Round and round the overdraft....soon to be no more

louby40

RC - the surveys are deadly boring but I just do a few whilst I'm watching TV. I've ended up with £30 in Sainsbury's vouchers a £5 Next voucher and I must have got about £50 cash.

Prolific Academic pay out in cash, as does Opinion Outpost, Mintvine, YouGov (£50 but takes 6 months to get) One Poll (£40 but very slow). I've also started a postal thing where they send you letters that you have to post and they track how long they take. I've got £5 for doing very little.

louby40

Bloomin' kids keep eating all the food! I spent £50 in Aldi on Saturday and by last night there was no bread (3 loaves) and no milk (6 Pints) - it was gone! I've had to do a £15 top up shop.

Teenage boys eat toast and cereal an hour after eating a cooked meal and they are both thin!! :mad:

Oh well at least they're both healthy! My eldest is waiting for his apprenticeship to start so hopefully the food consumption will improve when he's out of the house every day!

On the plus side, I leave him a list of jobs to do! Today he had to hoover, empty the dishwasher and mop the kitchen floor!

louby40

Well it seems I've now done my Christmas shopping!:j Definitely doing the happy dance.

I just need to buy my mum a gift voucher at the salon where we go to have our nails done on Thursday and I'm waiting on a delivery from ebay for my nephew but other than that everything is bought and wrapped and under the tree.

Five more days at work and then I can relax. No great plans, we're taking our 2 13 yr olds for a pub tea and then to the local theatre on the 22nd and then we have 11 for Christmas lunch. Looking forward to just relaxing and doing not a lot!

louby40

Yesterday was my 6th NSD of the month. Hoping to beat my November number of 12!

Busy at work (I teach Year1), parties, making craft/art stuff, cards, calendars. Today is Christmas lunch cooked by our lovely cook but is chaos. 200 kids to serve and get through in an hour. It's usually half that. All good fun though.

3 more get ups!

SpekySquarehead

Well done on the NSD's. I'm really stuggling this month but if you can beat your November number in December, the most expensive month of the year, then you're doing fab!

Keep up the amazing work and next year will be your best financially.

louby40

Speky 2017 is my debt free year.

louby40

1 more day of work! :T

All presents bought and wrapped and under the tree! All within budget, not one has been bought via a credit card this year now that is a MAJOR achievement and probably the first time in about 7 years that I've not used a credit card to fund Christmas. Achieved by saving, budgeting and using surveys.

I've realised my mortgage is below £100k now and by January my car loan will drop below £5k and my parental loan below £2k. These are small but significant milestones.

My EF will be £500 in Jan and in 7 months time I will be debt free (apart from car loan & mortgage)

My whole attitude towards money has changed. I manage with things and look ahead to what I need to budget for.

2017 is going to be a great year!:beer:

louby40

First official day of the school holidays! Load of washing done, some ironing and am now trapped in my living room whilst my stair carpet is cleaned (3 storey house and living room is on the middle floor) it's costing me £55 which I think is pretty good as my carpets are terrible - 2 sets of stairs and 2 small landings.

Heading to the gym this afternoon and a relaxing evening in.

Waiting for a few surveys to cash out, I need £1.48 to get to £20 with Prolific Academic, waiting until the 28th before I can cash out £7.50 via Mintvine and I have £18 in Topcashback plus £35 already sat in Paypal - all will go towards my CC.

Plan for 2017
* pay off Barclaycard Jan 17
* pay off First Direct CC by June at £200 a month
* finish paying off my parents by July at £300 per month
* try to increase my EF

July - start saving towards my bathroom refurb £400 a month (currently have £210 saved towards this) I need approx £3k for the whole thing (maybe a little less if we do some of the work ourselves -ripping out etc).

Jaunary 2018 - start saving for full kitchen refurb - or look into loan. But that's a loooooong way off!

mummytogirls

Hi Louby, just popping over after your lovely post on my diary. I went straight to page 1 and I have read your diary before, can't remember if I posted previously!!!

Well done to buying everything for Christmas in cash, such an achievement :T

Our lives seem a bit parallel! I work in a school although not a teacher and I also live in a 3 storey house!

Happy holidays xx

debtfreeoneday

I've also popped over from MTG thread to say hello! Well done on what you have done so far.. you're doing really well. I love getting to the end of a year with MSE as I'm full of motivation for the year ahead and what I'm going to pay off and save!