This Duo's debt free journey

DebtFreeDuo

Thank you Nicnak, I'm slightly terrified over my exams! Luckily the university have worked hard this year to make the timetable quite nice but there's only so much you can do with 5 exams in 2 weeks! Fingers crossed I get through them all just fine.

DebtFreeDuo

Student finance has come through today so I have sorted it all out and assigned things to where they belong. Paid what I needed to off the CC so debt total currently sitting at £1039.67, fingers crossed I can get a couple of the middle numbers marked off from my 52 week savings challenge and send those over to bring it below £1000 by the end of the month, £39.68 needed!

EssexHebridean

Good news on the finance being sorted already, and what a great set of goals there to start the year with. I think the idea of staggering the weekly savings plan is a good one too - I'm long said that the reason the majority of people end up failing on this one is that the sheer amounts required per month past the halfway point is effectively excluding anyone who wouldn't be able to save quite large amounts anyway - so staggering it makes it altogether more doable, I'd have thought.

Good luck with the exams, although I'm pretty sure that you've put the work in and so won't require the luck!

DebtFreeDuo

Thank you EH,I agree with the staggering, I've done it previously where I have tried from £1 - £52 based on the week number but I give up when it starts getting too difficult. Even if I only manage to do it for a couple of months, that will still be money paid off the debt that otherwise wouldn't have been!

First exam has been difficult to get over for me, I prepared really hard for it, I knew what I needed to know to do well on the exam and I went in there and messed it up. I didn't plan out what questions I was going to answer very well so ended up potentially losing a third of the marks that I could have otherwise got. I don't think I've failed it but it was the exam I was supposed to do the best in. We just weren't given enough time for the questions we had to answer and there's not much I can really do about that.

Anyway, I need to get past that and shift my focus to my next exam, don't let it get me down and then affect all of my other exams, only 20% through!

On the finance front, I'm not doing too badly, haven't made any further payments as of yet but I do have some available funds to send over for week 2's savings which I will get done as soon as I find a little more time.

I feel like my grocery spends are a little out of control this month, I just don't have time to plan my meals with everything else. Luckily I have been using up what I have in the freezer so I have only done one big shop this month but I really need to do another soon. My available funds left in the pot are £68.69, I'm not sure this will get me through the rest of the month, I need some cheap meals! How much does everyone else spend on their groceries over the whole month? Including both food and household things such as cleaning products etc.

EssexHebridean

We allow £175 for the month for two of us - and this includes cleaning products and occasional toiletries, as well as a takeaway once in the month.

As for the exam - not being given enough time to answer questions doesn't sound like you "messing it up" to me! As you say though - put it behind you and move on to the next.

OnlyPariah

We budget to £300 a month for 2 adults and 2 children. A third child is around every other weekend.

DebtFreeDuo

I feel like I messed up for not taking a couple of minutes to read through first and make a decision on which questions I was going to answer but yeah, there is nothing I can do about it now, I have emailed the lecturer to let him know how I felt about the exam.

I feel slightly better about my grocery spends now, I'm always disappointed in myself for how much I spend on groceries but I started this month off with a budget of £150, down from my usual £200 as I am trying to put £50 each month into the holiday pot, if needed I will take it back out. It's just one area I always struggle with, I feel like I should be spending less as it is just me and DS. I think the small shops are my downfall, I pop to the shop for something for dinner and end up spending £10 as I pick other things up.

Willowtree222

I am sure your exam will be ok. I have had exams like that.

Groceries are hard to budget for. It is ever changing, and to eat healthier is a lot more expensive. x

DebtFreeDuo

Well I made it through my exams, one is a definite fail and there is a big complaint going through for it from a large number of students. I think all the others are just fine so fingers crossed!I haven't looked at my finances for a little while and if I'm honest I have been putting it off which is never a good sign!

I'm going to tackle them over the next couple of days but I've been feeling quite low, my mood is low, my energy levels are low and I'm struggling to motivate myself to do even the small things.

Willowtree222

fingers crossed.

It might not be as bad as you think x