Debt Free by '23

Sarahwithlove

MidsHollie said:

Sarahwithlove said:

WEll done on your journey so far. It seems like you have a plan and are sticking to it fairly well. Good luck.

Thanks Sarah.

I sold some things on ebay over the weekend so sent another £25 to the debt. My CC balance in now under £500, which is great to see. I'm amazed at how quickly it has come down. I'm trying to be frugal but few things working against me this week. Trying my best to mitigate for this with surveys, mystery shopping etc.
When I look at the whole of my debt pay off, I have paid off more already this month than last month (by £6!). I'm still feeling motivated, although challenged by getting the right balance of a life vs no life. I think I'm getting it about right. I'm really seeing the results of the consistent effort too - it's actually quite fun!

Sometimes life gets in the way and if that means you can't pay off as much this month that's ok. It's making unnecessary purchases that aren't great but it sounds like you aren't doing this so well done. I've given myself a slightly higher spends budget then probably needed but this seems to help keep me on track and make me think about what I really want. 

MidsHollie

Just over halfway through the month. I'm doing well with regards to debt payoff this month. £1214.73 this month, and I should have another £35 from a minimum payment and a mystery shop to add to that figure too. This will be an increase on each previous month too which is great. I'm not doing so well on the spends this month though. I've already spent more on groceries than the last two months, and a lot of this has been on unnecessary additions and a little bit of food waste too. I've already reached my eating out budget too. I knew I would struggle this month, but the day I was particularly worried about actually wasn't too spendy in the end! I did put a bit extra in to my groceries / fuel / eating out fund this month for the anticipated extras,though so have enough to get me through. 
For the rest of the month I really need to meal plan and ONLY buy the grocery necessities! If I save £23 from my groceries & fuel budget by the end of the month then I will be able to get my CC to below £400 by the end of the month. That would mean that as soon as I get paid at the end of the month,I'll be rid of the halifax card and snowballing on to the Virgin card. This is easily doable, if I'm not greedy and impulsive!

MidsHollie

I've just done my end of the month round up, and at some point I need to do the tricky job of my budget for next month - it really will be a tricky month in March, so I'm not expecting much debt pay off until the end of the month. So, here are my February totals:
Extra Income Earnt: £147.75
Debt Pay Off: £1321.92
Spends:
Groceries: £209.66 (Jan £144.54, Dec £140.12)
Fuel: £140.44 (Jan £94.36, Dec £176.58)
Eating Out: £73.65 (Jan £51.12, Dec £99.51)
Entertainment: £17 (Jan £27.50, Dec £30)
Other: £23.88 (Jan £68.45, Dec £119.32)

I thought I had spent a lot more that I actually have. I'm over budget on groceries which I know is due to poor planning. But I do still have some items in the freezer - probably about a weeks worth of main meals. Fuel is high, but I have almost 3/4 of a tank still. I probably regret about £20 of my eating out spend. The rest was as cheap as possible and worth it for the company that I enjoyed too.
My extra income was lower than last month but that's ok. I haven't had that much time to do my little side hustle. I've done quite well through ebay this month and kept ticking along with mystery shopping and surveys.
Meal planning and prepping is a really important way for me to eat healthy food and keep costs down. I need to focus on that more in March. I'm also planning to make the most of the current account switching offers. I won't switch my main current account but will switch a secondary one and try and get all the available offers. I'm still adding to my emergency fund, and saving up for annual expenses. Some big annual expenses are due in March so I will try and get those as cheap as possible and use cashback sites where I can. 

Hope everyoneelse is getting on well. Here is to a money saving March

MidsHollie

MidsHollie said:

The card that I am working on at the moment is now under the £600 mark. That's down from £1893.04 when I started out! I'll get that paid off on my next pay day, and that will mean that my debt will be less than £29999 too!

I said this at the start of Feb. As March is going to be a frighteningly expensive month for me, I haven't paid as much as I would like from the credit card as I'm basically hoarding cash right now! The CC is now down to £200 which is a great feeling. And in total, my debt now has a 2 at the front of it! Whoop whoop! £29924 is still a lot, but feels a lot better than £32934. I've paid off over 9%. I'd origionally set a goal for paying off 25% of my debt this year, but it looks like I should be able to get further than that. Maybe even 36%. I'm hoping that at the end of this month I'll be able to pay off a little more and then from April payday onwards, payoff larger chunks again. I should have more money but I'm yet to see what my budget actually looks like on paper. 
I'm going to keep an eye out for mystery shopping this month, as the odd £5 and £10's really do add up for not a lot of effort. I've done some batch cooking, so should be ok for groceries for most of this week, and I will need to plan something to batch cook for next week - I might prep this week and freeze it. 

