Turning Debt Darkness Into Power

DarknessIntoPower

Nearing payday and still haven't touched the savings account, hooray! Got 20 hours of overtime over Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week so that brings me to a pretty nice total of 22 hours this week. Still waiting on easyJet to refund me, and my credit score has gone down because of a Barclays debt being sold on to a DCA, which is a bit terrifying but I'm over 18 months into my DMP and nothing catastrophic has happened yet. 

Struggling more than usual with my mental health because of the current situation, but I'm hoping to keep plodding along and am trying my absolute hardest to not get too worked up. 

DarknessIntoPower

So far this month (payday to payday):
Income: 1468
(Salary 1232, rest from surveys and birthday gifts)
Saved: 227
(Goal was 500 minimum, but did not reach due to getting birthday treats)
Shopping: 519
(Mostly household electricals, with around £150 on treats because of birthday)
Bills: 377
(Under budget)
Entertainment: 151
(In relation to self employment, bills which were due last month but paid late due to Covid)
Groceries: 84
(Under budget)
Eating Out: 55
(Birthday)

Not long until payday now, I have some expenses next month which relate to self employment but some may see as treats, I've written a list though so just need to stick to it. Going to try and reduce eating out and groceries to £100 combined. All overtime pay to go straight into savings, as well as round ups and any extra made through surveys etc. I have massively run out of food so need to go shopping today, I only have a few pounds to spend though so this month's total is likely to stay as above plus £3.80 ish. I also intend to put the money I would have spent on commuting straight into savings. 

The big goal for the coming month is to have over £1000 total in the savings pot, this means being frugal, and looking at the Boost Your Income and Challenges forums for inspiration. Eek! Wish me luck 😁

DarknessIntoPower

Bit of a payday fail. Just over £650 in the savings pot now, I was naughty yesterday as felt a bit down so ordered a Deliveroo, regretted it immediately and felt sick after eating it. Hoping for the easyJet refund soon and then back to the 50/50 rule of half in savings half to spend, stops me from dipping into the pot that way.

My goal is still to have over £1000 in the savings pot bym next payday, that's about £100 a week which is obviously a lot, but something to aim for, so I'm going to spend some time looking at different forum posts today to gain inspiration. 

At the moment I am making extra money from the following:
-overtime
-qmee
-opinion outpost
-depop
-online self employment
-cashback

Must have a clear out soon to list more items on my Depop, as I've only got one thing on there right now.

DarknessIntoPower

Listed a good few items on Depop yesterday, trying to do a few at a time when I have the energy. Already sold one and got just under £5 after Depop fees, so that's £655 in savings now. Still waiting for the easyJet refund so going to pop a reminder in my calendar to chase it up if they don't respond within SLA. 

DarknessIntoPower

Managed to pop a few pounds into the savings account, not a lot but it all adds up. Need to stop wasting money on junk food, I have a couple of bits to return that don't fit, so that should be a £12 ish refund, plus the money I'm still waiting on from easyJet. £1.23 in the Qmee account and 10 points away from the payout limit on Opinion Outpost. Today I must really focus on uploading more items to Depop as I've had some interest in items I've not yet listed.

Doris17

@DarknessIntoPower you are doing amazingly well, good luck with reaching you saving goal by next pay day.

DarknessIntoPower

Bit of a slow week as I've just been working as well as doing some learning related things. I should finish that by Wednesday next week so I really must go full throttle until then. My plan is to pop to the shops tomorrow afternoon and pick up some essentials (milk, cereal, etc.) And then hunker down until next Friday. I'd also like to pop to the post office next week to send some things back and post out some Depop items. Though with my current urgent to do list items focused on study, I'm trying to ban myself from getting distracted by other more pleasing things to do. That gives me a goal of having no spend days today, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, though we'll soon see how that works out! Not many surveys right now, so I need to pop some bits on Depop on Thursday in hopes of making some extra cash.

Doris17

DarknessIntoPower said:

Bit of a slow week as I've just been working as well as doing some learning related things. I should finish that by Wednesday next week so I really must go full throttle until then. My plan is to pop to the shops tomorrow afternoon and pick up some essentials (milk, cereal, etc.) And then hunker down until next Friday. I'd also like to pop to the post office next week to send some things back and post out some Depop items. Though with my current urgent to do list items focused on study, I'm trying to ban myself from getting distracted by other more pleasing things to do. That gives me a goal of having no spend days today, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, though we'll soon see how that works out! Not many surveys right now, so I need to pop some bits on Depop on Thursday in hopes of making some extra cash.

Good luck with finishing you studying and fingers crossed for Depop sales.

DarknessIntoPower

Fairly difficult week, as stress has meant I'm falling back into old habits with not much to show for it! So just really need to focus on using up things already in the house when it comes to food etc., as well as things like cleaning products and skincare. The savings account is not really increasing at the moment as I've not been getting many surveys at all over the past few days, gonna have to do a big push come early next month, so that I can get to my target. I'd like to reach £5000 in there as soon as possible, as that will allow me to get some essentials that I've been avoiding, as well as paying back money owed to friends, and having a healthy emergency fund. Studying has been slow so this is going to have to be another big push over the next few days. This is the final sprint to the finish line now. Have a lovely long weekend everyone, and Eid Mubarak to anyone who is celebrating.

DarknessIntoPower

I finish studying tomorrow, so this is the final push and then I shall have a lot more free time. Once I've finished everything I need to do for my studies, I intend to complete the OpenLearn courses I've signed up for, I need to update my Depop and I'm going to sell some books too. I also need to catch up with some self employment bits and just generally get my life back on track before I jump back into working my self employed role alongside my normal work again. 

We've got an awful lot of bugs in the house right now so I've had to buy some spray to get rid of those awful creatures. I'm hoping that easyJet will hurry up and refund my flight. Over the past few days I've sorted out things to sell and put them aside, I've also binned some bits as they were quite destroyed from years of wear. There's quite a few things which are new and haven't been used at all because they were duplicates of things I already had, so fingers crossed those will shift quickly.
Unfortunately I've not been feeling so great over the past few days, not very keen on warm weather.