DFW journey starts today

twiggy86

Hi Bob - sorry I haven't replied. No I haven't made any decisions yet as still confused over exactly what I want to achieve and what I want out of any contact.

Today is a great day! My best friend had a little baby boy this morning! So happy for her! Loved the excitement of not knowing whether baby was going to be a boy or girl as well!

I have finally got round to shuffling the money I paid into the bank last week into the relevant places and have paid £135.59 off the CC. And my mortgage payment came out today so that's another £100 overpaid.

Had a good weekend and relatively spend free other than some paint for the house. Did ParkRun for the first time since Tough Mudder and it went surprisingly ok considering I still feel run down. Then I helped at another party in the afternoon, so that's an extra £80 I've made over the last 2 weekends. However I have allocated this to may various pots (holiday, clothes etc) to treat myself a little bit. And yesterday my mum did all my waxing (sorry if TMI!) so that saves me some money!

Really feel like I need to give myself a make over! My hair needs dying and cutting, and my eyebrows are terrible! So I might spoil myself this weekend and book an appointment for a hair cut, although I'll dye it myself. However, if I'm invited to see my friend's baby, the haircut can wait as I'd much rather have a cuddle!

twiggy86

My £5 reward appeared in my bank yesterday so that quickly got shuffled off to the CC. In updating my spreadsheet I realised I've cleared over £7k since I started this journey! £7,345.75 to be precise! In total I've paid back £7,701.81 once you take into account the interest and fees I was paying before I got it all on the interest free CC. So I'm taking a moment to be proud of myself!

I also think I may actually reach my target to be under £2k by Christmas! Then its just the last stretch to get the rest gone! Although I am still constantly having a mental argument with myself over whether to clear the CC first before really hitting the renovations hard!

twiggy86

Time for a quick update - not that I feel I have much to update on!

Went to see my best friends baby on Saturday and I am officially in love! Unfortunately BF's MIL passed away yesterday and didn't get to meet him (live 6ish hours away). She's been poorly so pleased she got to find out if she had a granddaughter or grandson. However BF's OH has gone up to see his family so bit worried about BF as not sure she was ready to be left with a tiny baby on her (although she's a natural) and they live an hour away from friends and family. So sad though at what should be such a happy time for them.

There has been a bit of progress around the house, which although is a complete mess at the moment, is started to move along! Just constantly have the battle as to where to spend money next! Need to get the messy jobs out the way so that then we can focus on making it nice, so think the next job will be the downstairs shower room as otherwise any carpet we put downstairs is likely to get dirty/dusty so looks like I'm stuck with bare floorboards and concrete for a while longer!

Paid a HUGE £4.78 off the CC! (Received from TCB and QuidCo) However, it all helps and I'm now only £13.12 away from being sub £2.5k!

twiggy86

Morning Diaryland!

Had a good, relatively spend-free weekend! Decided I needed the sleep so didn't go to Parkrun which I wish I had now, but if I slept in I obviously needed it! Had a quiet day around the house on Saturday and then went out for dinner with my parents and aunt and uncle and my dad paid! Plus had a really good laugh with them. Then Sunday me and OH went round my parents for a roast - so they fed me for 2 evenings for free! Was so stuffed I didn't eat anything else all evening despite the fact my parents eat a lot earlier than we normally do so thought I'd get peckish!

I also found a bag of clothes I put away to put on eBay which I had forgotten about so must check my friend doesn't mind me using her account again. And I remembered I have an old Mr T bank account which I had completely forgotten about - I expect it only has pennies in it but I will close it and use whatever is in there to pay off the CC. (Thank AleMrsT if you're reading - it was your diary that made me realise this!)

Think that's all my waffle for now!

twiggy86

Good news - was meant to have last Friday, Friday before and today off work as needed to use up holiday before the end of the year. However as we're busy, boss asked me to work them. She has now agreed to pay me instead so that's an extra £500 this month (had a couple of other days holiday owed to me). I'll probably loose quite a bit on tax but hopefully will get some back at the end of the year as this will only be a one off (i.e. I presume tax will be worked out on me earning this extra each month for the rest of this tax year so will over tax me but then give it back at the end?) However, it works out better for me as was only taking them to use them up, not that I actually had any plans!

twiggy86

I've decided to use the extra money I'll receive this month towards the house renovations as I think this will increase my happiness the most! The problem is always trying to decide which part of the house to focus on as it was a complete top to bottom renovation! Upstairs is nearly done but needs some personal touches and we also need fitted wardrobes as only have a clothes rail (didn't see the point in spending out on 2 wardrobes which we don't need long term). However, the downstairs is still mostly a mess! I'm caught between finishing what we've started upstairs or progressing downstairs! It would be good to finish off the rest of the dirty work so then it only needs decorating but I don't know!

