A welcome wake up call

twiggy86

Monday again already! Had a lovely weekend and didn't spend too much either!

Ended up having Friday off and went for a walk with my bestie and her little ones and she treated me to a coffee. Then Saturday had a bit of a failure as went for a bike ride in the forest but after only 4km I got a puncture! So had to walk back to the car and then drive to the pub! However, friend drove and bought me lunch (she's the one I bought lunch for a couple of weeks ago). Did then pop to the shop and ended up buying an extra present for my friend's baby shower (twins!) but she deserves it. Sunday was the baby shower which was lovely, although I did pay £5 for a taxi as had a couple of pimms!

Except ne*t, all my statements have come in. So I've updated my spreadsheet with the interest added (half compared to last month after the card shuffle!) and paid the minimums off each. So now any extras can go off Bcard which currently stands at £500. OH got a refund for something that didn't arrive from ebay and I think I recall him saying I could use it towards the CC so will check with him tonight - if so that's another £82.99 that can come off!

OH has also set us the (slightly scary) target of £800 a month debt repayments! (Up to £332 so far this month). This would make our DFD December next year! If we can do it, that would be amazing after having this debt ticking along/ creeping up for so long! So happy he's on board - although he tends to get on board and then float off somewhere in a dingy if past performance is anything to go by!

Kind of money saving... I think I've decided that for my friend's little one's next birthdays I want to make them crocheted animals! However, I've only ever crocheted a blanket so we shall see if my skills are up to it! Would give me just under two months until the first birthday comes around - with 7 over the course of the year (although if it goes well I might extend to a couple of other friends). Saw a lovely book but will look online to see if I can get it cheaper. My mum has been knitting animals and it has been very cheap for her, so long run will probably save me money! Wish me luck!

clearmydebts

Smashing progress Twiggy and imagine how lovely it would be to be debt free by Dec 2020!

twiggy86

Thanks CMD - not committing to it just yet as seems a bit tight.

However, I did tell someone earlier “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” - maybe I should take my own advice! (Ok, I stole the quote, but you know what I mean!!)

twiggy86

This debt busting stuff is a bumpy ride! After congratulating myself the other day, I'm now being too tough on myself!

So far this month I've spent £189.91 under "general" when this should be around £100, so I feel like I'm frittering money away. However, the truth of this I need more categories in my budget, including setting up more pots! Of that amount, £80 is for presents so if I'd set money aside it would have come out of the pot rather than under within the general spending log. Also, I had to buy a new block of sessions for circuits - something I knew was coming up but hadn't put specific money aside for. So that's another £33 plus £10 for parkour.

So if I take all of those things out of "general" it means the total would stand at £66.83! This is reflected in the fact that I still have £20 in my purse of the £50 I give myself for the week.

What all this rambling equates to is that I need more work on my budget!

In other news, Bcard now stands at £400. So £400 to find to meet both my targets (Bcard gone this month and £800 debt payments for the month)! Got £2.10 to go on OnePoll before I meet the £40 payout so hoping to reach that this month which will help as that's a tenth of the remaining Bcard balance!

DebtFreeMonkey

Like you say, it's less frittering money away and more not having allocated it correctly in your budget. Don't be too hard in yourself. You're making wonderful progress

twiggy86

The good
Since my post on Friday, I have paid a further £100 off Bcard. This means that I have cleared (i.e. after interest) over £1,000 off debt since I started back on the forums!!!

The bad
Now for the confession - I kind of got a bit spendy at the weekend. Ok technically VERY spendy but... my OH is meant to be giving me most of the money back. Will chat to him again tonight about it and work out what he owes me. Some of this spending did go on Bcard (I know!!) but I WILL clear what's been added - it will not sit on that card as it has done in the past. I know this is partly how my debts added up in the first place so I can't go down this road again!

It is both mine and OH's birthday next week which is why we went shopping as it generally isn't something that happens often. That definitely sounds like an excuse!

