New fresh diary for 2023!

BlueJ94

Merry Christmas all! Hope you've all enjoyed, I cooked for the whole family and was very spoilt. I'm already thinking of savings for next year how to pay Christmas off etc. I may join that Park savings and save a little each month. I'm hoping to pay it in my own money rather than the BNPL type things. 

Here's to a happy 2024!

joedenise

If you can trust yourself You'd be better putting some money into a savings account which pays you some interest each month rather than using Park.  You can put the same amount you'd pay them and have a bit more on top.  Certainly some thing  worth thinking about.

BlueJ94

joedenise said:

If you can trust yourself You'd be better putting some money into a savings account which pays you some interest each month rather than using Park.  You can put the same amount you'd pay them and have a bit more on top.  Certainly some thing  worth thinking about.

Oh that's a good idea! I can also do my asda savings actually when I do next years food shop! 

MrFrugalFever

Hi Jade, sorry to hear you haven't been well. Merry Christmas!

Can I make a suggestion - and of course you can completely disregard it if it suits - but I would seriously sit down and plan month by month as they come, starting with January for paying any remaining debt (assuming still some as per your signature?).

Once this is fully cleared and net zero, focus on £30-35pm for Christmas. I set up a S/O for £30pm from Dec to 1st Nov so I then have £365 ish (depending on interest rates) and almost 2 months for Xmas shopping. A regular saver such as First Direct 7% or NatWest 6% is good for this, anything to lessen the temptation to withdraw early.

Once you've got in to the habit of the £30pm then consider a goal for something else which is equally as important and not too much each month, say another £30-50pm ish.

One of the biggest things I see on here is people signing up to a load of savings methods/techniques and never seeing them through......less is more! 

BlueJ94

MrFrugalFever said:

Hi Jade, sorry to hear you haven't been well. Merry Christmas!

Can I make a suggestion - and of course you can completely disregard it if it suits - but I would seriously sit down and plan month by month as they come, starting with January for paying any remaining debt (assuming still some as per your signature?).

Once this is fully cleared and net zero, focus on £30-35pm for Christmas. I set up a S/O for £30pm from Dec to 1st Nov so I then have £365 ish (depending on interest rates) and almost 2 months for Xmas shopping. A regular saver such as First Direct 7% or NatWest 6% is good for this, anything to lessen the temptation to withdraw early.

Once you've got in to the habit of the £30pm then consider a goal for something else which is equally as important and not too much each month, say another £30-50pm ish.

One of the biggest things I see on here is people signing up to a load of savings methods/techniques and never seeing them through......less is more! 

Thanks @frugal

I plan on sitting down on and going through my statements etc and seeing if I've got any accounts open I can close that aren't needed. But, I think I am going to do your suggestion in regards to saving for Christmas. I do enjoy the Tilly Tally challenge on here I was pretty good at doing that one before so may do that as well. 

BlueJ94

Morning all who still follow along!

With this Diary I kind of lost my way and didn't update as much, I have however been using the Too Good 2 Go app more often and we get a lot of fresh bakery items from a local shop. I need to get back into the habit of meal planning and prepping, OH got me an electric lunch box for my birthday so today I have Lasagna for lunch. OH also bought me a veggie chopper for Christmas! 

It's that time of year where I go through my debts/CCs and work out where I'm at. a few years ago I was starting just over at 6.5k! I estimate I'm around 1k mark but I lost all focus so 2024 is the year I get Debt free for good. I also have good news on the house buying update, we have 15% deposit and are in talks with the landlord/estate agents to buy the house by the end of January. 

I will shortly make a new Diary for 2024 for who wish to follow along!

MrFrugalFever

Great news on the possible house purchase! Hope it works out for you.

2024 has got to be better than 2023 (i'm talking personally for me) so i'm hoping that with some good luck, positivity and determination it'll be great for you too!

EssexHebridean

Christmas and indeed spending on presents generally is something we budget for monthly too. Our aim is to have enough in the pot by November to cover all spending on presents, and also to deal with most of the food spending too - we're in a position to be able to sub that a bit from surplus in December pay if needed - if you weren't then budgeting a little more through the year would be the way forwards though.

I think the most common issue we see on here towards the end of the year is seeing people struggling because of Christmas spending, whereas a bit of budgeting would solve the issue. I'd definitely suggest keeping well away from any of the Christmas savings schemes too - a number have gone under in recent years, and a savings account in a high street bank is far safer - as MrFF says, a regular saver will also net a nice bit of interest too, although of course that would be a bit late for savings for  next christmas now.