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Small steps to reduce a big debt!! x

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  • giblet1979
    giblet1979 Posts: 864 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    I know what you mean LMG, saw that post also. So sad :(

    I'm pleased with my savings, although tbh a lot of it will belong to the taxman. I'm putting 50% away from all extra work I do to be safe, although I won't hit higher tax bracket every month. This was suggested by a friend of mine who did the same for a couple of years, partly as you have to pay a big chunk of 2nd year tax 'up front' so to speak (which I wouldn't have otherwise) and also as I'll need a new car once my current finance ends, and it'd be better to pay upfront, or have a large deposit rather than end up paying back interest. I may also have to use some for house maintenance (three rooms are nearly decorated but rest of the house needs doing over time) and like you said, there will be 'emergencies' also.

    Once the windows are paid off in December, that'll be £350 a month (jointly) we are currently putting away that should be able to go to overpayments all being well, or into other savings if house things are desperately needed.

    Feels like a long slog, but getting there, one penny at a time hey? x
    Debt remaining: :(
    Mortgage - £117,759 (£134,600, Nov 2013)

    Work overpayment and home improvement loan paid back (£19200) :beer:


  • I'm very glad I'm not self employed, I just wouldn't understand all the tax stuff & would probably mess it up and end up owing them loads of money!

    You seem focused so that will definitely help with your debt busting/emergency saving mission.

    It is one penny at a time, but just think thats better than wasting that one penny.

    x
  • keza
    keza Posts: 1,311 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    Hi Littlemissgiggles123. you are doing great so far! just shows how it all adds up! *subscribes* hoping i can pick up some of your good habits
    Current Mortgage balance - £363,785.35/£420,000 (highest point Oct 2022).
  • Hi Keza


    To be honest a lot of my ideas & tips have come from the other lovely people on here. I read various diaries on this board & the DFW board as well as reading some of the posts offering tips etc. It all comes in handy & makes a difference.


    I had some cashback paid yesterday, yippee! :j


    It was through Topcashback & was a grand total of £111!! I was so pleased. I was going to convert it all to Amazon vouchers to use at Christmas because you get a 6% bonus if you do that but some of it was from a home insurance renewal & the terms from that provider stipulated that you could only take it in cash, so I transferred £73 in to my account & the rest has been converted to Amazon vouchers.


    I have also had a £5 Amazon voucher sent to me from one of the survey sites I do, so that's been added to the account now. There is enough on my Amazon account now to pay for one of the console games that comes out just before Christmas, which I know my husband plays. So that will be put aside for that.


    We also had a £1 incentive paid to our joint account. It said it was an incentive for the PAYM app, but we've not downloaded it so I'm not sure why they gave it to us. But I'm not going to argue with them if they want to give us money :rotfl:. I've transferred that in to the Tilly Tidies account as I like to have round numbers on the joint account.


    I had my little moan the other day & still not feeling 100% but my hubby has also said to me that he's been really stressed in work, so I guess he's feeling it too & we're both here to support each other. So I've suggested that tonight we both take a nice walk in the fresh air. Our daughter has Rainbows on a Wednesday so instead of driving up to pick her up, we will walk up & back. It will hopefully wear her out too, she is very lively & would stay up until midnight if we let her :eek:


    Anyway, I am off for a bit but might check in later.


    Have a lovely evening everybody


    x
  • Hi Diary (and any readers)


    So I was having a bit of a moany week last week but we had a great weekend & I'm feeling good today.


    Not sure if my OH just sensed something but this weekend he has not stopped around the house. He was helping with the tidying & cleaning, plus he did all the washing (I finally have that illusive empty basket). He did loads & hardly asked for any help with anything. Oh, and the master bedroom is now officially decluttered (apart from 2 small baskets which can be hidden away anyway):T


    We also went shopping on the weekend but had the luxury of no kids with us on this particular shopping trip. Usually we have at least one of our 2 daughters with us, so usually get talked in to buying something extra or are just so frazzled that we don't really think about what we're picking up.


