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

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vampirotoothus said:

Hi, do you a Tesco credit card for the reward points? It will make you feel better spending on it for work if you get a free meal every few months. Good luck with the rest of your journey V x

I have a Virgin card and collect the air miles not that I can afford to go anywhere at the moment.

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I'm still trying to get my head around YNAB. When I fully understand it, I really think it will be a game changer but at the moment I'm questioning whether I've done it right.

Today has been a quiet day, popped out for petrol and picked up a case of beer for my uncle who's birthday it is tomorrow. It's the first time I've needed to use the birthday and Christmas savings. It may have only been £8 but it felt good to know it was budgeted for.

The afternoon has been spent doing the usual afternoon Saturday cleaning, now it's time to put my feet up for the day.

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So much for lie in. I had a 30kg Labrador wrapped around my neck at 6:45, shaking because she NEEDED her breakfast so badly. I thought the clocks changing might get her back in routine but I think thats wishful thinking. It doesn't help when DH gets up at 5am for work. I think we're both a little disturbed after that.

Todays agenda is to get all the washing done and take it to my mothers to hang on the line. We have a washing line but DH hasn't put a pole in the ground yet. Luckily my mother lives a few doors up and by the time I go and collect it at 5pm, it's all ironed for me to put in my suitcase ready to go away tomorrow. One thing I absolutely detest is ironing. 
I have a little work to do for my self employment, that will take about an hour and I also have a report to submit for work that I didn't quite get around to on Friday.

DH is eating terribly since I started this job working away. Its only 3 nights this week (so happy about the amount of 4 day weeks I have coming up). I've started making him a lasagne he can just pop in the oven one evening or a cottage pie. So Sunday afternoons are spent making sure he eats okay all week. I'm also secretly doing it to stop his temptation to order a takeaway or even pop to the shops after work hehehe.

YNAB is frying my brain, I'm pretty sure I was awake all night just thinking about it. I think I'm there and something else confuses me.

Surveys have been quiet, that probably to do with Easter break starting.

Right these chores aren't going to do themselves, time to start the day!!

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Not a lot to report here. The monthly bills have all gone out which makes my bank balance look bad but its pay day this week. My gas/electric DD went out today but it was still reduced when I thought it should be back to normal as the government help has ended. I'll look that again tomorrow.

I just completed a Prolific survey. It was £15 but there was a glitch and even though I was on it for 54 minutes, I'm not convinced I'll get paid.

I'm so glad its just 3 nights away this week. I'm getting a little fed up. When I took this job last year, I was told I'd be away 2 out of 4 weeks but now I'm on my 4th week and have the next 2 weeks away after this. It gives me time to do things like surveys etc but I do miss being at home.

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I had a thought last night, its been a while since I looked at my my total debt figure and how much I've repaid. I was in a routine of adjusting my signature every time I made a payment at the beginning of the year.
I'm so glad I had this thought and I've been awake going through the numbers. I am £26 away from having repaid £6k this year and another £159 and I'll be in the £50k's.
The figure is still very high but I'm managing it and seeing these figures is actually very motivating. I've been thinking of what I could have had if I didn't have this debt. I'm still a long way from being debt free. I haven't even set myself a date yet. I think I may look at that to give me something to aim for.

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Back in the hotel after a pretty good day in work.
 I've been doing the Math and by meeting the minimums, the debt would take 74 months to clear. 6 years and 2 months!!! Theres no way I can let that happen. However at the moment, the date of debt freedom is June 2030. On the bright side, it will be gone before I turn 50.
The problem with this is that all the debt except one needs to be paid well before this, so by budgeting effectively I need to find the money to pay over this. The Virgin CC needs to be cleared by the end of July before the 0% rate ends. I am hopeful that I will be able to clear this 2 months early, I then need to go after the Sainsburys CC at a rate of £642 so clear that before September 2024. Which basically means I need to find £400 a month extra.

