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

peb

The budgeting seems to be going really well but you may want to revisit the food budget,   I have seen the cost of my usual weekly shop nearly double and whilst pre covid £100 a month for one was plenty now £150 is more realistic.

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peb said:

The budgeting seems to be going really well but you may want to revisit the food budget,   I have seen the cost of my usual weekly shop nearly double and whilst pre covid £100 a month for one was plenty now £150 is more realistic.

The grocery budget had been really tight and next month I have increased it to £350. We have so far survived this week on £18 but we had plenty of bits and pieces in the freezer. Now the freezer is practically empty.

outoftheviciouscircle

Last day of the working week. I'm usually home by 1pm on a Friday and then have an afternoon of admin. DH is on day off today so I may just save the admin for tomorrow morning when he's working.

Theres not much on todays to do list, I will probably do an online shop to be delivered on Monday. As I've mentioned the grocery budget was far too tight so I've upped that next month. That will give us £85 a week, which in all honesty we probably won't need but I'd rather have the money left at the end of the month that scrimp like we have this week.

I'll spend the weekend looking for anyway I can to make that last £84 to cover the London overspend. I have categories I can take from but I really wanted that to go towards the debt. I don't suppose its the end of the world if it doesn't though.

Right I better get going if I want to get home early. Have a good day everyone.

Jrcoal5

First time in ages we actually have £16 left in our food budget, I think that’s only because I’ve stopped stocking up to run everything down in the run up to moving have a great bank holiday weekend x

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That was me this month. I am now at the point that there is nothing in the freezer I could make a meal out of. We had chicken nuggets and chips last night. I don't even know when I would have bought chicken nuggets unless DH picked them up to have as something quick and easy when I was working away.

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I'm still awaiting payday next week so theres nothing exciting happening in the world of debt paying.

I had to do an online shop last night, I was going to get it delivered in Monday as the grocery budget resets on then but I suppose due to the bank holiday it wasn't taking off the delivery (I have an annual delivery saver) so I had to opt for Sunday. I've taken £50 I had assigned to groceries in May and put it into April as I won't need to buy more until at least 8th May.

I have also covered the London overspend by moving any money I had assigned after payday. If you have never used YNAB that may not make sense but I had already covered some bills that weren't due to leave my account until over a week after payday. I will now just use the pay when that arrives next week. I don't have a big, red banner saying I have an overspent category at the top of the page now.

I have decided that any extra money or money left at the end of the month will go towards paying my FIL back We owe him £10,000 and he doesn't want it back in dribs and drabs, he wants it when we have it all and has put no pressure on us to pay it back but would ideally want it in the next 2 years. So small progress but I have currently put £14.85 towards that.

Prolific has been so bad to me all week, I have a fair bit pending thats not currently paying but theres been hardly any studies this week. I had a letter from the food standards agency yesterday saying our address had been selected to complete a questionnaire, I would have normally ignored this but there was a £10 Love to Shop voucher for each person that completed it so myself and DH did that. It didn't take too long either. 

Okay, I think I've gone on enough for this time of the morning. 

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It's a very early morning for me today. I have to go to work, its the first Sunday I've had to work since I took this job so I can't grumble about that. I do however have a 3 hour commute each way so it will probably be getting up to 8 o'clock when I get in.

Today is also the day I have been waiting for......I get to do all of my end of month stuff in YNAB, so I'll finally be able to see what I have actually managed to save this month. I have a transaction that will go through today so I'll do that when I get home. I have a shop being delivered this afternoon and treated myself to a bottle of wine so it'll be a rock and roll evening. That reminds me text DH to make sure he doesn't go out between 5-6.

The budgeting has also been good for my alcohol intake, I've gone from polishing off 3 bottles a week to just 1 which isn't so bad. While I don't consider myself to have a problem, I'd often have a glass at the end of the day to wind down and I feel I'm sleeping better too.

I'm off to start my day, will check in later once the finances are done.

outoftheviciouscircle

Yesterday was a long day, my legs were aching by the time I got in and I couldn't wait to get to bed.

The month ended with £115.02 left over. I have ever paid enough notice to my outgoings before to know if this is good or not, but I'm going to take a guess that it was good as that £115.02 has gone straight to the debt and I haven't paid extra off at the end of the month before today.

£20 has been paid off what I owe my ex employer today so the total debt now stands at 58,782.65. At this rate it will take over 3 years to pay this off but I'm kind of digging my heals in as I was mad at how my employment ended after 23 years. A payment will be sent to the credit card at the end of the week, (Payday Thursday) which will take the total down to the next £000 bracket again. With a bit of luck, it'll be into the £40k's by Christmas. That will be nice!!

Today is a day in the garden, we still have a huge pile of mud outside the back door that needs to be put in the skip, we've put it off long enough now!

Jrcoal5

Well done on having money left at the end of that month that is a brilliant achievement! Hope it goes well in the garden it’s just started to rain here although not as cold as it has been which is nice xx

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Thanks @Jrcoal5 although the gardening was not an experience I enjoyed, shovelling piles of mud into a wheelbarrow for hours on end.

I'm up early again, I have a 3 hour drive back to Wolverhampton today although this time I'm there until Friday. I topped up on Diesel while I was there on Friday. It was 15p a litre cheaper that way than it is here and I'll probably do the same before I come home.

A standing order has left my account to my mother this morning so thats another £200 coming off the total and a PAD of £6.75 from a Prolific payout yesterday. I'll see how the Padding goes this month. Like I said before, it feels like once I've made all my payments the beginning of the month, I'm not really doing anything to help decrease the figure.

Time to get this day started. Have a good day everyone.