Was chatting to OH the other night and he was saying once everything's paid off, we can use the CC to pay for the next big jobs on the house. Ermmm! No chance love! I have told him categorically that it wont be happening! Appreciate he wants the house done (as do I!) but we will save and pay for it up front. Think he understands my point of view and that I will not be using the card in future!

jodles16

Gosh its been a while since I last popped in and you have been doing so amazingly well! You are right about saving up front for the house, I have used the credit card recently and it has creeped up so am going to stop now and make sure no bad habits carry on!

Keep up the great work!

Jodles

twiggy86

Hi Jodles! Thanks for popping by and reading my rambles!

Had a very productive week getting on top of the house work again. And in the last 3 days I've spent £1.47! So that's good going by my standards!

My dad has fitted the skirting and door lining in the living room plus the door linings in the hall (wont do skirting until we do flooring as will be wooden floor). Need to get him to tell me how much I owe him for the wood and buy him some sweets as a thank you. Having a carpenter for a dad has saved us so much money doing up the house!

I nearly ordered some bits for the from Next (some we need, some I'd just like), however I stopped myself and I'll shop around for what we need to see if I can get it cheaper and maybe wait and see if the bits I want (new towels which match our bathroom perfectly) are in the post xmas sales. Pleased I refrained as whilst yes I maybe have enough in the house pot to cover it, there are much better/important things to put that money towards.

twiggy86

Wow! My life feels like its been so hectic recently I haven't had time to think! I have tried my best to be MSE but must admit I have slipped on a couple of occasions. Partly through not having the time to properly sort out my budget and transfer the money accordingly, which always leaves me in a mess! Hopefully back on track!

It worked out I got just under £300 as pay rather than taking the holiday. Decided to use £200 towards to the house pot and the rest for my clothes pot. MSE - possibly not, but sometimes I feel like I put so much effort into paying things off/saving and OH isn't quite on the same level so rather than resent him, I treated myself!

I've also now paid for the hen do I'm going on next year in FULL! So now all I need to do is save for the flights for the postponed hen do (Portugal but friend fell pregnant so moved wedding back a year) and saving money. Quite pleased it was postponed as I've been able to spread the money around a bit rather than having to concentrate on paying it all for this year.

However, my car needed 2 new tyres as they were bald! Oops! Thankfully I spotted it before the police/cause an accident and also I had the money in the pot to cover it! So pleased that I now set money aside for these things rather than have to panic and find it, particularly just before xmas!

Debt busting progress update (after all that is why we're here!) - I've now paid off over £6k this year! I've also paid another £100 off my mortgage which takes me £500! So I actually reached one of my targets. (Must check what they all were!) And I will also get below £2k before xmas!

twiggy86

twiggy86 wrote: »

So with 5 pay days left of the year, my goals to reach by 31 December 2015 are:-
1. Debt under £2k - meaning I have to find £349 each month
2. Emergency fund up to £1k - meaning I have to find £107 each month
3. House fund up to £1k - this may be the most difficult one as it currently means I have to find £163 each month if I don't dip into it as we go along (only for house renovations though - nothing else)
4. £500 worth of mortgage overpayments - first £100 overpayment should come out beginning of August

Ok so went back to find my goals to see how I'm doing!

1. Debt currently stands at £2,182.59 - so this one is definitely doable!
2. EF currently stands at £774.01 - probably wont worry about this one too much as it is slowly building up
3. Ok this one was definitely optimistic! House pot currently has £361.99 in it but owe dad just over £100 for the skirting etc that he bought - just waiting for him to invoice me (through his work - my dad doesn't normally send me invoices!!!)
4. DONE! But of course will keep going with the £100 per month and probably up it once CC is paid off