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

lindez

Hi One step,
Just found your diary and have read it from the start. Well done on how far you have come from your lbm. I have subscribed and will be willing you on to the end of your debt busting journey.

One-step-at-a-time

Thanks for the comments!

We're starting the next financial month afloat, though September does have some expenses including house insurance renewal, which I hopefully have enough put aside for. We packed a lot into our three day weekend and I feel pretty brain dead today, so the spreadsheet-checking will have to wait until it's more than random numbers on a screen!

Over the weekend I made £20 on ebay after fees, so that's £342 left to find in overpayments by the end of September. I didn't hit my overdraft or CC, and paid back what I borrowed from myself as a contingency for the weekend (it wasn't needed).

I did not manage to list some of the things on ebay that I'd planned to due to some mislaid leads and chargers, so I missed the final selling fees offer. That can wait until next time, though.

gallygirl

You're making great progress! Over a third paid off and almost below 30k, well done:T

One-step-at-a-time

Good morning!

I do feel a bit like I'm flying by the seat of my pants this month. Only one teeny tiny ebay sale so far, and an unexpected house guest for at least the next week due to unforeseen family circumstances which has basically meant that I haven't made any more inroads into debt-busting over the last couple of days, and the food budget may have a bit of an upset.

However, I'm feeling all bright and positive today (yay for sunshine!), other than being a bit irritated by one stupid miscalculation on the order of CC payments which *may* cost me a bit extra in interest next month. Aargh!

I got a small pay rise this month, which I got very excited about until I remembered that it only equates to £4/month once increased travel expenses from moving offices next month kick in :mad: . There is a light at the end of that particular tunnel, though, as it's highly likely that increases to travel costs will be covered by the company for a two year period. HR should be confirming this within the next two weeks. If it is covered, I will probably split the extra between CCs and emergency fund (which has taken a bit of a hammering recently).

One-step-at-a-time

More listings done at lunchtime with a potential yield of £150+ , and one is already guaranteed to shift, so £9 in the pot after fees, £70 left to go for September. Chipping it away! I have two items to post in the morning, and then I will be up to date.

One-step-at-a-time

Hmmm, well it's been a while since I caught up here, and it's not great. On the plus side, I cleared another £50 from ebay sales, but on the minus side, I'm down £280 from an ebay return where I'd stupidly already put them money towards CC overpayments, and another £117 from hotel rooms that I was absolutely convinced I'd pre-paid in February. With that plus an extra tank of fuel from having to deal with unexpected family-related stuff, this month's budget is absolutely shot to pieces. We have practically no food in the house, I have £96 left in the bank after travel expenses which needs to last for 16 days, and I don't even have enough left in the EF to renew the house insurance later this week, so I'm probably going to have to whack it on the credit card. I'm trying not to feel miserable, but I really feel like things have got away from me this month

Looking around for positives, I should have another £80 coming my way shortly from some bits of work I did last week, I can get at least four hours of overtime this weekend, plus my excess travel costs claim may get processed in time for payday. So things will balance out in October, the numbers just look a bit rubbish this month.

efes_shareholder

can you do the house insurance on a monthly direct debit ?

One-step-at-a-time

I kept the house insurance on an annual payment as it worked out considerably cheaper - by the time interest is due on the card transaction in a couple of weeks it will be paid off (and even if I did incur a bit of interest it would be cheaper than the equivalent of an extra month's payment I would get charged if I paid it monthly).
I've spent £20 on food top-ups which will get us through to payday, still have enough in the bank to last the necessary four more days without going overdrawn, and got paid for some work that I did at the end of August. So September will end with just the hole in the EF to start refilling.

October should be a much cheaper month for us - DH has some work that takes him away from home for nearly three weeks and his expenses will be covered while he's away; this also means I can switch everything off at home during the day to save on fuel/power bills, and our food bill will be comparatively tiny (I will batch cook for myself).

This week the overtime form goes in, as does the claim form for travel expenses, and when they come through they will also be paid straight to the CC. One wobbly month has made me even more determined to crack on with the debtbusting.

One-step-at-a-time

Well, payday is tomorrow and I still have £17 in the bank. Woohoo! I also had an unexpected £20 bonus when I found two expired £10 banknotes in a bag I hardy ever use, and the nice man at the Post Office swapped them for shiny new ones. Little victories! As it was unexpected money, I splurged £5 of it on the way to work on fresh fruit and cake for my colleagues, because we've had one h3ll of a busy week, and I haven't been able to treat anyone in ages.

I've also set up the 'save the change' function offered by my bank - all debit card transactions are rounded up to the nearest pound, and the change is transferred daily to an instant access savings account.

On Sunday I will sit down with my spreadsheets and sort out the October - December budget, and hopefully be able to crack on with the plan for the BCard overpayments.

One-step-at-a-time

Busy bee here. I've done the budget from October right through to April. From March onwards it gets very exciting because I regain £520/month when one of our big obligations ends, so I can not only start to make a lovely big dent in the credit cards, but I am allowing £120 to flow back into our normal monthly budget - luxury!
November is looking pretty good as there's nothing happening that we need to put funds aside for, which will help us to get ahead a bit for December/January (Christmas is never expensive in our family as we're not big on 'stuff', so that's a bonus)

I'm anxiously awaiting the next cheap selling fees offer on eBay as I have a tonne of stuff lined up to sell, and I'm getting so, so close to £17k paid off the total now!
I'm behind on my hoped-for Bcard overpayments, but looking at money I'm owed and extra work still to be completed, there's still a good chance that I will be able to claw back another £500-ish by the end of the year. Not too shabby.