It's the final countdown...£10k to go

t2rry

I'm bored of waiting for the deposit information to be forthcoming and since we're now only a weekend and a couple of days away from payday, I'm going to pay £100 of the money sat waiting to the CC.  It will feel nice and we know half of the battle here is psychological, don't we!?  I will leave the remainder as a buffer for now and re-evaluate on payday.  Can't wait.

mark55man

I know - the wait for pay day is a struggle - it used to be because we had run out of money, now its because we can't wait to pay off our CC/ build up our savings

ceremony

I've been offline for a bit because lockdown is seriously getting to me these days. Just catching up with your diary. You've made amazing progress!

It's your choice what to do with that £100, but is there some way you could 'make' £100 in order to pay make up for going out? Perhaps cashback, selling something, or some overtime?

I was doing absolutely fine for most of the pandemic but the last couple of months it's hit me like a ton of bricks and I'm really depressed. Partly because I've still not had a chance to go get some quality time with my best friend (or even some of my 'casual friends') in over a year now. You might feel like you can 'miss out' on seeing them now, but if we get really unlucky and end up with another lockdown next winter (unlikely, but not impossible) you might regret not taking that chance now.

I can totally get wanting to be debt free ASAP but a small expenditure for good friends is worth it IMO.

t2rry

ceremony said:

I've been offline for a bit because lockdown is seriously getting to me these days. Just catching up with your diary. You've made amazing progress!

It's your choice what to do with that £100, but is there some way you could 'make' £100 in order to pay make up for going out? Perhaps cashback, selling something, or some overtime?

I was doing absolutely fine for most of the pandemic but the last couple of months it's hit me like a ton of bricks and I'm really depressed. Partly because I've still not had a chance to go get some quality time with my best friend (or even some of my 'casual friends') in over a year now. You might feel like you can 'miss out' on seeing them now, but if we get really unlucky and end up with another lockdown next winter (unlikely, but not impossible) you might regret not taking that chance now.

I can totally get wanting to be debt free ASAP but a small expenditure for good friends is worth it IMO.

Ah thanks @ceremony, hope you're doing okay.  We've definitely felt the effects of this lockdown harder than the last.  

You are probably right too, about the day out.  I will think about it, we have a lot going on at the moment and we will get to see these friends at other things through the year (we have a weekend away booked and a wedding to attend with them).  I maybe will suggest something a little more low key to make the best of both scenario sooner rather than later though, afterall it's about seeing one another rather than what we do!

t2rry

I have spent my weekend productively, had a clearout of kids clothes again - it's a regular need!  I've put whatever was still reasonable online to sell, the rest will go to charity / friends and family when allowed.  I've also found some housewares to sell, nothing much but I've found that they sell for more than they cost originally as they're in demand and can't be bought from new anymore.  I'll happily keep them, I had no idea they were in demand, but I've listed them in case someone wants to pay me enough to have made a profit on them as I'm sure other such things will come up again.  Fingers crossed.

Child benefit has hit today, which I budgeted into April, and since it it budgeted to all go to the CC, I've rounded it up from the month's leftovers (we did a food shop yesterday and have agreed to have 2 no spend days now, so nothing to buy until payday on Wednesday) and thrown it at the CC now, that's the car CC down to £6,250.  There is another child benefit payment in April as it comes every 4 weeks so there's always a 'bonus' month in the year when we get 2 lots in one month, which is always nice!

I have some freelance work coming up now, which is always another nice bonus but it also means probably no true days off in April as it does keep me busy.  I never count on it until it's paid either, as I have been burnt in the past and sometimes it can take months to come through.

mark55man

getting paid late is a pain, but always nice when it happens.  As you accelerate towards you DFD a chunk of extra cash can make a big difference in %age terms - and its especially sweet if its from something you did a few months ago

t2rry

PAYDAY!!! Finally!!
It's also car tax and car insurance day, not so yay!!
I usually pay these in full because I hate paying a premium for the benefit of paying monthly or otherwise.  I wish they would change that.  Anyway I've decided to take the premium for the car tax and only pay 6 months, partly for the cash flow of keeping an extra £90 odd this month to put to CC's (this short term-ist thinking will become clear in a few months, I promise) but also to split the burden of having the car tax and insurance both due in the same month, so in 6 months time I'll pay a year of tax and have a more balanced budget through the year as these are two of the largest annual payments I make.

The insurance I will pay the annual fee because I don't want to pay the premium on that one for paying monthly.  I shopped around the MSE way and got the best quote at £85 cheaper than my renewal quote, so that's good... £285 total so that's going out today too.

Otherwise:
£2,250 paid off the Car CC - making it the lowest CC now, which means I'm in line with MSE and DRamsey way of paying things off... it also puts me back under £10k total debt so in line with my diary title!

Hopefully this month should bring a few more payments to make and each one hopefully will then bring our DFD a little closer!

t2rry

I've just done the signature shuffle and realised I've now paid off over £10k already this year.  That is mental!! I thought last year was a good year paying off nearly £14k by the end of it, so this has blown my little mind!

I feel like our years and years of budgeting now is starting to really pay off, it's definitely a culmination of that 'look after the pennies' mentality, not to say that some pay increases and reduced childcare costs this last year haven't helped massively, but it does feel like it's part of us having really hammered our monthly outgoings down to the bare minimum over the last few years. 

mark55man

well done t2rry - your numbers are falling so quickly

Sarahwithlove

Just think how much spare you are going to have each month once the debt is gone to go towards savings or paying off mortgage etc.