Don't call it a dream.... Call it a plan

kittykatneedscash

So far from the £120 I had for 7 days I have spent £51.73. £41.73 on groceries this included stocking up on 3 bottles of a nice wine that was on offer at L!dl making it £3.49 a bottle. I spent £7.00 at the funeral on Friday on a donation to the hospice and a drink before we went in. There was a free bar afterwards so no spends there. £3.00 on train fair to work this morning. So £68.27 left until Thursday I will need some more bits from L!dl this week and travel costs to work. Hopefully I will have £40+ towards my November payment pot by the end of this week.
I'm going away for a couple of nights at the weekend there is no accommodation costs as it is my bf mums place. Hopefully a cheap break away we've been before just need some spends on food and drinks but I'll take some bits with us.


kitty x

kittykatneedscash

I've spent another £28.20 on groceries this week but this included a £7 hairdye.
I've been trying to stretch it as long as I could between dyes for cost and also give my hair a bit of a break. I'm naturally dark brown but have a grey streak and starting with a few greys all over. I've been using a root touch up stray for a couple of weeks to drag it out but if I have time I'm going to try and dye it before going away at the weekend. It's still a lot cheaper than having it dyed at the hairdressers which is a little luxury that I'm planning on allowing myself every now and again once this debt it cleared.

Another £6 on train fair for yesterday and today. I still have £35.81 of the £120. No more spends planned for the rest of the day and I should get paid later today :j

kittykatneedscash

My extra November payment pot now stands at £221.68 made up from
£169.25 previous balance
+40p interest transferred across
+£35.81 saved from last weeks spends
+£16.22 tilly tidied from bills account month end

Back to reality after a lovely weekend away it was hot!!! Managed to get my bikini on and sunbathe on the decking for some pre holibobs tannage. It was so lovely to spend some quality time with my other half, potter around with no real plan. When to a little beach on the Saturday and a lovely meal out Saturday night BF paid. I bought us breakfast on the Saturday morning and a few drinks from the supermarket for the evening while we lounged around, listened to music and played cards ….bliss.:heartpuls

I ordered a few things off Eb@y at the weekend a small purse for holiday so I don’t have to take my big everyday purse which is packed with every loyalty card going. A baby pink string bag I have lots of bags for life but always fancied a string one that I can keep with me and a lickimat for the dog to hopefully keep her occupied whilst I’m at work. £16.43 in total and I had £10.66 already in my Paypal account so only small spends really.

kittykatneedscash

I still have £69 of this weeks £120 spends I need to get some groceries on the way home this evening and train fare for the next couple of days but I'm hoping to finish the 'week' (Wednesday night when I get paid and reset my weekly spends) with around £50 left. I'm going shopping on Friday meeting a friend for lunch and getting my brows done so whats left I'll split between the November extra payment pot and pre holiday bits / lunch spends for Friday.

kittykatneedscash

Drum roll please............ today makes 1 year smoke free. I'm super proud of myself and this has without a doubt helped in turning my finances around and also my mindset. :j:j:j

I was paid on Wednesday and still had 44.13 in my account 20 carried over to this weeks spends and 24.13 moved into my Nov extra payment fund which now stands at 245.81/432.71.

Went shopping yesterday stocked up on a few toiletries, got a couple of tops and a dress for holiday. Had my brows done but had some money on a giftcard so this only 'cost' me 3.50 in cash. Had lunch at Nandos and I had a reward on my points card so a free chicken pitta- lunch spends just 4.90 on sides and a drink. All in all a pretty good day out and lovely to catch up with my friend and her little boy.

Off to a friends party later its I'll have to get something to drink to take but my BF will drop me off and pick me up so no travel spends.

kittykatneedscash

Another 116.65 added to my extra November payment pot. I cashed out £67.20 from Surveys and £49.26 from TCB that I have been letting build up and a few pence interest received. So this is now at £362.46/£432.71 83.7%:T

Back at work after a lovely weekend we went to a friends near York for a BBQ Saturday night and stayed over. Ended up being a nearly 4am finish so yesterday I was shattered. Got my euros changed at Sainsbobs yesterday then did a little shop after for salads bits for lunches this week. When I paid it gave me a £5 off currency exchange for over £500 after I had literally just changed £600 10 mins before. I asked at customer service and they loaded £5 onto a giftcard as a gesture of goodwill :beer:

Holiday spends don't need to come from my account I paid for the flights in January so my BF gave me the same amount in cash to change up into euros.

Only 4 days to work this week before holiday on Friday means it’ll be a very busy week both at work and in the evenings when I get home as lots to do before I go away. Can’t wait though I’ve put aside a little bit of cash for the airport as I hoping to treat myself to a couple of makeup bits that I need.

