Debt free by 40

jokono

Back to the grind - holidays are gone, Boy2 is back in school, Boy1 starts secondary later this week, Mr starts a new job today and I've been back in work since last week. I have a task I'm not looking forward to, so I decided to procrastinate a bit more and update my diary.

Last month I paid a bit over £600 of debt. I am not sure I will be able to make up that £1,100 before the end of they year, I will give it a good go though! I could use some of the EF but I don't want it that bad.

In other news, in my quest for the fountain of youth, I stumbled upon the starch solution and calorie density. I went vegan (again) a few months ago but was keeping it low carb-ish, no potatoes or rice. Now I've been enjoying potatoes for a few weeks, a lot of them, and my weight didn't go up! I'm still scared of white rice 😅 but I found red rice in T3scos, never had it before but it's supposed to have a lot more fibre and nutrients than even brown rice. While weight loss was not the goal - I would be lying to say I don't enjoy it - I am now 1kg below my target, with a BMI of 23.

jokono

We have to try and get in the office at least once a week now so I have to start budgeting for that. I used to buy a ticket out of my weekly budget but £27 every week is a bit much. I don't expect to go every week, but probably at least 3 times a month.

So starting next month I will be setting aside £108 for 4 trips. I didn't want the money to come out of debt repayments so I lowered the monthly contribution to the Boys and EF pots. I was pushing the EF to get to the next £1k but it doesn't make sense to do that now. Hopfeully I will have £27 left at the end of each/most months to send over to debt, the EF can grow slower.

I'm running a half marathon at the end of the month but I think I'll stop running for a while after that. My left foot hurts sometimes just under the ankle and I think it needs more rest. I've run 8.5km this morning and it doesn't hurt now, I expect it will start hurting later today or tomorrow morning.

jokono

I ran the half last week and it was awesome, I want to do it again soon. I'm seeing a physio for my ankle later this week, hopefully it won't take long to fix it 🤞

End of the month update - my debt went down by £1,250 this month, I need to find £928 more to finish the year on 50% paid. I have no idea how that is going to happen, I could possibly find £200 extra for overpayments over the next 3 months, but that still leaves me £300 short. We'll see, I'm not ruling it out yet 😃

A few £ will be saved for parking, I have decided to park for free on a street further away from the station. My sister owes me some money which she'll pay back before the end of the year. I still have things to sell, I need to make time to list them. I was also thinking of selling some crafts at the school Christmas fair. Lots of possibilities 💰

MissRikkiC

Great work on the half! I love the feeling you get immediately after which makes you book another so soon. 

Don’t rule out that extra £300. A few bits here and there and it’ll be less than then before you know it and whatever you reduce it by is progress regardless 

jokono

Good news on the ankle, I can still run but I need to work on strengthen it. I've started doing some exercises for it last week then went on a long run at the weekend and I had no pain. 🥳

No running this week yet as I got my period and I'm not feeling it. However, I'm not in as much pain as I was before going plant based. I haven't had any animal products since August (well, except those butter biscuits I recently found in a cupboard and needed finishing 😅) and this is my second period since then. I normally have 3 x ibuprofen 400 the first day and 2 the second day. This time I took one yesterday morning and that was it. It's still uncomfortable but nothing compared to the usual agony. I'm also in a better mood, I normally get very low for a couple of days before. Now there is the slight possibility there's something else affecting it (even though I've been in pain monthly for over 2 decades), but if the low pain/good mood continues over the next couple of months then I think there can only be one conclusion. I decided not to have any more animal products for overall health, never thought this would be one of the consequences. I would've given it all up long ago if someone told me this was I needed to do to in order to get rid of the pain.

Money wise - I did two merchandising tasks in a supermarlet yesterday. Ridiculuos amount of work for £3 each, I spent over an hour there. Never again.

I sold something on vinted for £13, cashed out £30 from panel base and another £12 from prolific, sent it all to the loan. 

jokono

I've paid £20 more on the loan, the last payment date on the Admiral website is now June 2023, 11 months earlier than planned in the credit agreement. This would be if I only made the standard monthly payment from now on, but based on my payoff planner which includes overpayments, I should be done with it in April. I usually get a bonus in my Feb pay, so I'm hopeful the loan will be fully paid in March.

After that I will only pay a small sum on the 0% CCs and maybe open a 1y regular savings account.

Our mortgage fix ends in April next year, if we wanted to get out early we would need to pay a fee of over £9k. I'm really worried about the rates going even higher in the next few months, but I don't think there's much we can do until January, we're with Barclays and they only offer product switching 90 days before the fix ends. I might drop into the local branch and ask a question though, you never know...

jokono

Barclays have changed their rules and now allow mortgage switches 180 day before fix rate end, that's end of this month for us. We'll have to see what happens before then, if the new chancellor was a good move or we're going to have another prime minister soon. 

On a lighter note, the end of the month is also Halloween, my dislike for this event is very strong and stable! 🤣 Going out in the dark on a cold evening with children running everywhere high on sugar... Boy2 has chosen a very current costume, easy to find on ebay and not too expensive, we got that one already. Boy1's is very niche, he's into history at the moment and all the costumes we find are in the hundreds, they're proper re-enactment costumes I suppose, they only come in grown up sizes anyway. He was very sweetly going to go as Harry Potter again as he knew we wouldn't spend that money but I said I'd make him the costume. So my task for the next couple of weeks is to go find a military-ish dark jacket in charity shops and decorate it with some gold cord and try and find a similar helmet to the one he needs. At least I can ebay the cord!

I've been eating lots of chocolate/biscuits recently and I noticed my mood changed, I kept waking up feeling very low. This morning I forced myself to go for a run and had some oats after. Haven't had any sweets today, trying to stay away as much as I can.

jokono

I'm super happy I managed to make £50 stretch the whole of last week. I bought some timber and was going to take the money out of the EF but then decided to try and go really frugal and cover the cost from my weekly spends, thus the reduced budget. Very please the EF is untouched.

The timber was to build some beds at the allotment, not quite raised beds but more to mark boudnaries to different areas. This weekend I want to plant some garlic and broad beans, the timber will also help support some mesh to keep the birds/squirrels away from the cloves and beans.

I feel really streteched out time wise with work, looking after house/children, allotment and I've also singned up for the school xmas fair and I have plans to knit hats and sew totes. I 'invested' £63 so far in the fair with the entry fee and some good finds of fabric and yarn, I just need to get working. 🥴 At least the allotment doesn't need moch work at this time of year.

I got a new refill for the soda stream, not money saving as it costs 3 times as much compared to l!dl's sparkling water (when I can find it) but I guess I will be saving at least 30 plastic bottles. The problem is I drink a lot less water if it's not readily available. #lazy

Good news about the loan - it is now in the £4500s, less than a quarter to go! I still have to find £657 until the end of the year to have paid 50% of the debt I started the year with. I was on £900 at the beginning of the month so I'm not too far off. I should have £42 coming from v!inted soon, unless the buyers have a problem with what I sent them. They never had so far but I always worry.

Speaking of v!inted, I got a very nice trespass jacket for £11, it will keep me dry and warm until spring.

GinoOhGinoGinelli

Hi @jokono, I've just been catching up on your diary. Sounds like you've been making great progress on your debt-busting journey!

Well done on running the half too! Hope your ankle is on the mend with the physio exercises.

How are you finding it since going fully plant-based? We found our food shopping has been much cheaper overall since we went fully vegan, which has been handy given the wild price hikes recently. I found that ut encouraged me to experiment more with cooking too.

[Deleted User]

Is Vinted a good selling platform? Oi used to use eBay but find everybody want a things for 50p and so making any money is difficult. x