Flying solo

twiggy86

Had a lovely, but some what spendy weekend! We went ice skating on Friday evening (£20 inc parking) - bf used to play ice hockey so was in his element (there isn't a permanent rink near us), then had a takeaway when we got home (£20). Saturday we went to watch the local football team - got a beryl scooter there and back, plus a couple of beers and a burger (£41 in total). Then yesterday we had a productive day sorting at home but treated our selves to a carvery (£22). So a few too many spends but everything was split 50/50 (one would pay and the other would transfer across). I am still within my "personal" spends budget but need to be mindful of spending as I am quite generous with my budget as it is, so shouldn't go over. 

We also had a few spends on the pooch as she has been barking when we're out - it's not all the time, but when she does it is non-stop and the neighbour has been complaining (which kind of ruined ice skating as we were there when I got a complaint via text). So we are trying various things to try and stop it. We did check the price for her op - will be £300 and will need to be done in about February, so need to build that into the budget. 

The other spending this weekend was a present for bf's son's birthday and a little something for my dad for Christmas. It's funny, I'd had the thought of buying bf's son a portable charger (as he always walks in and goes straight for a charger) but thought it was a really boring present - then he read out his Christmas list to bf and one of the things was a charger! So I'm pleased he will have a useful and wanted present, as I was feeling a bit stuck! Now I'm down to only needing to work out a couple of Christmas presents, including my brother and one of my nephews. Oh and find bf a replacement pair of trainers now I have received a refund from the ones I sent back (although annoyingly had to pay for the postage both ways!) Still, don't think I've ever been so organised! Of course, I am yet to start wrapping anything, but I did buy wrapping paper! 

Had a big sort out of a couple of the kitchen cupboards yesterday - I had apparently accumulated many glass dishes and bowls, much to bf's amusement who had taken to calling one cupboard the "cupboard of doom"! I asked mum if she wanted anything and her instruction was not to throw anything away and she will go through it all. So that is now all boxed up ready for her to collect. I'm sure whatever she doesn't want, she will donate to the charity shop. 

Me and bf did say we would go climbing tonight, but both slept badly last night. Plus the fridge is pretty empty so we do need to go food shopping! So we will see how the day progresses as to if we bother going or not - we did say we want it to become our Monday night habit and have only been once so far though! 

On to today's bits and pieces...

• Make lunch to take to work 
• Update spreadsheet 
• Work on crochet present at lunch 
• Go food shopping? 
• Dinner from stores 

twiggy86

Realised that I missed the 1 year anniversary of my diary! 

So as a recap... my life kind of turned upside down when my relationship of 16 years ended in June 2023. At that point in time I had £15,600 worth of debt, split over a number of credit cards and a loan from my parents, and only £91 in my emergency fund. I took a few months to wrap my head around everything before starting this diary in October 2023. 

I am now in a much better financial position and have proved to myself that I can clear debts and live a very reasonable life based on my wage alone. However, my new bf has moved in with me now so I don't have to base everything on one income. Just this month he has managed to rent out his flat, so moving forward all of the bills on my (our) house will be split 50/50 - we had been doing it so that he only paid half of those bills he wasn't paying on his place (he can't afford to pay double so this is what we agreed). 

So back to the debts... since June 2023 I have saved a full £1,000 emergency fund and paid £6,115 off of my debts! Well actually a bit more than that due to interest and some balance transfer fees, so that is the total difference. My current debt total is now sitting at £9,485. I have also done various work on the house (have spent over £2k on various projects) and had a few weekends away. I would say that is good progress in 17 months! 

Current debts are:

• Virgin CC - £500 (interest free until 8/12/24)
• MBNA CC - £2,800 (interest free until 27/8/25)
• Natwest CC - £6,185 (interest free until 1/11/25)

My immediate goal is to clear Virgin CC as quickly as possible as the interest free period ends on 8 December. I will then focus on the MBNA to get that gone before that expires hopefully. The longer term goal is to have all of this debt cleared before I turn 40 in September 2026, which I believe is 21 months. It feels like it might be a push but the extra income from bf will make a difference I'm sure (haven't really felt the true benefit of it yet).

birdsfoottrefoil

Well done on how much you’ve paid off twiggy!!! You should be so proud of your self! 

twiggy86

Anyway, back to the present! We didn't end up going climbing in the end as would have been too late after to go food shopping, eat etc so we made the sensible decision not to! So that saved £15 for climbing plus a potential takeaway/ junk food cost! We did go food shopping and got most of what we needed for the week - may need some extra bits as bf's dad and kids are staying this weekend, although we got more than usual so my share was £27. I have £40 left in my grocery pot to last until the end of the month - but can't see us needing to spend another £80 (as last night was a "big shop" by our standards!) 

