Final steps to debt freedom

gymgirl11

Tui officially cancelled our holiday so we were able to claim a refund which should be back to us within the next 14 days. It’s for £1,336 so a nice sum of money to come back to us. We’re going to put it all in savings and then go from there. 

We would like to buy some some blinds for the kitchen and bathroom and we also need someone to come and look at our electrics. As we’ve been having the kitchen done our electrician has raise a few concerns with us that need looking at. So we’ll probably invest the money back into the house but we can just build on our savings in the meantime.

Sarahwithlove

That's good I'm glad you know where you stand with it now and it can be used on the house. 

gymgirl11

Sarahwithlove said:

That's good I'm glad you know where you stand with it now and it can be used on the house. 

Thank you! Yes, it's a relief to finally know and have confirmation of it being cancelled - it feels like we can move on from it now.

gymgirl11

Hi all, been a bit quiet in terms of updating but have been reading other diaries. I’m still waiting for some direct debits to go out of my account. I brought my Mother’s Day gift and card and have had them delivered to my parents address as I won’t be able to visit on the day. 

In terms of my account I have £69 left with £18 left to go out. In our joint account we have £162 with £12 to go out.  The rest is for food shopping (2 left for this month) We’re hoping to not use it all. We are also waiting for the Tui refund but this will all going into saving straight away so we aren’t relying on this money for the foreseeable future. 

gymgirl11

Evening all. Not much to report on, I did buy a few pieces of clothing (wants rather than needs), however I sent £25 worth back so I’m waiting for a refund to come through. 

I’ve spent £9.50 throughout the week in the shop doing a bit of a top up shop but other than that no other spends. Once my refund comes back I will have £60 remaining and I’m hoping to just leave it sitting in my bank account until pay day comes round. I have found that my personal wish list is growing on my phone though but at least I’m not spending or adding any money to my credit card.

We spent £69.02 on food shopping today so we will have £60 for our final food shop next week. We also have £12 set aside for the big window clean before the end of the month. 

I hope you all enjoy the weekend! 

gymgirl11

Been a bit quiet as we've had a busy weekend and then I've been a bit poorly over the past two days so have mainly been in bed sleeping.

Tui have refunded us for our holiday in full now so £1,300 is going into the savings account. I think this will now be up to roughly £3,000. We are looking at getting blinds done so have some money marked for that. We have also tentatively booked a UK break for mid-May, however, we can cancel 48 hours before for free with no charge to us.

Received our council tax bill and that has gone up by £8 a month to a lovely £177 a month over 10 months. I'm aware of many people out there who pay more than us but it still feels like a lot.

gymgirl11

Lockdown life of work, eat, exercise, shower, sleep has taken over to be honest. I also go for our one allowed daily walks. It’s nice now it isn’t too cold outside and I don’t have to bundle up in three layers to leave my home.

We had someone come out today for our blinds. We are having 5 new blinds, being made to measure plus fitting in 2 weeks time. This cost us £689 and has been covered by the money we had been refunded by Tui. Our savings are now around the 2.5K mark with our aim to get to 7K by the end of the year. 

April is a busy month for me in terms of payments as it’s both of my parents birthdays so I need to decide what to get them and also, before everything reopens, this will be my last month of not paying for a gym membership as I believe this will begin again in May. I need to look at my direct debits and see if anything needs changing, cancelling or moving to the joint account. 

gymgirl11

It’s been a while as not a lot has really changed in lockdown. I’ve brought both of my parents birthday gifts and once my DD go out I will have £75 left. I have no plans to buy anything this month. I don’t really need anything. 

We still have a UK break booked for May, which will involve a trip to an outlet shop one day, so I’m hoping to save that money so I can buy a few bits when we go.

I hope you are all well

gymgirl11

Long time, no update!

A lot has happened since April. So we didn’t go away in May in the end - so we saved all the money from that. And I barely spent any money in April and May due to spending a lot of time in bed as I’ve been having morning sickness (well, sickness that came at all and any time of day really!). We’re having our first baby which is due towards the end of the year. 

Due to the erratic eating habits and snacking, we have had to up the food budget by £50pp and have added a takeaway budget as the smell of home cooked food made me sick and gag for a while.. apparently the only thing that helped me was eating food with lots of salt in, Haribo sweets and drinking a lucozade. 

Debt wise this has gone down, I’m currently at;
- £3,090 on my BC - this will be under the 3K mark by the end of the month.
- £200 on credit spending card - this will be paid off when pay day arrives. 

In terms of savings we have £2,000 in our joint account. We are still waiting for my partners inheritance to come through and we are expecting this to be in the region of £125,000 - £140,000. 

We have brought a few ‘must have’ items for the baby already, like a cot (turns into cot bed) and a dresser with detachable changing mat. We brought this as it was in the sale and we saved over £500. We also have a few basic clothing pieces like short sleeve vests and sleep suits. I’m now going to see if there are any free clothing pieces on FB marketplace and such. 

The idea debt wise is to continue to pay £150 per month and see where I am in October. I have 2 empty credit cards so will hopefully balance transfer across for a small fee. Come December my BCC carries a 19.9% interest. 

riotlady

Congratulations!!! Sounds like you’re very prepared already