My Intentional Journey to Debt Freedom

PennysIntoPounds

😁

On the drums, Kent Variant, on bass, Omicron, on guitar, HN51, and ladies and gentlemen, your lead singer- oh, he's come down with a cough. Serves him right 

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🤣🤣🤣 @PennysIntoPounds.   

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@Blackcats  Thet makes a lot of sense.  I will see how much I use it.  In my case it’s easy to get in the habit of using just one all the time so I probably need to remind myself why I bought it and just start using it!! 

Glad your sale went well - I think I am put off by reading stories about scammers all the time (even though logically I know that most sales are okay)..  I’ve never used social media or anything like Eba* or FB Marketplace so am generally a bit reticent.   

However this has made me think a bit more and it may be as simple as just ensuring I use the ones I have!!!! 

L x 

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@Less_Talk_and_More_Action Thank you so much for the response. Makes perfect sense to me. Best wishes.

jwil

Loads of great progress made, well done!

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Hi everyone
My weekly update:
- I have been off for most of last week - we set a budget for this for the first time and this worked really really well.  We did some nice things, saw people, had some nice meals out and all this came within the budget we had set, so I'm very pleased with that.  We didn't have anything to base the budget on so it was a bit random but gives us a starting point for future times when I am off work but we are at home.
- Payday came and went last week for me.  Emergency fund remains where we want it and the silver wedding/Christmas pot is on track.  All other cards and bills paid as planned.
- I have started a new pot for holiday savings as we have a holiday booked for Christmas week and that will require the remaining payment in mid-October.  The pot will be on track for that and then will keep going to pay for the week we have booked for my big birthday next year.
- All uplifted amounts for council tax, water, dog insurance and various other things have gone through so the new year's budget is now completely clear.  No changes anticipated through the financial year as we re-mortgaged late last year so have certainty about that as well.
- Work pay rise agreed and will commence from payday at end of April.  It is okay - even after tax it will be noticeable (in a small way) so not complaining about that.  It is just a cost of living rise, not performance related.
- Nothing else to report - we did a big shop this morning and came in at the top end of our weekly amount (I budget 80-100 per week) but it included quite a lot of stuff that will last more than one week so expect other weeks in April to be less.

I have a couple of months of pretty solid work now before any more holidays (apart from Bank Hols).  I don't mind that as it lets me get my teeth into longer term stuff.  The lighter mornings and evenings are great from a travel point of view (much less desire for the drive-thru in good weather).  I feel loads less tired when it is light in the mornings.  It's not light yet when I leave but it's getting there.  

Beauty products - skin is looking good but I am still using up and havn't fixed on a definite regime to be honest.  Still exploring options.  Even committing to using up everything I have has been beneficial and definitely saved money.

Coming up:
- Full week at work next week with a small amount of travel so shouldn't impact on any spending.
- Car service next Friday - money is put aside already (sometimes I don't recognise myself!!!).
- Full meal plan in place for next week - this hasn't happened for a few weeks so we are getting ourselves back into this as we do loads better on spending (and me on losing weight) when we have this and it is stuck to.

Hope you all have a good week.

L x 

beanielou

All good then 😊

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Yes definitely @beanielou
We're in that non-exciting part now of having more or less set our course and making progress but there's still a long way to go.  Having said that, I am 100% certain we would be in a worse position if we had not started this journey just after Christmas.   The weekly update is a good focus for me - Mr L and I sit down over coffee and look at all the areas and it just keeps it on track really.

L x 

PennysIntoPounds

Congrats on the pay rise and everything being on track. Glad you had lovely time off and within budget. Amazing how long one doesn't need to buy most toiletries for when in a use-it-up zone!

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Indeed @PennysIntoPounds.  I have an embarassing amount to use up!!  When I get closer to the end of this, I am going to re-visit all the suggestions people were kind enough to offer me.  My clothes are a whole other story for another day....
I'm pleased to get the pay rise -  I usually think about what bill it can pay which gives it an actual purpose otherwise it can seem quite a small amount. This year it can pay for our water bill each month and our mobile phone bill so that's two things I was paying out of the old amount!!
It's strange about having a budget - we have always set an amount for holidays away from home - whether abroad or in this country but it didn't occur to us to do the same for when I was off but at home.......oh well, better late than never!

L x