Oops I did it again

Aimingforthegoodlife

Another Saturday, my favourite day of the week- I get to send off my PADs from the week to the loan and CC! So exciting!

Loan: A whopping £75.51 
CC: £7.73
Savings: £200

The CC is much more normal for this time of the month, was nice to be able to have a good OP to the loan this month. This was because on payday I had £260 left in my account, how lovely! I only had so much due to one fueling of the car, budgeted Christmas shop and holiday which come from separate pots, reducing my need to spend!

We are working hard on reducing the weekly shopping bill, this is tricky to do as we are pants at cooking, but we do seem to be coming in under budget so far. Have been feeling quite under the weather this week, can't stop coughing and it is really annoying. 

Hubby has been picking up some overtime so this will be really helpful for the budget going forward. I have £20 left in the house account, this should last until 1st Feb, if no other payments are needed. I am not great at budgeting that account at all, I need to work out how much dog medication is costing us to help make sense. We also need to pay for youngest dog to get spayed in March- likely to be £300 and my car needs fixing- the garage have said it will be about £240, car is going in on Tuesday. So savings will take a bit of a hit, but this is why we have them! Want to be able to keep them topped up if possible, but summer is when DH will have more self employed work, so may be able to top them up then. 

Was talking to friends who have been overpaying their mortgage, inspired by me, many years ago when we first bought this house and overpayed as much as possible. That was lovely, I did tell them we have had to reduce the OP to the house until the CC is paid off. I did feel a bit sad saying this, but life changes and that includes incomes. They are doing amazingly with their OPs and I am really proud of them!

Aimingforthegoodlife

Love a bit of working out:

Jan PADs:
Loan: £167.60
CC: £176.67

CC total this year: £256.67/2162.22

I need to find £93.25 a month extra now to pay off by December 2024, a few pennies less a month than when I last worked it out, woohoo! Nice to see a strong start to Jan, paid of £76.67 more than needed for the 11 months pay off. 


For the loan....I have knocked a whole two months off, lets leave it at that!haha. 

TooMuchSnow

Well done!

Aimingforthegoodlife

Thank you @TooMuchSnow

So back again to the most exciting day of the week! Extra excitement today, hubby got a little overtime and no council tax! Our month and bills all go out on the 1st, so this is the first week of a new month. 

Payments are as follows:

Loan: £8.99
CC: £147.29 (plus normal payment of £80)
Holiday: £150
Mortgage: £60

Feeling so proud of this effort, unlikely to send anymore to holidays or the mortgage for the rest of the month. It feels good to not ignore the mortgage! The reason for the £60, is that it took the mortgage into the £127's!!! A whole new bracket in the mortgage 

Credit card payments are now: £483.96/2162.22 this will be over £500 by the end of the month, I guarantee it! I need to find an average of £87.83 a month to get rid of by December 2024. 

The £8.99 doesn't seem like it will make much of a dent into my loan, but it is still something! And the holiday account is looking good, got until April 2025 to save for this holiday, the ones this year are all covered. No credit needed!!!

Have had an awful cough for over a week, sleeping badly on the couch, still coughing but so much better now than I was! So glad to have the weekend off. Doing money stuff does help me feel better as well haha. 

Hope everyone has had a good week!

Aimingforthegoodlife

I joined the 100 steps challenge a few weeks ago, it is really helpful to have different ways of tracking progress, so I am now up to 22/100 steps!

I have also joined the pay debt off by Christmas 2024 challenge which is why I am tallying up the CC. What I like about the groups is that I can do what I want, by focusing on the CC, it allows me to make daily progress that feels like big steps. I think if I got the loan involved, I would feel too overwhelmed and it would demotivate me. 

The debt free wannabe challenges and diaries are game changers, I love that we all have different levels of debt and goals, everyone is so supportive regardless of a few pounds of debt, or thousands of pounds of debt. Incredible place!

foxgloves

And some of us on here now have no debt at all, but keep up our Debt-free Diaries to help us stick to good financial habits & live within our means. I find this helps keep me focussed. It's a very supportive part of the MSE forums.
Good luck with your debt-repayment. Making the final payment is an amazing feeling 
F

Aimingforthegoodlife

Thanks @foxgloves, I cannot wait to pay it off to be fair! The diaries definitely help with accountability.

