Taking control after 4 years

shell16

Just wanted to pop on and say well done so far!  As others have said, to be young and in the mindset you are will make the person you will be in the future!  My journey started around 18 months ago and im 50 next year!  

Keep on with it, you are doing so well!
Shell x

staffiemummy

Thanks everyone! Happy hump day  

staffiemummy

Good afternoon! Just checking in, haven't left the house at all but I have spent a fair bit! I am getting a refund of 135.83 from Octopus so that's going on CC3 as soon as it comes in which is great! I had a bit of wiggle room so I decided to get a subscription to a cross stitch box, it's 25.00 every 2 months and I have been meaning to get into it as a hobby for a while. 

I also bought some Smol laundry conditioner for 10.00 which is a decent price, especially as they reckon it will last me until October! Lenor (which isn't vegan either) is about 3-4.00 a bottle and lasts me maybe 2 months so this seems a good price! 

I signed up for Wild as well - 12.00 in total, then 5.00 ever time I need a refill. It's about 4.00 for my preferred brand so this is ok! I have been wanting to make the switch to natural deoderant for a while but didn't like the look of any of them - looking at you Toms of Maine! Fingers crossed they work I love being more planet friendly too, my beast of a car I think has put several holes in the ozone layer so trying to offset this I think   

If you can't tell already I love things to be automated and on subscription, I can write a million lists and then as soon as I get to the shop I just forget everything. I can go in there for bin bags and come out 30.00 lighter, without the bin bags. It's truly amazing. 

I was going to try and clean my house top to bottom but I have come down with an awful cold so I have been in bed - currently trying to source some local honey so I can make some tea! 

staffiemummy

Oh also! I started bank account switches to Lloyd and Natwest, I had a couple of spare current accounts that I use to get bonuses. They will both get me 400.00 over the next month or so, this will go immediately into an emergency fund, and when I get the Santander one in about 2 months I will put that in there as well! Still waiting on my driving license to come through to open a Moneybox ISA or similar to stash this in. I want 1k in there by the end of the year, plus when I have no debt with interest I will start a vehicle maintenence fund and a sinking fund for the dog to cover any other big bills! If anyone has any other savings suggestions please throw them my way. I don't ever go on holiday so that's not something I need, and if I was to buy property I would use the RTB scheme so I don't need a house deposit fund. I want my overall EF to cover 3 months of full expenses at some point over the next year or so, but being debt free is my priority  

JGreenwood

Well done! Keep going, good luck!

staffiemummy

Morning! Last night I made a really nice pasta sauce from scratch, and I will immediately portion half of it out and freeze it so I don't have to commit to eating the whole thing! I used tinned tomatoes, onion, and some sosmix I had in the pantry - this makes disgusting sausages but quite a nice mince replacement! 

I found some local honey so I will go find that in a bit. Taking the horrid one out to a dog field later - it's not free but he can't go off the lead as he's a menace, so 12.00 every so often isn't so bad if he can have a proper run around! There are cheaper fields to hire but the fuel costs would offset any savings there - our favorite one is a 20 mile round trip for 10.00, this is a new one that just opened and it's a very similar distance so we're going to see if it's worth an extra couple of quid. It's by the sea so hopefully that will clear this cold out my head a bit!

Hoping to tackle the bedroom today in terms of decluttering - then all I will have to do is a general tidy, hoover and we will leave the spare room of doom for next week when I have Thursday and Friday off  

I managed to book a free nail appointment this month as well which is really good! I used to have beautiful nails done every 3 weeks but I had to stop after Christmas 2021 as it was getting too expensive - very excited to have pretty nails again, even if only for a short time 

Have a great day

staffiemummy

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! 


Got some batch cooking out of the way which was really nice. Still ill so I didn't get as much of my house done as I hoped, but I did sort out a new washing machine and a new broadband deal - same price as before but they're giving me £140 Sainbo's voucher! Really happy with that  

So far out of my £200 buffer or 'allowance' I gave myself this month I have spent £66.91 - most of these were skin and hair products I'm getting cheap trials on and £10 of it was spent on fabric conditioner so not doing too bad! 

Feeling really happy, really positive and ready to pay off a credit card next week! 

Here's to a happy monday  

Things I did today - 

Turned off my heating at the fusebox 
Batch cooked 
Half dried my hair and put it up in a dressing gown robe for heatless curls 
Arranged for my old washing machine to be returned, and ordered a new one for the same day on interest free buy now pay later - as soon as the full refund comes through for the old one, I will pay for the new one in full! 
Put away my winter bedding 
Burned candles I put away for the winter - I love a seasonal candle so my winter ones are away for next year, it's time for spring! 

staffiemummy

I haven't been keeping up with posting at all - I am still not feeling very well but I will get better at keeping everything updated! 

I paid off CC3 this morning so 2 debts down, two to go! I have surpassed the 50% mark of total debt paid now. I will get a smaller paycheck on the 16th which I will use to partially pay down CC2, and clear the rest at the start of next month. It is on 0% at the moment but that runs out in May - old me would have balance transferred but I don't want to kick the can down the road any more. 

CC1 is on 0% as well - but that's until July-Sept 2024. I think I have about £500 I need to pay by July 2024. To be honest I will probably put my direct debit up from minimum payment to about £100 and just let that run its course until I have built up a car fund, emergency fund and dog fund. I drive a very old diesel, she's almost as old as I am! So it would be nice to have 1k or so earmarked for her. In a few years I will buy probably a 17 plate of the same make and model as I absolutely adore her, but she will do for now! 

One of my switching offers came in today from Lloyd's so I sent that to the credit card. I lent a friend £250 as well, that on top of the other 2 switching bonuses is due over the next 6 weeks or so. I feel really great about this - next I need to set my savings goals! 

On top of the 1k car fund, I have a short break planned in September so I want £300 for that, buying clothes, travel there, food, gifts etc. £400 would be nice but we will see! I want 3 months bare bones expenses in a savings account, which would be about 4k. I want £500 sinking fund for the dog, for any vets visits etc that might pop up. I am due to get him 3 more months of meds this week so that's £140, his vet sees him for £30 so saving 500 is very generous. This fund would also be used if I need to replace any harnesses, get him any important replacement toys like Kongs etc. 

Unsure if I should add that buy now pay later to my debts at this point - it was going to cost me £419 with delivery but Swagbucks found a code and got it down to £404. My old washing machine went and I'm getting a full refund so that's going back onto my card, so if I put that towards the new one that's £204. Hoover is offering £100 cashback in March if you've bought an appliance so just waiting to register for that, so that's £104 to pay off realistically before October. I will do this probably in June or July once I have got a good chunk of money saved, or I could pay £25 from May. I don't think I will add it to the debts to be honest as it's so small. 

Today I will 

Run new washing machine - it holds 2kg more and costs half the amount to run! 
Stay in bed with the dog to stay warm - heating is firmly off in my house! We're both wearing hoodies. 
Update spreadsheets for April and May 
Update spending diary - this is new, I put everything in there that was budgeted for but not planned. I give myself £200 a month 'buffer' and track it all, then highlight anything I stand by in green a few weeks later. I've bought so much that I can't justify - out of 164.34 in March so far I can only really stand by £59.54 so far. I am waiting on some bits from Vinted, and I did splurge on some wax melts that I haven't tried out yet so this number will probably go up to about £120 by the end of the month - but that £40 went on junk food, a trial kit for soap I hate, overspending on drinks at a night out. Pointless. Hopefully the diary will help me to cut back on things I have a track record of hating later!