Nearly debt free diary

jemreading

I need to stop buying food.. embarrassed to admit to spending.. £3.60 today on lunch.

My friend (whose birthday is coming up) got me a really cute bag, some chocolates and a £25 voucher for my birthday. I feel really bad as I wasn’t planning on spending anywhere near that much on her (we’ve been friends for 17 years!) I will have a re-think on gifts as I haven’t got her anything yet.

I still need to change £20 of the £1 coins. This will go straight into savings.

jemreading

Still haven’t taken my £1 coins in.. :rotfl:

Currently at work, getting a quick break from the boring stuff I’ve been doing for the past 3 hours.

Also got gym tonight so hoping to de-stress. Tomorrow night will be the first evening where I have a planned spend evening. I have put £30 a side but hoping it’ll be more towards £20 (inc taxi home)

I also have a policy when I go out (which my friends are aware of) I don’t buy them drinks and they don’t buy me any. People have stopped asking, which is nice! The only person who buys me one is my OH.

jemreading

Conquered two gym classes this evening plus a 30 minute walk home! :j

I’m going to be looking at my budget tonight to see if I can cut back more.

I was thinking that I could sell my football season ticket, maybe a game a month, which would earn me about £20 a month. I need to look at a few more survey sites and maybe looking at de-cluttering (not that I have a lot to de-clutter)

jemreading

My spends for yesterday came to £16.60.. and the funny part is I only spent £6.60 when on a night out (for a taxi home!)

The majority of the money I spent yesterday was whilst I was at work, I forgot it was Children in Need. £6 of my spending was to charity.

I know that I can go out and have a fun night without having to drink alcohol, which saves a tonne of money!!

jemreading

Things to do this week:

1. Change my £1 coins :rotfl: it’s a good thing I don’t do a weekly list!!
2. Buy my friend a birthday present (is it bad to re-gift things that you don’t like?)
3. Update next months spreadsheet to see how realistic the budget looks for Christmas with all the social events coming up!
4. Work out how much money I’m due back from work after buying extra holiday. I think it’s £368 but need to double check. This would come in my January pay.

jemreading

The month always feel so long, in terms of debt repayment, as I only make one big payment once I get paid and then I leave it until I get paid again.

The credit card has been removed from my purse which is the best thing I've done. I just need to keep focused until the debt has gone. In comparison to some I know my debt number is not that high or much but to me debt is debt that is still against my name.

I'm quite lucky that I'm still young and have no children and am trying to be flexible with my lifestyle to try and get rid as quick as possible. I think I've found the balance of paying a lot (normally between £200 - ££350 a month) but still maintaining some sort of life. I'm just trying to get my OH on board!

My savings are slowly rising. I have a grand total of £50.31 :rotfl: it's a start..

jemreading

Food is all prepared for work tomorrow. We got to sample a bit for dinner tonight as we had too much left over as we are reducing our food portions so we reduce the waste (soggy salad is not nice!)

I spent my next voucher from my birthday. I got a pair of work trousers and a Christmas present for my OH. It came to £50, I had £50 on my gift card so it costs nothing as I can pick it up in store. #winning?

I also have a £20 JD voucher, £20 Nando voucher and £25 New Look voucher left but nothing has caught my eye. I would like a sports bra but the £20 JD voucher won't cover it, I'm hoping to save it for Christmas then pick up one in the sale.

Me and my OH have set a budget of £50 each. This is a huge improvement on the £200+ we spent last year! I'm counting my £24 from next voucher as part of his spends so he has £26 left. I think that is enough for his shaver (£13.99), DVD (£5) and chocolate (£5) and that leaves him with a grand total of 1p.

Florence_J

Well done on your savings, better to have something then nothing. I have about £9.50 in my savings account!

jemreading

Thank you, it’s small but got to start somewhere!

Me and my OH have booked our holiday for next year. It’s a big birthday for him in October so we are going then (I reasoned it was plenty of time to be out of debt and pay off the holiday)

It was a really good deal and I managed to save £600 on it! It was a £150 for a deposit, which my OH paid for.

jemreading

I'm apparently really good at coffee dates.. I went to meet my friend for a drink after work and had nothing, so NSD for me! :j I have another coffee date with another friend tomorrow but I may get something this time (we'll see!)

Still trying to think of ways to boost my income. Prolific has dried up in the past two weeks so no surveys there.