We will get this debt down & the savings up

LittleMissDetermined

Real life really does get in the way, it happens to us all x

Makingabobor2

So, a nice sunny afternoon, after a chilly start.  Not much to report today, but thought I'd put in an appearance. 
Things are ticking along, but not really sure in which direction.  I think I need to make myself look for more surveys etc and also make myself eat less chocolate and rubbish.  I'm trying to spend less time online, but then that seems counter productive if I am looking for more surveys and to come on here and update things.  I just feel that everything extra I am making on surveys etc and DH's small pay rise, is being eaten up with increase in mortgage, other utilities and food price rises. I started the year so well with making PADs, and putting money on savings pots etc and now it all seems to have stopped as we need every penny we have. 
Still not for long as its only 8 weeks until I get a real boost in my income.....yes folks I am old enough to get my state pension and it starts at the end of June.  Whilst this is great and will make a HUGE difference in getting F&F settlements to pay off debts and also clearing mortgage ASAP, it also makes me feel bad that at my age we still have debts.  I am just thankful that DH is younger than me and still has quite a few years left to work.  I claimed my private pension 5 years ago, but when I stopped working 3 years ago, we started to feel the pinch. So I am really looking forward to actually being able to work out debt clearing and savings a lot better.  I'm currently working on a plan of action, and will post on here as soon as I'm happy with it. My first plan is to get mortgage paid off within at least 18mths -2yrs, instead of the 3 years that we currently have left. Then the extra from that can be thrown at the debts. 

Anyway, enough of my waffling. What have we done today?  Washing, hoovering & ironing, and DH painted the garage door......with paint he bought about 5 years ago and never got round to doing it.  So a productive day so far. 

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend. x
 

LittleMissDetermined

The price of food still continues to astound me. Hopefully once your increased income kicks in you’ll be able to plan and feel like you’re making forward strides
LMD x

Makingabobor2

Thanks @LittleMissDetermined, I'm sure I will. 
The food prices really are mad, aren't they? They go up almost weekly & not just by 1or 2% either. My favourite...salmon, has now become a luxury. 

2Scratters

@Makingabobor2 you have got this far and the light is at the end of the tunnel. The price rises in food are astronomical. Items seem to be going up 10p each a week. I don't supermarket shop weekly as I try to stay away for as long as I can to make money go further. I really need to hit the oven and do more baking as a backup. We have a gas oven and is a lot cheaper to use that electric also it doubles up as a heat source too.
 I have only the other day looked at some financial numbers to see the viability of retiring earlier. Looking like we could manage. We need to go down to 1 vehicle within 12 months when our house jobs have been completed. 

2 Scratters xx

Sun_Addict

Hopefully once you start getting the pension things will look a lot better. 

EssexHebridean

That's exciting about being able to claim your pension - and yes, it should make a difference to how secure you feel financially shouldn't it. 

Makingabobor2

Well I'm still here and my diary is still pretty boring. But maybe boring is good, as maybe that means nothing bad is happening. 
I've started to sort out a few things of how I'm going to pay things off and save going forward after next month, so once its finalised in my book, I will let you know. 

Today was grocery shopping. I swear it goes up more & more each week, can't keep up with it.  But on the plus side, I managed to stick to my list, and spent £6 less than budget. 
An extra £10 overpayment off the mortgage today, will be glad when the OP's look like £200 + every month.  Of course the interest rate rise will mean the mortgage payments go up again, but as we don't have that much left to pay now, and I know we will be better off from next month, I have stopped worrying about it. No point worrying about something you can do nothing about. 

After I'd been shopping I went for a wander round one of the big local garden centres....a national chain that begins with a D and rhymes with hobbies!  To think that back in my "spendy" days I would have enjoyed walking round there and probably spent a fortune.  Now I just thought how expensive everything was and can't wait to go to the small independent one another day to actually buy a few "cheap" plants. There is also a local lady I follow on FB who has massive allotments and sells plants through FB, so hoping she has some stuff come up soon.  Last year I got courgettes from her and some lovely flowers. Will be glad when this weather improves and I can spend more time in the garden. 

Surveys slow at the moment, Tuesday was quite good, but nothing much since then. 
Must get into this receipt scanning thing. 

Well I need to get off and prepare dinner now. 
Hope everyone is doing ok. 

Makingabobor2

Had a couple more studies on P/fc today, so that's moving in the right direction. Just waiting for it to approve, but got just over £10 waiting now. Had a couple on 1/P*ll as well, so that's building up nicely to my 2nd cash out with them.  Q/m* is very slow at the moment, I can't be bothered to do long ones that only pay about 15p. And the others are just rubbish at the moment, but I'll keep plodding on
Going to get the receipt scanning apps installed this weekend. 

Did a mortgage overpayment calculate today and I reckon we should be able to be MF by June 2025 with any luck, which is a year off what it should be. Maybe even quicker.  And as for the big debts, I'm hoping with some of the F&F offers they have been making recently, that we have had to ignore at the moment, I think we could hopefully get rid of all of that by at least 2026, but that's not an exact calculation yet.  Obviously there are a lot of things that could impact on that, making it both shorter or longer. 
Sometime over the next couple of weeks I intend to sit down and do a really good savings/debt busting budget for July onwards. Quite exciting really. 

Not much else to report, weather is a bit rubbish, so hoping the weekend improves. 

Blackcats

good news on mortgage and debt pay off potential timeline.
I've just started doing surveys - it gets quite addictive building up the total.  It is helping me think about the effort of earning of money v the ease/speed of spending that money.  

I also wonder if the MSE'rs on here are sometimes all working away on the same surveys!