It's time to begin.....

Kakiste

Going to go geocashing with my daughter in a bit. Loads on the coastal path in the village 5 mins away. 

Daughter is super excited about Christmas (already) Probably going to watch a Christmas film this afternoon. 

Been shopping yesterday (£30- but that included cat litter) Meal plan for the week is;
Sat- ﹰBrinner (breakfast for dinner) 
Sun- Steak pie and veg (going to make the pastry for that after lunch)
Mon- Meatball marinara with pasta
Tues- Quiche and salad
Wed- Texas bbq 'fakeaway'  
Thurs- Chinese veg noodles
Fri- oven pizzas

A tad repetitive menu wise but I'm knackered and carrying all of the housework atm and this will be a long week for data etc so I'm going with 'quick to make' or 'easy' for dishes this week. 

Honeysucklelou2

The wreath looks fabulous, well done.

Kakiste

I've done my finances for the month and have divvied up into my various pots. My christmas savings pot has now been broken into and I've bought approximately half of my daughter's presents. I don't have prime and deliberately keep the 'free week of prime delivery' offer all year and then buy everything in one week and then cancel it again. So I've got to figure out what i'm getting for my dad and his girlfriend, my mum and my sister and order it in the next 3 days. 

I'm being paid early as well this year (this should be the paycheck where the massive backpay is also added) on the 22nd so I'm going to transfer my normal wage into a savings pot and not touch it until Jan 1st and then pay off any extra onto debt. 

Also I've updated my signature and whilst there's steady progress in both directions I'm pleased to see that next payday will take me over the £30k repaid and under the 18k to repay line. Which means I'll start 2021 in new brackets in each direction and additionally that I will have paid off over £12k in 2020 as I owed just over £30,000 in January 2020. Woot.  

greensalad

Congrats on your progress! When did you start, just this year? It's so nice to see how much things have changed over just one year. After 2021 I'm guessing you'll be almost done? 

Kakiste

Thanks. I started in March 2019- after I sat down at the end of February and figured out that I was paying out something like £500 more a month than I was earning. I started at around £48k so I repaid £18k in that first year- but included in that was rates for the refund after my complaint to a credit card conpany and over £2k for exam marking (which sadly I didn't get anything for this year as all AQA's exams were cancelled)  

I reckon at current rates of progress (and with nothing changing) I should be down to £8k by this time next year and debt free around Easter 2022.

Aspiration

Incredible Kakiste

Honeysucklelou2

Well done, great progress Kakiste!

Kakiste

So I've had my pay confirmed. I'm getting slightly less than was promised by interim boss in July (it's a very long story) but I'm confirmed (and have the paperwork/contract to back it as getting 32k p/a. Still gives me an extra £415 every month from where I am now, additionally my back pay for Sept/Oct/Nov will mean payday on 22nd December is £3300! So I'm planning to transfer £1700 to one of my pots ready to transfer back on the 1st Jan, which leaves me with £1,600 spare. I'm going to pay £1500 off my debt and then leave the extra £100 to cover any additional Christmas costs (or to transfer to EF if none crop up)

My boss (the lovely one) also reckons that if I continue doing the extra SENCO stuff I'd taken on whilst he was off- I should be able to swing the last £2k as an additional raise in July from the parent company when they do next year's budget and said he'd support me in that. (He's suggested asking for 4k and then giving them 2k's room to argue down) 

Kakiste

Wow! I've just found out that I've won one of the 10 prizes in Tesco's "Have your big Christmas shop on us" Twitter  competition. 
I've won a £200 voucher! I've got £105 aside in pots for food for the entire month so an extra £200 is going to be awsome! Christmas dinner is going to be so good! 

joedenise

Well done @Kakiste on both the pay rise and the Tesco win; that's a nice amount to have to spend for Christmas.  I'd definitely be using that to top up my store cupboard and freezer as well as nice food for Christmas.