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

WinterWarrior

I have 6 indoor cats so sadly know all about scooping poo on a daily basis...I feel your pain 😬 (and how do they manage to stand in the large boxes and still dump over the edge? 🙄
great news about the Facebook sale. I am just dipping my toe into eBay...I was quite shocked at the charges, by the time you’ve paid everyone there’s hardly anything left! On the other hand I really do need to make some room and declutter things I never use, so....

greensalad

It's definitely worth it once you get in the swing of eBay. I sell things quite often and I always pay extra (and pass the cost on) for Hermes to come and collect the parcel from my doorstep, which means I really only need to snap a photograph and then bag up and label it, rather than shlepping to the post office. 

greensalad

So we finally have dates for our second holiday of next year. Ooop, I do feel bad having two trips next year especially with money saving but corona really mucked up all our plans. 

We were supposed to be going to Tuscany with friends this autumn but (this was actually mucked up pre-corona) my friend found out she was pregnant so we postponed. We have an apartment in the mountains outside Florence for 6 of us for £167.50pp for a whole week! She won it in a silent auction last year and invited us. Obviously we now have the addition of a baby in the group which will be a one year old by next October 2021 when we've decided to go.

Still it's so cheap, and we have plenty of time to save between now and then. Because the cost for accommodation is so cheap, and we have enough points to convert to Avios to get our flights free (less taxes), and we have so much time to save we are thinking of going to Rome just the two of us for three days before and then catching a train to Florence to meet our friends. 

I've paid her the first £50 of the accommodation today and just need to pay the other £117 next month and then I have all the rest of that time to plan and save. 

These two will definitely be the last holidays we have for a long time, at least until we buy a house!

greensalad

Got a payment of £85.48 from our pet insurers for when we had to take the cat to the vets in April. That spend has already been paid off the card it was put on, so putting it towards debt.

Now that our house fund goal for the month is full, and my Virgin CC goal for the month is full, I've been able to put it towards my boyfriend's MBNA goal. It's still lacking behind what we'd like to put in it but it does help. 

I'm keeping all of this money back though until later in the month in case anything crops up and we need to use it, because it was a tight month money-wise and my next paycheque will be my last furlough one so I'd rather stay a bit more liquid where I can.

greensalad

Just analysed our budget for groceries this month and we're going to run short due to two expensive shops.
We did our Ocado shop yesterday and I'm always surprised how cheap it is (no Aldi or Lidl round here). We definitely don't eat cheap as we're both foodies and like quality ingredients, but we can easily do a shop for £35 just dinners, and then another £15 for lunches and incidentals like milk and eggs. So I'm really trying hard to keep us to budget. Our "groceries" budget is £500 per month at the moment but it includes takeaways and we have a habit of going over it for stupid reasons.

Anyway, so we've just done a shop that came to £56 and after we've eaten through that we are going to try and have a full freezer-meal week to get ourselves back on budget. We don't have anything particularly exciting in the freezer, but I can get by on a strange meal of onion rings and frozen sweetcorn if I have to! 

I just found a frozen pain au chocolat in there so my lunch today consists of a coffee, pain au chocolat, babybel and a satsuma! Eclectic but it does the job!

If we don't spend more than £10 on additional fresh bits to supplement our freezer dive we should be able to get to the end of July without overspending and having to pull from our own funds.

I currently only have £75 left disposable income, which feels really low to me, but I know my bills are fully funded, the car has petrol in it, the housekeeping pot is full and I am not in need of anything. I wonder how long I can make it last. I'd love to get to the end of the month and then use the extra money to upgrade my workspace a bit and make my new desk nicer as I am going to be WFH more regularly even once office work returns. 

Baileys_Babe

I think your lunch sounds like a lovely treat.

greensalad

Time for some Sunday night budgeting!

Yesterday seeing my Mum at the gardens was really nice. I bought a slice of cake and coffee, and later I bought us both ice creams (but she bought me dinner!) Didn't have to pay to get in as we're members. I did buy a gift for the BF plus some local cherry wine, so total spent on my day out was £28.60. It was cheaper than I expected when I saw my friend last weekend so still in budget. 

I bough some laundry soap today from our local zero-waste place. I calculated that it's about 30% more expensive than the stuff I normally buy but I am really trying to be more eco-conscious and now that I'm closer to the end of my debt journey I'm excited that that is something I can afford to do, I know not everyone can afford to spend that little bit more even if they'd like to. I just finished my last bottle of general surface cleanser so got the new 5l bottle out and topped up an old squirty bottle I'd kept for the purpose. They will take back the empty containers for me, or I can take them to the market to be re-filled. It's a really good system. I also purchased a solid block of unwrapped dish soap which I can keep on the side in the kitchen instead of buying bottle after bottle of fairy liquid. 

I went to visit a cat sitting client today, very quick visit and I wore my mask. She is looking for 7 days in August which will net me £70. I am still not sure if I will break £1,000 this year what with the additional possibility of web work. I've managed to keep previous cat sitting at around £900 per financial year so have not had to declare, but I might have to this year if things go well! At least I'm comfortable with self-assessment and I can probably take a bit of tax off for the new office space I've set up.

Anyway, that's me for now. The weeks between paydays are often so monotonous money-wise. I just want to get paid so I can pay off CC's and put savings in places!

greensalad

Another £5.50 income! Amazon accidentally sent me the same parcel twice and said I could keep it, so I sold it! (It was a dress pattern).

Also made £6 on eBay from some calligraphy tools I don't really need.

Which makes up for accidentally spending £9 on a Kindle book. I meant to add it to basket but ended up doing the Amazon one-click thing. I intended to buy it at some point anyway as it's on my 2020 Reading List, so I won't bother to return it. I get all my books out from the virtual library anyway, so I think I've only bought one other Kindle book back in January this year, and I've still read 23 books this year for free.

Last night I finished cutting out the fabric for my new jogging bottoms, and also cut out a rainbow pyjama set from fabric I already have.

Next up to cut out is three more fleeces from my new Jalie pattern. Currently wearing my fleece now and it's perfect for around the house, but I want a slightly longer one.

Boyfriend also wanted one so I ordered more fabric and then accidentally sent me the wrong thing and said I could keep it too... so he'll get 2 fleeces instead of 1 and I'll probably still have fleece left over! Might try to sell it.

Listing the scraps from my rainbow pyjama fabric too, as jersey seems to sell well and I might get a fiver for it. If not I might make my friend a second baby set as I already have the fabric and I'm sure she can do with as many easy jersey outfits as possible for her baby (I've been making things for her in 9 months size).

Baileys_Babe

Well done on the income generated from the wrong thing being delivered.

That is very thoughtful to not be making newborn sizes. Most people gift newborn or the next size which is very generous but as general rule babies grow out of them very quickly but by the time they are 9 months old they grow at a slower rate so they will be in your hand made clothes for longer

greensalad

Yes that was my thinking regarding the baby clothes being larger! That plus the fact their baby is going to be large. She is 5 months pregnant and I think at the latest measure they believe the baby to be over 7lbs (how do they work that out?) She is 6' herself and her husband 6'4" so I planned the first outfit I made for them (a leggings and top set, plus a quilted jacket) to be spring-time appropriate presuming their baby will be closer to 3 month clothing when it comes out! She has only bought one pack of newborn babygros as she thinks she won't need them at all.

I managed to sell the rainbow fabric anyway for a fiver! Not sure how much I spent on the fabric initially but nice to have a new pair of PJs plus make some money back