It's the final countdown...£10k to go

t2rry

A little more xmas shopping done, a little more saved. I’m loving doing it like this, it means I’m literally saving as I spend so it’s a whole new kind of shopping experience. Especially when it’s well budgeted for, so I don’t feel bad for spending it as I never ‘had it to begin with. Except now I do have some of it, in my growing savings pot

t2rry

***** BANKED *****
I've called it, close enough to the end of the month and nothing we can't hold off on until Monday:
£100 entertainment budget - spent £69.49.  That's £30.51 saved
£100 self care/clothes budget - spent £64.93.  That's £35.07 saved
£100 home budget - spent £66.60.  That's £33.40 saved

That is £98.98 saved on those budgets (seriously happy with that since the £300 budgeted across the categories was a cut on the previous months anyway.  So I've stolen £1.02 from the remaining food budget (I have £65 left for 5 days so that's totally doable), and I've put it into the Banked pot, now showing on my signature too.  Cannot wait for Monday payday!!

Sarahwithlove

Well done that's great. Quiet weekend for you then. But be worth it to have the extra banked. Payday feels a long way away. 

t2rry

Sarahwithlove said:

Well done that's great. Quiet weekend for you then. But be worth it to have the extra banked. Payday feels a long way away. 

Thanks, yes very quiet one (Aren’t they all these days!?!) - probably sorting out the house ready for 🎄 decorations. So some fun for the kids, for free, perfect 

Sarahwithlove

t2rry said:

Sarahwithlove said:

Well done that's great. Quiet weekend for you then. But be worth it to have the extra banked. Payday feels a long way away. 

Thanks, yes very quiet one (Aren’t they all these days!?!) - probably sorting out the house ready for 🎄 decorations. So some fun for the kids, for free, perfect 

My tree is already up so be a weekend of watching Xmas movies for me 😁 

t2rry

The £65 left for food until Monday remains in tact, so that's definitely going to be adequate for these next 2 1/2 days and should leave some remaining which is good.  I would add whatever is left to the xmas savings pot  but I'm not sure my budget for December is totally realistic, so I'm going to slush it into the xmas food budget (currently £500 for the month) as I'd like to be able to get some nicer bits throughout the month (nothing too extravagant but some bits we wouldn't normally get as a standard if that makes sense). 

Spoke to DH yesterday about where we are at with finances and for once it was a really positive discussion because he can see how excited I am to pay this all off once and for all.  I've said we need to start thinking about big goals we have moving forwards so we don't just increase the cost of our daily living, which I think would be easy to do.  We're frugal but don't miss out on much, so it would be nice to keep us thinking about the bigger picture.  I mentioned overpaying on the mortgage to bring our term down, which he seemed actually really keen on, especially when I pointed out that we could shave off anywhere between 5-20 years of the mortgage term depending on how much we wanted to commit to that.  Nice to dream anyway, so we're going to work on a bit of a priority list next year. 

t2rry

Right-o.  That's payday!!! We had £30 leftover for food from that £65 budget so that's just been added to this month's spending spreadsheet.  I've done £580 worth of christmas spending.  Wow.  But of that, i've saved £155, so that's actually £425 I've spent which sounds a tiny bit less scary.  It's the having saved over 25% on items that is the winner though.  

I've added £900 to the banked funds, less than usual this month because of aforementioned (and still not complete) xmas spending, but that brings me up to £4,000 banked so that feels epic.  I have £50 ready to come off my CC when the bill lands, £60 to come off OH's.  Then I have a nice target for my xmas savings because if I can get that pot up from £155 to £200+ then I will have enough banked to pay off My CC completely THIS MONTH!! That would be amazing

I have a couple of pieces of freelance work which should be paid before December is out, so that feels like good timing, as that will be over £200 too, but I never count my chickens there until it has hit the bank account.  

In other news, I'd like to shift my covid weight before christmas so today is day 1 of that intention, I would like to shift 10lbs total, not sure if that's workable in 3-4 weeks but I can give it a good try and anything will have me feeling better.

t2rry

To mention again, I won't be paying off my CC until I have enough banked to cover it AND SOME...the 0% doesn't end until April, so I have some time on my side in that respect.  I expect I will knock some of it off the CC when the bill comes purely because I've been putting some xmas spending on it for ease, and whilst I've then paid off the same amount immediately so as not to add a balance to the card, naturally the money I've paid off will have gone to the 0% and the new spends on it will be interest accruing, so I will pay off whatever I need to, to make sure I'm not paying any interest, I'm guessing maybe £120, which will then come off my banked total, another incentive to get more saved in my xmas budget so I can get that banked pot back up to over £4k

Sarahwithlove

The important bit is you'll be effectively credit card neutral soon and that's what counts. You can then like you said keep saving it up and pay if all off when 0% ends. 

t2rry

Sarahwithlove said:

The important bit is you'll be effectively credit card neutral soon and that's what counts. You can then like you said keep saving it up and pay if all off when 0% ends. 

Thanks @Sarahwithlove, that is the phrase I need to remember - credit card neutral!! I'm coming for it!