CrazyBee wants to be Mortgage Free!

V3cash

ah shame about the pollution that must be hard.
i live in the country and my nearest city is quite good so i guess i find it hard to imagine.
i always park on outskirts of the city and walk in as im way too tight to pay parking and i have no bus from our village.
Always pro’s and cons to everywhere 😊

sounds like you are back on track with your goals so that’s great

CrazyBee787

Thank you @V3cash

I am back in charge of my goals!

I have added another No spend day making it 3/19 another 16 to go that is 15% complete.

CC Balance I am failing, however there is a tiny ray of hope although unlikely that some of it will come back. CC balance is £629.88 and there is circa £90 left to go on (Groceries) Totalling Circa £720 This is an overbudegt of £320 and that is 80% over budget. However the one positive was that the refund came back to me which is included in figures.

Prolific looks promising Although £20.19 is pending the entire pot is valued at £31.00 and the pending pot is all due to get paid before end of feb, so I should be able to add this to the running total albeit pending. Therefore for my goal of £52.64 I am 58% of the way there and we are just days into the month, this in large part was down to a survey this morning of 16 dollars, I left for work late, however I am always early so it didn't impact work to get there, however I did feel ever so tired this evening, and was released early from work!

I feel good, it has been a good day. 😊

CrazyBee787

I have now finished work for the day - and it was good! I really enjoyed the work! Anyhow on to less enjoyable tasks I need to get some chores done so that I have the entire weekend free for relaxing!! well not total relax, but I can dream!! I need a motivational list to work from:-

1) Bins

2) Hoovering

3) Put away washing

4) Wipe the bathroom

5) Put washing on

6) Clean desk.

7) Make dinner.

That will do!

Done Din was good too. (chicken burger and chips!) Spending days at 4/19 little way to go - although I am thinking I will go and use some of my pocket money on a plant for colleague leaving, and I may be tempted to pick up something chocolately! I have asked boss if he wants to chip in, on first reaction he said no, but I don't think he understood, so I have reworded it, perhaps he doesn't want to and I should have backed off. Anyhow I will go as soon as I hear back. I am pleased the chores that are done so far, the rest of the night is mine!

LadyWithAPlan

MFWannabe said:

Oh Crazybee 🙄😕
I would go back and read your first page of this diary and remind yourself what was important and still should be now 
Playing ridiculously expensive games is not the way too go, you don’t get any real ‘rewards’ out of these. 

You’d have gained more of a reward if you’d purchased your flooring or put it into savings etc.
Your current position is for 6 months and then you could or could not be in the same position as you were in December again
Past is the past, you have to live in the here and now 

I would strongly suggest you stop using the credit card and sit and write yourself a proper budget
Also I would think about what activities you could do for free or for little cost 

Good Luck x 

This is very wise advice. 

'I will be earning £1950 after tax per month roughly speaking and I also will need a car fund soon. However I have recently been unemployed for a while and so the first thing I need to do is accumulate an EF fund.'

I note you said this on the first entry and spending £336  of £1950 so thats over 17% of your monthly take home from what you said...


I do get having expensive hobbies (I live in  central London which is one of mine   as is travel ..however if you say you want X (EF, car fund, mortgage OP)  then spend loads on Y .. you at least know why X is taking so long to achieve
I have a fair amount of disposable income myself on occasion and  I found without really tracking every penny it was too easy to 'treat' myself  (somehow more than once a week) and then my hse savings were naturally lessened,

I have thus found YNAB  brilliant as it makes me decide my spending, review each expenditure against my goals/ targets and each month gives me the exact expenditure vs my target.  so I can see where I am overspending against what I say I want. 

Dont beat yourself up- just learn the lesson and move forward - sounds like you back on track which is great.

CrazyBee787

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan I have tried YNAB and hate it, but thanks for dropping by! I prefer the old school methods, where I actually enjoy doing it! (spreadsheets for spending, spreadsheets for year plan, budget etc etc, I have many spreadhseets and I can honestly say they are useful and I enjoy using them. 

LadyWithAPlan

CrazyBee787 said:

Thanks @LadyWithAPlan I have tried YNAB and hate it, but thanks for dropping by! I prefer the old school methods, where I actually enjoy doing it! (spreadsheets for spending, spreadsheets for year plan, budget etc etc, I have many spreadhseets and I can honestly say they are useful and I enjoy using them. 

