Choccy's last debt diary! Tme to stop messing and focus.

Choccygirl123

The eBay buyer was a complete nightmare, but I got the item back. So cross eBay protect scammers, but it's a lesson learnt.

Uniform is all sorted washed and ironed ready. My eldest bought herself a new bag £27 so that saved me some cash.

I'm looking forward to a very quiet (and cheap) September. Have set the budget and my main aim is to be more inventive with the meal planning. 

teafor2

Morning CG Glad you got eBay sorted. When it goes to plan it's fine but when it doesn't it's surprising how much time gets spent trying to sort something out. I ordered a personalised mug last Christmas that never arrived. I'd have just sent another one out, but the guy was a total pain in the a*se about the whole thing so we opened up a complaint on principal. 

I pulled DS's bag out of his wardrobe last night and it's got a huge hole in the pocket which I wasn't aware of so I need to buy him a new one. This is what happens in our house. I think I'm sorted then bits crop up that I'm not aware of. Hope you've had a lovely weekend. xx

Choccygirl123

Blimey definitely haven't kept up with the posting. Had manic few weeks, as I'd everyone I guess has thanks to COVID-19. I have been tracking spending and bills as normal. Still plodding on with cash trying to reduce food bill, keep teenagers focussed on exams and lose some of my lockdown 1 weight.

Need to do a summery where we're upto

Sarahwithlove

Just caught up in time for your summary it would seem. You've done so well with the ebay and selling of stuff. I wish I had your patience. I ended up giving most of mine to charity just kept a few bits that still have tags on to sell on ebay or marketplace. 

Choccygirl123

01/12/2021 a shiny new year full of potential!

Thanks for popping by Sarah. Online selling is just draining, but after clearing my credit card in the summer and paying for Christmas with cash made this year I've got a new motivation to make £1000 for Xmas 2021.

After closing last year's pot, I've made £5 selling item on FB and £13.10 profit after fees on the Bay. I've just cashed in £15s worth of Amazon vouchers from two receipt tracking apps. It's not a lot but it's a start £33.10/£1000

Back to work Monday covid permitting. Going to pack Christmas away this weekend and get house blitzed before starting sorting, decluttering and selling again. 

New year, fresh start and I'm determined to get rid of this debt once and for all. It's been fluctuating for years annoyingly. The positive is that we owe less than we did last year, but it should be a lot less! We had to replace the boiler and quite a lot of radiators in the rental at the end of October. Rather than emptying our savings, we took a larger loan and cleared the smaller Zopa one. Not ideal I know, so now the mission is to clear it ASAP.

We've still got our EF £1200 and due to our holiday being cancelled £2350 (which I'm shoving into a regular saver £300 month 2.75%)

The debt currently stands at 

Zopa £8783.14 
halifax loan £7568.36
Total balance o/s today £16358.50 

That's another waffle for now. My head is a bit tender after too much fizz last night!

Choccygirl123

The cash making for 2021 is going well - another £25 sale on FB item collected!

FB Sales £30

Ebay £13.10

Receipt scans £15

Supermarket coupons £3.50 printed off £2 & £1.50

Total £61.60 / £1000

beanielou

Have a positive 2021 

Choccygirl123

beanielou said:

Have a positive 2021 

Thanks Beanielou, you too!

Choccygirl123

Spending update ZERO No Spend Days in Jan -  not the best start! However, all spending is in the monthly budget.

Budgets

Misc -  £16.97 spent /£200

Food -  £109.66 spent / £400

Fuel -   £0 spent / £50

My plan for the NY is to limit the visits to the shops to help with sticking within the shopping budget. Have mentioned this numerous times, but never really changed hubbies habit of just popping in. If we don't go in, we can't buy anything! Think the new tier system is helping to support my idea. We both hate going out in public now! 

Spent New Year's Day just playing board games after walking the dog, cooking and generally recovering from a bit of a sore head. Cooked a leg of lamb, but realised at the last minute didn't have any mint sauce. Monster fail, which resulted in a trip to the shop. Did manage a in/out only buying dried mint £1.99 (ouch) Won't forget mint sauce again at that price! In the evening we sat and decided to get out geochaching more.  I did treat us to 2 new  travel bugs and a new cache to hide on ebay. Was a total spend of £16.97, but figure it's a good investment during tier 4 lockdown. It's something that'll get us out and about locally over coming weeks and it encourages family time. This come out of our Misc budget - which is anything that arises that've we've not budgeted for. Covers unexpected house purchases like the new microwave we had to buy at the end of Nov and takeways or treats for teenagers.I think it was money well spent, so don't feel guilty.

Today there's been no pressure to do anyhing today and it feels fab. Hubby and I took the dog our for a 4.5 miles walk and i feel great. Have lost a bit of the weight i gained over Christmas too.  Had to nip to the shop on the walk for bread, milk, eggs and kit kats for the teenagers. Spent £5.49. We did huge shop on 30th Dec out of this month's budget and won't go back to Aldi until next Saturday. I did buy 4 of their slimming curries as a treat. Cost £1.99 each and I'll cook our own rice. Not cheap at just under £8, but it's definately better than the indian - saving calories as well as cash.

Choccygirl123

Celebrating my first NSD on 2021 - 1/31 yay! 

Another housey day getting house back to normal. Have done huge pan of vegetable sauce and a lamb hot pot for tonight abd tomorrow. Will freeze the spare so I can enjoy a  couple of no cook nights next week.

Seem to be getting the hang meal planning at last! Only 6 days to next official shopping day, just hope teenagers stay out the fridge whilst I'm back to work! Have bought cheap savoury rice and noodles for them. They're both really good and will make them for each other. My worry is the cold meat won't last for sandwiches. Hubby and I back on slimming world so he's nibbling protein! Have boiled 6 eggs in the hope they keep him
mumching. Do have tinned tuna, but find hubby uses a full tin for one pitta!

Trying to empty my ironing basket today, so ironing in short bursts. Have a stack of things to put away, just need to bribe the family to do their own.

looking forward to 90% of years DDs flying out tomorrow. My extra payment on the Halifax loan has cleared so that's £120 closer to our DFD.