Prosperous soul in the making

Doing_it_my_way

What a lovely husband you have sharing his birthday money, awww a good husband should be appreciated
And a lovely MIL as well, that's something lots of people don't have.
I love your dream of greenery and trees and chickens, it sounds lovely, we are considering having ducks but I worry about Mr. Fox so I am not sure

savingholmes

Thanks DIA. I think sadly you need some kind of cage netting to protect chickens / ducks and definitely an overnight little house for them. OH has been kind this week. Prepared lunch for me too and encouraged me in my writing.

I have broken through the barrier and written some more of my non-fiction book today. I have started to pull together a better plan of how to make it all hang together. I partly used the seven levels of why to spell out the book's purpose which definitely helped. Now at close to 6000 words so happy with that and know how I want to progress it. Considering making it a guided journal and want to add pictures and colour to it but likely to add those at a later point. Still working out how it could work in different formats - voice, printed and kindle. Excited.

My focus currently is on keeping my day job, using it to pay off debt, keeping the family ticking over as best I can while also developing my own business through writing.

MovingForwards

Wanted to stop by and wish you luck with your book!

Your DD will enjoy the freedom a scooter will bring.

Well done for what you have achieved with paying down your debts so far, it will all be worth it in the end x

savingholmes

In other news today - the money saving has had an unexpected benefit and I have lost 4lb this week. Partly due to less junk food and eating out and partly I've run out of my favourite soft drink and can only buy it by the case online. I'm going to take pooch for a long walk now and listen to a book while I do. Hopefully she will appreciate it.

DH and I are seriously considering joining a gym & / or getting a personal trainer - no point in having £ later in life if we are in poor health. We are both obese and unfit and he has type 2 diabetes so need to take action. We may just do that out of our personal spends - or I may reduce CC overpayments by £100 or so to help fund it. We both think it would majorly increase our confidence and mental health if we lost weight - and our future employability. No point having a future house with land if we are too unfit to do any of the work. Still waiting to find out about discounts via work.

Submitted gas and electric readings today - both were higher than their estimates so DH not happy - I was freezing last night and put the heating on for a whole 3 or 4 hours - he's blaming that lol. We've had £6.40 vouchers from Mr T. I'm saving them up - as I've found out I could use them towards a cottage holiday - if I get enough it may help pay for a mini break at 3 x the face value - I think I have a total face value of about 25-30 at the moment. I also got a whole 44p positive interest from N this month. Every little helps.

Still to do
Photos of sandals so can get refund
Child benefit form
Further ppi reclaiming

Tomorrow I will be driving my car for work so will qualify for expenses of around £12-18. Must remember to claim. Will mean that I can claim a whole mile of other expenses at 52p that I would have otherwise have been too embarassed to claim lol.

The CBT course has come back as full on the day I booked so need to move it to the next day but concerned that if DD gets bad results it could wreck the day... Still going to take the risk though and hope it doesn't come back to bite me. The only other dates on offer were after she should start at sixth form.

savingholmes

Thanks for stopping by Moving Forward - even though I did refresh earlier your post didn't come up... Enjoyed your diary.

savingholmes

savingholmes wrote: »

In terms of debts

Repay by June 2021
CC1 £6973 - Target Apr 21 - 0% ends Jul 21 Now £6898
CC2 £7374 - Target Jan 21 - 0% ends Jun 21 Now £7190
CC3 £9064 - Target Nov 20 - 0% ends Apr 21 Now £8974

Repay by July 2020
CC4 £5647 - Target June 20 - 0% part ends Mar 20, par Jul 20 Now £5475
CC5 £8193 - Target Apr 20 - 0% end Jul 20 - Now £1300

Repay in 2019
[STRIKE]Table £200 - to be paid Aug 19
CC6 £1211 - to be paid July 19
Old elec & gas bill from when we swapped £174 - to be paid July 19[/STRIKE]

Other items:
In July pay period - [STRIKE]also need to sort out tax (91) mot (30) [/STRIKE]and probably insurance for motorbike (approx 270 due August) - so will need to be on plan

Stlll trying to get[STRIKE] OH to sell old motorbik[/STRIKE]e and my barely used archery equipment

Had a very productive month thanks to extra income from using £200 of savings, backpay, £305 extra from motorbike sale (after deducted costs) and £6.8K ppi reclaim.

:j:j:jSo in n total paid £9001 off CC approx 23% of the debt we had at 13/7/19 and £84.41 off mortgage = £9085.41. :j:j:j

Now if only I could have that income every month I could be done by Christmas on the CCs!

Cancelling the MPPI insurance freed up £32+ which I've decided to use as a regular mortgage over-payment. Paying off the table freed up £9.54 which I'm using towards the CCs.

Next pay day I would like to pay off a minimum of £720, ideally at least £920 and anything above that's great. Reason - DS is coming home after study abroad year and bringing lots of asks with him, we also have lots of extra costs for DD and motorbike insurance of £174 to be paid.

jwil

That's a fantastic result - well done :T

Well done on the weight loss too

[Deleted User]

That's amazing, well done xx

[Deleted User]

Delurking to say wowee! :T Those are some fab totals, very impressive! :T

savingholmes

Decluttering has definitely been helping with the debt-free journey. For a start it filled a number of hours for me and DD preventing us both from spending - other than on a handy labeller (always wanted one). I was shocked to be confronted with how much I already had - particularly in the crafts, future gifts, random household items section. I kept buying more even though I had no room for it. Now that most of what I kept in my study is clearly labelled in drawer or lidded boxes - the likelihood of me buying more has reduced dramatically.

In decluttering, I finally faced how wasteful the spend on so-called bargains had been and how all the clutter had stopped me from being able to use a whole room in my house. When it was piled at least 3 boxes high with stuff - even the stuff that was beautiful in there like a stained glass butterfly lamp was invisible. OH and DD can't believe how much I've managed to let go and see it as a miracle. In the past I think I would have had a relapse by now and brought more new stuff into the house. Now I'm starting to feel lighter for having less - even though there is more left to go. Some of the associated shame is also lifting.

We still have more I want to go through and let go of. We probably won't try to sell most of it instead will likely give it to charity. At least then the charity can make some £ on it and benefit someone. I used to be blind to the clutter - but now I am noticing it more. I plan to declutter more when DD helps me. I want to get to the point where I can redecorate my study and finish painting our bedroom. I'm hoping DS will help with that. I want to replace the carpet in my study at some point as it has marks on it - we have loads of spare underlay in the loft from buying too much nearly 2 years ago so it shouldn't cost too much. I'll add it to my list and wait to see if we manage to get some extra income to enable us to do it guilt free.

I haven't done any shopping just for "fun" (otherwise known as danger city) for at least a month now. Hoping that trend continues. I did end up having to use my cushion in the other account to help fund the CBT and additional grocery spends although the last two weeks the food shop had reduced in spend. I think I just over-spent at the beginning. Hoping to sort that out this payday coming (Thursday).