Time to get my thinking cap on!

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I'm feeling a little bit deflated today. I think, I'm just ready to go home and I'm sick of eating out in restaurants every night. Sounds like a nice problem to have but the hotel I'm staying in is really expensive and I refuse to buy anything that will take me over my dinner allowance and thats leaving the menu very limited. I've been in this hotel for 3 weeks now as well.

One potential money worry too. When we bought the house last August, we discussed changing the bannister to one of those with glass panels. We decided at the time, it wasn't in our budget and it was always something we could do further along the line. However the In Laws said they would get it for us for Christmas, we had a quote and they told us roughly around £1000 but couldn't say for definite until the templates were cut for the glass. Well, he finished it today and the bill was £1500. I just know that my In Laws will say we will need to contribute the £500, I know what they are like and I know it'll cause trouble as I'm of the mindset we wouldn't have had it done if it was going to cost us. Maybe I shouldn't be so bad minded and wait and see what DH says after he's spoken to them.

Pay day tomorrow for both myself and DH. I checked our payslips and I have an extra £30 from a Tax Code change and DH has an extra £40 from his annual increase. This will be more next month as the increase was from the 1st April.

Home for 5 nights tomorrow, I really can't wait. It's my birthday on Sunday but we haven't got anything planned. Will probably go to my mothers for dinner as its easter as well and have a takeaway on Saturday night.

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Morning all.

Today is payday. First thing I did was make sure our pay had cleared in YNAB and assigned money to cover all my bills until the 4th May, as thats when I get paid next. After doing that I still had £1330 left to assign so I moved £300 to my holiday savings. That my holiday all paid for and the £1000 is going to go straight off the Virgin CC. I just want to go through the budget carefully to make sure I have not missed anything out. I've spent enough time on it so I really shouldn't have though.
I will reserve judgement until the end of the month but after 1 week, I am loving it. While having an SOA is handy, realistically I wasn't budgeting for things like haircuts and pet food, that I don't need every month but now in the words of YNAB every dollar has a job.

Today is home day. I'm messing around on my laptop and looking at my messy  hotel room thinking I really should get up and sort this out.

2 surveys got approved on Prolific overnight bringing my balance to £5.11, enough to cash out. I am still waiting on a £13.00 bonus from a survey I did a couple of weeks ago and a £15 for a looooonnng survey I did the other evening. Hedging my bets that they will take the maximum time possible to approve.

Have a great day everyone!!!

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Well In laws didn't disappoint. £500 needed to pay towards the bannister immediately. I have £97 in an account that I use for rounding down my current account so that's gone straight to it. This is where YNAB has turned out to be a blessing as its made me be able to look straight at where we cam cut back this month. I was going for my haircut tomorrow, I only had it done 6 weeks ago and its not looking that desperate so I cancelled the appointment so thats £65 saved. We were also supposed to be going out with the In Laws next Saturday to celebrate 3 family birthdays including mine. We've decided to knock that on the head so that will save the £80 I had budgeted for eating out this month. Thats £253 found so far so half way there.
Its looking like the other half will come from any birthday money I get on Sunday but I'd rather do that than add anymore to the debt.

Today has been a beautiful day spent in the garden. The garden is just as neglected as the house was when we bought it. We know that getting it done as we would like is out of the question for at least another 2 years but its surprising how much better we have already got it looking. Getting the weeds out of the patio, straightening the edges of the path, pulling all the ivy that has got majorly out of control from the fence.
Back to it tomorrow, cutting the grass and trimming the hedges.

For now, we are out for an Italian with my family for my birthday, its my mothers treat so need to worry about the money for tonight.

Jrcoal5

Just popping by as I have just read your diary and wanted to say your doing absolutely amazing with your debts and they are coming down really quickly so you should be really proud of how well you have done so far, I’ll follow your diary, shame about the banister but I’m sure now it’s done it looks lovely, happy birthday for Sunday 🥳