Final steps to debt freedom 9 December 2020 at 5:09PM in Debt free diaries 147 replies 6.6K views

gymgirl11

OH paid off our downstairs window and door finance this evening.

The downstairs windows and doors were on interest free until November 2022, however, his mum kindly contributed to half of this cost for us which she said she would do when we originally got the doors and windows done downstairs (OH just left this money in his bank account) and then he used some of his inheritance money to pay the remaining balance. 

We still have our upstairs windows on interest free finance. OH doesn’t enjoy having things on finance but in order to do the upstairs windows he had to take out a bit on finance (I’m not sure why as we did have enough money to pay up front), so he took out the smallest loan amount. 

We have decided to not pay that one off in full yet. It is £42 per month (already on the direct debit monthly spreadsheet) and the first payment is due 6th October so we are going to pay that per month until the end of Jan 2022, so 4 payments, and then look at paying off the finance in one full payment.

In small money saving news the place where I normally buy my sports bras from has sent me a 15% off voucher for my birthday so I will look into this. I have until 30th November to use it  

gymgirl11

It has been a bit of a spend day today, all of which has been on food. We went to Morrows to pick up some bits that didn’t come in the shopping on Friday and a tub of Celebrations ended up in the basket.. oops! We also had a takeaway this evening but OH paid. We were meant to be going out for lunch with OH parents but they cancelled with an hours notice this morning.

The rest of my direct debits go out tomorrow and I have a delivery of Christmas presents from JLewis to come so I’m hoping to have this batch of stuff wrapped by the end of the week. 

It’s my last three weeks at work before I go on maternity leave and I have a feeling they are going to go so slowly. I’m working on my own three days this week though as my other admin colleague is on annual leave. It may provide a bit less stress mainly because I don’t feel like I have to sit at my laptop all day waiting for an IM to come from her and I can just get on with stuff at my own pace. 

I also have the midwife tomorrow for my 31 week appointment I’ve been quite lucky with my pregnancy that after the first trimester I haven’t really experienced any issues - just all the ‘normal’ pregnancy niggles. Heartburn is the real one at the moment! 

gymgirl11

Today has been a NSD. When working from home we don't tend to spend money during the first part of the week.

This week we are taking OH's dad out for his birthday meal to our local pub (Thursday)

I have also arranged to meet my sister in the city centre for a breakfast/lunch on Saturday. I have put £15 to the side to cover the food/drink aspect. We have no plans to go round town yet but if we do I have some money left in the Christmas budget for this month so I'm hoping to pick up the bits that I won't get delivered home - mainly because I won't qualify for free delivery and I refuse to pay £3.99 or more to get things delivered!

Speaking of Christmas, my first lot of Christmas gifts have arrived and have nearly been wrapped already - I've wrapped 5 with 5 left to go. I've given myself a mini target of having these all wrapped by Friday. 

gymgirl11

Morning all it's nice to come online daily and just do a brain dump onto the internet, it feels mentally freeing.

I've got to go in for a last minute scan today as baby is measuring a bit small so we will have to pay for car parking - expected spend of £3.50 but that'll come from the joint card.

I'm also considering re-starting on prolific again so I can get a bit of money to cover some more of the 'stocking filler (I.e chocolate) portion of my Christmas spend.

gymgirl11

Morning all

Baby scan all went well, she is measuring perfectly average and already weighs 4lb. 

I ordered 2 Christmas gifts from Yankee C on Monday (1 for sis & 1 for the grandparents) and they arrived today. It was a gift set of 3 candles for £8.99 which is, to me, a pretty good price from there!

They'll make perfectly good gifts so am now going to order a set for OH's parents and my own parents.

I managed to get on the prolific again. I had to update some of the questions and answer some more questions so I'm hoping to get more surveys now. I think the aim is to attempt to make £30 in survey money by the end of October. I already have 40p with £2.40 pending.

I've cleaned the kitchen, put a load of washing on and cleaned the recycling and garden waste bin while also doing my work!

My CC direct debit went out so my debt now stands at £2,490.

Abz12

Glad the baby scan went well. Nesting is beginning with bin cleaning!

gymgirl11

Abz12 said:

Glad the baby scan went well. Nesting is beginning with bin cleaning!

It definitely is! I knew it began a few weeks ago when I woke up at 8:30am on a Saturday and all I wanted to do was clean the kitchen (which I actually did!) 

gymgirl11

Afternoon all I haven't made any progress with prolific today. I only have access to a phone/tablet and a few surveys have been desktop only.

I updated my signature last night to include my prolific goal and my debt amount, it's good to have a visual reminder.

There may have been a tiny spend this morning (£19 joint account) for a coffee & cake each. We were both up the majority of the night and both very cranky.

It feels like a catch 22 at the moment though. I have a few issues sleeping but I don't want to complain about the lack of sleep now because I know I'll get "oh, well, wait until the baby is born" - like, I am very aware that the baby will have to settle and be introduced to a new routine so we'll be up all hours (which I'm fine with) but seeing as the baby is not yet here I do want to get all the sleep that I can!

gymgirl11

We had a lovely evening tonight. We went out for OH’s dads birthday. We just went to our local pub that does really nice food.

OH paid as a treat towards his dads birthday gift. It came to £90.60 which covered two starters, 3 mains, 2 desserts and 2 rounds of drinks (two of those being alcoholic) so not too bad.. I did have to longingly stare at OHs chicken liver pate starter though  

I have also finished our online food shopping which is due tomorrow. £86 in total, however, this includes: £7.50 worth of Christmas chocolates, £5 worth of toiletries and £5 worth of lunch items for Sunday as we are attending an all day antenatal class. After tomorrow we only have one more full shop to do this month. 

I also need to start to read up on baby formula and decide which one to buy. I’ve come to the conclusion that breast fed isn’t the way to go for me. One of our friends is also kindly gifting us a bottle prep machine (worth £50) as they have two. We will just have to buy the filters for it. 

gymgirl11

Morning all! Up quite early today. OH has a slight cough during the night at the moment and I got up to use the bathroom and then tried to get back to sleep but he was heavy breathing in my ear. 

So I’ve got dressed, had breakfast, cleaned out the fridge for our shopping slot (it’s coming in the earliest time of the slot) and had breakfast.

The shopping has come in at £81.60 but we’ll need to pop out to our local and grab a few bits as they didn’t have the appropriate substitutes. 

The aim of today is to try and do a few surveys as I didn’t do any yesterday. I’m hopeful of going by the £10 mark today.