Small steps to reduce a big debt!! x

LittleMissGiggles123

Just a quick check in tonight, I am actually enjoying reading through other diaries at the moment for inspiration.

All is going well, all savings are on track, been paid today so will be making our very first overpayment on the next mortgage payment which comes out on May 1st. This is very sad, but I'm actually looking forward to making that payment!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend

x

LittleMissGiggles123

Thought I'd update my diary a bit more detailed today. Had my fix of diaries last night so going to update my own properly.

So my 2 pots where a save a pound a day are going well. I've actually cheated a bit & put the next 3 days in already. So this month is now finished. I've put the money together with last months money so now have #122 (sorry about the hash tag, my keyboard is playing up so it's posting a hashtag instead of a pound sign!).

I've also double saved really because all the pounds per day were mostly in coins but I had #100 in notes in my wallet, so I replaced the pound coins with the notes, so in my pots I have now got #100 in notes & #22 in coins, plus #100 in coins that I have now put in our large plastic bottle that we have had for years & tend to just chuck all our shrapnel in to.

I am definitely going to take the pots money to the bank now though because having #122 is way too tempting to spend!

I've not done any surveys for ages, really fallen behind with them. I think the last ones I done were last weekend so I need to get back on that.

I sometimes enter a few competitions but I never seem to win anything. I see people winning things all the time, but I never win. I must just not have that sort of luck, but I will keep trying anyway.

Today was a spend day. I wasn't sure what the weather was doing, one minute sunny, then raining, then sunny again. But then it got really warm so I was going to take the little one for a picnic. We went to the supermarket to buy food for a picnic (had to buy food for next weeks sandwiches anyway, so not had to buy specially for the picnic). Anyway, got out of the supermarket & the sky was black. So we decided to go to the cinema instead & will have a picnic tomorrow. If the weather is still bad we'll just have an indoor one. So anyway, after that rambling, I spent about #70 altogether today including the cinema tickets, food for packed lunches for the first week back in school & stuff for our tea tonight & a few more days.

I've hopefully earnt a bit of cashback this week. We are with Santander for our mortgage & have been thinking about the Santander 123 account for a while, to earn some cashback. So I went through Topcashback & applied for the account, so should get cashback from TC plus then earn cashback from our mortgage payments plus some other bills.

I also applied for the Santander 123 credit card which I will use to buy groceries etc & just pay in full each month. This should hopefully earn a bit of cashback too. Of course this all depends on if I get accepted for them. Fingers crossed!

My daily lunches are going ok. I still spend money, but whereas before I would buy food, plus a snack & drink, I've now started taking my snack & drink in from home so I'm only buying the sandwich/pasta or whatever. It's saving a bit of money but I am still going to try & not buy every day.

Anyway, apart from the money saving stuff I'm just having a quiet evening now that we're back from the cinema. Weather isn't looking great out again so I'm looking forward to watching some rubbish on TV & chilling with my girls.

Have a good weekend everyone

x

Tahlullah

Hello, looks like all is well and your plans are coming together. Hope you get to where you want to be soon.

giblet1979

Sounds like everything is going well, and I don't think it's sad at all to be excited about the overpayment. I've just made my first overpayment to a loan, and once that is done, I can't wait to start OP'ing the mortgage X

LittleMissGiggles123

I find I have so little time at the moment to get on here! I don't want to give up on updating here though because I like reading back on previous posts to keep track of what I've promised myself & what I am supposed to be doing.


Can't believe we're in to May already! This year is going so quickly.


Have been quite good with not spending too much money anywhere. Am still buying lunch but DH & I had a conversation this weekend about making a meal plan & trying to have a few packed lunches in there during the week. We're both a bit fed up of food at the moment, as silly as that sounds. We just go through phases of wanting to think up nice new meals to try & then phases where we are fed up of having to think of things for dinner every night. How lovely it would be to be rich & have somebody cook for us


Anyway, on the money front again.....


Have kept on track with the £1 pots. Total now is £122 stashed away and this months money is all up to date.


Have been keeping up with the rounding current account down so small savings account is now on almost £100.


Have opened up a Santander 123 account. Although there is a £2 monthly fee, our mortgage is with Santander so we will get cashback for that, plus some of our other monthly DD's. So the cashback we will gain more than covers the fee.


Have sold a few things on ebay & also have more stuff to sell now as I had a clearout of my daughters wardrobe. I find children's clothes sell so much better than women's clothes.


I have a new phone (free upgrade) so now have an iPhone 5 to sell, which should get us at least £300 based on the recent ebay sales I viewed. I'm thinking of avoiding ebay though and their nasty fees and just selling straight through facebook to a friend. I'd also feel safer that way because there would be no chance of a chargeback from scammers, like so many stories I've read about ebay/paypal lately!


