Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

StressedSteph

Thanks Dawnybabes & Magsnoodle :beer:
Morning all,


Got another confession haha.


I banked the CPP payout cheque of £175.37 on Tuesday, this morning it showed up in my account, obviously not cleared, but because of my savings, I decided to pay that amount off my NEXT account before it clears .


I am pretty sure that the cheque is safe coming from CPP and there is no chance it will bounce. I just couldn't help it. I am so desperate to get these numbers down.


I am now in the region of £1300 owing for Next.


Not much else to report today, Ds is going off to a friends for the day/night. Dd has a friend over at lunchtime and I am cleaning my messy house all day .


Feel good making that payment though. Hope you are all finding time to enjoy the sunshine. xx

Olivia-Louise_2

Your doing amazing!

Well done x

mfmaybe

I agree with the poster up-thread that said you were magic-ing money! My talent seems to be quite the opposite! You are doing so well, I think the April targets look quite safe to me?

StressedSteph

Olivia-Louise wrote: »

Your doing amazing!

Well done x

mfmaybe wrote: »

I agree with the poster up-thread that said you were magic-ing money! My talent seems to be quite the opposite! You are doing so well, I think the April targets look quite safe to me?

Thanks Olivia-Louise and mfmaybe.


Thanks for your kind words, they are such encouragement to me.


Will probably not have any personal belongings left by the end of this debt journey because I will have Ebay'd them all hehe but nevermind.

StressedSteph

Morning all.


I had a little look at YNAB this morning and I noticed an area where I am always having to adjust the budget. FOOD!!

During the last half of March and so far in April I have failed to stick to my £60 food budget.

My Mr T shop is always around £60-£62 which is fine, but I have slipped into popping to the local small (expensive) grocery store for top-ups :mad:

My monthly food totals should be around £240

March was £298
But April so far with another week to go is already £292.

The last two weeks especially have been bad being nearly double my budget :eek:.

I think what this boils down to, is I have slipped a little with my menu planning. Well in truth I haven't even done one this week.

So when faced at 3pm with a freezer full of frozen meat and nothing defrosted and quick nip to the supermarket usually follows.

So this is a little wake-up call for me as I could have made a debt payment of around £169 if I hadn't wasted it on food :mad:

This weekend, ready for next Tuesday food delivery, I WILL DO A MEAL PLAN.

Apart from me telling myself off, I have nothing to report today. Hope you are all set for some frugal relaxing in the garden over the Easter break xxxx

eco_farmer

don't be too hard on yourself it is half term after all so more meals to supply. perhaps allow a bit more for holidays in your budget?


eco

debtfreewannabe321

Steph do you have a freezer with space, doing the "small top-ups" was one of my downfalls! I started doing what my mother has always done and bought double the amount of milk I thought I would need and froze the extra. I also do this for yoghurts, butter, cheese, I buy juice that goes into the cupboards rather than ones that have to go in the fridge to begin with and when I used to buy shop bought bread/buns I again would buy double and put it in the freezer (we have a bread machine now so make it) ...what else do you find yourself buying on top ups and maybe we can offer alternative ideas to keep in the stock cupboard/freezer?? I never buy top ups now really unless of course i've run out of wine

I think you're doing great on such a low budget so don't beat yourself up on it. I think the key to good shopping is always having a stock cupboard well stocked and the same for the freezers as if you can't get to the shops you will always have pasta in or soup or *insert whatever you all like*

My budget was £300 whilst we were struggling and I did manage it most months but sometimes I would go over. The way to keep in is to NOT buy any snacks (crisps, chocs, biscuit bars etc ) I would get cheap biscuits and make cakes and that was it that was how I managed anyway not saying it will work for you but that was definitely the area I overspent in! My budget is now £400 and i'm usually in by around £20-40 every month so i'm happy with it now (I've got one hollow teenager as well as the 2 smaller ones so just one extra to feed than you)

P.s well done on all those small payments! That's how my ISA/emergency funds have been creeping up by me rounding down every night and sending it straight over! Keep up the great work

debtfreewannabe321

StressedSteph wrote: »

I think what this boils down to, is I have slipped a little with my menu planning. Well in truth I haven't even done one this week.

So when faced at 3pm with a freezer full of frozen meat and nothing defrosted and quick nip to the supermarket usually follows.

I usually do a meal plan like you but sometimes I just can't be bothered I always always make sure I have eggs in. If I get to 3pm like you and haven't defrosted anything I make an omelette (with left over veg or salad) or eggs, chips, beans. Or I will make pasta with passata (I always have these in by bulk as it's often my fall back meal if I can't be a$$ed :rotfl:) I also throw left over meat/veg/salad into that too

Chrysalis1976

**sneaks in to bow down to the awesomeness that is Steph, sneaks out again to give myself a good talking to and sort myself out to refocus and get on with debt busting.**

C xx

StressedSteph

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

I usually do a meal plan like you but sometimes I just can't be bothered I always always make sure I have eggs in. If I get to 3pm like you and haven't defrosted anything I make an omelette (with left over veg or salad) or eggs, chips, beans. Or I will make pasta with passata (I always have these in by bulk as it's often my fall back meal if I can't be a$$ed :rotfl:) I also throw left over meat/veg/salad into that too

That's a good idea DFW, I try to keep some tuna, sweetcorn & pasta in the cupboards so that I can fall back on Tuna Pasta on a busy night. I could have fed it to them every night this week though haha.

Chrysalis1976 wrote: »

**sneaks in to bow down to the awesomeness that is Steph, sneaks out again to give myself a good talking to and sort myself out to refocus and get on with debt busting.**

C xx

Aaaaaw your so sweet Chrysalis. I'm not that great. I have wasted a lot of money on food lately. Seems to be my one tricky area to control. Will get myself organised and do that meal plan this weekend.


xxxx