Keeping on the Straight and Narrow...

DancingInTheRain

In the 4K's!!! 🙌

Debt Total - £5345 1 May - Now £4913

All 0% and made up of:

PayPal: £20 1 May - Now £0

Tesco CC: £2950 1 May - Now £2870 (0% ends Jun 27)

Barclaycard: £1075 1 May - Now £975 (0% ends Oct 27)

M&S: £600 1 May - Now £418 (0% ends Dec 27)

V12 Finance £700 1 May - Now £650 (0% ends Dec 27)

Mortgage Balance is at £54,925 so the total figure we owe has also broken below £60k - Total Owed £59,838 feels like a bit of a milestone ☺️

in_need_of_direction

brilliant progress, what's the plan now?

beanielou

Woohoo. Be proud.

DancingInTheRain

Thank you both ❤️

Plan is to keep chipping away at the debt while boosting the savings in the background. In addition to the little PADS we do top up savings & debt payments each time we get income throughout the month (DH wage, my wage & child benefit), even if it's only £5 from the CB, every little helps.

For the first time in a long time, after all the work on the house, our savings do exceed our debt now which is a relief, but there are still jobs we'd like to do around the house and our cars are both over 10 years old so we need to keep plugging away.

Short term we want to clear the M&S card, the V12 will be the next target.

Not too bothered about overpaying the mortgage at the moment. Our mortgage balance reduces by £325 each month with the help of a small overpayment so the balance ends in a 5 or a 0 each month 😉

We both have work pensions and SIPPS so pension pots are building too.

beanielou

I’m as excited as you are for M & S to be clear !

DancingInTheRain

Happy Tuesday.

We have a quiet house while DS1 is away with school, it's amazing how much less noise there is when we only have 1 child around 😂 We're missing him, especially DS2 but, from the regular updates school are sending, it looks like he's having a fantastic time. He looked so grown up with his suitcase when we dropped him off yesterday, where has my baby gone?

Day off for me today, dropped DS2 at school, took Mum for her weekly shop & picked a few bits up for us too. Also dropped a box of old video games and books at the post office to go to one of those companies that take your old stuff - £21.23 offered for these, fingers crossed they don't reject anything 🤞but at least it's more clutter out of the house. Since getting back home I've given the kitchen & utility room a deep clean.

After lunch and a catch up on here I'm going to dust, tidy & hoover the living room which will leave DH's office left to catch up on by him once he's finished work (WFH today) and then that's downstairs done (until one of the males I live with undoes it again 😂).

Bagged a couple of AI surveys on Pro!ific and cashed out £9.23 so kept the change for my personal spends and sent the £9 to M&S.

Today's PAD: £10 to M&S CC & £1 to Savings.

Debt total now £4903 (M&S CC £408)

DancingInTheRain

Just spotted I'd got £2 off my shopping at L!dl so have sent that amount to the CC for an extra boost today 🙂

Debt total now £4901 (M&S CC £406)

DancingInTheRain

Got a coupon for a free fruit item at L!dl so after dropping DS2 at school I popped in and used it on a 1kg pack of strawberries worth £3.99. These were a want not a need as I stocked up on fresh bits yesterday so I'm going to use them as a treat for pudding this evening and packed lunches tomorrow.

£9.97 has become payable on TCB so have withdrawn this, just waiting on it hitting my bank account.

DS1 will be back from his residential late this evening, we're all really looking forward to seeing him, although I'm not looking forward to the washing he'll bring home with him 😄

Have deep cleaned the bathroom and both boys bedrooms, including changing & washing their bedding, have been playing 'dodge the showers' all day as I'm determined to get them line dried!

Plan for my final day off tomorrow is to deep clean our bedroom aka 'the dumping ground' and a general clean of the hall, stairs and landing. Also need to buy a few cards and small gifts for the birthdays we have coming up in June as we don't have much left in the stash of cards I keep.

Today's PAD: £1 to M&S CC & £1 to Savings.

Debt total now £4900 (M&S CC £405)

DancingInTheRain

Forgot to say I've made my first purchase for the event that happens 25th December 🤫

Saw an advert on social media yesterday for a festive themed gift set of scented candles, reduced from £9.99 to £4.99 on the big river site. Ordered 4 sets to secure a further 5% off.

They've just been delivered and are actually really lovely, nice fragrances and ideal for the recipients I have in mind. I'm sure future me will thank myself for ordering these but current me feels a bit ill for ordering these a few days after a heatwave & adding to my Xmas gifts app so I don't forget about them 😂

DancingInTheRain

DS1 is back home! He's exhausted but had an amazing time away, it feels like he's grown up overnight! It was a struggle getting him out of bed this morning. He didn't do too bad with his clothes so only 1 load of washing by the time his stuff got combined with some other bits. Also mine & DH's bedding washed today as part of the deep clean. And yes, it's been another day of dodging showers with the washing pegged out on the line! I will confess that I have given in and popped a few bits in the dryer to finish them off!

The cleaning has been a bit full on and extreme this week as it's been so long since I've had any spare time to really give the rooms a good sort, it's been winding me up so I'm pleased to have got it done now.

Picked up the cards and gifts I needed so we're all set for June. I had some A$da rewards expiring so used £5 of this towards the total, I then used this £5 to offset ordering DS1 a new M0nz0 card as his chip got damaged while he was away so at least it's been cost neutral to replace thanks to A$da 😜

The books and games we sent off earlier this week have had a couple of rejections but overall still earned £17.68. As this was a family effort we have added this to the holiday pot rather than the CC so that we can all benefit.

The TCB of £9.97 has also been received so have rounded that up to £10 to overpay the CC, the balance now starts with a 3! 🙌

Today's PAD: £11 to M&S CC & £1 to Savings.

Debt total now £4889 (M&S CC £394)