Learning to budget and taking control of my life.

Disney_Princess85

I was woken up at 4.30 this morning by the ginger floof (also known as Simba) who had decided to bring in a dead mouse which he was patting around the living room floor. I suppose I should be grateful it was 1. Dead and 2. He hadn't bought it up to my bedroom like my other cat once did.

Anyway, I've checked my accounts and maintenence has gone in for this month and I've sent the odd pence that were in a couple of my accouts over to my Christmas 2021 savings. It's amazing how quickly it adds up even though I'm only transferring a few bits at a time. My cheque should clear today as well and then I need to work out what I'm going to do with that. 
I've had a quick look at my prolific account and most of my money has moved out of pending, I'm just waiting on £1.02 to clear and then I can cash out.
Off to see if I can get a bit.more sleep, then  I am going to attempt my second run this morning, before DD gets back from her dad at lunch time.

Disney_Princess85

Had quite a chilled day today. I went for a run this morning, so completed run 2 of week 1 for the couch to 5k.It was still horrific but I don't hurt quite as much as I did on Monday! I have informed DD that she will be coming out with me on Friday when I do the final run, we normally do junior parkrun together on a Sunday but haven't been able to do it since March.

When I went to town the other day I used my boots points to get one of those foot peel masks, so I've sat and done that tonight. They are really gross when your feet are peeling but my feet are much nicer afterwards, they usually are really dry. I have also been catching up on surveys on the upgraded one poll site, I usually use the app, but they have recently upgraded so I've been doing some of those tonight. I quite like the one poll surveys as they are usually really short, you get less money for them but can usually complete a few quite quickly. I'm not sure I like the new site though as it seems to take quite a while to go from one question to another, once you hit submit on one answer it seems to be taking ages to load the next one. Hopefully it's just teething issues on the new site.

I still haven't worked out what I'm going to do with the £50 from HSBC, it's likely I'll put some in my LISA though and maybe just chuck the rest in my other savings account/ I'll have to have a think on that one.

Anyway off to read some more diaries as I am finding reading other peoples journeys is really helping to keep me motivated at the moment.

Disney_Princess85

So as it's the end of the year, I though I'd set some goals for next year both in terms of what I want to pay off my DMP and also what I want to save.

Current Debts:                                                                                                Target for end of 2021                                                  
DMP - £8410                                                                                                   DMP - £6000                            
Credit Card - £62                                                                                             Credit Card - £0 aim to not use
Simply be account £34.49                                                                               £0 - aim to not use.

Plan is to pay off the credit card and simply be account. My DMP has a standing order of £136 a month but I want to try and over pay this by £50 a month to take it down to £6000 by the end of next year. I've had a pay rise so that should be do able I've also stopped the payment to my parents for the car, so that money can go to the DMP to pay it down quicker.

Savings:
Help to Save -  £1200                                                                                      £1800
LISA -               £416.31                                                                                   £700
Start to Save AC - £270                                                                                   £870
Emergency Fund    £677                                                                                  £1204
This amounts are based on what I am currently paying into the accounts each month at the moment. So if I can managed the same each month in 2021 then the numbers on the right are what I should end up with. I know I could pay more money to my DMP each month but I feel so much happier having savings so that if anything does go wrong then I have something to fall back on.

So that's my plan, I'm hoping by having it up here it will help me to keep focussed and I'll have something to reflect on this time next year.

Happy New Year everyone!

Disney_Princess85

Realised this formatted terribly on my phone!, looked fine when I did it on the laptop, not seems to make no sense!

Baileys_Babe

Disney_Princess85 said:

Realised this formatted terribly on my phone!, looked fine when I did it on the laptop, not seems to make no sense!

I read it on my phone in landscape display without a problem🙂

Disney_Princess85

Ah ok. It's probably because I had it in portrait on my phone then!

Disney_Princess85

So I've had a busy couple of weeks, since going back to work and learning to deal with teaching online.

But I've managed to do my DMP review which has upped my payments slightly which has the bonus of bringing my debt free day forward.

I've also received the bonus from my help to save account, and ive sent it over to various savings accounts.  My emergency fund now has £1000 in it, and my LISA is sitting at £600. I've also paid off my simply be account and my credit card, so happy days!

Babybelles

You are doing really well. That’s not a bad start to the year at all!

Disney_Princess85

Babybelles said:

You are doing really well. That’s not a bad start to the year at all!

Thanks, I feel in a good place, finally.

SuperFrank88

Hi,

How are you getting on?