A Ditherer's Diary (again)

Naomim

Payday for MrM today so I have transferred our grocery money for the month. I've upped it as we ran out of grocery funds in the pot last month. I've cashed out my monthly Prolific earnings: £46 and paid that off against my Barclaycard.  I've logged onto all the credit cards and amended the minimum payments now my balance transfers are done.  I've not set them exactly to the snowball calculator as I wanted the 0% interest ones to be overpaid by about £5 each for now.   

My Home insurance is also due at the end of June. I've started looking on the comparison sites, at the moment it looks as if I can shave about £50 off the renewal.  👍  I have £125 saved up in my pot so will only need to find enough to make this up to the quote values of £200.  I'll pay it in full, continue saving in my pot for next year and the money I have been paying monthly on the home insurance can snowball onto my regular credit card payments.  An added £26 a month taking my regular monthly credit card payments to £620.  Imagine what I can do with that money once there are no credit cards!  😛

I also have an exam I need to pay for. It's £105. I'm pretty sure my work will let me claim it back through expenses but I'm waiting on confirmation from the HR Department.  I must remember to book in time otherwise the price increases 😒

I have an early dinner in the oven, ready for the Take That gig on you tube tonight. I can't wait!!!

Naomim

GeorgianaCavendish

Are your exams online now? I was supposed to sit two in-person exams in June which have been postponed to September. Still not actually sure if they will go ahead or not. 

But I had another exam earlier this month and it was switched to online, it worked really well and I wouldn’t mind doing that again. 

Naomim

Yes changed to online. Officially our classes would have finished by now but our tutor is keeping going with weekly sessions.  I just need to find time and a quiet place to study. I know there's a couple of areas I need to work on. Before lockdown I was going to the library on Saturday mornings.  

NewbieJD

I'm going to follow your diary and wish you all the best. You left some nice comments on my post the other day and in return, I want to support you in your journey. It seems you're making good progress, I will spend some time reading back on the older posts to see how you got to where you are now. You cashed in a nice amount on prolific last this moment. My numbers weren't too bad, it goes straight into my Paypal debt. By far the best survey site as you don't get timed out after putting in a lot of effort.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Naomim

Thank you @NewbieJD make sure you're settled down with a cup of tea to read through this, although current debt busting only started in November 2019 if you only want the last 6 months progress 😂

Prolific is the only survey site I use.  I  found just before the General Election and obviously through Covid it's been helpful.  I've been very strict with making sure it goes against an over payment and not in my bank account to be swallowed up on rubbish. 

Of the £400 MrM and I have extra for commuting has been spent this way this month
£150 clearing tesco credit card
£80 extra to the groceries pot
£133 overpayment to Barclaycard 
This leaves me £65 which will also go to the Barclaycard alongside the £46 from Prolific.

All my transfers have been done, money moved into the correct pots and the next round of direct debits have started disappearing out the account.  I really need to start getting birthday presents for 14yo.

I have booked my exam. MrM has said he will book the afternoon off and take the kids to his Mums so I can get some peace and quiet to study.  I get one study day and the exam day as paid leave and need to put the receipt onto the expense website claims thing.

I also managed to sell one of 10yo's jackets on fleabay for £9.50 + postage.  I was going to put it in her savings but she's been a bit naughty so it's going on a bill instead.  

 Finally, today I've have managed to siphon most of the water out of the pool, I'm sure the trees at the back of the garden were glad of the drink. It took hours! 

Naomim

NewbieJD

Reading through this is on my to-do list. I've just finished listening to Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover, and now a book by Erik Wecks, then I will read this entire thread.

Another good entry here, keep up the good work. Those cards will soon disappear.

Naomim

I've logged the expense claim for the exam from work. Once it's approved they're pretty quick at getting cash out to us, we don't have to wait for payday which is good.

I've been on Amazon and ordered a couple of bits for the 14's birthday. Money is all saved already so just need to transfer it once it's been taken.  I've booked the poor dog into the groomers so I'm going to save the £65 from our commuting money to pay for the groom. It's usually about £35.  We'll probably have a takeaway for 14's birthday too so need to put some pennies to one side for that also.

My mobile phone contract is up in July so I'll be going to SIM only although I don't think I want to get tied into a contract. The phone is already two years old and I don't think it would survive another two so a rolling contract may be best.  I'm also going to need to put an extra memory card in it, it's starting to tell me my storage is full.   I currently pay £30 a month for the phone and the useage so it's not the worst payment wise.  Hoping to only be paying about £10 a month once on SIM only.

Feeling in control at the moment. I've updated my forecasting spreadsheet for the next six months but have based this on mine and MrM's salaries as if we were to continue working from home without the commuting costs.  I haven't amended any of the funds I currently sink into pots for petrol, days out etc as I'd quite like them to have a buffer available.  I'll review them at the end of the year and either make an over-payment on the cards or put some extra into my emergency fund.

Naomim

bigsteve85

Sky offer unlimited calls and text with 10gb of data for £7.50 a month 

Naomim

bigsteve85 said:

Sky offer unlimited calls and text with 10gb of data for £7.50 a month 

Thanks, I'll have a look at them. 

Naomim

Not much going on debt wise. It's always a flurry of activity from the 25th when I get paid until about the 2nd when most of the dd's come out. All I have left is waiting for the credit card dd's as they are dotted through the month.

There's a few things around the house I also want to do. When the we had the builders in, the kids rooms were renovated we had a large step, the length of the room built into 10yo's room. I can't remember why and I hate it as we can't move the room around. Her room has the stairs bulkhead too so I've been pinning pictures on pinterest.  We also made the whole downstairs open plan which again, I hate and would never do again if I had a choice. I'd  like a stud wall put in to split the dining table & kitchen from the front room.  So all things I need to save for. I dont think either of them will be excessively expensive and reckon I probably need about £2 - £3k. 

I've been ploughing my way through the sneaky ways to save pennies thread on the old style boards. It's taken me weeks and I'm still not finished but loads of good ideas in there although some quite extreme.😖

I've got a load of washing out on the line at the moment but scared it's going to blow away or start raining.  I might have to get the airer back out the cupboard 🙁 I hope summer will be back soon.

Naomim