We will get this debt down & the savings up

ladyholly

Sticking the paper strip together was always the start of Christmas when I was little. My sister and I seemed to make miles of them. I do remember the colours were quite muted unlike the decorations of today.

Makingabobor2

ladyholly said:

Sticking the paper strip together was always the start of Christmas when I was little. My sister and I seemed to make miles of them. I do remember the colours were quite muted unlike the decorations of today.

Yes we spent hours making sticky paper chains. Decorations have certainly chsnged over the years

Makingabobor2

Well not updated for a couple of days. Not much happening really, just plodding along making a bit of money here & there, saving a bit in various pots attached to my account & paying bits off as we can.  So my diary is a bit boring.
A few good sales on FB MP over last few days, which has been really helpful. Not sure if I have much more I can find to sell, will have another clear out & see. 
Tomorrow I need to do an online delivery order, order a small cheap present for DH ( even though we said we weren't doing presents for each other) & order some vouchers for GKs. DH's present will be cheap & useful. 
 CCs has been rubbish lately  but liking my latest discovery....Q**e. Much better than CC at the moment. Cashed out from P/fc tonight & also Q,**e. Also C/lgy, but that one takes a while, so is in cyber space on its way to PP.

Makingabobor2

So my question of the day is: 
Do you think its right to be saving for holidays, when you actually have debt?   And if so, should I declare savings for said holiday as a PAD?  

Will try and update a bit more later on, need to get a bit of a shift on this morning, as still in my PJs and got things to do. 
Stay warm everybody. 

Sun_Addict

We still went on holidays when we had debt to pay off. You never know what’s around the corner so you need to also enjoy life. I can’t advise about the PAD though. 

Makingabobor2

Sun_Addict said:

We still went on holidays when we had debt to pay off. You never know what’s around the corner so you need to also enjoy life. I can’t advise about the PAD though. 

That's very true. We have been on a few cheap breaks the last few years, but sometimes I get this pang of guilt & think I could have put that £££ towards the debt. But we all need something to look forward to

Makingabobor2

Afternoon all. What a bitterly cold couple of days it has been, hope everyone is keeping warm. I have to confess to having the heating on for most of the day today, but thermostat is turned down low, but the pump does seem to have been going for hours and doesn't seem to get to temperature very quickly when its so cold.  Thermostat is in the lounge at bottom of stairs though, so stupid place for it really as the heat all goes upstairs anyway. The rest of the house is warm, but lounge is always cold. 

So on the finance front, things are ticking along nicely.  I'm so glad I have put things on my signature ( although I might be altering it a bit), its so nice to see the savings going up.....slowly and the debts coming down....even more slowly....     I find it very motivating.    I said that I wanted to get the mortgage down to below £30K before the 31st Dec when the next DD is due. That means I will have to make another £80 in over payments for that to happen. Fingers crossed, but not sure if it will happen. Don't know how good surveys will be with Christmas coming up. But I shall keep on as best I can and see how it goes.  I'm also still trying to save little bits in my F&F pot so that we can try and get some good settlements next year. Again that is coming along slowly....but they say slow & steady wins the race and I know we will get there in the end.  

Well on the Christmas front, all done except for a couple of vouchers to buy and waiting on couple of parcels to arrive. Got the decorations up last weekend, and was going to start on the Christmas films, but we never got round to it. So this weekend we will make a start. Need to get in the Christmas mood. Hoping the weather won't be too bad so we will be able to get out. Nothing worse than stopping in all over a 3 day weekend. 

Well best get on...things to do. Have a good evening everyone. 

Makingabobor2

Morning, another cold day, but warmer weather is on the horizon thank goodness.  Dread to think what our energy bill will look like when we take our reading this week. Still we have to keep warm, and not getting ill by being cold, so "what will be, will be". We are currently in credit, so hoping we haven't made too much of a big dent in it.

Today is DH's payday, he still gets paid weekly at his company. So various amounts have been transferred to little savings pots. I have quite a few and am pleased to say that this last few months, they are actually getting filled (although slowly) and not being "borrowed" from.   Also the good news is that the holiday we booked for next summer is slowly getting paid off as well. So I am actually contemplating booking something else as well. We said any money that DH's parents give us at Christmas (they always do), will go towards the holiday. That is how we paid the deposit, with money they gave us for our anniversary.  So although the other day I was concerned if it was a good or bad thing to book holidays when you are in debt, I have decided that it is fine as long as everything else is getting paid, which it is. We have to live, don't we?  And as @Sun_Addict said, we never know what's round the corner.  Think I realised that last year when someone we knew well, just collapsed and died at 47 yrs old with a brain bleed. It certainly does put your life in perspective.  From next July we know we will be getting a lot more income, so that is going to help no end with getting things paid off quicker and savings up as well.  

Surveys have been a bit slow yesterday, although Tuesday was a good day.  But I am way over what my target showed for this time of the month, so very grateful for that. 

Well, I must get the kitchen tidied up ready for Mr S delivery, decided it was way too cold to go out and get the shopping, plus didn't really want to be exposed to people coughing and sneezing everywhere and supermarkets will be mega busy this week. 

Have a good day everybody and thanks for reading as always. 

LittleMissDetermined

I think you always need holidays and it's one thing I have always continued to do, provided that it's saved for and not put on a credit card.  They give you something to look forward to and definitely a break from reality! 

Have you noticed you are 'borrowing' less from pots due to having the diary and focusing more on debt? That's what happened to me and it really helps keep me on track... which is why I post regardless of who is reading  
LMD x

Makingabobor2

Yes I think that's it @LittleMissDetermined, having to account for your savings, makes you not want to borrow from them. Also the fact that I now have the surveys on the go for the last 3 months, that has helped tremendously. I just wish I'd realised sooner just how good they were. I remember several years ago, having a go at some surveys and they were rubbish. So glad I came on here to find the good ones and follow everybody's tips. 
I have other saving pots, to the ones I mention in my signature, but no point putting those in as they will go up & down a lot as things are used, so seeing them go down is deflating....dentist, insurances, prescriptions etc. But I am declaring them as a PAD

Yes you are right about the holiday. I am tempted to book something "Big" for 2024, but can't bring myself to do it. WE nwere going to have something "big" this year as it was a big anniversary and a big birthday, but we ended up doing a cheap caravan and then a cheap lodge last month. We'll see how things pan out.