Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

Naomim

Well done on saving for Christmas. Even with all my debt it was the one thing I did except for one year I think. This year all saved but only got a couple of bits. I have just bought a food processor for 16yo that had £33 off but I think that's all for BF for me.

GeorgianaCavendish

EssexHebridean said:

Thanks for posting on the thread - it's been running a few years now and there are so many great viewpoints on it (as well as a couple of attempted thread-spoilers but we'll ignore them!) 

I'm with you on the black friday thing - I've clicked through to a couple of offers, thought "Hmmm...." and then closed down again. Anything I "want" rather than need at this stage, I will be putting on my Christmas list anyway, and there's not much that falls under the heading of "needs" for me at the moment.  It does feel a bit like everyone I get emails from wants me to buy something tomorrow though! 

It's a brilliant thread, looking forward to joining in this year (and ignoring any thread-spoilers!) 

I've been using the relentless sales emails as an opportunity to unsubscribe from the junk (usually this is an exercise that I do in January) , it is funny seeing which things have a Black Friday sale!

GeorgianaCavendish

Kakiste said:

I completely agree- I was topping up my amazon wishlist the other day prior to relatives buying me stuff and I added a few bits (new fitbit, earbuds etc) and I then had a proper think about it. I don't actually think I would use them all that much, I haven't really missed my fitbit since it broke 2 months ago and I think I'm almost going 'yep there's the electronics slot filled' rather than actually thinking about things I really want. (books )

I know exactly what you mean! My list this year is really limited to consumable things, maybe a slightly nicer version of things I use all the time but they will be a double gift as I also save money for a few months not having to buy myself stuff  

GeorgianaCavendish

Naomim said:

Well done on saving for Christmas. Even with all my debt it was the one thing I did except for one year I think. This year all saved but only got a couple of bits. I have just bought a food processor for 16yo that had £33 off but I think that's all for BF for me.

It's made such a difference to have the Christmas savings pot! I'll start again from December as it works really well having the pot fully funded by end of September so that I can switch to looking out for early promos  

Good work on the 16yo's present - that's a great saving  

GeorgianaCavendish

The BF sale version of my dad's gift arrived today, so I've just sent back the full price one. Looking forward to getting £20 back on that! Had a nice weekend catching up with friends, but the news about the new variant is concerning

GeorgianaCavendish

December 2021 Goals & Debt Totals


Debt £249.00

Virgin - £249.00
0% until March 2022
(1 more payment to go!)

Deposit Savings

Total Deposit Savings: 79.06% 

NSDs
13/12

It has been a bit of a slow month. I'm feeling really tired at the moment, I don't know if it is still a bit of a hangover from Covid or general winter run-down-ness. Hopefully I'll feel a bit brighter over the coming month. 

I'm so close to my DFD, in just over 4 weeks the final direct debit will be taken - that feels incredible! I'm still chipping away at the deposit savings and should be well into the 80%s by the end of 2022.

November ended up being quite a spendy month, all budgeted spends but it seemed like there was a little something almost every day - so I'm going to aim for a few more NSDs this month and try to postpone my purchases by a few days. Also going to focus on self care this month as starting to feel a bit frazzled! I'm going to look for some nice yoga classes on YouTube and will keep my eye out for offers on HeadSpace. I would like to find some alcohol free alternatives for Christmas, I might try one of the sparkling tea "champagnes" although I'm not sure if I would like them and they are about £15 a bottle so it seems like a pricey experiment when I know that I do like sparkling grape juice and apple juice. 

My December pay will be going in 7 days early which is not too bad from a December pay gap POV (especially as 4 of those days will be the Christmas weekend & bank holidays). My salary goes into a different account to my normal spending so I should be able to forget about it until my "normal" pay day.

astrocytic_kitten

I’m so impressed with you holding your nerve and letting the debt run to the end as planned, I’d have given up and raided savings by now regardless of the impact on the plan 😂

All looking very good - well done!

GeorgianaCavendish

astrocytic_kitten said:

I’m so impressed with you holding your nerve and letting the debt run to the end as planned, I’d have given up and raided savings by now regardless of the impact on the plan 😂

All looking very good - well done!

It’s really tempting to pay it all off now, but I find myself very reluctant to take money out of my emergency fund or the deposit savings pot. I think if the dates had fallen differently then I would be tempted to take it out of something like the Christmas pot but I’ve spent that now  so I can’t! 😂 

EssexHebridean

Definitely worth not raiding the EF or deposit fund I'd say, just psychologically if nothing else. with Christmas in the way too the time will fly by now until we can have a DF party right here!

As for the tiredness thing, I'm hearing SO many people saying exactly the same at the moment GC - I think it's been SUCH a funny year, and it's taken more out of us than we've realised, almost regardless of what our working situation has been and that sort of thing.  

GeorgianaCavendish

You are so right @EssexHebridean - from a psychological point of view I really want to know that I have paid this debt off for good, as I've had previous experience with wildly overpaying debt at the expense of covering my short-term needs and then needing to borrow down the line or raid savings. Not long to go until the DF party!