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

Baileys_Babe

Well done on having money left in your Christmas pot after shopping for Christmas.

The reward cards totals will help considerably with your future costs.

Looking forward to reading your future posts.

AuntieL

This is the first year I’ve saved ahead for birthdays and Christmas. Like you, I’m going to continue doing this. It’s such a good feeling not using my credit card and building up debt. 

outoftheviciouscircle

Sunday again!! I have so much today, but it's so cold I just haven't get the get up and go to get me out of my warm bed this morning.
I've been laid here finalising Novembers numbers and we didn't do bad in all fairness. Although not a massive amount, we carried £21.00 over to December. I'm not going to grumble about that given the time of year. Theres still £65 in the Christmas pot with only my nan left to buy for. I have the dreaded wrapping to do this afternoon.
Prolific has been decent to me this month, although I am not checking it so often so I may well be missing a lot. I am looking at using the extra cash to pay off my laptop early. I've decided getting rid of some of the smaller debts may be the way to go. Theres only £286 on that and at the moment it's hanging on until next September.
I am back working in Newcastle this week, 2 more weeks away and then I'll be back home for Christmas for a couple. It was a nightmare coming home from there on Friday, it snowed over night on the Thursday and the roads were not good at all, it took close to 8 hours to get back. It feels like, I've barely been home and now it's time to go back again. 

My expenses and my 2nd income are due to be paid on Tuesday and I have another 10 days to go until main payday but all in all the money is not looking bad for this time of year.
Have a great Sunday everyone.

outoftheviciouscircle

Its been 3 weeks since my last update, so hello diary!!
Christmas is also the time when I reflect back on the year rather than new year and really looking back 2023 wasn't too bad. From a financial perspective, the debt has not been added to at all and about £20,000 has been cleared. This diary is a massive part of that and while I have slacked with it over the past 4 month, the seed had been planted and spending less has become a habit. This is probably at least diary number 4 and has survived the longest and the commitment is to keep in going in 2024.

It's been a hectic few months. I have been working away constantly and its hard going. I don't eat well, don't exercise and it put put a toll on my weight which is making me really unhappy at the moment. the end isn't in site for the working away but I'm going to have to find a way to eat better and move more. I love my job but the amount of time its taking me away from home is too much now. This has become a major incentive to clear the debt as I don't want to be changing jobs when I still have this much debt. Main reason being, my job comes with a company car and I would need a new one then!!

Changing the tune, today is hectic. I'm not hosting Christmas put have found myself in charge of a lot of things. I maybe overstrecthed myself with the 3 types of mini cheesecakes I've made. Just have the Tirimisu, stuffing and Marie Rose sauce to do and I will have a quick clean around. Then just the beef and gravy to do in the morning. I don't know why but I can feel myself getting quite emotional writing this, not helped by me being full of cold and feeling sorry for myself. I may have taken on too much but my Nan has been in hospital after a fall and only came home yesterday. So my parents time has been consumed with visiting etc.

Well enough of my moaning. Have a great christmas everyone and I promise I'll update more from now on!!

Chrystal

Well done on the fantastic repayments

Great that Nan is out of hospital and  hopefully well on the way to recovery.

You have overstretched yourself, but take is as a positive (lesson learned) and don't  offer to do too much in the future.... that way it hasn't been in vain.  sending gentle (hugs) and hoping you have a lovely Christmas.  XX

outoftheviciouscircle

Chrystal said:

Well done on the fantastic repayments

Great that Nan is out of hospital and  hopefully well on the way to recovery.

You have overstretched yourself, but take is as a positive (lesson learned) and don't  offer to do too much in the future.... that way it hasn't been in vain.  sending gentle (hugs) and hoping you have a lovely Christmas.  XX

Thank you. I know I did too much but it was either me or my parents who were running around back and fore the hospital and had enough on their plate. They are in their 70's so it wouldn't have been fair on them.

outoftheviciouscircle

I hope everyone had a good Christmas. My cold still hasn't gone and I feel pretty lousy but at least I have a few days to do nothing now. The house looked like a bomb had gone off when I got up this morning so I've cleaned downstairs and will tackle upstairs later.

Focusing on the debt is has come to the forefront of my mind again and I've been making more effort to check Prolific and other survey sites but I think the biggest place we can make a major difference is in the grocery bill. We signed up to Gusto last night, we only need 3 meals a week with me being away 4 nights a week so for the next few weeks that works out at £12.40 a week for 3 meals which I didn't think was bad. Theres always a lot of waste with us and I really need to look at my portion sizes. The aim is to try and bring the overall grocery bill down to £200. I'm ashamed to say it can quite easily hit up to £500 a month just for 2 people, with one of us away all week!!

I'm not going to join any saving challenges this year. I start every year and never keep it up and I did a pretty okay job doing it on my own last year. I may join the make extra money threads so i can use that to pay down debt. I'll do a separate post to see where I stand on that soon.

Anyway, I'm off to catch up on some TV, while the DH is back in work. Have a great day everyone.

vampirotoothus

Hi can you just freeze any leftovers and then have pot luck dinners once or twice a week? That will save some time and money? Good luck on the rest of your journey V x

outoftheviciouscircle

So heres the current totals as we end the year

Loan from Mother -£19,000
Loan from FIL- £10,000
Sainsburys Credit Card- £7021.05
Laptop- £286.92
TV- £638.94
Money Owed to Ex Employer- £503.10
Wren Kitchen- £10,365.60

Total amount owed- £47,815.61

£8744.28 will be cleared in 2024 through minimum payments but the aim to get that to around £20,000 again. It will be good to have a debt figure in the £20,000 bracket!!!

outoftheviciouscircle

What a day yesterday turned into!! My sister went to the doctors for an appointment for a cough that had been lingering and ended up getting sent straight to A&E because her heart rate was so high. They let her home at 3:30am, I haven't spoken to her yet so not sure what exactly was wrong yet.
I also had an email inviting me a a meeting in head office on January 9th. This has me on edge a little. In the 2 years I've worked for this company, only twice we have had to go to Manchester for anything and that was always planned. I'm worried this may be a redundancy announcement. DH is telling me not to let myself get worked up about it but thats easier said than done.

In other news, my tax return was finally submitted yesterday, I have requested that I pay through PAYE, although I do have money set aside for it if for some reason I can't. 
I've had quite a few studies on Prolific the past few days, I didn't expect to see any this time of year so that a bonus.

Plans for today are to have a little clean around the house and not much else!!