Third time's a charm!

twiggy86

Yesterday I made a couple of CC payments yesterday - £30.47 from TCB and £17.59 left from my netball pot (due to various cancelled games). So that leaves £50.47 left to clear that card. Still have £100 set aside but hanging on to that for a bit longer in case required (for example I've used all my petrol "pot" - don't think I'll need to buy more but it might be close!) but I am incredibly tempted to pay it off now - especially as it would take me into the next thousand bracket (again!)! 

twiggy86

Monday again! Quiet weekend and not too much spent. Spreadsheet is updated and I've made a small debt payment this morning - £10.47 to CC, taking it down to £40! I think I'm going to make a few small payments during the week i.e. the closer we get to pay day! This morning's payment takes me to 15% of my target for the year! 

Need to crack on with my crochet gifts as one needs to get to Australia for 22 of May and have another to finish by the end of this month (although that one doesn't need posting!) I did however finish a cushion cover on Saturday which I absolutely love and it only uses scraps! I have a couple more cushion inserts and really want to make another scrap cover - although want a different design, so need to think about it a bit more!

twiggy86

I took the plunge and cleared the CC meaning that I'm down into the next thousand bracket!!! It leaves me with £56 which was set aside for debt payment but at least some will be needed for a few groceries to take us through until Tuesday (OH's payday and start of new budget month). I do have £5 to come from Shopp*x which I cashed out this week. 

This week I have played around with my budget spreadsheet to make the layout work a bit better - hoping it will also help my prioritization as I've changed the order of things slightly. As we're nearly at the new budget month I've been finalising the budget for May. I also borrowed a Dave Ramsey audiobook through BorrowB0x so was listening to that on my drive this morning - he's a bit shouty but I'll listen to it all and hopefully pick up some tips!  

Plus I've messaged a few people about things I want to borrow! For example, our carpet is desperate for a clean so rather than hire a carpet cleaner it looks like I can borrow one for free! It stupidly took guts to ask but if you don't ask, you don't get! 

twiggy86

Monday check in! 

I need to update my spreadsheet to double check where I am - feel I overspent on food this weekend, although pleased to report that doesn't involve any takeaways! It means I've used £30 which was set aside for debt payments, and will need something for dinner tonight - although I may be able to get away with just some wraps and the other bits I think we have. 

I managed to finish 2 crochet gifts at the weekend - so need to get some cards for them, plus one needs posting to Australia! I also had a request to make something which I will earn about £15 for once that's finished. Haven't yet received the £5 from Shopp*x so may need to chase that one up later this week. The other good thing from the weekend was rummaging through my friend's clothes that she was getting rid of - ended up with a big bag of things to try on, most of which I like! I need to go through and have another try on and work out what I actually will wear - rather than it being ok and keeping because it's free!  

I'm also now re-considering my priorities and route forward after listening to the Dave Ramsey book as much of what he said made perfect sense - but I've really got it in my head that I want my debt to be under £10k and am pushing for that as my first priority. Possibly on the basis that I know in an emergency I can call on my parents - which I'm sure is wrong, but I've probably felt that they are my safety net and therefore have never prioritised an emergency fund (although I have been slowly trying to build one up - although the vet emergency erased what I had put in there!) Not quite sure what to do now! 

twiggy86

Start of a new budget month so just closed down my April budget and done a sweep of the few little bits left and made a final CC payment. So the final difference for April was £766.06 - which is great progress! Just a shame I'm still nearly £500 down (or rather up) from where I was before the pet emergency - although a different way of looking at it is that the total debt figure is pretty much the same as the total debt figure at the beginning on March (£2 difference), which seems slightly more positive somehow! 

twiggy86

Pay day tomorrow and just received my payslip and I've got a "pay rise"! Well not a pay rise but change in something somewhere which means I'm £72 better off - at least for this month anyway! So I've re-jigged my budget to include this extra! 

twiggy86

Payday!!! Money has all been shuffled off to the correct places/ pots so I feel settled at the moment! Money has been put aside for debt payments for when the statements come in - although I may make the payment to my parents today 1) to pay them promptly to show my appreciation for their help; and 2) so I feel I've made some progress!!!

Plans for this weekend are to dye my hair tonight (already have the dye at home) and then have a cut booked tomorrow morning - no blow dry, as I'm not that bothered! I'm then going to my best friend's for the night (an hour drive away) to spend a bit of time with her and her boys. Then on Monday I'll be popping up to my mums so she can wax my legs  ... can anyone tell I'm going away next weekend?! So there will be some spending involved, but saving costs in a few places too! I may have a rummage through my friend's wardrobe to see if there is anything I want to borrow for my holiday! 

twiggy86

Lovely long weekend, which was fairly frugal too! 

Frugal wins:

• Dyed my own hair 
• Got a free blowdry - hadn't booked one, just a wet cut, but she did it anyway! 
• Mum waxed my legs
• Aunt gave me £50 for completing some forms for her
• Claimed £2.65 from TCB
• Thought washing machine was broken, but managed to rectify the issue

However, the washing machine issue has really made me think about changing my priorities. I need more focus on my emergency fund. Yes I do have the safety net of my parents but I thought I was going to have to borrow more money from them when they've literally only just lent me some! So this morning I have started re-listening to the Dave Ramsey audiobook on my drive to work and think I am going to switch to following his method. I have re-looked at my budget for the month, and switched the emphasis to my EF - I've actually transferred a further £40 my the EF and have "on paper" moved another £150 that was set aside for a debt payment to the EF. I will leave this set aside for a bit as a buffer in case needed throughout the month. 

Current EF = £162.83

I've set myself the goal of having £500 in it by the end of June! It means I need to re-assess my other goals to reflect my shift in focus - and then I actually need to stick to a plan! All this flip-flopping makes me feel like I'm not achieving much! 
 

twiggy86

Bad news - the washing machine went kaput again! After much consideration, I have bought a new one rather than try and get it repaired - especially given its age and that the water is so hard in our area that it destroys everything, so even if this issue got fixed I wouldn't be surprised if it was the start of further problems. 

The one I ordered cost £329 including delivery and taking away the old one (which would cost £40 through the council). My dad is going to disconnect old one and install new one for me. I'm off on Friday but was going to have any eyebrow wax so I've moved that, as it cost £25 more to have a specified delivery slot so I just went for 7am-7pm! 

I added the £50 I got from my Aunt to the EF which takes the total to £215.48 (also added £2.65 from TCB). Leaving me £113.52 short on the cost of the washing machine. I purchased on my CC so once it shows on the account I will transfer over the amount from the EF (wiping that out AGAIN!) and will make it my aim to clear the rest by the end of the month! Of course my amazing parents have said they'll cover it but I want to do it on my own! Then I will once again re-start the EF!!! 

twiggy86

Clearly I'm still not 100% used to budgeting - I have £136.48 set aside in my "house" pot which I'd totally not even considered with regards to the washing machine! So my new plan is to use that once it's showing on my CC account and then pay the remainder from the EF. That will mean there's £22.96 left in the EF, so not loads left but it's better than cleaning it out and having to find more to clear the CC!