We have actually got a few iphones lying around the house which we should definitely get around to selling!


My new mission is to declutter my house. We have so much stuff, way too much, and I am definitely guilty of holding on to things saying 'I'll find a use for this'. Well I can't do this anymore because we're running out of room! So as a start, I emptied on wardrobe of clothes & have filled a charity bag to be collected this Thursday. I would put them on ebay, but as I said earlier, I don't find women's clothes sell very well & to be honest I can't be bothered with the hassle just for a few ££'s.


Right, off to lunch a minute so maybe pop back later for an update. Actually, I'll force myself to come back & confess how much I spent on lunch!


x

LittleMissGiggles123

Hello Tahlullah & Giblet. Hope your having a lovely day/week/month


Lunch time spend was £1 for a bottle of coke! That is way too much. I drink a lot of water & always have a bottle of water on my desk (refilled from the office water dispenser), but I did fancy a bottle of coke today. I will refrain from buying any for the rest of the week.

LittleMissGiggles123

Some other MS things we've been doing....


My husband went to L*dl yesterday to grab some food for the cupboards. We would normally go to Mr T or Mr A but everyone always raves on about how cheap L*dl & A*di are so we've been saying for a while that we should give them a try. Our reason for not doing it before is because we bought some veg from L*dl a few years ago & it was such low quality! But we're now giving it a go again. Hubby spent £16 & bought quite a bit, so I know it is going to save us money in the long run.


We wanted to redecorate our daughters playroom. I was nosing on the internet at some wallpaper but then remembered that we had 2 unopened rolls left over from when we decorated her bedroom, so using that now instead. Was also going to buy a curtain pole & curtains for the room, but will hold off for the time being as the room is warm all year round & has got blinds on the window anyway, so not desperately needed. I'm now going to start a 'decorating' savings pot. Hopefully the cutbacks in grocery shopping can be put towards this savings pot instead.


I've got back in to surveys recently so hopefully building that up & have also been checking the cashback sites every day for any offers before I buy anything I need.


Our Internet at home has been pretty bad lately, dropping out quite regularly & very slow. So I'm probably going to switch supplier. Have looked at a few & looks like we'll save a bit of money by switching back to Sky for a bit & I can also get cashback through Topcashback. Going to sort that out tonight.


x

nellis10

Enjoying your diary! :j

I'm not quite on the MFW board yet...I have a Divorce and a Car Loan that I want to pay off by end of 2015 first, then I can crack onto MFW using the savings I've made to throw at the mortgage!

LittleMissGiggles123

Thanks Nellis and Hello


2015 isn't that far away now so fingers crossed you are well on your way to reaching that goal. Good luck with paying that off & starting on the MFW journey. Once people get into the moneysaving mindset it's amazing how much they save. I used to think it was impossible to cut down our spending etc but when I looked at it all properly I realised it's easier than I thought.


I'm hoping for a nice summer again this year. When the weather is bad we end up doing so much indoor stuff with the kids, like cinema trips etc, which costs money.


But of all the things we do with our girls, the one thing from last year that they still talk about is a bank holiday weekend we had amazing weather so we threw a picnic together & went off to the local park. The girls took a ball & some other things to play with, had a play around in the park & as it's such a big park we also took a walk through the woods and towards the beach. They loved it & still talk about it a year later. The only money I spent was £2 to park the car and £2 for the girls to have ice cream.


So long story short, the sun makes everyone that little bit happier & also saves me money

LittleMissGiggles123

Another wet & miserable day! When are we going to have some sunshine that actually lasts more than a few hours??


Not much going on moneywise. I've spent a bit of money today on lunch but I did buy some bread rolls from the local bakers so have them for packed lunches for tomorrow & then maybe a nice breakfast roll on Saturday as I have bacon & eggs already in the house.


Total spend on lunch (but including bread rolls) - £4.20


Need to get in touch with our mortgage provider now to set up the first overpayment. I have left it a few days because we were in the process of switching bank accounts so wanted to wait for it to be completed so I can set up the overpayment from the new account rather than our old current account.


My to do list for tonight is:


Cook tea & tidy/clean kitchen.
Catch up on some washing - basket is overflowing!
Do a few surveys & enter some comps (anyone ever won anything?)
Start checking prices for a bike for daughters birthday at end of month. I want to get her a nice reliable one but don't want to pay over the odds.
Maybe colour my hair & trim my fringe. I already have a few boxes of hair dye, will see how much time I have spare tonight. Definitely need to sort the fringe though as I'm having to clip it back now to be able to see where I'm going.


I hope everyone is having a good day.


x