misstara's debt diary 2020

beanielou

A wee plan is always good.
Take care of you x

misstara

Thanks beanie

I've updated YNAB so now have a clearer picture of what's happening with my money.  I've been making an effort to keep my receipts and update it every couple of days to keep on top of it.  

My credit card balance was £2972.68, now £2867.61 - £100 regular direct debit plus £5.07 from surveys.  While checking my credit card balance, I discovered that last month's interest was almost £50!! So I applied for another card which is 0% on balance transfers for 16 months with no transfer fee.  That should be with me by the end of the week.

I've been trying to do some surveys every day on prolific academia and anything I make will go towards the credit card.

Not much else to report, I've been doing a bit of Christmas shopping and am meeting a friend today for a coffee.

misstara

Credit card is now sitting at £2908.40 £50.92 was added on for interest and I paid £10.13 to it from surveys. My new balance transfer card finally showed up today but I can't manage to register for online banking to do the balance transfer so will need to look more at this tomorrow.

Unexpected spend of £82 on new glasses last week, my prescription hasn't changed for at least 10 years so really wasn't expecting to have to get new glasses.  I pick them up this Friday.

Other than that, spends have been on Christmas shopping and food.  I've been food shopping every day due to not being able to drive or lift anything heavy which is not good for the budget but at least gets me out for a daily walk.  I started driving again yesterday so do a bigger shop tomorrow or Thursday as well as getting in the food for Christmas day.

Had a really good chat with OH earlier about goals for the future and have plenty to think about/start planning.

Sarahwithlove

welcome back! its so easy for finances to go astray if we dont keep on top of them I am guilty of the same thing. I am glad that OH is on board now it will make a big difference to your goals. 

misstara

Thanks Sarah

Happy Christmas Eve everyone.  My plan for today is to visit my gran while OH goes into town to get some last minute bits.  Glad I don't have anything left to get as I imagine it will be very busy.

I managed to get registered for online banking and did the balance transfer for the new credit card but very stupidly forgot I'd already set up the balance transfer when I applied for the card so it's now been done twice.  Have contacted them to reverse one but not sure how long it will take.  I've got £7.11 to cash out from surveys so will pay that to the credit card once I get it.

I picked up my new glasses yesterday and wow what a difference.  Have booked in for a contact lens check in a few weeks time as I guess I will need a new prescription for those too.

Earlier in the week, I popped into work to say hello to everyone which was lovely.  I also had a chat with my manager and agreed a date to return to work (2nd week in January).  We've agreed to a phased return although I need to speak to occ health to get this formally approved.  I'm looking forward to going back to work, I'm not someone who does well with lots of free time and I'm beginning to feel a bit bored.  

enthusiasticsaver

Good to see you posting again and getting a BT card is good to avoid the CC interest. Hope the return to work goes ok and sorry you have had health issues. Difficult to think about money management if you are worrying about your health. 

misstara

Thanks enthusiasticsaver. 

Me and OH had a lovely Christmas, very relaxed and lots of food 😊.  I got a nice planner as a present so hoping to use that to organise my life!

In between Christmas and New Year, I headed down to stay with my parents.  It was lovely but very busy as both my siblings were also home and combined have 4 kids under 3.  I travelled back up yesterday to spend Hogmanay with OH although ended up falling asleep before the bells.

Money wise, I got paid on Thursday so have moved various bits to savings.  I added £200 to the car fund, £200 to the flat deposit fund and £50 to the emergency fund.  I need to update my signature although it didn't work last time I tried.  I'm trying to focus on building up the car fund first as I know the car tax is due in April.  

I still haven't heard anything from the bank about the 2 balance transfers and it's still showing online but hopefully that will get sorted soon.  I paid the £7.11 survey money over to the credit card and have set aside £200 to go towards the credit card this month.  I'll try to keep doing surveys to add to this.

My financial goals for this year are to get the credit card to under £1000, get the car and emergency funds to £1000 and have £4000 in the flat deposit fund.

Other non-financial goals are to have a better work/life balance, cook proper meals and declutter the flat.  Part of the work/life balance is to generally do more with my time off work as because I didn't feel well for a lot of 2022, I felt too tired to do anything on my days off.  Hopefully once I've fully recovered from the operation, I'll have a lot more energy and can plan outings/activities with OH.  We'll obviously look for free/low cost things to fit in with the financial goals.

Right I better go and get the beef in the slow cooker for steak pie later.  Happy New Year everyone!

in_need_of_direction

Looking forward to seeing you chip away at those goals.  Happy new year miss T

misstara

Thanks INOD, a happy new year to you too 😊

We went for a walk this morning but only a quick one as it was pretty drizzly.  Popped into the small shop near us to get OH some throat sweets (£5.70 which was the only option!!) and some orange juice as he woke up feeling not great today.  We also got some reduced price bakery items which I have stashed in the freezer and some crackers for lunch today.  Total spend was £11.04.

misstara

OH was feeling worse today so he stayed home while I went out for a walk.  Beautiful day so I did a long walk along the beach, everyone else seemed to have the same idea as it was mobbed.

A NSD today, won't be tomorrow as need to pop to get some things from the shop but will do a meal plan first.

Need to try and keep costs down as much as possible.  I usually do a lot of overtime which adds £700-£1000 per month to my pay.  The overtime is paid a month in arrears so my December pay was fine but due to being off sick, my January pay will just be basic pay.  I won't be able to do any/much overtime for the next few months until I'm fully recovered.  We should be ok as long as we are careful with spends but probably won't be able to add all that much to savings.