£50k to zero - made it across the finish line

One-step-at-a-time

Aargh. Things have gone a bit off plan today. I clawed back £4.50 from the travel budget due to a meeting being postponed today, then decided to use the bonus spare time to paint the fence, which necessitated buying paint. Up £4.50, down £15.

I looked into the travel possibilities for the long trip next month, and am really glad I did - it was possible to arrange a lift in one direction so I only needed a single train ticket, so the costs have gone down to £33.50 plus a bit towards fuel. I had to buy the train ticket or risk being stuck with a more expensive one (there were only 2 left at the cheap rate) so I have borrowed this from the EF as enough is put aside in May's budget to pay it straight back. Theoretically this means I'll still be ahead when I balance the books next week (but in reality it just means that the pressure is off if I have fewer ebay sales). The coach would have been about £4 cheaper but taken five hours longer! :eek: Sanity over budget!

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What a lovely day! I'm covered in bites, scratches and nettle stings, and will probably ache like h3ll tomorrow, but have done five hours of hard graft in the garden. Very satisfying. All the painting, some replanting, border weeding, lugging some bits of paving, digging and sweeping. Could have filled the garden bin three times over, but tried to show a bit of restraint.

Hopefully I will find some energy from somewhere to get some more planning done tonight, but I'm thinking a soak in the bath and early sleep is more likely!

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Morning diary! Coffee break
Bit tired from all the work yesterday and a touch foggy-headed, which I'm pretty sure is from breathing in a multitude of tiny insects and bits of cobweb from two days of garden pottering.

Although I've been doing little positive things every day, my debt-busting momentum has most definitely slowed. I have done my YNAB-ing for next month, and can stick to plan with no extra income, though I have listed another dozen things on ebay and am all set to photograph and list more this evening.I am enjoying being organised and calm about what's happening in my bank account, and making my next payment on Friday is going to put a smile on my face and wipe 1.5% from the remaining debt. May will take me over 25% total paid, so another little milestone to celebrate.

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Morning!

Free money today! Well, forgotten money
I have paid myself £7.70 from the National Lottery account I haven't used for well over a year. Straight in to the EF to start paying myself back for the advance train ticket I bought this week.

Today should be another NSD, plenty of lunch stuff at work and leftovers for dinner tonight, and while the good weather is holding I'm going to finish filling the compost bin tonight, pretty sure I can squish down what I put in there over the weekend.

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Happy Friday!

Today is a good day. It's payday, and my wages were up £8 this month, so that's gone straight to the HFax CC.

Today's Numbers:
-Total unsecured debt is back under £35k!
-Debt is currently at 24% paid, heading for 25% by the end of May
-The CC portion of this will be under £29k by the end of May
-I have paid a total of £530 off my debt this morning and transferred back all the money I borrowed from the EF.
-Minimum card payments this month are under £450, down another £40 from last month which means more for overpayments without really noticing it.

Today is not an NSD as I refuse to break my tradition of a Danish pastry on payday

I almost messed up last night - remembered at 11.37pm that my Sbury £15-off-a-spend-of-£50+ online shopping voucher expired last night. Luckily we have a rolling shopping list and knew what we needed, so the virtual trolley was put together and paid for within six minutes.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend!

One-step-at-a-time

Morning Diary!

Yesterday was a bit of a down day. I went into London to meet a potential new client, and came home feeling like all the energy had been sucked out of me. Superficially we got on fine, but at this point I can't see it turning into a decent working relationship. I resisted buying lunch out and held out 'til I got home to have a late lunch with DH, so the only spend was on travel. I can feel myself going into a bit of a downward slump, so I think some decent physical exercise is on the cards today to try to head it off at the pass.

This morning I've set up internet banking for our mortgage account as it was the only one we didn't manage online. Tomorrow will be the first payment on the new lower rate, and it will be good to watch that going down alongside everything else. I am still hopeful that once we are out of this CC mess we can still knock at least 2-3 years off the remaining ten year term.

Right, time to go and try to make something of this day!

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An uneventful few days in debtbusting world. I have sold one thing on eBay, a princely £3 for the pot after fees, but that is .001% closer to empty CCs than I was yesterday.
Prolific surveys are ticking along again after a drought and I should be able to cash out again within a week or two (one payment will not be confirmed until closer to mid-month). It's weird- although last month had some double payments and was quite expensive, I actually feel like there is less money to play with this month (though the budget says the amount to play with is identical)

Interestingly, I've started to get marginally more favourable balance transfer offers through; the best I have been getting recently was 4.9% for three years with no fee; now I'm getting 3.9% for three years with no fee, so I may do a little more balance bumping this month. I don't have masses of wiggle room at present, and 1%p.a. saving on a small fraction of the total balance may not be much, but it's better than nothing.

I have a bit of freelance work coming up this month which should be worth another £150 after tax, though payment for that will be later in the year.

That's about it on the money front really, you can tell I'm a lot calmer about all this than I was a couple of months ago! Redid my snowball today and my projected DFD has been brought forward by nearly 9 months since I started!

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Bonus money stuff today - two more surveys have pushed me over the £20 cashout mark, and my top-up grocery shop today (which consisted largely of yellow sticker items) bagged me another £15 off a £50 online shop voucher. Given that I've only just used the last one that's a free £30 in total towards this month's grocery budget. Can't complain about that!

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Looks like we're switching breakdown cover providers!
Current provider wants £312.13 for cover advertised on their website at £179. :eek::eek::eek:
New provider wants £150.99 for better cover than old provider with £70 back through TCB. Talk about a no-brainer!

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Aaaaah it's been a lovely productive day! I have moved on to the next phase of Operation Garden - there is an area at the side of the house that's been a dumping ground/clutter magnet for the last few years. I spent a few hours starting to tackle it and stacked up all the bits of rotten wood ready for the tip then swept up, and it's made a huge difference. I'm so pleased that I keep going outside to look at the reclaimed space It will take multiple visits to the tip to clear it all properly, but I'd been avoiding it for so long that just getting this far feels like a victory.