D - 16 Months

pidge04

Oh, I like your organisation!

Money_mess

Thanks for your comments!

spent some yesterday but not spent a penny today.
6 days until payday.
£75.10 cash in my purse.
tomorrow I will need a bit of petrol but I'm not anticipating needing any shopping.
But will need some on Sunday.
Should be fine.

Not much to report just checking in to keep my aims at the front of my mind!

Money_mess

No money spent today!

May need a couple of things tomorrow but may make it to Tuesday.

Been thinking a lot about our debts. We are on repayment labs with Aqua, Next and Very and I'm getting frustrated that they are just marked as arranging to pay and not defaulted.
I want them to default but I don't want to not pay the arrangements as they will pile on interest and charges in the meantime which will up my debt.
So I'm not sure what to do.
Next and Very have been on £1 per month for 5 payments now all interest and charges stopped.
Aqua I have been on a payment plan for a year. no default. Maybe I need tomjust write to them asking them to default the debts ...?

pidge04

You are doing so well with the NSDs. Impressive!

Scott-Weiland

Remember with your debts pay what you can afford to be able to live, its baby steps with all of them. Getting out of debt is about being sensible and frugal too a degree.

Take advantage of everything you can that can say you money ie daft little things like using club cards or nectar cards when buying fuel, or using cashback sites if you buy things online ie topcashback.co.uk.

Have a read of this link its an mse one dont worry

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/make-money/

Regarding surveys that are mentioned in the link i have just started using Qmee which is an app you put on your phone and you do little 5-10minute surveys they pay 20-£1.20 per survey. The extra money does come in handy days before payday when i get short lol

Money_mess

Thank you!
Will look into Qmee it sounds ideal something on my phone.
I did do populous, you gov and valued opinions for a while I should get back into it. I kept finding myself getting screened out and it was frustrating.
I should have more free time come January so hopefully I will be able to make more use of surveys then.

I have contacted all 3 debts and asked them to default my account. Perhaps if I go down to token payments of £1 with Aqua as well they will default me but I'm not holding my breath as the other two accounts haven't? I just want the assurance that they will do it now and not in a year's time and also that they can't suddenly add a load of interest. But if I stop paying to force defaults they will add charges and I really don't want that to happen. So it feels like a bit of a waiting game at the moment.

How things stand today - it's is 4 days until pay day. I have £20 in the bank and £23.08 in my purse.
Today should be a NSD with any luck as I'm very busy and have something in for tea tonight.
Running very low on petrol but don't need to use the car until Friday anyway.
All the bills have been paid.

Scott-Weiland

Yeah its a good little one even if you just use it too build up your emergency fund its ideal.

Re survey sites swagbucks and onepoll.com are two good ones to do,

Have a good read of that link I sent there is a lot of good tips on there.

Money_mess

Did a big post this morning and I've just realised it didn't post !

Payday on Friday so given today is nearly over we have 1 day to go.
£10 cash in my purse but I shouldn't need it.
Have DHs wage slip so have done the budget. have had to 're jig my plans, but will manage to pay off £500 to debt repayments and also have a Xmas without stressing about money. So that feels great.
Should enter 2019 with around 19.7k debt outstanding. Down from 28k beginning of 2018. So it's great to see how far we've come.
Mindset have definitely changed- but I still feel we can do better in places.
One think I want to get going with next year is savings pots, it needs to be a priority , so will start planning for that before January comes.
I'm just so desperate for us to be out if debt - but it's about leaning to manage money and plan for things as well, so the pots are important.

Money_mess

Payday tomorrow. Not spent a penny today.
Tomorrow will be spendy as need petrol, and some food shopping and need to get new clothes for eldest as he's growing like mad. Also need to finish Xmas shopping by Tuesday so I can get all wrapped and relax for the last week leading to Xmas without worrying about buying things.
Have been playing with the budget and have been generous as don't want to get stuck, but I'm going to aim to pay off a small £95 overdraft by coming under budget in different categories. I'm optimistic about it.
Will definitely pay off another £500 regardless so anything extra is a bonus.

Money_mess

Not posted for a few days as been so busy , but debt busting still very much at the forefront of my mind.

My great news for this morning is that our debt has finally fell below 20k! we stand at 19, 938 outstanding with around £100 more to go out before Christmas. I will also hopefully be able to make some overpayments too.
Christmas has cost me a bit more than anticipated however it's all been budgeted and not a single spend has gone on credit. I'm so proud of that. This is the first year we have fully 100 % managed that.
Last year we managed to get all our gifts in cash but we still ended up using a cc for food etc due to overspending. Now we have the budget sorted that won't happen again!
I had saved this year but not enough, which has unfortunately meant that my partners overtime money has pretty much all gone on Xmas. I would have liked to have used some for debt however I'm glad we had it, that we could finance a nice yet simple Christmas, where we have a balance between being frivolous and being skint and stressed. I have kept a record of everything we have spent and divided it by 12. It's given me a figure of £85 per month to save next year, so that will be worked into 2019s budget.

Not much else to report. Today and tomorrow will be no spend days except a small donation to school for charity.

Not sure about Friday yet, but I imagine also a nsd as I think we will have a Xmas movie night at home.