Debt free by 50 (Dec 2023), 1 day at a time

Mliz

Thanks LMD

Niece and I had fun yesterday, she’s only 2 and the ‘big’ 3 year olds took her under their wing at playball and she had so much fun while I got a coffee and was able to just watch (normally I’m crawling through the ball area with her).

I didn’t go too mad in M&S and I got their Xmas brochure - nice to look at but that will be as far as it goes. 

Money - so after Playball (£5.50), M&S (£14), Parking (£1) and Chemist (£3.99) - I had £8 and pennies left in my purse 😊. I’m going to carry over £5 and put the £3 odd in my penny challenge jar. This is going to be a spendy weekend and I think I can get today’s brunch and a run to the chemist for my mum out of the £60 (+£5) weekly budget and maybe half of tomorrow’s birthday dinner. The rest of the week is going to have to be lots of NSDs.

Surveys - 2 surveys from prolific done yesterday but kept getting screened out in Swagbucks - does anyone have any other recommendations?

I better make a move if I’m to get a few bits done before I meet my friend 😊.

LittleMissDetermined

Someone recommended Curious cats app to me yesterday and whilst they are low paying, you can cash out after £1 so thats not bad. They also recommended opinion outpost and crowdology.  Again, I've only just signed up so I can't give proper feedback. 

Glad you had a good day with your niece, sounds like she will have had fun with the older girls! I hope you have a nice weekend, albeit spendy. I'll be having a spendy one too. 
LMD x

Mliz

Thanks LMD - never heard of any of those so I’m away to find out. Have a great weekend

Mliz

Morning all,

payday today and I made an extra payment of £133.48 to Barclaycard which is in addition to the £150 direct debit on the 1st of the month - so my total is £2200. My target for November is to get the balance below £2,000 by the end of the month….even if it is just by a penny 😊.

LMD - I signed up to curious cats app and will soon have my first £2 - I know isn’t loads but I’m happy because it is easy to make and will slowly chip away at my debt mountain.  I also signed up to a Facebook group about being frugal and spending money on experiences and not ‘things’ which is really what I want to aim for.

Money front - my car passed its MOT yesterday with no work, which is a total relief ( in NI we have government run MOT centres). I have a savings pot just started for my car insurance, mot and servicing and now I can start to build it up for next year.

Spends ahead - Apart from paper’s for my Mum and a few top-up groceries I haven’t spent much this week (weekend past was spendy with nephew’s birthday). Today should be an NSD and tmw it’s my usual playball with niece (£5.50) and then I’m staying over at a friends house and I need to get her a card and gift certificate for her new house and we are going out for dinner. Sat night I’m babysitting and Sunday should be a quiet day but we all know how things change.

have a lovely day all 😊

Edit - I just updated my signature and finding another £99 will bring my total balance below £13,000 … so that is the plan for the month 😊

LittleMissDetermined

Happy pay day! (it's mine too)    Great news on the car passing, that's fab! It's great to have mini-milestones to work towards and I am sure your work on curious cats will contribute, even if just a little.  Keep at it, you're doing so well!
LMD x

Mliz

Thanks LMD 😊

Friday night was much cheaper than I thought .. I bought a gift certificate and the meal and wine came to £20 each.

yesterday was an NSD and I did a few surveys and today I had my niece overnight and she was up super early but she has gone back to sleep.  i have a few things to get today but I think it will be no more than £5. 

My family are coming round tonight for Halloween 🎃 and I already know I just want my bed. 

I’ve taken £10 away from my weekly budget and I am going to try to stick to it. I’m getting back into the swing of surveys   So hopefully there will be a few about today. 

I haven’t frittered recently but the temptation is still there - I’m a work in progress 😊

LittleMissDetermined

It takes a long time to get out of the spending habit to be honest. It's a marathon though and not a sprint, so keep that in mind and don't forget to allow yourself a treat now and again
LMD x

Mliz

Very true LMD.

Today I wrote down what I owe and how much I need to pay each month to be debt free by next Dec. It’s a lot but doable as long as nothing major comes up. I’ve opened a new Monzo pot for overpayment and aim to put £500 a month into it in addition to current repayments). My budget still allows me to set aside £50 a month emergency and £200 to holiday so I have something to look forward to.  I think a monthly target will help.

we had family round for halloween last night and I have a bowl of treats ready for trick or treaters tonight but I live in the country and the weather is awful - so I don’t expect many if any… I guess I will have to just keep the treats 😊

LittleMissDetermined

Mliz said:

Very true LMD.

Today I wrote down what I owe and how much I need to pay each month to be debt free by next Dec. It’s a lot but doable as long as nothing major comes up. I’ve opened a new Monzo pot for overpayment and aim to put £500 a month into it in addition to current repayments). My budget still allows me to set aside £50 a month emergency and £200 to holiday so I have something to look forward to.  I think a monthly target will help.

we had family round for halloween last night and I have a bowl of treats ready for trick or treaters tonight but I live in the country and the weather is awful - so I don’t expect many if any… I guess I will have to just keep the treats 😊

I think this is a sensible approach Mliz and seeing the savings build as well as the debts reduce will be a great feeling. 

We have had what feels like a hundred trick or treaters already, it started before it was even dark!  Our lounge is upstairs too so I have decided to park myself in the kitchen for the forseeable... Hope it stops soon!  I'm not a grump but I am trying to eat dinner and the dog just keeps going mental  
LMD x

Mliz

Thanks LMD - we had the trick or treaters Sunday and only a couple last night. My dogs nerves are gone with all the neighbours and their fireworks.

Shopping - I spent money but I don’t feel too bad because when you realise that you are being impaled by the exposed wire of your bra then that is a justifiable spend 😊.  It’s a bit annoying as they don’t make them cheap for me (well they do but they hold nothing), so it was expensive enough but not that old but old enough to not get a refund and was worn all the time.  I also ran out of my curl serum and it looks like they have changed their old bottle and formula - honestly I’m not choosy on most things but I’ve tried many brands over the years and they all make me look like something out of the Hair bear bunch. So I ordered 2 bottles of the serum and that should give me about 6 months before I have to try to find something new.

Christmas 🧑‍🎄 - so now that Halloween is out of the way I can talk about Xmas 😊. I have saved £400 and that should cover everything and I also save up money on an Asda gift card but wasn’t as motivated as normal so will have £61 on it.  I only buy for my Mum and both my sisters families and the rest get chocolates.  Nephew no 2 texted yesterday to let me know what he wants as his present - which is a relief and saves me lots of hassle.  I’ve bought for niece and I think I know what Im getting my sisters but no clue about my mum. I don’t eat meat so my nut thing is already in the freezer and my cousin is gifting my mum a turkey for the family. I have 4 birthdays at Xmas and thankfully 3 I give wine or chocolates and the other gets money.

I know Xmas is a lot more stressful if you have children so I’m grateful I get to spend Xmas with nieces and nephews but don’t have to be Santa - just the generous aunt. 😊