This Duo's debt free journey

ladymay

Get well soon lovely xx

Willowtree222

Merry Christmas xx

DebtFreeDuo

Happy new year all!

I have already set out my goals for this year and have got myself organised with this so that I can keep track of all my goals nicely. In December I set out some budgets to stick to and I think for the first time since I started my journey I managed to actually stick to those budgets. I was hoping to have a little leftover to overpay on debts, unfortunately this didn't happen but it was still a success so I'm not going to dwell on it. I am going to continue this in January and eventually give myself some targets to spend less in each area.

I won't be around much until my exams are over towards the end of the month but I will be concentrating on my goals whilst away too. I hope everyone who stops by is well and had a wonderful time over the festive period. I will return with an update towards the end of the month.

Willowtree222

Good luck with your revision and exams. x

DebtFreeDuo

Thank you Nicnak, I keep putting it off but I really don't have time to be messing around!

Doing quite well so far into the new year, I should have reduced spends this month with my exams as they will be my main focus. This will be a good thing as the balance for my holiday is due this month. I have discovered (thanks to Nicnak) that I can claim back some tax paid on a bank refund with being a non taxpayer at present, this should give me around £250 back. I also have £100 in my holiday pot and I have put in a refund request for the credit sitting in my energy account (£160) which leaves me with around £100 to cover. It will be worth it, DS is going to have an amazing time and it will be something that I think he will remember and treasure. I do have more than this stashed away from Christmas that I was gifted if I needed to use it.

Of my 2019 goals there isn't much progress to report just yet, I have 2 NSDs so just another 158 to go! I haven't put anything into my weekly savings yet but as it will be coming out of either my food pot or entertainment pot I wanted to wait a little to see how the month was going so I think I will look at doing the first 2 weeks of Jan at the end of next week and then weeks 3 and 4 as they come. I may do it like this every month so I can get a feel for how the month is, the last thing I want to do is have to dip into it if I can avoid it and be a little more realistic.

Willowtree222

I'm so glad I could be of help. It makes me feel like I have repaid you for the DVD Player now, which was so gratefully received.

I hope you get it back quickly. I am still waiting on the letter from Barclays x

DebtFreeDuo

You really were Nicnak, I'm just glad that you could make use of it, it would only have been sitting around doing nothing otherwise, we hadn't used it for quite some time. I am waiting on one letter to come through from the bank but I have 3 to do, one is only for £20 but every penny counts! Apparently it takes around 6 weeks.

DebtFreeDuo

I wanted to get myself something nice to drink for this evening but I didn't want to ruin an otherwise NSD for a drink. I also put £5 into my savings pot as this is probably around the amount I would have spent if I had stopped off at the shop. Definitely making some progress.

DebtFreeDuo

My head feels full at the moment, I really need to declutter, especially DS' room with all of his new toys after Christmas but I need to keep my focus on my exams, just 3 more weeks and they will all be over and I will feel like I can get back to normal!

My 2019 goals are so far doing well:

4/160 NSDs
2/52 weeks savings
1/365 Items cleared - this is slightly on the back burner but I will catch up with this.
Sticking to the budgets quite nicely but thats easy to say only a week in to the year
DFD April 19 - I don't think this is going to happen, with trying to learn to stick to my budgets I am realising that I haven't always been realistic with dates, I've been focusing on clearing ASAP rather than learning from the journey properly. I am getting there and the debt will be cleared this year.

DebtFreeDuo

Had my refund come through from my energy supplier so that has gone towards the holiday. This with the refunds from the taxman and the holiday is covered!

Things I need to get done over the next few weeks:

Change energy supplier - contract ends next month and my bills will increase
Change life insurance provider - My monthly payment is under £6 but I like to switch it around to get cashback via TCB as it then pays for itself.