Need to stop spending and chasing dopamine!

Pink_Butterfly

Today is the anniversary of my baby girl. I always find this day difficult, and the run up to it - pretty much from 28th December until today I’ve been feeling low as I have lived through everything that happened (she died when I was halfway through my pregnancy after 3 weeks of scans and appointments trying to save her). It’s the same every year sadly. The girls and I went to the cemetery and laid down flowers. It’s an absolute mess there at the moment because of all the leaves and mud, but I will tidy it up in the spring.

I’m definitely an emotional spender, and today I bought myself a Fitbit watch. I’ve been wanting one for ages, as I feel like I have more motivation to get my steps in and live a healthier lifestyle when I can physically see how I’m progressing. I bought a 2nd hand one, and it’s an older model, so I haven’t been too naughty!

Sleepout donations are at £115 now, and we still have just under 3 weeks to go. Very pleased with this! I still need to get some cardboard to sit/lay on.

Off to watch some TV before bed x

Pink_Butterfly

I had a day off today and it was… expensive 🤯 I spent a whopping £215.00 at the dentists!

£50.00 deposit for my next check up
£50.00 deposit for my next hygienist appointment
£75.00 for the balance of today’s appointments
£40.00 for 2 X-rays

The price we pay to have good dental health! Still, my teeth are looking good apparently and my wisdom tooth that was sitting at a funny angle (and close to bashing my molar) has now moved to the back of my molar, which means it won’t be bothering me 😊 I also had a scrape & polish so my teeth are squeaky clean!

The expense continued when I did some food shopping afterwards. Again, soooo expensive 😫

When I got home I went to check on my elderly neighbour as I had to take a delivery for a load of meds for her. Her daughter answered the door and said she was in hospital with pneumonia ☹️ She’s been poorly for some time, and has had a horrendous cough for the last 7 years that I’ve known her. She does smoke about 50 cigarettes a day though! Bless her, I don’t blame her - she may aswell do whatever makes her happy at this stage.

After that I scrubbed my kitchen & living room so it’s all clean & tidy. I’m currently laying on the sofa with all of my candles lit and everything is calm 😍 x

Pink_Butterfly

Hello! It’s almost Friday, yay! My Fitbit has arrived and it’s shouting at me for only doing 2.3K steps today 🤣 I had every intention of going out at lunchtime for a nice walk but it was raining, and I’m not someone who likes walking in the rain 😆 I have been walking a fair bit every day this week and doing lunchtime walks but I want to increase it.

My friend got told today that the cancer is stage 3 as it spread to 6 nodes. The nodes were removed but she will still need chemo to mop up any stray cells that may have bolted for cover. She’s still being her positive, glass-half-full self 😊 She’s out tonight for the first time since her surgery which is great.

My beautician friend came over earlier to wax my eyebrows and do a pedicure and I feel so much better! It was nice catching up with her.

DD2 swallowed a tooth today 😬 and she had a lockdown drill at school so a very eventful day for her 😂 I spoke to her teacher today as she’s been concerning me a bit recently, saying she hates school and doesn’t want to go. Very out of character for her so her teacher is going to speak to her tomorrow. I tried to speak to her this morning but she just kept saying the teachers are too strict (which I don’t think is the case but she’s a sensitive soul) and she doesn’t like the swimming lessons (which I understand as I hate them too!).

Off to do some studying x

Pink_Butterfly

Ooooo 4 days of ignoring my diary! 😬 Oooops.

My child benefit got paid today so I’ve sent £37.72 to the Barclaycard to hit my £700.00 target 😁 The total debt now is £6,999.30 😊 Very pleased with this! It means I’ve paid off £1,325.00 since I started this diary.

I’ve just ordered a birthday present for DD2 as TopCashback were giving £5.00 extra cashback today. It’s not for another 2 months but at least I’m being organised!

The weather has been horrendous recently so my steps haven’t been great but hopefully I can go on some nice walks this week. It took me an hour to get home from work today because the main dual carriageway was shut due to an accident, no doubt because it was raining heavily with strong winds at the time. The poor people involved 😢

I saw my friend in the supermarket AGAIN yesterday (the one who I hadn’t seen in 9 years and now seen 3 times in a month 😂). We joked that we’d see each other again next week, even though we never arrange to meet up 😂

Right, time to wash up and then chill for the rest of the evening x

Pink_Butterfly

It’s Wednesday, meaning we’re over the hump! 😁

Work has been busyyyyy but I had an amazing meeting today about one of my projects outside of my normal role and it left me buzzing all day ☺️ It’s definitely a passion project of mine as it’s around mental health and wellbeing.

February is going to be an expensive month but I’m going to try and pay £600.00 off my debt. Hopefully I can do it! No council tax will help 😉

I had a funny exchange with DD1 earlier…

Me: what’s your favourite subject at school these days?
DD1: lunchtime
Me: what’s your second favourite subject?
DD1: break time
Me: what’s your third favourite subject?
DD1: home time
Me: what’s your fourth favourite subject?
DD1: before school
Me: what’s your fifth favourite subject?
DD1: I don’t have one

Made me laugh 😂 I can tell she’s approaching her teen years. Especially as she’s allergic to coats, even in the winter 🙈 lol. Her teacher sent me a lovely e-mail today, it made me so proud!

I need to submit my next assignment soon but this section is so boring! It’s mainly about legislation and anything like that bores me to tears lol 😂

Pink_Butterfly

Hello, let me tell you about this morning!

