2016 will be my year

nessauk

Being full of head cold probably isn't the best time to start this diary, but here goes. I currently have 10k of debt that I would like to clear. Most of which has been from credit cards, plus 1K for a new 3 piece suite that was desperately needed (and thankfully interest free).

Have printed out a snowball spreadsheet, as that is the ideal route that I would like to take, however, as I was paid Xmas Eve (which I hate happening) I need to be sure that I've got enough money in the account to last that extra week should I need it. So the snowballing will begin in February,

The 2 best Christmas presents that I got this year was a budget book to track my incoming and outgoing monies, and a diary which has space for meal planning, shopping lists and more. Hopefully being armed with these it will help me keep on top of my finances.

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There are challenges that I have signed up for as well (see sig) as well as a few other ideas that I have, but I shall go into more details about them in the coming days. Having a head full of cold at the moment isn't exactly helping my motivation, which is annoying as there is so much more that I would like to write. My intention will be to post daily updates, and hopefully over time see my debt get slashed. In an ideal world I would love to see the 10k gone by this time next year, but we shall see.

nessauk

Have just manage to muster enough energy to count out my change pot. Currently it hold £53.52. I've decided to use it for my weekly savings challenge, which I am going to do in reverse. Have printed out a spreadsheet and left space to add up my weekly totals, in case I save more than needed, and can carry it forward. Week 1 will commence on Monday, therefore I will technically be ahead of myself.

nessauk

Argh, can't believe I just spent ages writing up a load of stuff only for it to disappear when I went to hit the submit button. Note to self - Copy replies before posting them.

So in summary, as I can't be bothered to write it all up again:

Spent last pennies on Tombola, and won £25. Have added this to the 1% Challenge pot, and have reached my first 1%

Have updated spreadsheet to see what my current debts are:

NatWest CC: £4,291.46
M&S Money CC: £3,295.73
BarclayCard: £1,725.64
DFS: £932.75

Brings total of debt to £10,145.58. Have done calculations for the month and have been able to start snowballing after all, so have paid extra £100 onto my Natwest CC. Will update totals at the end of the month.

Need to start thinking about menu planning and the weekly shop. Am usually quite good with this, and will aim for £50 a week. Hubby and I are going to start dieting tomorrow, so by not buying unnecessary treats, and by going to re-start putting washable nappies on little one again, that should help with keeping costs low. Also I still have lots of stuff in the freezer, so tomorrow, depending how my cold it, I may very well do an inventory of whats in there, and see if I can lighten the cost of this weeks shop even further.

nessauk

Have had something of a constructive morning this morning. I've inventoried the freezer, planned 3 weeks worth of meals from what was in there, and done this weeks shopping list. Also found that the £5 off a £30+ spend in Lidls voucher that is on the fridge door is still valid until tomorrow, so will be shopping in there this week.

Popped across to Mr T this morning as needed more milk for little one, and a couple of other bits. Went to the reduced section and managed to grab some garlic sausage (£1.69 to 62p), roast chicken (£2.55 to 64p), and some corned beef (£1.69 to 42p). So that has sorted out most of hubby's sandwiches for next week. Will split it all up and put some of it in the freezer, so it can be used as and when without any of it getting spoiled.
Also bought myself a scratchcard this morning. There wasn't much choice so went for a £3 one, and ended up winning £10. I don't drink or smoke, so having a scratchcard once a week is my treat to myself.

One other thing I have done is make some envelopes to put my weekly shopping allowance in. Each one has got £50 in, and I've done 5 seeing as some months you can have 5 Saturday's in a month. By taking one of these with me shopping each week, it will help restrict me from overspending. Then at the end of the month, the change can go towards the Weekly Savings Challenge that I'm taking part in.

Think that's it for today so far. Have got a bit of admin to do later as a lot of direct debits would have been scheduled to come out today, so need to see what the balance currently stands at, and then organise the rest of the month accordingly in my new budget book.

Happy New Year everyone. Hope all your debt free quests all come to fruition this year!

nessauk

Just a short post for now (little one is being all needy, and I swear starting his terrible 2's early).

Shopping was a success today. £25.33 spent at Lidl after handing over my £5 off voucher, and £5.33 in Mr T. So managed to get a total of a weeks shop for £30.66. Nearly £20 under what I had budgeted for each week. Will be interesting to see what the next couple of weeks will bring seeing as I've got 14 further days of meals already planned.

Doris17

You have been busy.Well done.xx

nessauk

Thanks Doris. I feel like a woman on a mission at the moment. I just hope I can keep the enthusiasm going!

nessauk

Managed to have a no spend day today. Decided from tomorrow am going to start selling stuff again via fleabay and the local Facebook buy and sell pages. Just got to drag the dressmaker dummy out of the garage tomorrow, and start making my way through my wardrobe and dig out the bits and pieces that I no longer wear.

Instead of keeping the first 1% that I've earned in my savings account, I have used it to make an extra payment on one of my credit cards. The sooner I can get that cleared, the sooner I can start snowballing onto the next card.

Officially back to real life tomorrow after having the Xmas break. Work

nessauk

Not much to report today due to being back at work. Have managed to grab a bit of time to photograph some bits and pieces, and currently putting it all on ebay. Will be interesting to see if it garners any interest over the coming days.

nessauk

Again not much to report at the moment, what with being back to work. Have put just over 40 items on Fleabay over the last couple of days. 5 have got bids already, which is a good start. Am just hoping that it picks up over the weekend. Otherwise that has pretty much been it. Have not spent any money all week, which is a good thing. I've started my shopping list ready for Saturday, and that looks like it has the potential to be another low spend.

nessauk

Have fallen a bit behind on my updates at the moment. On Saturday, my shopping came to a grand total of £37.36. Would have been cheaper if I didn't need a book of postage stamps, but unfortunately I did.

Received my copy of Life Changing Magic of Tidying on Saturday, and read it from cover to cover in one sitting. (can't remember the last time I've been able to do that!) So hopefully that will help me declutter and sell even more stuff. Have currently got 51 items now selling, yet only 8 have bids. Am hoping the sales will pick up towards the end of the auctions.

Little one has got his first hair appointment on Friday, which is going to cost me £9 (how hairdressers can justify that price for a 15 month old I just don't know.) Up until now I have been trimming it for him, but his hair is now at the stage whereby he is in need of a proper hair cut / style. Will just make sure that his future appointments will be as and when, as opposed to every 6 weeks so I can keep the cost to a minimum.

Have also been reading up on bullet journal-ling. I think I may have to do one of these in order to keep my life in order. So often I think of little things and fail to log it somewhere, only for me to completely forget about it down the road. Have talked myself out of getting a dotted grid notebook, and make do with the plain one that I found unused in a drawer.