I took a couple of chicken breast out of the freezer for me to cook tonight for lunch/ dinner tomorrow as will have acro, so will likely make a chicken wrap for myself. We do need to get better at eating stuff out of the freezer as it is pretty full, but other than chips, we don't tend to "gravitate" to eating stuff out of there! 

On to today's little list...

• Make lunch to take to work 
• Make CC payment (£25 - as keep chipping small amounts off it as cautious of making a bigger payment until I get closer to the end of the month!)
• Update spreadsheet 
• Finish crochet present at lunch - well that's my aim to get it finished! 
• Pop to shop for a couple of birthday cards 
• Snap receipt  
• Dinner from stores 
• Check what portioned up leftovers are in the freezer so that I can use at some point!
• Wrap presents 
• Work on crochet blanket 

twiggy86

Thanks @birdsfoottrefoil! I have had moments of feeling a bit deflated as I am only at 70% of the goal I set myself for the year - which was to pay off £5k and have *only* managed £3.5k so far. However, I think for me the most important thing has been how much more financially stable I feel. I think this is truly the first time I have felt like I can actually do this! Yes it's going to take some time, but I have stayed on track for 18 months this time without paying for a single thing on a credit card!

Although my one slight regret is the dining room table that I purchased using a 12 month interest free period - I had the money in the bank at the time to pay for it outright and I wish I had now. Still lesson learned and will be paid off in May, giving me an extra £84 in the budget each month to play with.

joedenise

You say your disappointed to have "only" paid of £3.5K but you've also saved a £1K emergency fund and spent about £2K on renovations.  You have done amazingly well to have done all that in about a year!  Well done.

twiggy86

It's silly isn't it @joedenise that I can't just be proud of myself! 

twiggy86

Quiet evening resulting in a NSD! (Although I bought something for my mum for Christmas but as that comes from a pot, I don't factor it in!) I did manage to get the present finished yesterday so I wrapped that last night and dropped off on my way into work this morning - it is her birthday today!!! Also managed to do a small amount of work on the blanket - into the fifth ball now (of nine for the main body), so making good progress but really need to keep ahead to get the pressure off! It's too big to bring to work as my lunch break project, so have a hat I'm making for bf for Christmas with me. 

I have been debating what to do with the unexpected £100 I received for the window. I think my options are:

• Use to pay down Virgin CC 
• Put in the house pot to help with work planned for early next year (currently have £290 in there but no idea how much it will cost)
• Put back in the "misc" pot to recoup the money I shuffle to Christmas (and then re-work December budget)
• Put towards Christmas - but I think I have this covered 

I think given the end of the interest free period very soon, it makes most sense to use towards the Virgin CC but I'm hesitating! I will ponder some more and try make a decision before the end of the day (not that there is a rush, I'm just annoying myself with my indecision!)

Anyway, on to today...

• Make lunch to take to work - cooked a chicken breast last night so made myself a wrap 
• Drop present off on way to work 
• Update spreadsheet 
• Work on crochet hat at lunch 
• Pay lowest amount at acro 
• "Dinner" from stores

in_need_of_direction

I think if you put it in your Christmas pot, your Christmas spends will increase accordingly 

twiggy86

That's very true @in_need_of_direction - I would just end up buying extra when what I have planned fits the budget I have already made! I only re-allocated the misc pot to Christmas to give me the money now so that I could buy the planned presents, rather than have to wait until I had December's pay - so I didn't increase the budget, only re-shuffled money around. 

I think I've decided that the £100 should definitely go to DIY or CC. So my plan is to make a £100 payment to CC today - I currently have £245 (on top of the £100 from the window) left set aside for debt payments, meaning that I'm not fully committing to the decision today! As this means that towards the end of the month, I can decide where that money goes! I'm sure that makes no sense to anyone reading trying to follow the money-trail, but it makes sense to me!