Kitty x

kittykatneedscash

So nearly two months since my last update. The debt reduction is ticking a long nicely I managed to save the £432.71 additional payment which I allocated to debt last month. This was made up from small amounts I could put aside out of my weekly spends. Switching bonus from First Direct, Cashing out £67.20 from Prolific and £49.26 from TCB. I am now on track to be debt free 7th November. November will still be very tight for the rest of the month but come December I will be able to feel the benefit. It will not actually be debt free more debt neutral my credit card is 0% until April 2020 so still another 19 months. My parents are in no rush for their money back so some of this is tied up in a regular saver. But I will have all the money there allocated to debts to be able to repay straight away if needed. If you count my savings I am already debt free but I want to be debt free and still have my EF of £1800 plus by November I will also have £400 saved towards holiday / travel pot plus £300 saved towards Christmas and family birthdays near Christmas.

Totals

Emergency fund £1800 / £2000 I ‘borrowed’ £200 from myself for some repair works on my back door plus some concert tickets as a Christmas present for my BF.
Towards parents loan £6000/ £6000 100% :j
Credit Card £ 4076.83/ £4076.83 100% :j
Overdraft £5 / £1250 0%
Total debt £1245

Holiday fund £400 :T
Christmas £0/£300

In other money news I switched an account to M&S which has all gone through so hopefully I receive the gift card soon and qualify for the £5/ month top up. I’ve opened a regular saver with First direct in June and another with Nationwide this week. I plan to transfer the max pay in each month to both to receive as much interest as possible before using everything saved to pay back my parents and 0% credit card.

So I’m on the 8 week countdown but what then???? I’ve been waiting so long and dreaming of this day not particularly because my debt was spiralling or interest rates were crippling me or anything like that. Yes I’ve pretty much been in my overdraft since I got my student overdraft when I started uni many years ago and had credit cards paid them off, borrowed for certain things but more recently the debt had been for a reason the loan from my parents to help when buying my house and the credit card to help with renovations. This will be the first time ever that I am out of my overdraft and have significant savings. I’m 35 and feel a long way behind my peers but I’m getting somewhere slowly. The reason I’ve wanted to pay the debt off quite aggressively is so that I have more choices. I almost haven’t let myself let too giddy and carried away with what’s next and I wanted to focus all my energy on paying back the debt but it’s time to start to thing what next another post to come soon…….

Chrystal

Just read through your diary and want to say a MASSIVE Well Done!!

It's been wonderful to see you pull yourself out of disappointment and anxiety and into a lovely bright future. Will be cheering you on from the sidelines.

kittykatneedscash

There are some things I want to start doing for me I won't do everything but these are things that I've wanted or needed which I haven't done / bought whilst paying off debt

Buy some new underwear
Get my hair dyed at the hair dressers near me
Buy a dress I’ve seen
New ankle boots- needed
Get my MacBook fixed apple wanted £250 ish it was a couple of years ago I took it in and haven’t been able to use it since but I’m going to try find someone local
Maybe book a workshop- I’ve seen both screen printing and a upholstery footstool one I fancy
Get my nails done

Things needed for the house

Dehumidifier for the cellar before winter
New Kitchen bin- mine has no bottom
Look at getting the dishwasher fixed or replaced – just died one day in January been washing up ever since

Longer term for the house but need to start thinking of / saving for

Repointing- this needs doing front and back at some point not sure how much this will cost but the house is two storeys at the front and 3 at the back so will need scaffolding
New front door or the one I have sorting out
New flooring for the hall and kitchen.
Look at what’s needed for renting electrical / Gas checks etc

I have been paying £180 / month towards parents loan and £350/month towards credit card this is all now saving for my overdraft, once the overdraft is paid I've been thinking what pots I will allocate money towards maybe something like this....

£80 – Travel/ Holidays (£960/year)
£50 Birthdays / Christmas (£600/year)
£20 extra into the budget for my dog so we can do classes or daycare occasionally when I’m at work (£65/month £780/ years) this already included all food / grooming/ vets boosters etc but not insurance this is budgeted separately
£30- Clothes / shoes – (£360/year)
£20- Bills EF/ annual fund (£240/year) put aside in case my Gas and Electric needs a top up and to pay for house insurance etc annually
£250 – Furture fund???? – Not sure exactly what yet lots of thought on this
£80 House / DIY – (£960/year) a start towards some of the above

Obviously these can change about but just been thinking what I can do and wanted to put it all down.

kittykatneedscash

Everything financially still going well totals to date below

Savings for debts
Towards parents loan £6000/ £6000 100% :T
Credit Card £ 4076.83/ £4076.83 100% :T
Overdraft £615 / £1250 49.2%
Total debt £635

Savings pots
EF savings £1800:T
Holiday fund £400
Christmas £0/£300

So £635 to go until I am officially debt free with a healthy Emergency Fund in place and savings towards holidays / travel. I get paid weekly so £105 to pay still out of this months wages and £530 in November. I plan to also put £200 aside this month towards Christmas and £100 next month.

My M&S giftcard came in the post yesterday nothing needed just yet so I’ll save this for now. I should get the £5 top up each month also I’ve everything set up for the direct debits and min pay in.

I’m managing to build up the surveys in PA again currently back up to £40.29 balance.