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

remote_control

Goodbye CC4! 
I find it hard reading your diary the last year to think that you ever racked up these debts in the first place! You're so switched on and frugal with money!

One-step-at-a-time

I find it hard myself! It took a really long time for the two of us to accumulate that much mess -  more than a decade. There was plenty of bad luck, unemployment, poor work environments, prolonged periods of physical illness, depression, and of course denial because we never had a problem making payments. Once it was actually faced, though, it truly was like flicking a switch. I see people talking about temptation or worrying about slipping back in to old habits, but if I ever was wired to think like that, I don't remember - and it's a million miles away from how I am now!

One-step-at-a-time

I awoke to a refund this morning! £41 straight to CC5.

£4999 to go.
90.5% paid.

Now THAT is a good start to the day!

Drawingaline

Under 5k! 🎉

One-step-at-a-time

I really, REALLY needed to sleep last night. Supermarket shopping and anything freelance went completely out of the window, I was dead to the world by 8pm! What was supposed to be a 20 minute nap lasted more than 10 hours
I know why - been burning the candle at both ends for a few days, working in the garden, doing lots of eye-straining admin work and keeping up with exercise so basically just needed a recharge! 

I woke feeling refreshed but pretty uninspired - there is literally no more money moving that can be done for the next 20 days unless/until I get paid for extra work or selling more things on. I always get a bit 'meh' for a few days after I've made progress or reached a milestone. It seems the closer the finish line gets, the more impatient I am to cross it. 

The food budget is still perfectly doable for the month with £110 left but most of that will be swallowed up by the next big shop. I have a little in reserve (£12.50 in nectar points and £10 in cash) for any extra fresh bits that are needed right at the end of the month.

thriftychick

You have made incredible progress!  I see from the mortgage free board that you are going to tackle that next, I would put money on you succeeding!

You are so close now, sometimes it just feels like walking through treacle.  Keep going, you are an inspiration!

One-step-at-a-time

Thank you @thriftychick!

That's funny, I was revisiting the mortgage stats earlier today. I made OPs for a while but abandoned that in favour of pension contributions as it made more sense to make up for lost time there. The plan is still to pay off the mortgage by early 2025.
Our fixed rate runs out in March 2023 and I *did* have a bit of a pie in the sky stretch goal to be as close to mortgage neutral as possible by then, but given that we have lots of deferred maintenance that we need funds for over the next couple of years that's not realistic without a significant increase in income (and DH's industry is still a shambles so we're not counting on that happening). 
Instead we are planning to pay off the smaller of the two balances from savings accrued by that point. What we do with what's left over the following two years will depend on what the interest rates and deals are at that point.

One-step-at-a-time

I've booked myself another long weekend (still got annual leave to use up) and although I have a massive rolling to-do list, I'm going to have a couple of days of giving myself permission to do as much or as little of it as I fancy without letting the word 'should' in on the act. Not sure how that is going to pan out!

There's still some (admin side hustle) work to do before I get to relax completely - probably going to go through that tonight after dinner. Computer break in the meantime!

Drawingaline

I spent Easter weekend like that. I did some painting in good Friday, but then basically read books for the other three days. Was bliss.

One-step-at-a-time

My last day off today. It's been as nice and chilled out as I was hoping! I got my admin work done and have spent a lot of time lazing and reading, getting little things done around the house, gentle exercise - nothing mind-blowing but all nice.

Things opening up is making no difference to us - I can't think of much I would enjoy less than hanging around a pub or going to the high street during the first few days of things reopening.

No financial updates as yet - I'm waiting on replies to a couple of emails which may result in some sales, not holding my breath though. The big supermarket shop has left us with a very small amount for top-ups over the next couple of weeks so we've been planning meals to minimise what's needed. I'm keen to find out when the £50 nectar points bonus will hit our account as we've managed to structure our spending using the 0% purchase card to hit the requirements - when this comes through I'll factor it into a future grocery shop and funnel that £50 to CC5 instead.