    Anyway, as we didn't have the kids with us we did a really good shop. I had a shopping list of things we needed, but I knew that we would also end up grabbing a few last minute bits that I'd forgotten once we got there. Well, because we weren't in a rush we had a proper look at some of the prices of things & other alternatives. It's amazing the savings you can make just from actually paying attention & not being pulled in by the brand names. It was nice to have the luxury of time, a luxury we don't get very often, doesn't have to cost any money & actually saved us money on this occasion :j


    Everything else is ticking along nicely. Got the last 2 DD's of the month to come out of the account this week so once that is done I can put the money aside for the overpayment. I can't make an overpayment this close to our actual mortgage payment because apparently if it's made within 10 days before the official payment, they will just class it as part of the normal monthly payment & will therefore take a lesser amount out on the direct debit.


    My OH was asking a few questions again this weekend about the mortgage & what our overpayment limit is for this year, so he is really starting to get in to it now. He knows that to be mortgage free would just be a massive benefit to us.


    Surveys are coming thick & fast now. I'm almost at a payout level for Valued Opinions & MySurvey. Only small payouts but every penny counts. My Amazon account is looking great with all the vouchers I'm racking up on there. I'm going to do another count in a few weeks to see what I'll have available for Christmas over the various survey sites etc that I'm using. I've got the Nectar search toolbar now too so get 1 nectar point for every 2 searches I do. So now instead of me typing in the web address that I want straight in to the web browser bar, I search for the site to get a point. I'm on 88 points already because I search for mostly the same sites every day, such as my bank, this site, all my survey sites etc & I also have the toolbar on my computer in work so if I need to search for something in work I use that.


    I set the following goals at the beginning of this month so I want to update now to show myself how far I've actually got with it. This will be a great motivation (well hopefully!!)


    Financial
    Personal small savings £100 - Almost there with this. I should get this by the end of the month
    Mortgage OP £100 (starting small so I can increase as I get more money savvy) - Have got this already, just need to wait now for the official monthly payment to leave the account then I can pay this
    Have at least 1 NSD a week (not had one yet this week) - Hmmm, I don't think I've done this every week. I definitely had 1 last Friday. I will try my hardest to get 2 this week.

    Home
    Get washing basket empty (this rarely happens!) - done, all thanks to OH helping out
    Paint downstairs toilet - NOPE, but then I did say a few posts ago that we're actually going to ask the decorator to do this when we get him to come in & do our hall, stairs & landing
    Declutter dining room - this actually wasn't very cluttered. There are some things I want to get rid of but it was definitely not as bad as I thought, I think I was just looking at it when I was in a 'the whole house is a mess' kind of mood.
    Declutter master bedroom - done, again thanks to the OH's help

    Myself
    Get a long overdue haircut - still not done yet. I have to do this soon as although I do like my long hair, it is looking scraggly now
    Try to go running (or for a walk) at least once a week - have gone for a few walks with my daughter so this is sort of on track, but could definitely do better





    So my To Do list for tonight/tomorrow


    Get some better photos for the stuff to ebay
    Go for a walk or run, depends if OH is home early enough to watch the kids, walk if he's not & I have to take them with me, run if he is & I can go out on my own.
    Tidy up playroom


    That's all I can think of for now because the house is looking good at the moment.


    I hope everyone is having a fab Monday (well as fab as a Monday can be). Fingers crossed we have a lovely week & the weather sticks around for another hot weekend.


    x
  • Just read through my posts for June & found the post where I updated amounts from various reward cards, survey sites etc. So I've done the same task again to see how much difference I have made.







    Tilly Tidies pot £77.71 (transferred the £82.86 from beginning of the month so this is all new money)
    Boots Advantage Card £30.10 - same as I've not bought anything from Boots
    Tesco Clubcard £19.00 - same as no new vouchers have been sent out yet
    Nectar Card £10.02 worth of points, this is a massive jump because I've had loads of introductory points for signing up to the newsletter, search toolbar etc. This will average out over the next few months I imagine.

