It's the final countdown...£10k to go

mark55man

you gotta do what you gotta do - £25 for a few months is a small price to pay for peace of mind

t2rry

OH CC minimum paid this morning, a little underwhelming but it's still pushing it down in the right direction.  
I've had my clearance letter through from the car already, so that's good and I've cleared it from my spreadsheet.

I've also found an incentive.  On current forecasted budgets I'll be debt free with July payday (have I mentioned that!? )
Well I think I'll only be around £400 short on June's payday...so I'm going to keep on the selling tracks and try to have that made up by then.  I wouldn't pay it off then, because that includes my current banked funds, but to be debt neutral at that point would be a real bonus.

I'm totally aware that it only takes a little give each month for that £400 to be nearer £1,000, or for something else to push it into the unachievable realms.  I can't be disappointed with July and I won't be.  But it's nice to have a new target to push for.

To be honest, there's also the fact that if it becomes possible to have a holiday this year, we are going to take it!  OH is pushing to book something 'whilst it's cheap' but I absolutely won't, until we know with a lot more certainty that it will actually be able to happen.  I'd rather spend more and know it's going ahead than spend less and be very possibly then fighting to get our money back.  

t2rry

Final gas/elec came through.  I had set aside £100 for it. 

...£215

ugh.  I thought it might be over £100 but I thought it would be close!!!!

Well...that's coming out on the 1st March so I'll just have to rejig that month's budget.  At least I had budgeted something for it but think it will have to eat into planned savings from that month.

mark55man

It's been very cold !!

t2rry

mark55man said:

It's been very cold !!

it has!  and we have single glazing

t2rry

Sold a couple of things today, made £50.  But one thing I sold I need some sort of replacement for, so I'm not sure how very MSE that was of me!! I just don't like it and decided I'd sell before figuring out what I want to replace it!

t2rry

new CC statement arrived already, I should have planned for that and not paid off the car until after it arrived, but there we go.
I've borrowed £500 from the banked funds to make an overpayment now, I'll make more on payday as planned too, but this way it gets it in and feels nice.  £7.33 interest, so that's come off my interest saved total.
Another sale made though, so another £30 in.  I'm feeling a little on a roll with this selling stuff, I have thought of a few more things and it's nice to have a little cash coming in rather than always going out!

t2rry

well...selling is going well, suddenly I have an extra £200 in my banked funds without really realising it... It has made a huge difference that I have discovered I can deposit cash into my bank account via the local post office, means when I sell in person (socially distant of course) I don't have to wait for weeks with the cash in my purse or, inevitably, spend it on things in the meantime and never track where it's ended up.  Now I can just pop around the corner and deposit it immediately.
Some of the saving is from something I had budgeted for that is delayed, so I still need to spend that next month but it can be swallowed in that month's budget so I'll keep this one in banked funds for now.

Every extra bit of money coming in gets me a little closer to debt neutral that month earlier, so I'll keep going whilst I have the oomph for it!

t2rry

End of the month (nearly, I count it as it's payday tomorrow, I love february for that!)

We have done pretty well again this month.
We've spent almost spot on our £400 budget for food and petrol.  This has included 3 takeaways, which means it's a good budget but we've had too many calories this month!! Need to be better there, but honestly sometimes it feels like the only element of 'rest' we get.  Hopefully that will look to change quite soon, and with the boost of better weather to come, I think there's something to look forward to!!

In terms of any other spending, as in normal day to day spending (since everything else is budgeted and we've stuck to all budgets as they were set for home insurance renewal, birthday gifts etc for the month):
£8 work lottery syndicate
£5 donation
£16.30 post office (sending sold items)
£27.46 toilet seat (ours broke) + new screwdriver (to enable fitting to not be awfully difficult!)
£3.50 car wash (basically the best day out our kids have had for months!)
That's £60.26.  More than last month but that's including post office costs and on the flip side, here's the extra money coming in:

£5 account cashback
£147.38 selling
£32.58 underspend for home insurance budget
That's £184.96

So a budget 'profit' of £124.70, I've managed to put £200 into banked funds as this was boosted by a budgeted spend that has been kicked into next month, which itself I think I've managed to swallow by giving ourselves a tighter March than I had originally planned.  I've also managed to swallow the final gas/electricity bill in it too, so that's good.

I will return tomorrow no doubt with signature changes and the monthly money shuffle!

mark55man

well done T2rry - i love how short Feb is.  especially with a weekend at the end to make Pay day even quicker - even if it makes March a bit long!!