MidsHollie

I've been pretty quiet here this month. I haven't fallen off the wagon, but I haven't been great at tracking my spending or sticking to my budget. I will catch up on my spending diary this week and see where I am at. I have had a lot of annual expenses this month (car service and MOT, insurance and a couple of other things), so debt has not been a priority. I put my car insurance and service on a credit card, only to have a cash buffer as I might need it this month. I have found out though that I am getting a large refund for some fees that I wont be using this year. The refund more than covers my big expenses, and I'll have some left over for debt repayments, as well as the cash buffer which will also go to the debt. 
I've paid a chunk off my CC today. Once my recent payments to that have settled, I should have about £4 left to pay. I will do that over the next couple of days which will mean that I will have struck my 4 smallest debts from my debt snowball, and leaving my 3 biggest! Ah well, onwards and upwards!

MidsHollie

Whoop Whoop, another debt paid off! I just ned to call them up and close down that card. So here is a status update as  I was at the start of January:
Barc balance £100 - paid off first, now £0
V12 balance £267 - paid second, now £0
HFax balance £1893 - paid third, now £0
Virgin balance £2375 - now £2325
Car Loan balance £8800 - now £7900
Family Loan £19500 - still £19500
So, total debt was £32934.53 and is now £29724.30 - over £3210 paid off. I've mainly managed this through strict budgeting, limiting frivolous spending, meal prepping and making extra money. I'm hoping for another £500 to be paid off before my next pay day, which relates to the refund I mentioned in my previous post. Hopefully COVID-19 won't impact negatively on my finances.....

FootyFanDan

Yay to another debt being paid off! Go you.

You have made amazing progress. How are you finding meal prepping? You will be smashing that family loan before you even think about it

MidsHollie

FootyFanDan said:

Yay to another debt being paid off! Go you.

You have made amazing progress. How are you finding meal prepping? You will be smashing that family loan before you even think about it

Thanks Dan! Sorry, I haven't been keeping up to date with the diaries of others recently - I'm sure with Corona lockdown I'll have sometime! Hope you are doing well too. 
I love meal prepping! I'm inherently lazy, so the fact that I just have to microwave something when I get in is wonderful! I'm going to try and make a different thing each week and start adding stuff to the freezer so that I can have a variety. I do find that some things can get a bot watery in the freezer though. And I'm trying to eat less meat, so still working out some good batch cooking recipes with this in mind. I have lasagne this week. Do you ever meal prep? If so, any recommended recipes?

FootyFanDan

I catch up when I can now as well, I will possibly have a spell working from home so we shall see...I am not sure my work knows what the plan is. I would love to be as organised to be able to meal plan, I do tend to bulk cook a fair bit mainly mince/bolognaise sauces. I then have this with pasta/spaghetti. I also love chilli. I tend to have chilli/curry a fair bit when working nights at work but find reheating pasta a bit hit and miss so normally have rice or chicken. Meal planning is something I have stepped up but still needs work. I think once this virus thing passes (however long that will take) I am going to look at best ways to be doing this. I do like overnight oats for a quick breakfast with protein in it but not ideal weather yet hehe. 

I think the key to me meal prepping is I think I would get bored of eating the same things but I dunno I am doing okay but could be a lot better. 

southern_chick

Just read through your diary and you’re doing really well. Wanted to give you some ideas for batch cooking please feel free to ignore them as they generally include meat!  I usually spend one day every few months cooking and filling the freezer then have home made ready meals which I cook rice or pasta to go with.  I freeze it in single potions. I don’t always remember to mark on the tub what’s in it so it’s sometimes pot luck but as I only cook what I like it doesn’t really matter!  A lot of these are slimming world dishes with the recipe being on line
Chicken curry, this could be made as a veggie dish
beef in red wine sauce I cheat with this and use a ready made sauce
veg bolognaise this is great for getting in way more than your 5 a day and freezes really well
mince bolognaise 
beef stroganoff 
pork stroganoff
chicken and bacon stir fry with mushrooms and lemon juice and tarragon sounds awful but it’s  really nice!
Chicken pasta bake
if you can have at least 7 different dishes in the freezer you’ve got something different for every night of the week so you won’t get bored with what you eat.  As long as it is heated up properly is it fine.   Hope you find some things you like xx