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

Sarahwithlove

That's great news well done it's such a big difference. Must be nice going into 2021 knowing that it's almost done 

greensalad

Sarahwithlove said:

That's great news well done it's such a big difference. Must be nice going into 2021 knowing that it's almost done 

Yes it's such a great feeling! I would've liked to have paid it off in 2020, but it'll be paid off days before my birthday so that's good enough for me

greensalad

Just found out about my pay increase. It's not a lot, but it bumps me up £28.63 a month after tax LOL

greensalad

Starting to feel Christmas coming together!

We booked an Ocado slot way back and put all our bits from a huge list in our order. We decided to print out the order today and pop to Morrisons at lunch to see if we could swap anything we can get now (dry goods or long life) and save a bit of money. We ended up swapping out for some things and saving £17! Though really the saving is bigger than this as we're getting more for our money on some products e.g where Ocado was the same price as Morrisons but for a smaller amount.

Pretty pleased with that. I've also put all our upcoming spends (e.g big Ocado shop + butchers) through YNAB so I know how much I need to set aside for my early payday.

Next year I think I would prefer to have a slightly bigger budget for Christmas to include the food shop as well, as I only saved for presents this year.

greensalad

Only 4.5 days left at work before I break up for Christmas, so excited! 

I've been cutting out sewing projects for weeks (several of which are Christmas presents), ready to get sewing soon. Also knitting a pair of socks for my grandad which are coming out quite well. I used to knit a lot and I honestly miss it. It's so easy to curl up on the sofa and watch some TV whilst doing it. Most of my hobbies involve being quite engaged so it's nice to just sit and knit. I'm going to pick up a project for myself over Christmas break I think. I bought some wool to make a big blanket scarf a few years ago so I might do that.

I had a few spendy days, I think I slipped a little bit this month, but still not gone overboard. I bought myself two new thermal tops from M&S (their Heatgen Plus tops are fantastic). I'm always cold in our house, I already had one from last year and constantly kept washing it so I could wear it immediately. Now I have 3. They are £15 each, so not too expensive.

I also bought new bedsheets which were very expensive. Basically our bedsheets are about 4 years old. I had managed to get really bad bleach staining on the bottom sheet, so I decided to dye it a dark olive green. It came out great! I dye things a lot with the Dylon machine wash and it's usually great. Except this time I forgot to do a second wash to flush the machine... the result is I managed to dye our white duvet colour and pillows the most disgusting "pissy yellow" as we've been calling it. Ughhhh. I can't explain how bad a colour it is... my boyfriend aptly named it "morning !!!!!!". I know that technically they're still functioning bed sheets but it was laughable how disgusting they looked. So took the plunge and ordered new linen ones which arrived yesterday. They are sooooo luxurious. They were £120 which is a lot but you spend a lot of time in bed, right? And they'll last us well over the next few years I think!

My phone is currently in repair for screen cracks. It's been a bit of a nightmare. It was meant to be a 24hr thing but they ended up not being able to do it and now they've said it'll be done by this weekend. Luckily we have a spare phone I've been using. My phone is only 18 months old but I guess I use it an awful lot. As I said to BF earlier this year, we've both agreed to not upgrade our handsets and go on SIM only, which I think will take my bill from about £38pm to £12. We're going to get new handsets come 2022 when we buy a house, but this is one sacrifice I've been able to convince him to make! Hence getting it repaired so it's in tiptop condition for as long as possible.

So that was my splurge for the month. 

Get paid on 22nd and am planning to completely pay off our Dyson hoover (which is on a 6 month BNPL plan thing) rather than waiting for the full term. Also plan to pay off the penultimate payment on my CC, meaning it'll only have one more payment due in January! I get paid on the 27th so it'll get paid off in full end of Jan. Soooo exciting!

enthusiasticsaver

Great your CC will be gone in January.  Just your OHs CC to go then is it? 

greensalad

enthusiasticsaver said:

Great your CC will be gone in January.  Just your OHs CC to go then is it? 

Yep! We're currently paying off enough per month to have it completed by the end of the 0% period, Feb 2022. However I've actually got it in my forecast spreadsheet that we'll fill our LISAs for 21/22 by next June, meaning £20k in house savings and LISAs maximised, and then we'll have enough to pay off the remaining balance of his by July 2021. So we'll be debt free in essence by July 2021.

I do still have student loan though, but I guess that's different. OH's student loan will be paid off in January (that's what our tax bill I talk about actually is!) and I'll be about 3 years behind him. So we'll have an extra £300 in the budget from January from his SL, and an extra £380 from my CC! 

I think at the end of all our paying-off and going on our holiday next year, we'll ramp up to setting aside about £3.5k a month. 

greensalad

Small update, I got paid in advance for a cat booking over Christmas. I was going to put it into the tax savings but instead I'm going to hold it back and use it for our Christmas food shop spend that is upcoming. It all comes out of the same lump of cash anyway at the end but just nice to have it set aside. 

I start a cat booking now that I'll be doing all the way through to 24th, and will get paid for that just after Christmas.

greensalad

Just done my cat visit and she left me an extra tenner in cash and a box of Ferrero Rocher, yum! This booking is worth £135 so she's already paying me a good amount!

Normally it'd be easy to spend but I'm going to be good and take the cash to Co-Op at the weekend and pay it in. And maybe buy a bag of my favourite crisps which are Co-Op own to have over Christmas

This evening I've been wrapping, and I'm nearly done! I seem to have a lot less gifts than normal. 

enthusiasticsaver

That is a good amount to get from cat sitting. An extra £680 each month from January is awesome. Looks like the end is in sight for you.