Learning to live within my means

astrocytic_kitten

Sounds like a well deserved break for you this year @joedenise! And yes, I’m really leaning into only needing to please myself this year @enthusiasticsaver. I do love my family dearly and love seeing them, but it will still be a relief to have a year off from endless baking and being the auntie entertaining the kids.

astrocytic_kitten

Was sorting out some papers and discovered a note I’d made that the debt was £7323.51 on 31 December 2013. I’ve been thinking of paying it off in terms of rolling back the years as it built up, and pleased I’m now back to 2013.

Other than that not much news - Christmas shopping is done and slowly getting wrapped, just need to write cards now. Food shopping deliveries for the month are booked in and budgeted for. Mostly I’m just looking forward to a break from work, feeling the need for it and can’t wait.

astrocytic_kitten

I feel like a MSE cliche here, but have just packaged a parcel that will hopefully make some money out of tech I’ve had lying around that I genuinely thought was way too old to be worth anything - the models don’t come up on music magpie. To be honest even if they don’t pay me the price quoted it will be a relief just to get them away and recycled. 

I also have some books to be packed up but they need to go via collect+ and I can’t walk as far as the nearest point, so those will need to wait till I can ask someone to take them. 

More productive Sunday than I’d planned though! Now I really need to make a start on writing my Christmas cards 😂 It’s such a quick job once you start, I really don’t understand why I put it off so much.

astrocytic_kitten

Quickly popping in to say the December loan payment takes me to 80% paid off! I’ll get to just under 4K by the end of the year.

Sarahwithlove

That's great news. When in 2021 do you think you'll manage to clear it by? 

redofromstart

I am so impressed at the 80%.
How is new cat?
Did you get sorted with new moisturiser?  I have to admit that 'Estee Lauder Idealist' is my starve before compromise item, and we know our finances are a mess when I give up on that.  Must be 20 years using it now. 

astrocytic_kitten

Sarahwithlove said:

That's great news. When in 2021 do you think you'll manage to clear it by? 

I’m on track to clear it by end of April. Will hopefully be able to throw a bit more than the planned overpayments at it, but realistically not enough to move DFD forward any.

astrocytic_kitten

redofromstart said:

I am so impressed at the 80%.
How is new cat?
Did you get sorted with new moisturiser?  I have to admit that 'Estee Lauder Idealist' is my starve before compromise item, and we know our finances are a mess when I give up on that.  Must be 20 years using it now. 

New cat is great, though very confused by it getting dark so early and has started interrupting afternoon zoom calls in an attempt to tell me its time to stop work and feed/play with him.

I haven’t actually come to a resolution on the moisturiser yet, still eking out the last of the old one. I started looking at others with quite a firm resolve that I wanted to find a cheaper one going forward, I already use fairly expensive sunscreen daily as a non-negotiable... but the longer it drags on the more I think I should just stick to REN instead of spending any more time thinking about it 😂 

Sarahwithlove

astrocytic_kitten said:

redofromstart said:

I am so impressed at the 80%.
How is new cat?
Did you get sorted with new moisturiser?  I have to admit that 'Estee Lauder Idealist' is my starve before compromise item, and we know our finances are a mess when I give up on that.  Must be 20 years using it now. 

New cat is great, though very confused by it getting dark so early and has started interrupting afternoon zoom calls in an attempt to tell me its time to stop work and feed/play with him.

I haven’t actually come to a resolution on the moisturiser yet, still eking out the last of the old one. I started looking at others with quite a firm resolve that I wanted to find a cheaper one going forward, I already use fairly expensive sunscreen daily as a non-negotiable... but the longer it drags on the more I think I should just stick to REN instead of spending any more time thinking about it 😂 

Not just our cat then that thinks 3pm means dinner time because it's started to get cold and dark 🤣

astrocytic_kitten

Missed your message Sarah - I can almost cope with the cat thinking his dinner should be early when it gets dark, but it then doesn’t seem fair that he’s also waking me up at 5am by pouncing on me as I sleep when it’s still dark 😆

Latest news from me is I got £22 from selling old tech (there was one item they couldn’t turn on that I’ve lost the charger for so couldn’t charge up). Considering adding it to the cashback I still haven’t done anything with and buying a dress I’ve been wanting since the summer but have never pulled the trigger on (it would be a work dress and there’s really no need for it). Can’t get it out of my mind though. 

I’ll see if I can find the time today to work out my ynab averages for the year first. It feels like I’ve really got a grip on clothes spending this year but I’m not sure if the figures will reflect that!