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

One-step-at-a-time

Diary name change to reflect where I am now. Hoping this really is the last leg!

mark55man

a change in name in tribute to the progress you have made

One-step-at-a-time

Flying visit. £185 in overpayments since payday, and the VM card is now under £2k! Anything else this month will come from surveys/craft sales/ more invoices being settled (everything is allocated now down to the last £, and anything left in the grocery budget will be spent on getting ahead with cupboard stores). Fully expecting at least 24 NSDs this month as the only planned spend is on groceries. Next check-in when the number goes down again

remote_control

One-step-at-a-time said:

Thanks @Sarahwithlove - I am determined to hit the target but it means being able to consistently throw 40% of our income at it, which I know will be tough to sustain for another year. My target date is several months before the last 0% deal runs out, so there is a bit of wiggle room.
With that said, I'm glad that I decided to keep that extra bit of cash aside, as it came in useful tonight. I decided to get a bottle of very cheap red wine to embellish the weekend pasta sauces, and timed it right for a yellow sticker bonanza. £4.80 snagged me four Gu cheesecakes, a Victoria sponge, an apple pie, some guacamole, two loaves of bread, three packs of fishcakes, a packet of cherry tomatoes, some smoked salmon and some sliced ham. What's not freezable will be eaten up over the next few days (adjusting the original meal plan to suit, and adding desserts where there would otherwise have been none!). Total spent (including cheap wine) under £10. I feel that this is not awful use of a small cash buffer, and it pushes the need for the next grocery shop a bit further past payday

Wow this was an insane shop! I love a win like that. My best ever was those Indian 'takeaway' bags in Waitrose for 99p, the ones with a couple of curries, rice, sides and naan. I bought them all (four or five) and took them on the commute home!  All freezable. 

One-step-at-a-time

remote_control said:

Wow this was an insane shop! I love a win like that. My best ever was those Indian 'takeaway' bags in Waitrose for 99p, the ones with a couple of curries, rice, sides and naan. I bought them all (four or five) and took them on the commute home!  All freezable. 

I do love a good food bargain My best ever was in M&S where I got a basket full that worked out at 95% off. At my previous job I used to pass M&S on the way home every day so it was easier to nip in to look for food bargains - now the closest one is a 45 minute walk.

One-step-at-a-time

To do for the week:

• Refresh Marketplace listings and add more ebay listings.
• Daily declutter/recycle 
• Walk at least 2 miles per day
• Sweep garden/refill garden waste bin 
• Push craft sales again with some Christmas branding
• Make bagels
• Do a practice run of mince pies (I have a helper on standby for taste testing  )

Upcoming expenses: the EF and maintenance pots are going to take a minor beating over the next couple of months. We still have a minor roof repair to do (not a true emergency but needed before it gets worse, and scheduled for payday), and one of the radiators will need replacing within the next few months, and it would be nice to do it sooner rather than later to avoid any heating interruptions when it's colder. DH is confident to do the actual replacement on condition that there's no complication with the fittings, but worst case we have a qualified friend who would be perfectly willing to take it on and charges fairly. It's so nice to be able to cover these sorts of jobs without having to think about credit.
No number updates planned for this week unless Prolific catches up.

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on having the savings there to do the work on the house.  It makes such a difference to have a house maintenance pot. 

One-step-at-a-time

Thanks @enthusiasticsaver. The overall level of debt makes a huge difference too - this expenditure feels like a blip rather than a disaster. Even 18 months ago I would probably have been a drama queen about it.

With the radiator we've going to change the bleed valve at the top before looking into a full replacement. If £5 and a bit of fiddling around fixes it I can live with an ancient, ugly radiator for a good while longer. When we do eventually replace it I'd prefer a traditional style one but at £160-ish they're more than three times the price of a standard modern one - we'd most likely get the cheaper option and then make a cover for it ourselves, as having a shelf in that specific area would be pretty useful too. That's now been added to the longer-term list of home upgrades.

One-step-at-a-time

£25 paid off the cards last night, sig updated. 
To-do list progress:

• Refresh Marketplace listings and add more ebay listings.- in progress. Marketplace items all renewed
• Daily declutter/recycle - one bag filled for charity shop, one item given away. 
• Walk at least 2 miles per day - 5 miles Monday, 3 miles yesterday
• Sweep garden/refill garden waste bin - 80% done. 

One-step-at-a-time

£50 paid off the cards today, sig updated. Four more scheduled payments to go on the smallest card now, so March payment will clear it, but overpayments might bring it forward to February.
To-do list progress:

• Refresh Marketplace listings and add more ebay listings - No change
• Daily declutter/recycle - no show from the person supposedly collecting the freebie. Re-used some cardboard packaging to send a parcel
• Walk at least 2 miles per day - 5 miles Monday, 3 miles Tuesday, 3 miles Wednesday
• Sweep garden/refill garden waste bin - finished, though I will probably squash it down and stick a bit more in before it's collected