Spending my dash more wisely while clearing the debt to do so

Nintud

In other news... I lost the 1lb I put on last week and an extra 0.5lb on top

Nintud

Signature update as I've accidentally paid off the NWide CC :rotfl:

I must have set it for full repayment when the balance was low and forgotten to change it back to minimum instalments (with additional payments when funds allowed). I had a bit of a panic when I saw my salary account was £76 overdrawn but managed to transfer funds today to cover it. I think this silly error will have incurred a £10 o/d charge though :mad: . On the positive side, that's one cc paid off and me out of the shops until pay day (the 15th :eek: )

DH has added to the grocery bill. He's started having protein shakes for breakfast. They cost more than I pay for a box of cereal. Hardly money saving :wall: I've just got him on to real meals after over a year on the Cambridge diet and now he's back to liquid in a different, but just as costly, form. Two steps forward, one step back but at least we're moving in the right direction.... At half the speed I want :rotfl:

Nintud

I drove ds1 back to his uni house yesterday. I don't like leaving him there as the house is filthy. I didn't see his bedroom but I saw the bathroom and kitchen and they were stomach churning. Their vacuum cleaner doesn't work so nowhere has been vacuumed for the past year. I saw no sign of a broom nor mop either _pale_

Financially I think I'm going to be neither better nor worse off with him living away from home again. His loan doesn't arrive until next month so I'm giving him £30 per week for food and sundries for the next 3 weeks. This will drop to £20 per week once his loan comes in. When he's living at home my bills rise by at least £30 per week so where he lives makes no difference to my debt. What does change is the amount of mess and sibling rows!

I'm ecstatic that he has decided to complete his final year. Although I'd have accepted him doing the apprenticeship it would have been difficult to overcome the waste of two years studying and the loan debt incurred without a degree to show for it.

On the debt (and impending doom) front, I think I need to set a series of goals to keep me motivated.

1. Get utility refitted, pay for as much of it on the joint cc as I can cover with savings (joint cc is paid in full each month) and put the rest on interest fee loan to be paid in 12 instalments.

2. Pay MrT cc off by end of school year. Currently stands at £950

3. Knock £50 off the grocery budget (this includes toiletries and cleaning products) to reduce from £500 to £450. Include school lunches for ds3, snack money for ds3 (40p per day but he only spent 25p today!) and weekly milk & toast Kenya ford ds4 (£1.25) in the £450 total.

4. Save money to tile downstairs loo (it's a having lots of boys issue!) and tile utility in one go. I have about £90 worth of B&Q vouchers to put towards the tiles so that's a start

That's the goals, now to plan ways to achieve them.

Nintud

Kenya ford? Where did that come from???!!!

maggiecon

Well done on paying of your Nwide CC... even if you didn't mean to do it

Nintud

Quick update of my signature before I head off for SW weigh-in.

I've added fuel so I can keep an eye on my petrol spending. Tank is currently full.

Groceries spends are getting very close to my limit. I have £11 to last until the 18th. We will need milk, bread, fresh fruit and possibly veg in that time. Cereal is also likely to run low. It's going to be tight.

Nintud

Ecstatic :j. Another 3lb off and slimmer of the week. This is fab on 4 grounds. Obviously 3lb off is great, plus I've got a shiny sticker for my book (I'm a kid at heart), then there''s the slimmer of the week certificate to add to my kitchen wall (the kids look there every Wednesday night to check my progress...and mood!) but best of all.... The slimmer of the week goody bag means I don't need to go shopping for fresh fruit and I might stay within my Grocery budget after all. Win, win :T

crazycatlady2014

Fantastic! Well done you :j 3lbs is awesome Well done on the money goals too, they sound very achievable

CCL
x

Nintud

Thanks for the support crazycatlady

I'm still grinning on account of the 3lb loss. I'd like another 4lb off by the end of this month to get my 3st sticker and certificate. My knees are eternally grateful to me for sticking with this diet so I'm very motivated to keep it up.

On the money front;

Utility units and installation has come in at £1723.25. I've put £1200 on a 12 month interest free loan and the remainder has gone on our joint cc which will be paid in full in November from our Christmas savings. There will still be some money left over for Christmas pressies but ds1's cash 21st birthday present will be difficult and may have to be given in 2 instalments.

I now need to earn an additional £200 per month to cover the £100 utility refit bill and dd1's car repayment. I thought I was doing well as I've picked up a couple of extra school lunch duties per week (I now do one every day that I work - an 18 minute lunch break is good for my diet!), which brings in about £55 extra per month. However, as is always the way, I had a water bill arrive yesterday and our monthly payment has increased by almost £18 per month to £98.15

I've not done any mystery shopping for a while so that's one earning avenue I'll be exploiting. It's too early in the year for students to want a tutor but I'll keep an ear to the ground.

I need to make £145 per month to meet these new payments (I'm one payment into the car, 11 to go) and another £125 on top of that if I want to get Christmas and birthday back on track.

I need to get myself sorted this weekend and start listing bits on eBay. A car boot sale night be in the cards too.

I will get this new lot paid for and the credit cards paid up by July 18th. I will reduce our Groceries to £450 per month. I will earn the extra cash to keep afloat whilst still having fun times.

Nintud

Sig update. Slightly over on groceries (£2) but have plenty of complete meals in the freezer and this should bear fruit next month. I've reminded myself that we started from scratch this month as I had emptied the freezer, and fridge and cupboards were running on bare essentials, before we went to Cyprus. Next month we start with meals in hand and some stock cupboard essentials in place. Let's see how close I can stay to £500 by the 18th when the 'new' grocery month begins.