Must get my mindset back on track - haven't drawn out cash this week which doesn't help as I'm less spendy when I deal in cash. Although I may try and not spend anything else this week to account for some of the spending at the weekend.

clearmydebts

Lol Twiggy well done for confessing! What I do know is that debt busting doesn't happen in a straight line. There are highs and lows. My own debt sig will go up in Jan/Feb when I book flights to Oz, hence why I'm trying to lower it as much as I can now! Try and see if there are ways you can lower it.

twiggy86

It's definitely not a straight line! But hopefully the general direction of the line will be down!

Spoke to OH and he will "definitely" give me the money back this week! However, this and the fact he's had two weeks off work to do some work at his mums, means I don't think we'll meet our target to rid ourselves of the Bcard this month. Currently £300 off that target, but I will continue to try!

So close to the £40 cashout on OnePoll and also earned another £5 on Prolific which I will cash out (just waiting to see if anything else becomes payable). Also getting close to £5 on Shoppix. All will be used to pay off the Bcard, so it all helps as that will take me to £250 remaining.

In kind of MSE news, I'm very excited that my crochet book arrived! This means that I can go buy some wool and then start on crochetting presents for my friend's little ones! The book is an A-Z of animals so I will be making each LO the animal that represents the first letter of their name. That's the plan, but have to see if my skills match my ambitions!

twiggy86

Relatively frugal weekend and I'm officially turning into an old lady!! FYI - I'm not as I turn 33 later this week but after a weekend of crocheting, making homemade crumble (with fruit from the garden and nearby bushes of course!) and general housewifey stuff! (Not married either!)

Started my crochet project - started badly and had to call on my mum for a lesson to get me started, then went well until two rows from the end of this piece (it's made up of 6 parts but this is the biggest component) something's gone wrong! Hopefully I can fix it tonight or it might be another trip to my mum!

In actual MSE news... I cashed out at £5 on Shoppix, £10.07 on Prolific and am currently stuck at £39.95 on OnePoll (with the cashout threshold being £40!). So whilst I feel like I haven't made any progress on debt busting recently, actually I have quite a bit coming my way soon which will be used to pay of Bcard. OH has also paid back £100 of what he owes - it's a start but a little way to go yet!

This weekend's lesson (other than the crochet lesson from my mum) is that I need to get harder with OH re takeaways. That's one of our biggest downfalls if I'm honest as neither of us really drink. However recently if he's suggested as I've said I can't afford it.. sounds great and MSE?! However, I've then let him pay... not so MSE! Whilst it's his money, if he spends it on food it's not going towards debts! He'll give me what I tell him, so maybe I need to be firmer about the minimum he needs to give me to get this debt gone! Does that make any sense? I'm not it does!

clearmydebts

twiggy86 wrote: »

Relatively frugal weekend and I'm officially turning into an old lady!! FYI - I'm not as I turn 33 later this week but after a weekend of crocheting, making homemade crumble (with fruit from the garden and nearby bushes of course!) and general housewifey stuff! (Not married either!)

Started my crochet project - started badly and had to call on my mum for a lesson to get me started, then went well until two rows from the end of this piece (it's made up of 6 parts but this is the biggest component) something's gone wrong! Hopefully I can fix it tonight or it might be another trip to my mum!

In actual MSE news... I cashed out at £5 on Shoppix, £10.07 on Prolific and am currently stuck at £39.95 on OnePoll (with the cashout threshold being £40!). So whilst I feel like I haven't made any progress on debt busting recently, actually I have quite a bit coming my way soon which will be used to pay of Bcard. OH has also paid back £100 of what he owes - it's a start but a little way to go yet!

This weekend's lesson (other than the crochet lesson from my mum) is that I need to get harder with OH re takeaways. That's one of our biggest downfalls if I'm honest as neither of us really drink. However recently if he's suggested as I've said I can't afford it.. sounds great and MSE?! However, I've then let him pay... not so MSE! Whilst it's his money, if he spends it on food it's not going towards debts! He'll give me what I tell him, so maybe I need to be firmer about the minimum he needs to give me to get this debt gone! Does that make any sense? I'm not it does!

What about treating yourselves to one takeaway per month and on the other weekends take it in turns to make a really nice meal for each other?