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

outoftheviciouscircle

It is so hard to keep on track but this is the longest I've kept a diary going so I will stick at it until that debt figure is zero!! Glad to see you are of the same mindset!

I missed yesterdays check in but at least it was for a good reason. I didn't end up staying overnight in London, I decided to just make the drive home last night so I could sleep in my own bed. I regretted it half way when I got stuck in traffic and a 3 hour journey ended up taking me 5.5 hours, which is why I didn't check in, but seeing the weather today, I'm glad I'm not driving all that way today. 

Today the payment has gone out for the kitchen so thats another £296 off the total debt (will update signature later). I have a few overspent categories in YNAB that I am hoping to clear with some survey money and MS that are due to hit my account over the next few days. I anticipate October to be a month of firefighting and then I'll be fully on track again by November.

It's payday for myself and DH on Thursday, as we are paid 4 weekly, the gap between that payday and my 2nd income which is paid monthly is getting bigger and bigger which makes it that little bit harder to plan. I am due close to £800 in expenses as well next month but that will purely just cover what I've spent being away for the last month. Oh and my pay rise will hit my October pay, it wasn't a massive pay rise but will cover off 1 or 2 bills.

Right, up to shower and then catch up on the next episode of Neighbours!!

Jrcoal5

Oh I love payday! For about 5 minutes then it’s all allotted to pots and I await the next one haha I am monthly paid and my husband is weekly paid so it takes a bit of working out to, that drive home sounds a real pain but glad your home now x

outoftheviciouscircle

@Jrcoal5 you are so right. Payday has been and gone this morning. 
October is going to be more about getting back on track rather than debt busting. We have been spending far too much on groceries considering I have been away most of the week every week. I have had to add another £100 to September's pot even though I'm certain we shouldn't need all that.
£200 is going in DH petrol pot every month but only about £140 of that seems to be getting used so thats good. We tend to use my car for running around as its a lot better on fuel than his and my milage is just about covered by my expenses.
I other news, I've had £35 of amazon vouchers this week, £30 for when I joined First Direct and another £5 as they sent an other through for if I added it to my Apple Pay.

Tomorrow night I have a night out with the girls I went to school with. The 4 of us have a 35 year friendship now but I feel so bad for just spending money!! I know I shouldn't and I've been thinking of excuses in my head why I shouldn't go. I really need to stop spending money seem like a bad thing!

Well I better get on with my work. Only 2 days left this week and 7 more weeks to holidays!

Have a good day everyone.

PennysIntoPounds

Keeping track of finances is for being able to have nice times!  Can you make some money saving decisions around it, like eating at home beforehand, choosing less expensive drinks, travelling a cheaper route or at cheaper times, that sort of thing?

outoftheviciouscircle

We are not eating out luckily, it is just a boozy night out, although pre drinks are from 6-830pm so I doubt I'll want much more when I'm out lol!!
I'm sharing a taxi with my friends so all in all it shouldn't be too expensive and we only do it once a year so, I should just go out and enjoy myself!!

outoftheviciouscircle

Well what a weekend. My night out on Friday ended up a non starter and not because it was cancelled but because I was a complete numpty. Got myself all glammed up knocked my friends door at 6pm and couldn't get an answer. Drop a message to our group chat to find out where everyone is and its NEXT Friday!! It was all very funny to the girls and DH, so home I went with my bottle of wine, drank that all glammed up in my PJ's!!!

Its has not been a very MSE weekend. DH has finally started on the last room of the house, the dining room. I've been insistent I want it done before my sisters 40th next month so I can hold a little gathering for her. I didn't plan for all the bits and pieces he would need to complete this, so now I've found myself looking for £200. On the bright side I won't have a door closed all the time because I don't want to see whats behind it.

Today is just a finishing off the housework and doing the work for my second job. My sister is taking us out for dinner this evening although DH isn't happy about that as he wants to watch the rugby!!

Have a good day everyone!!

Jrcoal5

Ohhh that’s a nightmare getting the week wrong, I’m so sorry it did make me chuckle! Glad your getting the dining room finished that will be lovely for you xx

outoftheviciouscircle

I can't believe I did it. It took me all week to talk myself into going and now I find myself doing it again this week!!

Today, I got paid for a couple of mystery shops. I think thats them all paid out now, I think an extended break is needed and now I've taken on the other extra work I'm sure we can manage.
I've managed a couple of Prolific surveys this evening, about £8 worth so not a bad evening in front of the tv. Speaking of the tv, the payment went out today so thats another £27 off the debt.

Don't think theres really anything else to report. I'm counting down the weeks to holidays now. It was 7 weeks yesterday and as of next Tuesday should have all my spending money too!!

Hope you all have a good week.

outoftheviciouscircle

Hey everyone, its been nearly a week already again but I have had a really productive week.
I reset my budget on YNAB, I think its been a little unrealistic and caused me to lose motivation, just little things like there being no wiggle room for the odd takeaway or meal out and if we did any of these then we had to go short on something else.
What I did find though was that I had categories that I have been adding money to every month and they just wound up with too much money in them. Sounds a bit strange saying that but as a little example the cosmetic and toiletries category had wound up with nearly £400 in it. Theres no way we will need all, so I took all that money from the categories that I felt had a bit too much in them and paid a chunk off the Sainsburys credit card. A total of £1933.09 taking the total debt figure to below £50k. Theres a '4' in front now and its really given me the motivation I needed.
I did also treat us to some Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party tickets for when we go to Florida next month. Yay, thats next month now!!!

Doing the Math, next year we need to pay back my FIL and the Sainsburys card needs to be cleared before September. Add the minimum payments and there should be another £25k paid off by the end of 2024. I keep thinking, another 2 years of watching the pennies and we can really start saving hard.

I'm cooking dinner for my sister and BIL today and its time I set the veg to boil so I best get on with that. Enjoy your Sunday!!

outoftheviciouscircle

Starting off with a bit of a lazy day today, I say lazy, I've taken the dog out. I really need to lose about a stone before my holidays and its not going very well at all so I'm trying to be active everyday in October and trying the 16:8 diet to see if that makes any difference.

A few direct debits have come out today but theres another £200 coming out tomorrow so I will wait to update my totals then.
I had a really busy week on Prolific last week, did close to £35 worth of surveys but still waiting for around £10 of that to be approved. The Mystery Shopping has been curbed for now and I did feel so much better having a weekend where I didn't need to be some where by a certain time and just relaxing.

DH had a message from a tree surgeon yesterday saying he was cutting some trees down a couple of miles up the road from us and asked if he wanted the wood. Dh jumped at it, made a couple of trips to get it but says that what he got is worth about £160 and the man is there all week. He didn't want anything for it so DH bought him a crate of beer that he really appreciated. We should have enough wood to be good for a couple of winters now. He just needs to chop it all up.

Time to get myself ready for work now, so have a good day!!