24 months to debt freedom

CL21

A quiet day all round. The pulled pork was absolutely delicious and we have plenty of leftovers. Booked a haircut for DD - which will be paid for from the dregs of this months salary - and finally managed to work up the energy to do a Joe Wicks workout. I’m always glad when I’ve done it but finding the get up and go to actually workout is sooooo hard. 

Finished watching Endgame with DD and then Captain Marvel. Hopefully a good nights sleep tonight - I’m knackered! 

MSE - returned a kindle book. It was only 99p but I really didn’t need it. I have so many unread kindle books and I’ve realised that a massive issue for me is thinking ‘oh it’s only 99p’ or buying things for a couple of £s in a charity shop. But they all add up. I’m so used to doing it that I really noticed DD asking for things this afternoon and saying exactly the same thing to me (that whatever she wanted was only £1 or £2) so I need to nip that in the bud now and change both our mindsets 

CL21

DD has had a sore throat today so quiet day at home. Hoping she doesn’t get the strep throat that’s going round. Scarlet fever also doing the rounds in her class. 

MSE stuff: -

Downloaded an app to sell books and scanned them in but only offering £19. Some of them are ‘like new’ craft books so have tried my luck listing on fleabay. Can always go with the app price if they don’t sell. If they do I’ll get double what they’re offering. Also got a couple of old kindles I can trade with Amazon although got to charge these up and wipe them first. 

Will also try and list some of my unused craft stuff this week and get a few extra £.

Made a couple of small payments to the CCs to round them down - £3.74 to CC1 and £2.47 to CC2

Changed the title of my diary to reflect proposed debt free timescale. Determined to make it sooner than this though

Blackcats

The pulled pork sounds lovely.  I've got a sachet of slow cooker sauce lurking in the cupboard (no idea why I bought it as I've got so many herbs and spices I could easily make my own blend).  Anyway I've got the sauce mix and a slow cooker so I just need to buy some pork 😀

hope DD feels better in the morning.  Well done on the focus on debt reduction - it's really motivating watching it go down and it's the sustained effort that really knocks debt into touch.

have a good week

CL21

Blackcats said:

The pulled pork sounds lovely.  I've got a sachet of slow cooker sauce lurking in the cupboard (no idea why I bought it as I've got so many herbs and spices I could easily make my own blend).  Anyway I've got the sauce mix and a slow cooker so I just need to buy some pork 😀

hope DD feels better in the morning.  Well done on the focus on debt reduction - it's really motivating watching it go down and it's the sustained effort that really knocks debt into touch.

have a good week

Thanks @blackcats - I keep remembering your post about the Accumulation of Marginal Gains pot (best name ever) 

CL21

2 days until payday. The only thing I need to spend money is DDs haircut tomorrow. Anything left over will go towards CC1 (hopefully about £70). 

DD came home from school today so I’ve packed her off to bed. Hopefully some rest and calpol will do the trick! 

Blackcats

Hope DD feels better soon.
£70 to CC1 is great - it's over 1% - you could colour in a square on a 1% motivational grid 😀.  Mine was a badly drawn interpretation of a sweetie jar with 100 circles in for colouring 1% at a time.  Lots of fun making stripes, spots and pretty coloured "sweets".  my council tax pay off motivator was a badly drawn tree with 10 branches and 10 leaves or apples on each branch.  Honestly I am a grown-up 🤦‍♀️

CL21

Blackcats said:

Hope DD feels better soon.
£70 to CC1 is great - it's over 1% - you could colour in a square on a 1% motivational grid 😀.  Mine was a badly drawn interpretation of a sweetie jar with 100 circles in for colouring 1% at a time.  Lots of fun making stripes, spots and pretty coloured "sweets".  my council tax pay off motivator was a badly drawn tree with 10 branches and 10 leaves or apples on each branch.  Honestly I am a grown-up 🤦‍♀️

Love the sweets idea but then food is a great motivator for me 😂 I downloaded a free one from the budget mom website - it’s 100 coffee beans and says ‘debt payoff - it’s a grind’. A bit cheesy but coffee is also a big  motivator! 

CL21

DD back to school today - she’s wanting to go as they start school play rehearsals today. Thank goodness as it’s a full day of meetings today. Haircut for her later although the most exciting thing about that is knowing what money I’ll have to send an overpayment to CC1. These diaries really do change the definition of excitement 🤣

CL21

Payday - finally! And the Northern Ireland energy payment is showing as due to come into my account tomorrow although Monzo will let me take it at 4pm today 🙌🏻 This will be mostly added to my emergency fund and a small amount to the fund that pays for school expenses (didn’t budget for the ‘leavers hoodie’ that’s now obligatory in final year of primary 🙄) 

Other than that unexpected bonus, all pots will be filled as planned. A bit nervous that I’ve forgotten to plan for something - does anyone else do a zero based budget? How long does it take to get right? 

CL21

Ended up with £65 at month end so just sent that to CC1 as extra to budgeted payment along with the £1 from refunded kindle book money