I can do it: £41,000 debt in October 2023. Debt-free in March 2025?

elsien

Are you aware of the Olio food app? it's to prevent food waste and different to food banks in that it is in not income related, it's purpose is to keep food out of landfill. Olio volunteers collect food from supermarkets that is right on the bbf date and offer it to anyone who wants it.
In my area it's primarily fruit, veg, bread with the occasional sandwich/hummus etc. Hardly ever any meat or dairy other than yoghurts.  It goes within minutes of being posted in the evening as a rule, and you  might ask for 6 things and only get one, so for me I only ask from people who are within walking distance, but it tends to keep me topped up with bread for the freezer and my veggies for the week (as long as you're not fussy what you eat and don't mind picking up late at night.) 
Worth a look anyway. 

annetheman

Friday!
I have good news - new job will give me a fairly generous £850 towards my home office - I have a desk, but just ordered a footrest and chair to expense in full. I'm VERY pleased I can now save the £20 money I make from selling my chair - that will help counteract the bad news from today...

PENALTY CHARGE NOTICE: £80 for entering and stopping in a box junction when prohibited  - caught in 4K on the Kew bridge. Gutted but self inflicted.

So I've thought about where to reallocate the PCN money from, and given the expense info, I will allocate the £50 house stuff and decor budget to it. I will also use half of my £50 for outings, since I'm meeting someone for coffee tomorrow (expect to spend around £6, which will come from the £20 for selling my chair).

I'm going to send my sister £50 for her birthday, meaning for the rest of the month, I have £263.99 remaining, to include food and all other misc costs (not bills and main stuff/DDs and OPs). Sounds very survivable!

Another good bit of news - I turned my first debt repayment in the plan green, meaning it's gone out for the month! Psychologically, turning things green really does something for me! If I don't stick to my overpayment or pay less for whatever reason (never under the minimum of course), I will turn it red. I am without a sinking fund, so anything - literally anything - could mean I can't overpay anymore. But, that's exactly what I'm working to fix!

I'm going to put calendar invites to ensure I remember to do the colour changes for each corresponding day every month - very satisfying!

annetheman

CMD79 said:

2Scratters said:

As you live on your own just asking is it really necessary that you buy in bulk? Do you order too frequently? Do you ever get to half used of the last item before reordering. Shampoo and conditioner you could make that stretch further by not using as much when you use it. Same with toothpaste - split/cut the tube open you could get another week probably. 
You have done really well to notice/recognise with a bigger wage comes bigger debts and it doesn't /shouldn't be like that.  You really can smash this in less time than you think too. 
2 Scratters x

That's actually something that has really impacted my groceries. Before, when I've seen the brands that I like on offer, I buy a tonne of it thinking that'll save me money. Then the next week, I buy a tonne of the next thing I like on offer. So rather than a £40 weekly shop I think I can actually do for 3 of us, It costs around £80 every week. This month, I have tried to just think about my immediate need and I have shopped in Tesco rather than Sainsburys to get £8 cashback on my first shop. But total, without looking at the Offers (they're really not there for us!) was £35, and I'll just need bread, milk and bananas halfway through the week.

Definitely! The only thing I have enough-for-a-family-of-4 of are Nocellara olives and bake at home mini baguettes! Both last months! I do also buy the trays of chicken breast from Costco, and freeze them, also go to my butchers for proper South African boerewors and freeze that.

Otherwise, most of my food I buy in small amounts weekly. Living alone for 7 years, I have learned a lot about waste when buying more than you need - it is more expensive but what can you do....

I do find it is cheaper to bulk buy household things - kitchen roll, loo roll, dishwasher tabs, laundry capsules, cat food - I'm sure there's something else but I think that's it! Nothing perishable, in other words.

I am lucky I have a laundry cupboard to store all of this - it'll be a lot more expensive in 2023 *cries* Thank you @2Scratters

annetheman

elsien said:

Are you aware of the Olio food app? it's to prevent food waste and different to food banks in that it is in not income related, it's purpose is to keep food out of landfill. Olio volunteers collect food from supermarkets that is right on the bbf date and offer it to anyone who wants it.
In my area it's primarily fruit, veg, bread with the occasional sandwich/hummus etc. Hardly ever any meat or dairy other than yoghurts.  It goes within minutes of being posted in the evening as a rule, and you  might ask for 6 things and only get one, so for me I only ask from people who are within walking distance, but it tends to keep me topped up with bread for the freezer and my veggies for the week (as long as you're not fussy what you eat and don't mind picking up late at night.) 
Worth a look anyway. 

Wow, that sounds awesome! I will check it out, I would love to be a volunteer - many people who live alone like me will recognise the struggle of never getting to finish things - it'd be fantastic to be able to give it away instead of waste if I could - thanks for the suggestion!!

annetheman

The weekend
A really good start to the weekend - £20 up by selling my office chair! I’m so glad I now have some “pocket change” for my social things - first being coffee with a friend this afternoon!

I’ve also bought a much better chair at £438 but that’ll be expensed to new company. So net zero on that but still have to see it go out for now…

It’s a beautiful day, really great views on the (absolutely parched) allotment - I need to get over my fear of snakes and start trying to grow, but I’m thrilled to see tomatoes peeking through despite my neglect! 

I hope that I can end the weekend on a surplus as it started - that’s the challenge! I’m grateful to be moving forward today. 

savingholmes

Tomatoes need lots of water.

An allotment sounds lovely 

annetheman

Monday
A new week! Giving up alcohol was one of the best things I've ever done - I no longer dread Mondays

Another green box in my spreadsheet today with the payment for the Tesco loan going out... I can't believe in a few weeks I might have my first full green bar. This is VERY satisfying:


Food
I think I can go without any food shopping at all this week; I hope to last with current supplies until next Friday.

Growing
If I can keep working on the allotment, I might get it in a state to start at least growing some potatoes this year; I hadn't really planned to grow anything this year, just get it usable (it was an UTTER jungle when I got it in March), so fingers crossed.. Not sure about working in it in the 33 degree C weather we're forecast though!

Selling
I would like to use this week to continue selling things, as it is a bit of a buzz... I took all my clothes off FB marketplace and am donating those instead as they were not selling after weeks...

I am thinking about adding to FB marketplace:

• Old phones for spares - £5 each = £20
• Armchair for upcycling - £50
• Brand new Bose soundbar - £130
• maybe iMac - £150
  

The tech doesn't need to be replaced. The armchair would... Might just put the tech up and see how that goes, and only put the armchair up when I can afford to replace it, which might be sooner than I think, if I can stick to my budget...

Would be great to end the week up - fingers crossed someone wants to buy something!

savingholmes

I used to colour mine in green as it went too. Now I change my mortgage numbers from red to green. It still goes on.

annetheman

I've not had a lot of time to focus on my debt progress this week - it's my last day at my current job tomorrow...! Going to be incredibly sad to leave a team and company I love, but it is time!

Very bad news
I realised that because I will have a 1 week gap between my current and new job, I will have about £800 less at the end of the month... Really! I didn't factor that into my September debt repayment... It's too complicated for me to work out exactly how much I'll be down by but that's the ballpark figure. Basically all of that month's repayments.

Let's see what the impact is! *sigh*...

  

savingholmes

That is shocking news. Do you have any things you can sell to clear clutter and bring in extra £?