My Intentional Journey to Debt Freedom

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Thanks @Sun_Addict, @jwil and @Couldsavemore. Good to see you all 😁. First day back at work was fine - I havnt missed anything calamitous which is always good.  

No money spent today.  No chocolate eaten (first time in 2 weeks) so a good start.  

We’ve done a meal plan to get Veganuary off to a good start. 

One of my challenges is keeping things going rather than super strict followed by an implosion!!!

I find weight loss similar - I used to join and re-join (and re-join) Slimming World all the time.  It ALWAYS went like this - 
Week one - fantastic and lose 7-10lbs.  

Week two - kind of okay but lots to lose so still lose 4lbs ish. 

Week three - sort of following the plan.  Hit stone loss.

Week four- this is easy.  Have a very off plan week.  Panic on the day of class and don’t go, telling myself I’ll go the following week.  

Don’t go the following week…..,….,and so on. 
Eventually I stopped doing this to myself and have plodded on losing a bit here and there but not putting on and actually being more successful albeit still have lots to lose. 

The lesson in this rambling is that I can do the all or nothing but only for a short period of time.  I’m now in this for the long haul so my attitude has to change.  

I want to unpick all of this to develop new habits that stick around.  

Congratulations if you’ve read all this 🤣

L x 

PennysIntoPounds

Hi LTAMA, congrats on all you've done so far. Having a diary and posting daily really does help; I find that if I'm having an off day (of which there are many!) I have to look for small wins, which are in fact the things that get us where we want to be, and recognising that you did even a little something puts you in a state of mind where it becomes normal to make those choices and efforts when it could be easier not to. I've subscribed and will be cheering you along 

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Totally agree @PennysIntoPounds.  I’ve read your diary and followed it so I will leap on and comment. I think we’re so fixated with big achievements we don’t recognise that small daily things get you where you want to be.  Sometimes big things push you on a bit but they don’t do the hard yards.  

I am going to show my ignorance now.  

How do I subscribe to a diary?  

L x

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Hello everyone.   Thanks for popping by to read my random thoughts 😁. 

Nothing specific today - no money spent which is great.   I’m quite a frequent online spender.  We are cancelling the service beginning with P from the big river site.  Really to make us think more about what we want rather than click and it’s on its way.  We don’t have masses of local shop options but we’re going to do a bit of research and see if we can spread the money we do spend to local businesses.  

Feeling positive.  

Still a bit of homemade (by my husband) Christmas cake left so will continue my slice a day - should be gone by Saturday so that will assist my weight loss efforts (although even with eating that my intake is probably half what it was last week 🤣🤣).  

The cake breaches my Veganuary efforts (it is vegetarian) but Veganuary is a bit of a peg to hang my increased veg consumption efforts rather than a crusade so I’m okay with that and we are completely vegetarian.  

L x 

Sun_Addict

I think if you try to do too much in one go you set yourself up to fail. I’ve seen so many people on these diaries and in real life saying they’re doing this, cutting out this, cue endless list, then fall off the wagon by February because it’s too overwhelming. Small gradual changes work best in my experience. 

PennysIntoPounds

To subscribe to a diary, once you're in that diary, near the top right of the screen is a small blank square with a jagged bottom that looks like a tooth (I presume it's meant to be a bookmark!).
If you press that it should 'fill' and be dark and that means you're subscribed/following/have bookmarked (or whatever terminology one best understands it as!)
Then any new posts on that diary and others you're following/'subscribed to' will be easily accessible when you click on your profile (top right corner circle with head and shoulders silhouette or your chosen profile pic) then click on 'bookmarks' in the menu options that come up underneath

Apologies if that's clear as mud or if I've included info you already knew!

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Thanks @PennysIntoPounds that is very clear.  I’ll give it a go.  

Appreciate the comment @Sun_Addict and agree. Don’t want to run out of steam and fully intend to be here in December boring the pants off people 🤣🤣. 

Todays small money saving action is that the P service from the big river company beginning with A is cancelled.  It’s only 8.99 a month (although not to be sneezed at as a saving) but I feel that it encourages us to buy too easily.  So easy to just click and it arrives so soon.  I’m also conflicted about the working conditions of people in warehouses and drivers and I want to reduce my part in that.  I know that can sound a bit holier than thou but it does matter to me and part of all my changes and the motivation is to try and be more sustainable and not buy so much useless stuff.  

OH watches stuff on the P service but has agreed to give it a go  (without any threat of torture 🤣). 

I always intend to leave a short update - not succeeding so far!!!

In non money related news, the Christmas cake that I predicted would last until Saturday is finished.  Not sure how that happened……well, of course I am sure 😁.   No regrets (except that it’s finished).  

That’s the last of the Christmas food. 

L x 

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Hello all
Run of the mill day here. No money spent so all good.  

I feel that this journey will comprise of more run of the mill days than anything else so perhaps a change of approach is needed.  

So…….a run of the mill day here.  No money spent 🥳🥳🥳🥳🍾🍾🍾🍾👏👏. I am celebrating 😁 
Hope  everyone else has had a good day 

L x 

jwil

Run of the mill days with no spending are good!

EssexHebridean

To add on subscribing - if you subscribe to your own diary, you can always find it! 

Definitely no issues with not posting an SOA - I’ve been here years and as far as I can recall I ever have, even initially when we were debt busting. MrEH has never been comfortable with the idea of his income being posted publicly, and I feel a little the same - no reason beyond we were both brought up in households where income was considered as to be a thing you share with the world, it was private, and neither of us have (or particularly want to) ever shaken that off. 

I’m a “budget and pots” gal so far as managing the finances goes. We use real-life pots too - whereas others might use virtual (so a single account but using a spreadsheet to ascertain what of the contents of that account is allocated to which area of the budget). Personally I have pots for fun stuff, long term savings, savings to allow a specific holiday to happen, presents, a personal regular saver I contribute £50 a month to, and I’m considering starting a new pot for tech replacement stuff too. Our household pots include holiday, mortgage overpayments, car, fun stuff, household expenses, Christmas/presents and long term savings. We also run “virtual sealed pots” which regularly get the odd pennies and sometimes pounds from our current accounts - the equivalent of what is usually referred to here as “Tilly tidying”. Other than the VSPs all the pot payments go out at the beginning of each month so everything budgeted for specific areas is set aside first. We too use personal spends - we each get allocated a set amount of money each month which is ours to spend/save as we choose. 

A suggestion on your thinking around CC balance transfers - does the MSE Credit Club suggest that you might be accepted for any 0% cards for part of card 1’s balance? If so, then apply, because even if you could get £3k of that balance to a point where it was not earning interest, that’s a win. In 3 months or so you would then look again, and see if you could shift a further 3k…and then depending on the date of the card you might even repeat this to clear the card completely. Basically though, any amount of that balance on 0% improves your position from where you are now - you definitely don’t need to wait to be able to transfer the whole balance!