vets bills to pay. May need to be added to the card in the short term until I know how much the cars are going to cost.
2. eBay eBay eBay!
3. Swag £10 towards Xmas pressies
4. Get the house back in order and keep it that way!
5. Train for race for life at the end of the month

ScattySkewbald

Little steps taken yesterday.......

1. Paid £5 off next (min payment)
2. Paid £31.50 off cc1 (min payment)
3. Changed £27 worth of change at the bank
4. Cashed in £19 from TCB
5. Paid off balance of cc2

eBay bids are coming in nicely and currently stand at £25 with the first of the auctions ending Sunday - so still plenty of time

Need to do a stock take of the cupboards and freezers as no doubt we will be popping to the supermarket at some point over the weekend - really need to keep food spends under control as this is our biggest weakness.

ScattySkewbald

Been a spendy day today - done the Aldi shop and placed Tesco order to collect tomorrow. Really pleased with tesco tho as pretty much everything I needed was on offer so managed to save £13 in money off, £12 in multi buys and a further £6 something off in coupons - a £58 shop cost £27.94 :T

eBay bids are still coming in - currently upto £46 with a day left to go. This will be chucked towards vet bills. Make that £50 just had another couples of bids

ScattySkewbald

Well, it was a nice successful evening on eBay last night- 4 items netted me £81, all of which had either been lying round the tack room or my wardrobe unused for quite some time :j Got a couple more items ending in a few days - one has a £5 bid. Would be nice if they made it to £19, so I've got a nice round £100 to throw at the vets bill.

Got a few more bits and pieces to list later in the week, plus a couple of other bits to stick on a Facebook group and a great big pile for a car boot sale should I ever get round to it!

I've done a few sums and realistically would like to have everything paid off by the end of April 2015. Would be great if I could manage it before then, but I am keen to have my little savings pots building up as they've really helped us out.

Jobs for this week:
1. Post eBay stuff
2. List more eBay stuff
3. Pay off outstanding vet bill
4. Book cars in at garage
5. Sort house insurance

Have a fab day