Fair enough... IU will say s/sheets dont make you look at your spending though unless you force yourself to - I just ignored them after the beg of each months budget and never did a proper  end of month review - if they work for you great - 

CrazyBee787

Holy mackintosh! I have just reached my prolific goal of £55.00 per month on the 6th Day of the month no less - I managed to nab a 20$ one as well as the 16$ earlier, I am well chuffed! I am soo excited, really glad to nail that goal and so soon, wahoo!! At least that will be one goal I have done this month, i'll see if I can top it making future months goal smaller! yippee! Actually I have had a thought anything else I earn can go towards paying off the credit card, this will be more motivatiional, as I will benefit from it now and feel like I am undoing the damage that I did last Saturday!

CrazyBee787

5/19 No Spend days today Hurrah - Although I did use some of my pocket money on some snacks!

I have had a small bit of good news from my CC company, they have written off £15.99 at the very least that is something, if I don't get anywhere with the rest therefore My CC Bill at present is £613.89, it is a start, I have been told about the process today and it could take 8 weeks, however I won't have to pay the disputed amount until the case is decided, so this month might be okay in the end...



If I deduct the game play that I am disputing the balance is quite friendly my CC is £293.93. Back on track, well for the time being. I think with a push I can make the CC balance £400, if the disputed items dissappear on the credit card this month, if I get the forms back in on time.

Prolific goal is reached, But I think I will take a step back this weekend potentially, although I feel okay, when I was at work it was quite hard to focus and I made the odd mistake so I feel like a proper rest from the computer would be good starting tonight, I think I will read a bit later and turn the heating up a bit, make a few friend calls etc.

CrazyBee787

6/19 No Spend days although I did use some budgeted money today, I had Cod and Chips as a treat for dinner. When I say budgeted I have money left from the £400 budget, I have now enough for groceries next week and that is it, unless I earn some extra cash on prolific, but I think I could do with a break, and crack on with work or resting, although I may be tempted to do the odd survey still but I think I will put it towards next months challenge though. I felt my self crack this week and I don't want a re-occurence. 

I was supposed to take MD out but I think tomorrow I am staying in and today I woke up with a bad back. I feel a tiny bit guilty, but equally I am getting too bored being at MDs I just watch her doing the dinner, washing up, preparing soup, she doesn't stop and talk to me she says it is because we see so much of each other, I only see her at the weekend, but then I do call her every day, I guess it is a bit too much, it is nice to talk to each other during the week. I think she likes it because it gives her company.

I have cracked open the cross stitch kit, I moved aside the work station and set up on the dining table and I haven't actually started yet, I have just read everything and looked at everything. I got the first two strands ready to stitch on the needle. I think I will spend some of tomorrow doing it. I think I will just set myself up to do one section at a time, I mean literally the first 4 stitches and see how I go. But I am pleased I have got this far I am a little more keen to get going then before and I need something else to do rather then just reading or being at the computer.

There is 12 days to go until the end of my month (CC cut off) I am going to count down each time I come on here, because I feel I need it. Everyone of those days needs to be NO spend (I will be able to add another 11 to my 6 which would make 17 still 2 away from my goal well 3 if you count the fact that I want the blue monster!! I may be able to show you the blue monster potentially if I get that far! Actually here he is!



I have not been sensible this week with food, yes cod and chips not good but I have been having a lot less take out generally so once now and again is okay. But with snacking, I have been feeling hungry in the week and eating less good things it is becoming a pattern, I had been feeling a bit low as well. I think this week I will be mindfull to stick to the meal plan (3X meals a day), tomorrow I am going to do a bit of cooking , I got some quorn meat balls I am going to make a tomato sauce and cook them in the oven, I think I will prepare the sauce earlier in the day and then cook it in the evening have one portion then freeze at least 3 portions for another time. This is a planned improvement, I want to go back to having a few cooked meals as well as the shop bought meals, I believe the quorn meatballs and tomato sauce are free on the SW meal plan or very low. I also want to do my favourite a lamb curry (rogan josh) I like to do this in a big batch, I am going to wait until next month now because the lamb is soo expensive to do this, but I will make about 8 meals from this, so will last a while.

I have actually lost a stone through using a weightloss jab, which I don't use anymore and I want to keep it off and maybe add a bit to it. But I will be happy to keep it off as a start. But This last week has been so bad, that I worry I will go back into old eating patterns, so tomorrow I will wait as long as possible before pouring out some cereal and I will pour a smaller measure. I will wait as long as possible for lunch, then I will just have the planned lunch and no extras etc..It will help that I don't have a lot of free money left over for spending.

I think tonight I will have a relaxing shower and read in bed, yes this feels like a good way to spend the time.

CrazyBee787

 

I Had to use him again! Here he is and I love him!!