The Final Bite of the Cherry- Journey to Clear £66k

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Yesterday was a better day....NSD number 3 completed and nothing should make me need to spend anything today. Cashed out £6.15 from Prolific and I'm 2p away from being able to cash out again this evening, so hopefully some studies get approved today. I have already completed £3.67 worth of studies this morning.

The kitchen payment went out this morning, add that to my £20 work payment and thats £316.16 coming off the total today. That means the current debt total now stands at £58,980.30. Its coming down and to think when I started this journey in December at £66k, it feels like quite an achievement.

Half hour until I leave for work, I better get a move on.

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Another NSD yesterday taking me to 4 in a row this week. Another £7.11 cashed out from Prolific too. Turning out to be a good week on there as I managed to nab a £10 survey last night, that hasn't cashed out yet though. I'm pondering whether I should be putting this money straight to debt, at the moment I am putting it to next months bill payments. Even if its £50 a month, it will be an extra £600 a year.

Last day going out to work today, I'll be working from home tomorrow. I then have a trip to London on the weekend as my BIL is running the London Marathon. It's all budgeted for though.

Nothing else to report here so have a good day everyone.

Jrcoal5

Sounds like prolific is going great! And well done on your NSDs, your doing amazing with your debts coming down, hope your uncle and your Nan are both ok xx

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So today, we did a thing....something that was not at all money saving. The new Disney offers came out and I couldn't resist. A 14 day trip booked for next April. We pretty much have a year exactly to save. I have done the math and I'm pretty confident we can do it while still paying off the debt at a steady rate.

A few bills came out today. The internet had gone up by £3.17, I'm pretty sure I have had no correspondence about that so I had to move some money around on YNAB to cover the overspend. I am still loving YNAB, one of the goals in YNAB is to get a month ahead so that you can cover all next months bills with this months pay. I am currently able to cover half and hoping to cover the other half gradually over the next few months.

Another £11.50 cashed out on Prolific but was very quiet last night so there won't be much coming from there over the next couple of days.

Jrcoal5

Congratulations on booking your holiday! Very excited for you! I do think a balance is the best way to go long term, you have to live while chipping off the debt, we have always booked holidays early to as it give time to budget to pay for it xx

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5.15am and I have been up an hour already. We leave at 6:45 to make our way to London. This will no doubt be a speedy weekend. I budgeted £250 for the entire weekend for the 2 of us. I'm hoping I over estimated how much we need but somehow I doubt it.

The money in the budget is running pretty low now, as its my first month budgeting properly I know next month I need to allow extra for some categories but the good thing is, I know where every penny has gone this month and that really is a first.

I better get myself in the shower and get ready to go. Have a great weekend!

Jrcoal5

Have a lovely weekend in London, and Massive well done on the budget xx

outoftheviciouscircle

What a weekend, it was amazing watching the marathon but never again do I want to encounter London on this weekend. The crowds were horrendous, we were packed on trains like cattle and to top it off we have spent a small fortune. Currently looking at a £250 overspend in my London category, although I do seem to have a couple of transactions showing twice (I'll keep an eye on them) and my sister owes me some money, not sure how much.

My brother in law completed the marathon in just over 5 hours, we are so proud, the most he had run was 15 miles and he was really nervous about whether he would finish. The atmosphere was amazing and I'm glad I experienced that. I'm lying in my hotel bed and my ankles are killing. I have done 60,000 steps in 2 days and covered 24 miles. I'm so glad I booked today off work too.
We will make our way back home about 11am after taking our time a bit this morning. Looking forward to seeing the fur baby. I do miss her after a few days away, although I'm not sure she feels the same after a few days with Nanny biscuits.

Have a good day everyone.

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I missed my update yesterday. First time in a while, work was so busy I came home exhausted.

By the time my sister gave me what she owed me for spends around London, the overspend came in at £97. Thats not so bad as I hadn't banked on the tube costing us nearly £30 each as we had to go so far out of central London to the Marathon start. I will be able to easily cover this but was hoping to have some money to roll over to next month.

The current situation with 5 days to go is

• £56.21/£400 left in work expenses- I get these fully reimbursed but I'm trying to budget for them in advance and will use the payment next week to cover Mays expenses. I may need another tank of fuel though so this will be fully spent.
• £112.95/£250 left for personal fuel- DH has been working just a mile away for the majority of April so that has saved us loads. Not sure what his fuel situation is but at most he will need £60 of that.
• £13.42/£250 left in groceries. Now this is tight. There is next to nothing in the house, we've practically eaten all the freezer but if I end up over thats still a massive achievement compared to my usual grocery spend.

Other achievements include that I have money put aside for those things that don't happen monthly, I have categories for car maintenance (Just DH mine is a company car), Logs for the fire when we need them, makeup and cosmetics, pet food, haircuts and home improvements. All these things would have previously just ended up on credit. I'm so grateful I found YNAB.

Prolific was good to me on Monday, not so much yesterday. I cashed out £17.06 on Monday and I currently have £25.85 waiting to cash out. I have decided that extra money will go to debt from May 1st otherwise I am not really doing anything about getting debt free sooner just plodding along with the minimums to clear it before 0% deals run out.

I think, I've gone on long enough now.... Let's get ready for work.

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Not a lot to report again today. Its been a long week in work, its really busy and its keeping me distracted.

Only 3 full days to get through until may 1st and another week till payday. Budgeting well has meant i'm not waiting on that pay hitting the bank but I'm too excited to start categorising it ready for next month (sad I know).

£14.74 from Prolific today, thats going to the London overspend. Another £84 to find by the end of the month.