A New Leaf

dalleDF

Time for a new diary for a fresh start.

I am very happy to say that I paid off my debts this year, from a high of around £15k, and run up many times over the years. :T So while I still have some momentum from that, I am now focused on building a decent emergency fund and saving for a house deposit.

I think I need to aim for 3 months' expenses for my emergency fund at first, which will be around £3.5k, hoping to have 6 months' expenses eventually but first things first.

My boyfriend and I are considering a move out to a different city where property prices are cheaper once we are ready to buy, but as we are going to be in savings mode for a couple of years first, that might not be a serious plan for a while.

As well as having a new mindset and the happiness of all my money being my own for once, there are other changes afoot this year including a flat move and job move on the horizon, so I expect to be in quite a different position by the end of the year. Here are my goals for the rest of 2015:

GOALS 2015

Emergency fund of 3 months salary (Today stands at £1730)
Save 15% of salary in to pension scheme (Starts next month)
Start saving for house deposit (Let's say target of £25k. Today stands at £418).
Cut down on sugar (I am addicted)
Regular exercise (I am lazy)
Regular spells of sobriety (In the past I have been a little too fond of wine, am finding it suits me to have some time without it)

Things I am doing to try to up ramp up the savings rate include surveys on iPoll, eBaying everything that isn't nailed down, freelance work, Quidco.

Things I am doing to cut down on spending include batch cooking, packed breakfast and lunch at work every day, using all toiletries up before buying new ones (this is an ongoing project), moving to a cheaper flat, trying to get the best deal on everything, using all food in the freezer and cupboard before buying more, using YNAB obsessively to track where money goes. Seeing my net worth in the form of a graph which is going up every month is very inspiring and motivating.

Am very happy to be starting a new diary with a clean slate and hope I can keep up some of the good habits I developed during the debt free slog.

Beanie514

Sounds like you've totally got your head on right and working towards a very prosperous future.

Best of luck to you. Xx

beanielou

Shiny new diary

juicyjackieb

Lovely to see a new diary H xxx

dalleDF

Have had a very busy day today but one where I didn't seem to get enough done. And I have a very busy evening planned. Mr Dalle is away for the night which is actually good for me because I can make the most of the time and do my chores without any distractions!

To do tonight:

Put a wash on DONE
Batch cook dinner and lunches for rest of week DONE
Put away clean laundry DONE
Do 5 tasks I have brought home with me from work DONE
Do a piece of freelance work which will bring me in some extra cash DONE

What I really want to do is put PJs on, watch Masterchef and go to bed at 7pm, but never mind, needs must!
MSE stuff I did today was make a bit of progress using up my stash of toiletries and food, took some empty pots back to Lush to get a freebie (thus adding to stash! oh no!). Got £10 free taxi credit for making a referral, and did a couple more iPoll surveys. Am quite close to getting 5000 points on YouGov as well, which will mean I can cash out for £50. Hope I get some new surveys soon. Have done well to hardly spend any money since the weekend, taking lunches to work etc.
Hope everyone is having a nice week so far.

hummingbird

Welcome to your lovely new diary! I ended up on here by mistake as I follow another one of the same name - but will be following yours too! *subscribes

Hummingbird x

dalleDF

Oh it's so nice to have a long weekend stretching ahead! I am planning a bit of pampering for myself today, I might take myself out for a pedicure as a little treat. I have a couple of flat viewings lined up, laundry mountain to tackle, and a slow cooker stew to make.

I have been lucky to pick up some extra work, have already allocated the spare cash using YNAB, it is going towards my first goal which is the emergency fund. It is starting to look quite healthy so I am very pleased about that.

I am determined to minimalise some more of my stuff today as well, maybe ebaying and/or charity shop so I don't have to move with 8 million boxes of stuff. I wish I could be like a boy and just fit everything I own in to one suitcase. I have been reading books on minimalism which talk about how the stuff you own can end up owning you in the sense that it restricts your freedom and ties you to a certain place as it's so hard to move when you're weighed down with a tonne of things. Must keep this in mind and be ruthless about what stays and what goes.

In other news, I am getting close to 100 days without alcohol, I hope I can keep my sober momentum going this time.

So here is today's list:

Go through wardrobe and drawers and pare down to stuff which I actually like and wear. DONE
Get rid of two pairs of shoes. DONE
Make the contents of at least one storage box disappear.
Eat / cook something from the freezer.
Do a load of laundry. DONE
Put clean laundry away.
Cook a stew.
Put all of the toiletries and cosmetics stash in one place to assess how much there really is! DONE (It's worse than I thought!)

Some stuff I just don't know what to do with though. I don't want to just chuck stuff away as I hate waste, but I don't think anyone wants all my old cr*ap! What would you do with 50 hairbands and a box of old but unused lip balms?? Lol.

dalleDF

Hope you all had a lovely long weekend. Mine was nice, very productive. We signed a contract on a new flat which should suit us very well, the landlord is brilliant, I think we will actually turn out to be good mates, which will be a first! The rent is cheaper than what we are paying now so that money is going straight into my ISA, my thinking is that if I never actually had it as spare money, I won't miss it.

I have used my extra cash from work this month to plough it straight into the emergency fund, so when that goes out it will be above the £2.5k mark, and getting closer to my target which is £3.5k by the summer. I am also thinking about how I can build up my buffer so I can follow the YNAB rule of living on last month's income. This is more of a medium/long-term goal though I think.

I bagged up some more stuff to chuck and some to take to charity shop, and have listed a couple more things on eBay which already have plenty of watchers and couple of bids, so that's good. I am expecting an eBay seller fees bill of around £15 this month though so I might have to use the proceeds to cover that. I swear ebay didn't used to be this expensive to sell on! That combined with higher postage costs and Paypal fees make it seem barely worthwhile sometimes.

Have packed up the wine glasses, shot glasses and champagne flutes, all of which I am getting rid of. This is a commitment to both sobriety and minimalism! Even if I do drink in the future, I always preferred drinking out of tumbler glasses anyway.

Had a lovely day wandering around in the great outdoors with my man today enjoying the bank holiday sunshine. Was nice to get out of the city and breathe some fresh air. Now just unwinding with a cup of herbal tea and watching a bit of David Attenborough before bed. Happy bank hol everyone.

juicyjackieb

Good Lord woman how can you possibly have anything left to sell? Are you one of those people on those hoarding programmes who has stuff everywhere that may topple over and suffocate you to death? :-)

dalleDF

I know! There just seems to be never ending stuff!

amyc92

Subscribed !