Sorting out the mess 'past me' got me in to, for a happier 'future me'

FOMO_overspender

Oops not posted for a while! 

Managed to do more surveys and cashed out £6, which has gone straight to the loan and then another £17 pending which will also go straight to the loan, too. Food budget working out well and currently under budget with food planned and being delivered up until the end of the month. 

Had a bit of a spendy weekend as ventured for dinner with a friend for her birthday on Sat. Trying to make sure I don't undo all of the hard work and, thankfully, budgeted for the night, so didn't feel tempted to put on a credit card or add to my debt. However, it's already showing how much of a difference to paying down the debt a few meals out a month will make in the future! I definitely need to be more realistic with my 'eating out' budget for August. 

In non-money terms, managing to do at least 3 runs as a week and also get out for a walk most days! Really started to notice the difference from all the working from home with how my clothes were fitting!! 

Hope everyone had a nice weekend and has a lovely week.

FOMO_overspender

Weekly update from me! 

Managed to make two more overpayments to the loan, one due to the reward payment on my debit card (£5) and another from cashing out on surveys (£11.50), also have another £14.50 pending as well. That takes me to a total overpayment of £143.32 this month - all really without noticing it! 

Have totally lost track of my NSDs. I find that by using YNAB I am concentrating more on being within budget for every category than trying for max number of NSDs. Might need to re look at this next month and see if can up the number. 

Hope everyone has a nice week! 

EchoB

Awesome progress made :-) I need some of your motivation! 

FOMO_overspender

Thanks @EchoB😊 
I feel like it is becoming habit now to try and send every little win to the loan. The amount is slowly coming down and currently still on track to pay off the whole loan by December 2022, which feels far away but is 2 years earlier than the original loan period, so should also see some reduction on the interest I pay too. 

dfwprincess

Woo well done on how much you’ve got rid of some far it isn’t amazing to see the figures go down!

FOMO_overspender

Thank you @dfwprincess I feel so much happier seeing the numbers go down instead of up (which was the case before). 
Had a NSD yesterday and also cashed out £6.65 from PA so paid that to the loan, so a total of £149.95 overpaid on the loan now! 

FOMO_overspender

Oh god, had an absolute shocker. Dropped my phone walking home last night and it has died (RIP), so a trip to the phone shop this morning to replace it before I go away tomorrow, not ideal at all. £100 charge to upgrade early (!!!!) and then more expensive contract etc, so I am super annoyed as I planned to reduce to a sim only after this contract finished to reduce my cost right down. Oh well, what can you do?! Sod's law. Thankfully, have built up enough of an Emergency Fund to cover the upfront charge - so that's something! I also decided to opt for the insurance, so next time I don't need to upgrade/panic.

Pay day tomorrow, so will update on figures. Definitely need to put more in the 'Eating out' category this month!! 

FOMO_overspender

So been a while since I posted as ended up going away with my family to France and decided to be totally offline and it was heaven! Still feeling v annoyed about the phone situation BUT at least I do have a small Emergency Fund for such a disaster, so that was a small blessing, at the very least.

Ok, so my (late) August update is: 

Virgin CC:

• Paid £100 off, new total is £2,100

• Still on track to pay off before 0% rate ends 

Loan: 

• Current total is £18,400 - managed to do lots of overpayments by chipping away with little & often £s here and there 

Savings & Pots: 

• Emergency Fund: £375 at the moment (added £125) but that will go down as my phone debacle cost will come out next month
• Help to Buy ISA: £150 
• Xmas fund: £184.50 - on track for £500 by Xmas and even saw a Xmas pressie whilst in France for a bargain £3 (some nice Gin glasses, which was a result) 

New debt total: £20,500 🥳  
New % of my total paid off: 22% 🥳 

I cannot wait to breakthrough the £20k point in September and can't quite believe I have paid off over 20%!!! 

Definitely noticing increases in spending in my Eating Out category, so going to work on bringing that a little down and being realistic with allocating money towards it for September. I also have a slightly more expensive phone contract, so will need to account for that. 

Now I am back, the next thing is to cut groceries and eat all the food I have in the freezer and cupboards before buying anything new. Managed to build up lots of meals in the freezer from leftover HelloFresh boxes, so got at least a week's worth of meals to eat. 

I have also decided I want a heated clothes airer for the winter, so a new category on the budget has gone in for that! Going to put a little away each month to buy one when Winter arrives. Very un-me to be so prepared for stuff like that!! 

FOMO_overspender

Feel like having a very un-MSE month! Have ended up eating out more than usual and definitely overspent! Although, thankfully, I haven't added to any debt or used credit cards. 
Decided as my weddings, hen dos and holidays pots are not needed until at least mid-2021 to us the £ stored in them to put towards my loan, so paid off another £220. I also cashed out £5 from surveys, so put that towards too, bringing total over payments this month to £270.
Have also sorted recycling my old phone for cash this weekend, so that should be some more ££ to go towards the debt. Also did some de-cluttering and have some bits to sell on Ebay too, so going to get everything photographed and listed ASAP. If anyone has any Ebay advice, it would be much appreciated! Last time I sold anything on there was YEARS ago. 

FOMO_overspender

Well had a first NSD in a long while - have totally got out of the habit of tracking those! Having a week of eating out of the cupboard and fridge as I have lots of frozen leftovers/batch cooked meals.
Pay day isn't until Friday, so trying to do NSDs for the rest of the week, which should be easy as there isn't anything that I need. 
Feel like August hasn't been the best in terms of spending - I have definitely spent too much on going out. So looking to September to start again.