NST December: Debt Destruction December

greent

NSDs 8.
Lunches taken/ prepped at home - had a bake-at-home Gr*ggs festive slice (bought in a box of 2 in Icyland) - yummy

Debt destruction: Aiming for DFD (exc BTL mtge) of 10/18. Have joined the 'pay off all your debts by Xmas 2018' challenge to hopefully gain inspiration and keep motivation
Exterminate Facebook gone from phone. Will keep it off. Regenerate - will re-start cleaner eating - starting with dropping sugary snacks in between meals -no snacking in between today
Clear up, clean up and take control. Clear space by removing 31 items - 67/31- 11 items added to CS bag today, ready to drop off tomorrow (includes a bauble wreath and some other Xmas decs/ ornaments) Clean up your way of talking to yourself. Let yourself sparkle. Take control of your finances, your time, your habits, and your health. -
Explore your local area - failing at this. Very cold rain today.
Mental health.. Do something every day this month that makes you feel good: Write down 4 gratitudes each day.
* all my children are home (this may be a recurring item.... :D)
* some more Xmas organisation done today (some bits of food shopping and some more Xmas decs sorted)
* having more than enough
* a warm house
Budget EVERYTHING
Food 331.85/450
Social 0/£120
Gifts 15.66/£125
Fuel 50/65
Make extra money 60.66:j:j (+ 6 extra hours at work) - (and kids have made over £150 (net) from selling toys!!:T:T)
Evaluate (Done) Now to 2018: (targets set)
Remember to do - DONE (foodbank/ save the children/ hamper scamper appeal/ shelter) (I still have some things for homeless collection when I find a collection point!)

apple_muncher

Today I am grateful for dd beingwell enough to go and do the nativity at church, for having time to stay for the hog roast, for being very well catered for, for fast buses home, for a friend phoning to offer dd and I a lift to hers for her son's bday party, for dd thoroughly enjoying the party, for catching up with some friends, for a chance to sit down at last.

Kerry_Woman

Day 17
NSD achieved today 6/15
Grateful for:
Having an chilled out day and evening.
Caught up with a few bits of housework.
Speaking to brother and sister.
Watching programme about Joan Crawford and Bette Davis online. Found it interesting.

f0xh0les

NSD 7

Got up at 6am to start stripping wallpaper - finished at 4.30 put some laundry on to launch and did some baking for lunchboxes but they have slightly burnt bottoms due to me helping DH shift his linen press out of our bedroom ready for Mr plasterer in the morning.

Grateful it is finished in time

Not sure I will be able to lift my arms above my waist ever, ever, ever again (ouch!)

mothernerd

A NSD. More things out of the house. Did a quick fix with the much needed 8' shelf. Put a small step stool (less than a sheet of A4 paper) on the corner of the worktop and balanced the shelf from that to one of the under stairs shelves (used placemats to level it). Holds quite a lot of tea/ sugar etc (and scales atm).

Tools moved to cupboard unit at far end of under the stairs. Lots of tins shuffled under the stairs plus slushie making supplies (cleared the top of the freezer which had become a dumping ground). Moved the existing hanging rail across so 2 pans hang over the oven. Suspended one of the new herb storage racks from the rail and filled it. Moved my white jars up a shelf so the bottom one can accomodate rice bowls.

Just waiting for Beloved to move the small table downstairs (we asked DS3 but he was no more helpful than when I asked for help moving the shelf) so we can set up 4/5 of her gadgets using the understairs plug sockets. Looks a lot cleaner and more organised.

Bedroom still a work in progress (maybe I am getting in the mood to start throwing things out, certainly need to stop holding onto every scrap that may be useful sometime). Getting to the point where I don't have room to move.

Today I am grateful for sleep, for simple food, for making progress on clearing the kitchen and the outside of the house, for thinking things through (went from modest spend to overspend to cancelling the lot last night). Need wellies and oven gloves, bought candles in with mum's midweek order (gave some to DS2 when his electricity was causing problems).

Florence_J

Went to see Queen and Adam Lambert in Birmingham last night, staying overnight at a travel lodge. Queen have been my favourite band since I was 12 (I'll admit for someone born in 1989 this is a bit unusual). Unlike my other favourite band at the time (S Club 7) Queen have stood the test of time.

As this was something like a 16 year dream come true, something I didn't dare believe would ever be possible as I would be too poor to ever see them live after they started touring again, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong. I pictured every scenario from me falling ill, to bad weather, to the hotel losing our booking, I even began to worry after the Manchester Bombings of something similar happening...

The only thing that went wrong was we came into the arena with backpacks, then left to look at the merchandise and when we tried to go back in we found out that we weren't allowed back in because we both had rucksacks, and obviously after the Manchester bombings this is now a security issue. That was a small price to pay for safety, but it led to about ten minutes of going back and forth between staff members trying to find where we needed to go to leave our bags. I was fretting a little as it doesn't take much to make me fret, but it was all fine. Absolutely nothing went wrong, it was the best gig I have ever been to and was a dream come true. Adam Lambert gets my seal of approval as a stand in Freddie Mercury.

In true Rock and Roll fashion OH and I were back at the hotel by 11 ish to have a cup of tea and watch Match of the Day.

Sadly as we got our coach back to Cardiff this morning we found out about the horrific and multiple fatality car crash in Birmingham, in the centre and not far at all from the Coach station. I am so sad that whilst I had the best night of my life, so many people lost theirs.

As readers of my diary will know I borrowed the money to pay for both the tickets and the hotel from my OH, and I agreed that I would pay for all costs as he can take or leave Queen and this was very much a night for me. This caused enormous financial strain around the middle part of the year for me, and sometimes I really doubted whether I should have indulged like this. But I dramatically cut back my spending, I sold just about everything and anything that could be sold from guitars to kitchen appliances to my bike and I worked my bum off and last night was 100% worth every second of struggle.

Also it marked a notable thing for me. I have never been away with my OH in the whole 6 years of our relationship alone. We have gone on holiday with friends, or family (and usually the family have paid) but we have never been away and financed a trip just me and him. I felt like I was an adult at long last and also I did have to struggle to reach this point, but I wouldn't have been able to even consider this financially as little as a year ago.

I may have gone a little off topic, so to make it more relevant I only spent about 20 quid the whole weekend.

Fmess

SFD number 7 today So looking forward to breaking up on Tuesday

f0xh0les

Florence_J wrote: »

Also it marked a notable thing for me.

I felt like I was an adult at long last and also I did have to struggle to reach this point, but I wouldn't have been able to even consider this financially as little as a year ago. .

:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T:T Congratulations!

dolly84

Not much going on here today. All meals from food we already have in, made a bolognese sauce for tea and just need to reheat that and make the pasta.

Had to send the kids with money today, it is a non uniform day and also the Christmas fair in school, I also placed an order for toothbrush heads as they were better than half price at Superdrug and they need replacing. No other spending though thankfully.

thriftylass

Hello,

usually don't post this month but this one left me perplexed (just wondering if I have a jealous overreaction ):


Someone else's diary (lovely lady, working, that wants to tackle her debt, so not a dig on her):

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 6
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 900
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 3527.64
Other income............................ 975
Total monthly income.................... 5402.64

Really!!! That is a post tax income £64824. We're fortunate to earn 30 and 40k respectively and get together less than 4k a month after tax and childcare vouchers and including child benefit? She seemed like a lovely lady, working etc. It's more the system I think is wrong.

Sorry just can't believe it. Is that the norm?