Getting out of the vicious circle

outoftheviciouscircle

So today is payday. I’ve paid a total of £288.98 of the credit cards completely clearing one of them. There’s also £300 set to go to the other 2 credits by direct debit later on this month. Hopefully I can carry on making some extra money from surveys etc to make the debt decrease even further. 
I have put some money in all the individual accounts so I have budgeted for birthdays, Christmas, car maintenance etc.  I put a little extra in the birthday account as I have 3 birthdays coming up in the next month. I think everyone will just be money this time. I like to look at what I buy rather than buy online. 
Other plans for the day include basically not a lot!! It’s my last day off before returning to work tomorrow. Which if I’m honest I’m really looking forward to. I do however only have a week in work before I have a week off again. The holiday was prebooked and we aren’t allowed to cancel holidays as there’ll just be a build up of them later on in the year which is completely understandable. 
I may have a crafty day and make some bunting to put on the fence ready for tomorrow. I’ll have to see if I can find some felt pens.
The house could do with a clean today so I’ll see how I get on with that. 
Have a good day everyone 

savingholmes

Well done on clearing a whole CC. How many are you down to now? What's your next target?

outoftheviciouscircle

savingholmes said:

Well done on clearing a whole CC. How many are you down to now? What's your next target?

I have 3 left. One with about £1000 and 2 with £3000 each on them. They are all at 0% for at least 20 months so at the moment I’m ensuring I pay at least enough each month to ensure I clear them within the 20 months. I am however throwing more money at the £1000 balance from surveys, selling etc in the hope of clearing that sooner and moving onto the next. Fingers crossed I stick to it!!

outoftheviciouscircle

So today was my first day back in work after 2 weeks isolation. The shop was so busy. There’s been a constant flow of customers all day and I was exhausted 4 hours into my 10 hour day. 

Not a lot to report today. I had £5 on a winning scratch card. I never buy the things but my sister always put one in my birthday card. It was over a month ago but we haven’t been paying out lottery winning in work so I waited till today to claim it. That’s straight if the credit card. 

I cashed out £5 from Vpfr yesterday. It takes quite a while to get there but it’s not hard work so I tend to preserve with that. I also found prolific from some of the debt free challenges. Why have I not signed up to this sooner. Never screened out and reasonably paid to. I already have £4.03 on payable with another £8 something awaiting review. 

It’s a beautiful day today. I haven’t realised shut in my little shop how hot it is today. I’m now sat in my garden with a glass of wine, smelling all the beautiful bbqs that are going on in the street. 

Wales announced another 3 weeks locked down today. However it doesn’t really feel like anyone is listening at the moment. Never mind for another 3 weeks. I used that site to see how many cases of covid there were in the postcode I work in. With it being in Cardiff I expected it to be quite high but there have only been 3 confirmed cases so that makes me feel a lot more at ease. 

Hope everyone’s having a good day.

outoftheviciouscircle

So I haven’t updated for a few days.  Been back in work since Friday and it’s been a crazy few days. One of my colleagues has tested positive for the virus and while I haven’t been in contact with him, plenty of my colleagues who have, Ive been in contact with too so it’s quite worrying times. 

Debt wise, I’ve just withdrawn £6.03 from prolific. Don’t seem to have had many surveys over the weekend though. Not sure if that’s due to the bank holiday. 

I have a day off tomorrow so hoping to get a few bits and bobs done. 

savingholmes

Hope your colleague recovers quickly and that it hasn't spread to your other friends or you. I had to nip into work today and went in wearing a mask and gloves. I was the only one like that but hey I need to stay safe for me and mine - what they do is upto them.

outoftheviciouscircle

I have been so bad at updating my diary since I went back to work. Luckily my colleagues tested negative for covid so it seems that it hasn’t managed to spread its way around the workplace which is a massive relief. 

Money wise, I’m not doing so well and am coming really close to spending my monthly budget on groceries. I really need to spend more time looking at exactly what we are buying as we really do spend too much for just the 2 of us. I tried shopping in Lidl on Thursday, however there was absolutely no crowd control and the entire experience caused me anxiety so I’ll be giving it a miss for a while. 

I have another week off work this week, so I think I’ll go right through the cupboards and make a plan. I’m getting so sick of eating the same things over and over again. I need to find some new recipes really. DH is really fussy which doesn’t help though. I’ll also use this week to try and do as many surveys as I can. I’m really impressed with prolific. 2 weeks in and I’ve made £15 with no effort at all.
Hope everyone is well. We have had no change to lockdown in Wales really so there’s not a lot I can do on my week off, so at least it’ll be a thrifty week.

savingholmes

Make the most of being thrifty and lower bills. We have more freedom in England but I'm not using it -  I'd rather be safe.

outoftheviciouscircle

I can't believe I was so bad at keeping up with my diary. I suppose I could make excuses like covid ruined my plans and life got in the way but the truth of the matter is myself and DH just don't know when to stop.

I've looked back on my opening post on this diary only 18 months ago and I was worried about £7k of debt. Today after adding it all up, I have 14k. Doubled in 18 months!!!!

Yes we have a shiny new car, a lovely landscaped garden and who knows what else but the future frightens me. I'm now 40 years old with 30 years left on my mortgage. I was hoping to be tackling knocking that down by now not still paying off debt after debt.

So today, I commit to doing everything I can to get rid of this big black cloud hanging over us. I have joined a few challenges, set some of my own and I WILL sort it out once and for all.

I notice that the boards are very quiet at the moment. I hoping thats a sign that everyone is in a better position than me.

outoftheviciouscircle

Ive sat here for hours today and made over £20 in surveys. Perk of a week off work I suppose, there's no way this can be a daily thing.
I have a few other things planned to get debt busting. I'll share these over the next couple of days but all in all I'm feeling positive about the future.