£22248

storybookgirl

Here is our current debt and budget.  I know that we're not exactly living on the bare minimums here but we are overpaying on debt and we have a surplus with this.  We'll review in 3 months and see if we want to go tighter

Debt	Total
Laptop	712
PayPal	124
Loan	13070
Virgin 0%	869
Virgin 0%	2213
Halifax 0%	4276
Barclaycard	3095
	24359

Rent 495 Council tax 128 Electricity 50.29 Gas 50.29 Water 38.38 Internet 24 C mobile 26 J mobile 35.41 Netflix 9.99 Spotify 14.99 Car tax 13.12 Car insurance 55.81 Pet insurance D 38.53 Pet insurance L 35.32 Pet insurance R 26.15 BDA 25 HCPC 7.5 Contents insurance 6.2 Prescription 10.59 Nursery 423.54 Disney Plus 5.99 Amazon Prime 7 Car maintenance 50 Presents 105.85 Hair/beauty 27.75 Dentist 7 Clothes 30 Toys 15 Groceries 350 Petrol 100 Pet food/litter 60 Emergency 50 Days out 50 Holiday 50 C social 30 J social 25 Laptop 50.9 PayPal 20 Loan 377.83 Virgin 0% 25 Virgin 0% 50 Halifax 0% 110 Barclaycard 101

storybookgirl

We had our supermarket shop delivered on Sunday evening - we refused one of the substitutions and it was refunded by but they refunded it against a cheaper item - I emailed them over 70p!  They refunded the full price again though so it actually meant that we got a refund and a free item.  I also had some short dated bread which they refunded - I never would have asked for these refunds before!

I'm doing well on surveys recently too - I've just cashed our at £50 which will go towards paying off PayPal so along with this months overpayment it will nearly be gone!  Hopefully I'll aim to pay it off completely in August.

storybookgirl

I’ve just paid off PayPal! I used the income from my second job which is usually money that I put aside to go and visit my family as we’re at opposite ends of the country. I’m not seeing them for a few more months so it was spare! It feels really good!!

 We’ve had confirmation of a compensation claim too so that will be one of the bigger credit cards paid off when it comes through!! Then we have an extra £120 available each month to go towards payments so can get the two Virgin cards paid off within their 0% offers!! How great is that!!

£6 over on the food budget this week but there was some bulk buys on there so I’ll aim to get this back as the month goes on.

 We’ve spent money that we hadn’t budgeted for - a cat scratcher (old one broke) and a takeaway to celebrate our anniversary which I guess we could actually switch to come out of the presents budget so that it’s not putting us behind.

anjyeah

Congratulations! And good job on keeping your house and finances in order. 
I have just managed to read through your diary and was wondering initially with the year gap. Now it makes sense. It seems like you're in control more than ever and it shows. Well done! 

kazwookie

Hi

Why is the pet insurance so high? can you shop around and find anything cheaper, it is more than the pet food / litter

Good luck

storybookgirl

anjyeah said:

Congratulations! And good job on keeping your house and finances in order. 
I have just managed to read through your diary and was wondering initially with the year gap. Now it makes sense. It seems like you're in control more than ever and it shows. Well done! 

Yes - I've been busy with a lovely new baby and am feeling very motivated now that I have my full wage back!

storybookgirl

Yes - the pet insurance is so high!!!  I would love to be able to go elsewhere but it's 3 cats, 2 of which are around 10 years old and they all have had claims so would have exclusions on their policies if we were to move.

My advice now to anyone looking at pet insurance is to compare the current cost and the cost of an animal 10 years older.  I think that this is how some pet insurance companies get you in and then you're kind of stuck.

I'm totally open to any suggestions if anyone has any.

storybookgirl

I claimed expenses from work which I have never done before!  I usually just absorb the cost myself but I'm working on creating a better work/life balance at the moment and this is part of it.

I also claimed another Tesco refund £3 that I paid for some ham that had an expiry date on the same day that it was delivered.

I've done a few different snowballs to see how quickly I can get everything paid off by and by sticking with my current plan it's debt free by April 2024 (already improved from October 2024!) BUT if I can find an extra £100 a month it could all be gone by October 2023 - 6 months is a big deal to me so that's what I'm aiming for now!

Every month I'm aiming to make/earn/find £100 a month to pay towards the debts.  I've got a bit of part time income where the pay is variable but I'm going to include anything above my average of £300 as 'extra'.  I'm not great at logging my time accurately so this would help towards it.

I'll see if my husband wants to contribute to the effort but it's unlikely and probably not worth the fight to be honest!