The Last Leg; 6 years later, debt free in 2021

greensalad

Paid the £50 minimum on PayPal credit (for our new hoover purchase). I realised it's not in my signature so I should add that. Idiot me paid off the minimum one day early on the statement so I've had to pull from emergency fund to make the double payment but at least it'll mean I'm paid off a month earlier than expected.

greensalad

Actually cleaned the house for once! Amazing! I managed to convince the other half to clean the bathroom which was the last room I had left. Must start earlier next week, not at 4pm haha. It takes longer than I think. How do people with big houses keep their house clean?!

Baileys_Babe

greensalad said:
How do people with big houses keep their house clean?!

A little every day is the trick 😉

I know this works as when I do it, it is like a magic wand has been waved, but I very easily get distracted from my plans to do housework.

greensalad

Baileys_Babe said:

greensalad said:
How do people with big houses keep their house clean?!

A little every day is the trick 😉

I know this works as when I do it, it is like a magic wand has been waved, but I very easily get distracted from my plans to do housework.

I try and do that but it seems to only keep the surface level clean, I'm getting better at keeping on track though of doing a deep clean each week so the house stays looking nicer for longer.

greensalad

Just picked my last cabbage crop! I tried freezing half last time (it's two meals worth per cabbage) but it just doesn't keep. So hoping to have the rest tomorrow.

I really wish I had a much bigger vegetable patch. Growing four cabbages is no way near enough to sustain us haha. But it would be nice to have a patch big enough for more like 10-15 cabbages as that is plenty of meals.

greensalad

Been without the internet for two day! Ugh! Finally fixed and we're back online. The wires at the box in our eaves had frayed away. Luckily we have an upgraded type of internet so we got next-day engineers called out. 

Unfortunately I had to spend £12.99 on buying additional data so I could attend some really important meetings through work, so that's annoying but couldn't really be avoided.

Back to it now though!

greensalad

Credit card statement in, so can pay off my set-aside amount. Now down to £1,538.16! Excited how low this is now, should be all gone by January. 81.9% paid off now. 

I find out if I get a bonus next week. Fingers crossed! Never had one before (a boss years ago gave me £40 in an envelope once at Christmas so I guess that sort of counts) but this one, if 100% of the pot, is a full month's salary.

I used up loads of green tomatoes today to make green tomato salsa, it's delicious! I made 6 small jars.

Also today I wrote a list of things I want to buy between now and the end of the year. I thought if I had a list, I might be better at not spending money so easily when it comes to payday. So this is my list:

- New phone case and pay to get my screen repaired. Seeing as my contract runs out in March next year I won't be getting a new one, I'll be carrying on and getting myself a cheap downgraded sim. I've convinced OH to do the same too. And promised when we buy a house we can get new fancy phones! So in that case I'd like to spend some money on making the screen good again. I think my excess is £50 but I need to check

- Cream jersey fabric to make a loungewear set. I've just completed a set in black and I can't stop wearing it so I'm going to make another. At the moment when it has to go in the wash I begrudge wearing anything else!

- Small haberdashery items to complete projects I already have fabric for. Elastics, buttons etc if I don't have anything appropriate. That way I can carry on with my hobby without buying new fabric which tends to be the expensive part.

- Lanolips lip balm. It's expensive (£15) but it's a big tube and genuinely the only thing that works for my chapped lips. Plus a tube lasts me 6 months by the looks of when I last ordered.

- Plant lamps for my chillis! Already found the bulbs I want.

- Black wool to knit a winter cardigan

- Ken Follet's new book, as I desperately want to read it

That's it! Going to try my hardest for the next 3 months.

Kakiste

That's a good list. Chilli lamps sound exciting!
 I've stuck to having a small pot of money each month (£20) just to spend on myself so anything small i need/want can be purchased every 4/5 weeks and I can look forward to getting it and figure out what would be best to buy.
It's a little reward each month for keeping to budgets and does wonders for my morale.
This month I have bought myself a new notebook, replacement phone screen protector (as my previous one cracked) and a decent lip balm.

greensalad

Oooh, Ken Follett's new book is available on Libby! I get all my books virtually from the library, but as it's a new release I didn't think it'd be available.

I've put myself on the waitlist and it's due in 15 weeks, I'm 423rd in line. Quite a way to go but often people fall off the list and it can take less time. Plus I just checked out a bunch of books including Stephen King's The Stand which is 800 pages so will take me a week or two to read anyway. In that case I may not get around to Ken Follett's book for a while anyway. And if I desperately want to read it before then I can still buy it. 

WinterWarrior

I do like Ken Follett. I have a habit of pre ordering on Amzn and forgetting until they arrive 🙄
I used to be all about proper books, but I tried kindle and am hooked...reading in bed without hitting myself in the face with a hardback as I’m nodding off is wonderful 😬