Lifestarts has a 5 Year Plan!

Lifestartsat40

So I have set up another savings pot for the boat, which I have started with £107 and worked into the budget a way to put £200 per month away for associated costs. 
We have a holiday booked for July next year, the balance of which needs to be paid by April - this is £1200 - I have almost £400 saved towards this and I have worked into my budget how to save the rest before April - This is a holiday that we were supposed to go on in 2020 - was rearranged for 2021 and then rearranged again for next year. It is probably the last holiday abroad we will have for some time as the idea is to holiday on the boat in future - I would cancel if it didn't mean losing the full £600 deposit we have already paid - but not doing that so we will go and enjoy it

Lifestartsat40

I have also had a bid of £100 on the Ebay item that ends today so that is good - would like it to go for more though - fingers crossed - there are a lot of watchers. 
Getting close to being able to send my first overpayment to the loan. 

Lifestartsat40

Made my first overpayment to the loan of £250 - I'm pleased with this since this is roughly 2 months interest. 
My eBay item sold for £100 so I have packaged that up - printed off the postage and am ready to take that to the post office today. 
I have a couple of other bits I need to list today which between them should fetch another £100 so I will crack on with that. 
I need to maybe not get carried away & become obsessed with overpaying the debts when we are so close to Christmas - I have a lot of people to buy for and although I have made a good start - I DO NOT want to end up borrowing to get the Christmas shopping wrapped up (pardon the pun lol) 
So I am going to sit down and budget for everything else I need to buy and see how much more money is likely needed. 
Have a good day debt busters! 

LegoHead

Lifestartsat40 said:

Made my first overpayment to the loan of £250 - I'm pleased with this since this is roughly 2 months interest. 
My eBay item sold for £100 so I have packaged that up - printed off the postage and am ready to take that to the post office today. 
I have a couple of other bits I need to list today which between them should fetch another £100 so I will crack on with that. 
I need to maybe not get carried away & become obsessed with overpaying the debts when we are so close to Christmas - I have a lot of people to buy for and although I have made a good start - I DO NOT want to end up borrowing to get the Christmas shopping wrapped up (pardon the pun lol) 
So I am going to sit down and budget for everything else I need to buy and see how much more money is likely needed. 
Have a good day debt busters! 

I will be having a very cheap christmas this year. I do feel bad that I wont be buying as much as I usually do, but going to put thought into everything I do buy and set a limit of probably £100 for everyone. You should look after yourself before spending too much on christmas. My sister spends a fortune, but buys all her kids presents all through the year. Probably a bit late for that, but maybe an idea for next year? Keep on eye on the bargains ?

Lifestartsat40

Thanks Legohead - I'm certainly being more savvy this year - for example I normally buy for my sister, brother in law and their two kids and spend probably £15 on each of them so this year I have made and decorated a crate for them which I've filled with sweets, bottles and treats and I've wrapped that up with a board game for them all to share.
I have 4 children of my own to buy for but the eldest two are in their 20's now so they won't be getting gifts like they did when they were younger, it will probably be one main thing and then a stocking each. 
The youngest is only 4 so she is having a new bike but that is already bought and paid for via Klarna with their Pay in 3 option - One payment down, the next 2 instalments of £30  ish due over the next 2 months. 
I am waiting for some of my topcashback to reach payable as I have a number of things in my amazon basket which I want to check out but Im waiting for the free cash
 

Lifestartsat40

So I have just logged into my Loan account to see if it has been updated with my £250 overpayment and I can see that an interest rebate of £354 has been applied - Wow! 
It is really motivating to see what an impact one overpayment has made an motivation to certainly keep on with them 

capuchin

And so it begins. Attagirl!

Lifestartsat40

Thanks Capuchin - I think this overpaying could get addictive! 
Working nights tonight so having a chilled afternoon and maybe a little snooze on the sofa. 
Managed to book in a few hours overtime for the next couple of weekends - should net me about £150 after tax but every little helps. Think it might be split over two paydays though so some of this will possibly go towards making sure Christmas isn't over budget 
Have a lovely day everyone!

Lifestartsat40

Small wins today - we were supposed to have tacos for tea but someone (ok, me!) forgot to get the mince out of the freezer to defrost. We almost caved and went for a Chinese takeaway instead (and our takeaway only takes cash so this would have meant drawing out £20) but instead we decided to use some chicken we had in the fridge instead and did chicken tacos which were very very nice and I think I enjoyed them more than I would have the beef

On a slightly more negative side I have paid for something on the CC today which cost £213 - I do however intend to pay this off in full when the bill comes by selling a few more bits (I have something in the garage I am going to get OH to dig out tomorrow which should sell for £100) but if not I will with draw from the Emergency fund to pay it off. 

To explain, in the Summer we spent quite a lot sorting our garden (part of the home imp loan) - the latest part of this is a patio immediately outside our kitchen which needs fencing round it for our pup so he can go out for a wee without tearing up my flower beds. My mum and dad came round at the weekend with a load of plants for our new flowerbed which is currently empty but I'm holding off putting them in as our very active cocker will just jump in the flower beds and start digging them all up. We also will be putting down a new lawn in the spring which we will need to keep the pup off. Therefore we have bought the rest of the fence posts, fencing and gate from B&Q today so we can finish off what we started. 

Lifestartsat40

to clarify, I take the dog for 3 x walks a day so the little patio is just if he is desperate for a wee, I can let him out safe in the knowledge that our garden is not going to get ruined