Focused on breaking the debt chains

laurarutter89

I have just caught up on my pending surveys, I made £25 in the last couple of weeks doing surveys so have put that money into savings for now. 

Today I aim to add some items to Depop (clothes) to be if I can make some extra money from items i do not wear to pay towards this last £1,900 of debt.

I am waiting for the following money to come in: £30 birthday cheque, £96 refund from cancelled concert ticket, and £406 refund from my cancelled March holiday. 

I am thinking to pay half of the above to the credit card and then save half into my emergency fund. Both are equally important at the moment as credit card has a long 0% period on it. 

Just about to pay £5.54 from survey money to MBNA credit card

25 days till payday, and till i can pay another £277.64 off credit card. 

laurarutter89

I have decided to start really looking at the money myself and Hubby are spending on household bills and also food. 

This is not really linked to my personal debt, but our joint account which is just for bills and food is run down every month and it would be nice to build up a buffer in there.

I went and did the weeks food shop today which came to £58 for the two of us. 
I am not sure if that is good or not really as we do try to eat really well and buy a lot of freash food for that reason.

We have a lot in the cupboards and freezer so will try to use some of that up before the next food shop to save some money. 

savingholmes

Glad you didn't fall off the wagon - good that you are still making progress. You grocery spends sound reasonable however if you go on the Grocery challenge or store cupboard challenge threads - they may be on the old style boards - you should be fine

laurarutter89

Thank you savingholmes  
I will take a look on there. If we could cut down on anything we could look to overpay our mortgage. 

Any way of improving our situation is worth it. 

laurarutter89

More surveys done on Prolific   £8.59 pending now! I will keep doing these when they are available.

So i have been looking on the grocery challenge and i have decided to really try to get our monthly spending down so we can save, and also use up some of the stuff we already have it the house. 

I am also using up all my skincare and toiletries whilst before buying anymore - this is an area i do tend to spend money in as i want to look after my skin. 

I have Thursday and Friday off so I am going to have a clear out and ebay/depop some things. I will use any money made towards the credit card. 

laurarutter89

The credit card is now down to £1,879.46. 

I am thinking i am going to break it down into chunks to make it more achievable in my mind. 

So my first step is to get it down to £1,500. In order to do this i need to pay off £379.46. How am I going to do this? Surveys, and selling items i no longer need/use. 
So far £9.14 is pending in surveys so £370.32. 

laurarutter89

I earned another £5 from Surveys which I have paid to the credit card. I know its only a small amount but it all helps. 

I am going to get as much things as I can onto Ebay this weekend, which will help in organising my wardrobe too! 

I have managed to save an emergency fund, which I have moved to an easy access account which is currently at £1,045.93. 
I know I could use this to Clear a big chunk of the credit card but thats 0% for another 14 months, and the savings are making 1.2% so I am not going too. 

My car insurance is due this month and think i will have enough left before payday to pay it in full, just means I cannot pay much extra to debt or savings. 

I have another £8 pending on surveys so once that comes through i will pay that to MBNA aswell. 

laurarutter89

MBNA Credit card update: £1,874.46
To reach my first goal of getting it down to £1500 I need to pay: £374.46. 

2 weeks tomorrow is payday, I am working to have some money left to be able to make a payment to the credit card.

I have £2.50 from surveys but have to wait for it to reach £5 before being able to claim the funds. 

Also still waiting for a refund from tickets of cancelled concert and also a refund from my cancelled holiday. 

laurarutter89

I cant believe it but my 1st Wedding anniversary is already creeping up (6th June) and im thinking I may be organised and sort it now so I can look for good deals. 

I have ordered the card already but need to sort out the gifts. 1st anniversary i believe is paper which does not help at all with what to get my husband.

Any ideas are welcomed! 

FOMO_overspender

Hello @laurarutter89, just been reading your diary and sounds like you’re doing amazing! It’s so inspiring to read. Which surveys are you doing? Is it all Prolific? My next thing is to try and do more to bring in small amounts here and there to pay of little chunks of debt. Be great if you have any tips on the best ones? 

With your anniversary could you do something special with photos from milestone moments? I just got the FreePrints app where you can get a number of free photos every month sent in the post?! Just an idea?
ps) Congrats!