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

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Back to work today........grgh. I only have 2 days until I have another 4 day weekend so that's not too bad.

I've been awake all night with a scratchy throat, that's just let my mind going into overdrive thinking of all the things I want to achieve next year. I have so many goals in my head...pay the debt down, lose weight, get my 10,000 steps in a day. I even read a diary on here, someone had started couch to 5k, that made me want to start it. My exercise levels have changed drastically over the last 6 months. I changed jobs in July and went from having 10k steps by 7am to barely getting 4k a day. The stationary life style has definitely caused a bit of extra poundage I don't want and not the good sort of pounds either.
Living out of a hotel makes it difficult to move. Sometimes the areas I work in are not too good and its dark when I finish work so venturing out for a little walk is not something I want to do. I used to do some YouTube work outs which I could easily set up on my laptop, so maybe I'll give that a go this week.

I think I'll make a pasta bake for dinner, so I need to buy some sausages, onions and mushrooms for that apart from that I'm hoping I don't need to spend anything else.

Other things to achieve today

• £5 worth of surveys 
• Complete Tax return
• Update my work expenses

Have a good day everyone.

WinterWarrior

I struggle with steps with my desk job too. It’s so difficult and I never want to get up even earlier or waste my evening…it’s not easy. If you find a way, please let me know 😁

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Yesterday kind of got away from me. I have come down with the flu from absolutely nowhere. From feeling like having a bit of a scratchy throat on Tuesday night to developing a horrible cough and full body aches yesterday. I came to bed at 7pm last night, although I don't know why I bothered as it feels like I've practically been awake all night.
Things I wanted to achieve yesterday

• £5 worth of surveys (Only managed £2)
• Complete Tax return (done, bill was bigger than I thought but luckily I put aside some of my money from self employment every month)
• Update my work expenses (Didn't complete- moves onto todays list)

The surveys are always pretty slow on Prolific around the holidays so hopefully that will pick back up again next week. I have £41 awaiting cash out but I'm leaving it there until the last day of January so that it feels like I'm making a bigger dent in the credit card.

I made a pasta bake for dinner yesterday. Spent £3.43 on the ingredients I didn't have. I had a 40p off meat coupon and 20p off veg plus DH's 30% staff discount so saved over £2.50 and its easily made us 2 lunches each as well for this week.
My pot also arrived for my £2 collection. It was oddly satisfying putting £40 in there knowing I couldn't get it out unless I bake the pot. The aim is to fill it will £2 coins, not sure how much it will hold but I'm guessing around £500.

Today is a work day. I have to take my car for a service at 9am, its a company car so luckily that doesn't cost me a penny and I get paid to sit in the garage and wait 3 hours for it. There are some pharmacies (I work for a large pharmacy chain), I could visit within a 30 minute walk but I'm not sure I'm feeling it with this cough and aches plus the weather sounds horrendous. I haven't got out of bed to look yet.

To do today

• Update work expenses (no excuse if I'm just sat around)
• £5 worth of surveys
• Meal plan so I can finalise Tesco delivery for Monday

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What a wipe out today is!! I am feeling completely bowled over by this cold/flu whatever it is.
DH convinced me to go out for breakfast even though I really wasn't in the mood but I've told him the little treats stop on the 1st so I didn't protest too much. So that was £15.10 and I actually managed to eat quite a bit of it. Popped into Asda on the way home and picked up a couple of essentials that we'd run out of totalling £9.35 but them items were then knocked off my Tesco delivery for Monday. Tesco delivery is £41.04, that includes lunches for both of us next week and dinners for DH as I'm working away Tuesday-Friday next week. Total grocery spend for week 1 of January is £50.39. We will not need anything else next week so that's bringing me nicely on track for £200 for the month.

Yesterday was a good day. Completed a total of £9.05 of surveys, a lot of which have paid out already. I had thought I would build all the survey money up over the month and make a big payment off the debt at the end of the month, however I joined the payment a day and the people in it seem really motivated by it so I think I may give that a go for January at least to see if it offers me any motivation. 

I need to revisit my SOA. I realised I've made a couple of errors in it, like we are both paid 4 weekly rather than monthly so I need to work our income out on a monthly basis rather than 4 weekly. Its nice to get paid 4 weekly but it does take a little working out come payday to see what direct debits are coming out before the next pay. I also forgot to add a debt I have to my old employer. I over took my holidays and got hit with a bill of £768. They have accepted token payment and are happy to not chase for it as long as I make a minimum payment of £20 per month. This is at 0% too. I would like to pay this off as soon as possible but after 23 years being employed with them they treated me like absolute rubbish at the end so I feel like I want to make them wait.

Not a lot else to report today. Tomorrow we have an early dinner booked at Miller and Carter. We do this every NYE. We spend some of our Christmas money to fund this. Then we just go home have a couple of drinks and usually end up asleep before midnight. I'm just hoping I feel a little better, I won't be convinced to go out for an expensive meal I won't enjoy. I'd rather just save it for another time.