Had a semi-stressful start to the day with DD2 as she was upset about something. Then when I was about to drop her off at school I noticed one of her ear-rings had fallen out. As I wasn’t sure how long it had been out and the fact she only had them pierced 6 months ago I text her dad asking if we could go to his house and get another pair of her ear-rings, as he lives right by the school. He said yes, so off we went, but DD2 was getting stressed out at trying to get her ear-rings in and so I was trying to calm her down. Then I got a text from DD1 saying she had forgotten her PE kit and could I drop it off 🤯 So then I dropped off DD2 at the school, raced home in the worse traffic, picked up the PE kit, took it to the school, got home, and then realised I left my front door open with the keys still in the door!!! My brain had left the chat at that point I think!!!

After that I couldn’t focus at all! But eventually it came back 😂

Pay day tomorrow! Thankfully! I’m only working in the morning as I booked the afternoon off - I’m going out with some friends for one of their birthdays tomorrow night, so I’m getting my nails done and possibly my eye make-up too. We are staying over in a Travelodge which was paid for a while ago. Cheap & cheerful! It should be a good night. I have a budget… let’s see if I stick to it 😉 x

Pink_Butterfly

Well I did go over budget, but only by £1.37 😂 It was a very good night but boyyyy am I paying for it now! I’m so tired, and keep getting waves of nausea. I’m trying to drink lots of water to flush out all the toxins out of my system 😆 I am not really a drinker, so 1 glass of wine & 2 cocktails is a lot for me…lightweight I am 🤣

My friends and I went to the nearest shopping centre this morning for a McDonald’s breakfast and a mooch around and I was so tempted to spend money on stuff I didn’t need in Primark, but in the end I only bought one item which was £2.50 😇 I had my debt-busting target in my head!

I’ve sent the council tax monthly amount of £125.00 towards my holiday, so I have started hitting the £600.00 challenge already. £475.00 to go.

Since getting home I’ve unpacked my overnight bag, washed the towels, done a very mini food shop, and now I need to put new bed sheets on the kids’ bunk beds before I get them back later, which is the worse job ever, especially the day after a few drinks 🤣

I had about 2-3 hours sleep last night so I’m very much looking forward to bedtime already 🤭

Pink_Butterfly

Hello! I finally caught up on my sleep last night so I’ve had a lot more energy today 😀 The girls and I walked into town this morning as DD2 wanted to get a present for her friend. I got myself some toiletries and then I treated us all to a Subway, which we ate once we got home. Then I sorted out the laundry, went to the supermarket, came home, and then went out again to drop DD1 off to meet her friends. Will need to go and pick her up soon as it’ll start getting dark and it’s getting closer to dinner time.

I’ve finally finished stripping the wallpaper in the living room. I didn’t do any more for ages but I’ve got a man painting the walls in the living room and kitchen in a couple of days so I wanted to get it finished. I’ve set some money aside for him.

I’ve received an e-mail about my course to say I passed the first assessment 😊 yay! I’ve submitted the 2nd one so hopefully I’ll pass that one too. Halfway through already… hopefully I can smash through the rest of the course this month. Then I am planning on spending more time at the gym as I’ve not been in 3 months and I need to stop making excuses 😂

Just 5 more days until the sleep out and it’s forecast to be freezing on the night, which isn’t surprising but I need to make sure I’ve got everything. We’ve received £230 in donations so far which is amazing and I predict there’ll be more over the next week 😊

Right, off to pick up the cherub and then cook dinner x

Pink_Butterfly

Good evening all! It’s been a very busy day but I now have my feet up 😌

The minimum payment for my NatWest CC went out today, so the total overall debt is now £6,849.38. I reckon if I sold my car I’d be able to clear it, which is tempting as I want a different car! Though I’d need to borrow money for a new car, so maybe I won’t do that 😬

One of my colleagues came back from maternity leave today so we had a nice lunch ordered in from… Subway 🤣  I hadn’t had one in years, and now I’ve had 2 in 24 hours 😆 I paid for it but can claim it back in expenses.

The painter & decorator is coming round at 9:30am tomorrow so my mum is going to sit in and wait for him so I can go to work. He’s also going to fix my kitchen light, install a carbon monoxide alarm, and fix the plug in my bathroom sink. Can’t wait 😊 Once it’s done I want to get the carpets professionally cleaned as they’re disguuuusting!

I have stomach ache so I’m going to suffer in silence on the sofa 😭 x

Skint_yet_Again

Pink_Butterfly said:

Hello! I’m creating this diary to hold me accountable, as I’ve been trying to pay this debt off for 3 years now and I just keep kicking the can down the road so to speak. The good news is it’s all on 0% interest. The bad news is I need to have the most boring year next year (aside from a holiday) to be able to pay it all off before the interest kicks in. I have bad spending habits so this will be a challenge for me, but I’m determined!

The debt as of today:

Barclaycard: £2,989.46
Natwest CC: £2,418.76
Holiday for 2025: £1,938.60
Universal Credit Advance 1: £419.70
Universal Credit Advance 2: £333.28
Very: £111.00
Next: £88.50
Klarna: £25.00
Total unsecured debt = £8,324.30

I want to have this all gone in the next 12-18 months. I’ve done a budget and I think this is achievable providing I don’t lose my job, or the car doesn’t require expensive repairs etc 😁

I’m happy to keep the holiday as I haven’t taken my children away since April 2023, so it’ll be over 2 years by the time we go away, and I’m trying to balance getting in a good financial position and making memories with my kids. The social diary is going to be taking an absolute beating once the Christmas period is over though. I’m not sure I’m ready for it in all honesty 😂 but I guess that’s why I’m here as I know I’m going to need a community of people to help me 🙂

Thanks for reading!

That’s a fantastic debt reduction @Pink_Butterfly well done. 
 Hope you are feeling better