A day late this week, went out for Vday lunch with DH yesterday, which was lovely! I have been very bad at buying snacks and foods, basically since Feb started. I blame it initially on being so tired with the horrid cough, so just craving sugar. I think this has just awakened the snack beast in me and has continued. I think I will add up how much random money I have spent as shock treatment! Need to rein it in. 

PADS this week:
CC: £10.83
Loan: £14.61
Holiday: £1323 paid off for May holiday- all saved for!

CC is now up to: £494.79/£2162.22 this year, next week will definitely get to over £500, which is exciting. I am at the point where I am seriously considering using our savings to wipe out the CC. The problem with that is the savings are useful and it wouldn't leave a lot left. And access to money is very useful.

My car has cost us: £208 this month- general car breaking not MOT, DH car was £240 including MOT and we are paying £300 for youngest dog to be spayed. Thanks to savings, we have all these covered and as much as I would prefer to keep the money, that is what it is there for. I just get so impatient sometimes and want it all!

No extra steps this week!

Aimingforthegoodlife

I think I need to take my card off my phone...I used to just leave my purse at home so that I knew I couldn't be tempted. I take my phone everywhere, it is just to convenient to pop to a shop when I am out on my visits, oh, just a chocolate bar here, monster there, pudding for later....all adds up. Jan I did so well with NSDs, this month I have lost the plot! Will remove the cards from my phone, needs to be done! 

DH bought a cheap £4.50 gadget from a well known store, and they gave us 3 months of fruit based TV for free, nice! Started watching Loot with Maya Rudolf- love her! In the show she gets a divorce and has $87billion dollars. Honestly, I was watching it and enjoying it, but reeling that some people do actually live that way   It is enjoyable watching though!

My baby sister- who is actually an adult- is expecting her first baby this year, off to pick up a second hand item off of FBmarketplace this evening, got a great deal and she is happy for 2nd hand! I am very excited!

Aimingforthegoodlife

This is a breakdown of my personal spends for this month so far:

£30.19 to snacks/bought lunch/puddings
£160.06 to food shops, fuel, PADS, life insurance
£88.61 to new trousers, klarna payment for work tops, new TS vinyl on preorder, Disney book
£32.40 to charity- Senior Staffy Club, a man is walking 180miles to raise money, well worth the donation!! 

My biggest regret is the snack buying, that would have been a good amount to add to the loan! Not much I can do about the bill stuff, already doing alright with food payments etc. Disney book and Vinyl were wants not needs...I have £150 from my dad for Xmas this can cover these if I decide that's what I want to do. Needed new trousers and needed a couple of new work tops, I like to use Klarna, 0% and easily paid off so not concerned. Did look at vinted, but I am a big girl and not many smarter options in my size. Charity is always worth it!

Definitely more accountability now I have broken this down. Going to get my head back in the game!

Aimingforthegoodlife

Ahh another Saturday, and the sun is shining today which makes me feel good. Had a stressful work week, so very glad to have time to decompress. Best way to decompress? Wine and snacks last night, and then money moving today!

PADS: 
CC: £60.26
Loan: £64.61

This is a very good week, we get some nice interest and cashback from our accounts this week which helps the CC, and I decided that my Dad's Christmas money would get me the book and TS Vinyl, that is why he gave me the money. Which meant I sent the £50 that more than covered to my loan instead, giving that a good boost. Have got quite a good balance with only a week to go, got a few DDs to go out and may top up fuel. But will be good to get to payday with money left, even if it is pennies. 

Excitingly, the CC payments are at: £555.05/2162.22 smashed that £500 barrier this week! Next week will be much less, back to usual minimum £1 payments a day I imagine! That account runs from the 1st of the month, so still has two more weeks to go before top up time! Need to find a minimum extra payment of £70.81 a month now to get this gone by Dec 2024. I am quietly confident it will be gone before then...but don't want to get too excited and end up not having enough money for anything else, so calmly does it!