    Onepoll accounts £11.10 & £15.50
    Valued Opinions £6.00
    Inboxpounds £14.03
    Toluna 26380 points
    Topcashback account
    - £0.00 payable (had a payout just a few days ago)
    - £109.41 confirmed, waiting for these to become payable:)
    - £60.16 pending (tracked but not confirmed yet, although I have no doubts they will be confirmed as they are all genuine transactions)

    I have both car insurance renewals due soon so will definitely be going through this site to see if I can get cashback
    Quidco £6.63 tracked awaiting confirmation. I'm not going to be using Quidco anymore so I have raised tickets to chase these last few confirmations so that I can withdraw



    So progress is going well. This is a total of £359.66, which is lower than it previously was but this is because I've had some cashback pay out now. Last time I updated it was on £384, now it's on £359 which is £25 less but the cashback I had paid out was £111 so overall in the last few weeks I have gained around £86. I'm happy with that.


    I forgot to say as well that on top of our happy tidying weekend, I also baked yesterday. I love baking but never get time but yesterday I set aside some time to bake. All went well so my girls now have some snacks for school. I might do a bit more in the week because they get eaten so quickly & when I think of the money I spend on shop bought cakes etc, it is definitely worth baking the stuff myself. Plus homemade stuff tastes so much better & my daughter swears that my chocolate brownies are the BEST EVER!! (her words not mine)


    x
  • giblet1979
    giblet1979 Posts: 864 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Wow what fantastic updates! So inspiring, and brilliant to hear :) very much deserved good news.

    Do you use nectar adpoints also? I have found it's easy enough to do while you watch telly, and really increases the points (as well as e-shops). I also order my parent's takeaways through 'just eat', and keep an eye out for double / triple points offers for things that I need anyway e.g. a cardigan a few months ago, fuel (when it makes more sense to do this rather than tesco clubcard points). We got a good discount off the cinema (in combination with 'orange wednesday' bogof) by using nectar points.

    Long may your success continue and so glad to hear that your DH is on board also x
    Debt remaining: :(
    Mortgage - £117,759 (£134,600, Nov 2013)

    Work overpayment and home improvement loan paid back (£19200) :beer:


  • giblet1979
    giblet1979 Posts: 864 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    p.s. if you can think of a way to send a brownie to me electronically, it would be very much appreciated right now :) x
    Debt remaining: :(
    Mortgage - £117,759 (£134,600, Nov 2013)

    Work overpayment and home improvement loan paid back (£19200) :beer:


  • Hi Giblet, I do use adpoints. It's great isn't it, watch a few clips & earn points. I'm on over £10 in nectar points now & haven't actually spent a penny yet!


    I am pretty good with technology but unfortunately have not yet mastered the art of sending food electronically. How great would that be though?! I promise if I ever work out how to do it, I will send a brownie your way :rotfl:


    I'll keep an eye out on that just eat, I have never used it but sometimes we'll order a takeaway as a treat for our birthday or sometimes my OH parents order one when the whole family are over. Thanks for the tip


    Almost month end. For the first time in ages we have money left over in our account. I think this has just been from me getting cheaper bills on various things by switching providers etc, but also because we are both not using our cards for the joint account to pay for things. We're only using the 'pocket money' in our own accounts, which means that once that money is spent we don't spend anymore. It's amazing the little things that make a difference.


    Scottish Power are annoying me. They had been using estimated readings but not taking in to account we have solar panels etc, so I gave them a proper reading which put us massively in credit. I emailed them then last week to ask for that credit to be refunded to us as our monthly DD clearly covers our usage & I would much rather have the money in my account. Well I've not heard a peep out of them! I'm going to ring them today about it. Why should they be earning meagre interest on my money when I could be decreasing my mortgage interest by making an overpayment.


    x
  • Ok, I only just realised that yesterday was not only a NSD but I also went out for a run!


    Very pleased with myself.


    I made myself a roll for work & took some biscuits in, so I didn't have to go out at lunch time. Then when I got home I did the usual routine, then when everything was done & the OH got home I went out for a run.


    Proves I can do it & I can no longer use the excuse that I haven't got time to go for a run.


    :j
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