A new debt free journey

lcc86

Christmas is almost upon us! It's been a bit of a spendy week tbh. Had an unexpected trip to the pub with our new neighbours on Wednesday and spent £20, then ended up buying lunch the following day for £5 to try and feed the hangover yesterday OH and I had takeaway and wine while playing board games. It was good fun and a nice way to unwind from work.

Today should be a NSD, all I have to do is go to the gym. I have a pass which expires today :eek: Talk about leaving it to the last minute! I've been a bit lax with my workouts this week so I hope to make up for it today. Then just going to clean around the house and have a mooch for the evening. Up early tomorrow to feed the horses at my volunteering place, then off to my sister's. I don't really get excited about Xmas any more, I don't need anything or really want anything so I just enjoy spending time with family and enjoying good food!

Have a fab Xmas everyone, catch up soon :xmastree::xmassign::rudolf::xmassmile:snow_laug:

Florence_J

:xmastree: :xmassign: :snow_grin :snow_laug :santa2:

Merry Christmas, wishing you all the best for 2017.

lcc86

Well, it's been a very restful few days, I hope everyone has enjoyed their Christmas time too. Back to work tomorrow for one day and then off again until the 4th.

I must confess to a little sales spending - I bought lots of clothes and put £130 back onto my Very account :mad::eek: I know I shouldn't have but I bought mainly things I'd needed to replace e.g. Jeans, cardigan and leggings which I'd had to throw away. I can't justify it all, I know I splurged so there's no point trying to convince myself, or anyone else, otherwise! I'm still determined to be debt free by the end of Feb though, so I'm going to up my payments for Jan and Feb. Previously I would've just shrugged my shoulders and paid it over a longer period, but being in debt has taught me that I can't keep having that attitude!

Xmas day was a NSD, yesterday wasn't as I met some friends and we went out, so I spent £16 on entry to an event but nothing more. Today I'm going to a friend's house so should be another NSD.

lcc86

Well it's that time of the month to review my targets and set some for January. I think I also set some targets for 2016 this time last year, but I'll look back and see if I can find them after this post.

lcc86 wrote: »

1. Make an extra payment to my Very account - I've budgeted £100 as planned to keep on target with my debt repayment plan, but I would also like to pay a little extra off if I can. - achieved. It was only £10 but it was an extra £10 and that was my target. Of course it doesn't help that I've now spent more on my account, but we'll come to that soon.

2. Join a MSE challenge for the month - I haven't looked at which challenge to join but it's more than likely going to be a NSD one. Will have a browse after I post here and decide.- so I joined the NST Xmas challenge. I donated to charity, I said no to some invitations, and Xmas overall came in under budget. However, I also set myself a target of 15 NSD's and have failed there. To date I've managed 12, today won't be a NSD as I have to pop to the shops and I won't have enough days to quite hit the target. I should get 13 or 14 so I was close! But I will try again in January.

3. Sort out the spare room! I actually made a start on this earlier this week as it's been used as a bit of a junk/storage room since we moved in, so I want to put some pictures up and just turn it into a cosy den/workout room :rotfl: - I tidied all the junk out the spare room, it also helps that it's no longer full of presents. It's not quite the den I was hoping for, I need to spend money decorating it and it's not a priority. But it functions as a workout room and a nice little reading room for now. The rest can wait, I've got the ideas, just need the budget :rotfl:

4. Apply for my Irish citizenship - I really want to crack on and get this sorted. Just waiting for my dad to confirm whether he's got some of the documents I need and if so, we're good to go, if not, I have to apply for copies. But there's no reason why I can't apply asap. - I have all documents bar one, so I've ordered a duplicate and am just waiting for it to arrive.

So all in all a bit of a mixed bag, some successes but some failures. Now onto January's targets:

1. Have 15 NSD's - this should be a little easier throughout January as there's no present-buying or any real social activities planned. I have a couple of things lined up but nothing major so I'm hoping I can hit my target.

2. Overpay Very account - so I put an extra £130 on my account over Xmas. I've been good and have already cleared £50 of that. I want to pay another £15 extra off and that's half of the extra money I owe paid. If I can then overpay it next month by the same amount then I'm on track to clear it by the end of Feb as originally planned. I will NOT remain in debt any longer!

3. Start decorating - this will probably just be the hallway and possibly the kitchen if I have time. Both just need a coat of white emulsion so it can be done relatively cheaply. The bedrooms and living room will be a bit more expensive, so I'll leave those for a later date. OH is off on holiday in mid-Jan so that gives me some time and space to crack on.

4. Meditate once a week - I used to do this to help with my anxiety/depression, but I think I put too much pressure on myself to do it 3 or 4 times a week, and then I found I wasn't enjoying it and was just doing it to hit the target. It's been months since I last did it, so I just want to do it once a week and go for quality over quantity. I'm going to go to a class on Saturday to help kickstart the habit again hopefully.

5. Apply for my Irish citizenship - just a follow on from last month really, once I have the document I need I can do the application. Need to get it done asap as it takes a while to process.

6. Don't spend more than £67 of my 'spare fund' - just to explain, I use a spreadsheet to work out my budget each month. After all my bills, food, petrol, savings etc are paid for, I work out what things I want to do that month e.g. get a haircut, go horse riding, meet friends. I work out what that will cost, then I also add £20 for unallocated spends per week. Whatever is left, I call my 'spare fund'. This month it's £167 spare, so I want to keep £100 of it, meaning I can spend no more than £67.

lcc86

So I found my 2016 targets, suppose I'd better review them!

lcc86 wrote: »

I almost forgot I have set myself 3 main targets for 2016, which are as follows:

1. Pass my horse road safety exam, which leads me nicely onto... didn't do this. I registered for the course 3 times, but each time, they cancelled it as they didn't have enough participants.

2. Get a horse share, which leads me even more nicely onto... didn't do this either!! To be fair, I don't actually know if this is what I want to do, so it's for the best that I've not gone and plunged in when I'm not 100% sure. It's better for me that way, and better for anyone else including any prospective horses!

3. Pay £3,000 off my debt. It doesn't sound like much but if I want to pursue a dream of sharing a horse, or even just riding every week, I need to get my debt right down. I hope to clear it by more than £3,000 but I want to be realistic. well I did manage this! And I suppose this is the most important goal reached if I'm honest. I needed to clear my debt this year and I've almost managed it, albeit with the help of selling my house. I wouldn't have been able to do it otherwise, but it's made a huge difference both financially and in terms of my wellbeing. I think I've finally developed a healthier relationship with money as well.

I'll have a think about things I'd like to achieve in 2017. I know I probably won't carry on with this diary once I'm debt free if I'm completely honest, but it's always good to write these things down.

lcc86

So my Very delivery has been, and would you believe it I don't like the most expensive item :rotfl: I had a feeling I might not like it so back it goes! Which means I only need to repay another £20 now instead of £65 :j I feel a little less guilty now! The rest of the purchases I'm happy with so I'll be keeping them.

stepuptothepl8

Have you tried the headspace app? It's a ten minute guided meditation.. We can all find ten minutes, right? Your goals look good, wishing you luck x

crazy_cat_lady

Good luck with your goals. It's getting me to thinking that I should be setting myself some goals for the month and year ahead...

[Deleted User]

Good luck with your goals Hun

lcc86

stepuptothepl8 wrote: »

Have you tried the headspace app? It's a ten minute guided meditation.. We can all find ten minutes, right? Your goals look good, wishing you luck x

I tried it a long time ago but didn't get on too well with it. There's some good stuff on youtube which I used to use. I'll see what works for me this time round but try not to put too much pressure on myself or set an unrealistic target!