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I can barely believe it. We've been so naive to our debt!!
We had a loan off my mother 7 years ago for £40,000. If I'm honest, we didn't need the money but she had lent my sister £40k to enable her to get on the property ladder and didn't want me to feel put out in anyway. Well low and behold a year later we were married in Disneyworld and had upsized from our 2 bed semi to a 4 bed detached.
We pay my mother back £200 a month, she won't take anymore as this is what my sister gives her and says if anything was to happen to her then we have both had the same. At this rate we will be paying her back for another 10 years but looking at the debt figure, I can't see us paying the other debts off for another 6 years. I will have a good look through the figures and work out an estimated debt free date.

In the mean time, I can't even decide if I can bring myself to post my updated SOA

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I'm feeling a lot better after the washout that was yesterday. I managed just £3.00 in surveys, I think that will probably be it until Tuesday but I'll keep checking. I'll also look at switching my Santander bank account. I have  this bank account for no reason other than to switch it when some good offers come around and I haven't looked for a while.
I need to get on with a bit of cleaning today while DH is in work. I'm working away next week so need my clothes washed and ironed for Monday. I'm not superstitious at all but my Nan has always said if you wash on NYD then you wash away your luck for next year. I can never bring myself to do a wash for this reason.

After seeing a total debt figure of £66,000 yesterday, I'm surprisingly still excited about the year ahead. If I pay the minimums I would be debt free in 2030. At the moment, my hope is to be debt free in 4 years, so a long road ahead.

We spend month to month on a Virgin Atlantic credit card. This is always paid off in full every month but I'm very aware that's its not giving us awareness that we are low on money so from tomorrow we are both having an 'allowance' of £50 a month cash and once its gone its gone. We will continue to put groceries, fuel and my work expenses on the card but that is it. I've told DH, if he can't be bothered to make lunch to take to work, if he needs to buy something it comes from his £50. I'm hoping that will make him more bothered. We have 110,000 air miles and 2 companion or upgrade vouchers on the account just not the funds to actually go somewhere.

I'm loving taking time to read all these inspirational diaries on here. One this morning reminded me that I have a perk with work whereby I can buy vouchers at a discounted price, I'm going to log into that now and see if I can get some Tesco vouchers before my shop is submitted. It may only be 2% but over 52 weeks that'll soon add up.

Nothing else to report for now, so if I don't check in again, Happy New Year To Everyone!!!

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Happy new year everyone. Just wanted to pop my head in even though I'm not going to complete a full entry (I'm far too full from my mother NYD dinner. But when I started this diary, I wanted to ensure it was a daily thing for  accountability.
I'll be back in the morning with todays successes.

AntoMac

I use Perks at Work too @outoftheviciouscircle
Definitely worth doing and it does add up. I tend to save up the Wow points and eventually the shopping is free, and the £50:saved is paid off of the mortgage.
Look forward to seeing you joining us regularly on the PAD thread 

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AntoMac said:

I use Perks at Work too @outoftheviciouscircle
Definitely worth doing and it does add up. I tend to save up the Wow points and eventually the shopping is free, and the £50:saved is paid off of the mortgage.
Look forward to seeing you joining us regularly on the PAD thread 

@A@AntoMac I really hope I get as addicted to PADing as everyone else does in the thread as I really need to make a massive dent in this debt. I really do plan to be a regular poster.
I looked at my Perks at work and I don't get a discount for online shopping only if I go Instore and I'm trying to avoid that this year as I don't want to be picking anything up that I don't really need. I managed to complete my weekly shop for just over £40 this week. That would have easily been closer to £70 if I'd been to the supermarket.

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This last week has flown by and I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm actually looking forward to a bit of normality in life.
Tomorrow, I travel to Plymouth for 3 nights. I have bought bits and pieces to take with me for lunch, so I have no need to spend on lunches while I'm away. I get a £25 a night meal allowance from work and its very rare I need to go over that and breakfast is always included, although I do need to start looking at what I'm eating. I weighed yesterday and I'm at least 2 stone overweight. I lost over a stone with SW last year but that's not an option for me while I work away now. I've decided I just need to make better choices and I'll way once a month not to put pressure on myself.

Money wise- I have paid a total of £197.44 in extra payments the last 2 days. I know its not much but it did see the total debt figure fall into the next £1000 bracket so that was really motivating. Tomorrow some of the regular payments will leave my account so that will be added to the total.

I have declared 2 NSD for this month, I'm hoping to get to at least 7 by the weekend, I've added another £20 to the £2 coin pot and I have about £170 saved already for next Christmas. My thinking is that I will speak to the family about cutting down on the present buying next year. I have a pile of stuff to put away still from Christmas and its stuff that will go away never to be used. I'd much rather they save their money or maybe we could just go for a big family dinner instead.

As for today, firstly I need to get myself off my laptop and out of bed. I'm still not feeling 100% and can't seem to find the motivation to move. I have set myself the goal of ensuring I complete 10,000 steps everyday and close all the rings on my Apple Watch so I'll try and get out and take the pooch for a walk. The fresh air will do me good. I managed this yesterday so I'd hate to fall off the wagon on day 2. Actually typing this has made me want to do it.

I can't see any surveys coming down on a bank holiday although I'm not sure if its a BH in America so I'll keep checking just in case.

Things I want to achieve today

• 10,000 steps
• Wash and dry the bedding
• List my old Fitbit on Facebook market place