Don't hit me with those negative waves Moriarity

vampirotoothus

You spent £50 and had a day to remember, worth it's weight. Also lots of your friends who went away will have spent a lot more than that and will not come back with any memorable times. Keep going and I love your song titles! V x

LzzyIsGod

Always look on the bright side of life - monty python

You are all so right! Thank you so much for your comments - I do have a tendency to significantly overthink and beat myself up over things, the sky is either brilliant blue or crashing down around my ears 😂 there's no in-between.

Today I've decided I need to stay more positive and sometimes I need to reflect back to see how far I've come in even just a few short months.

Everything is going down and in the right direction - I.e not up!  ✔️  I'm saving money each month - £200-250 in my personal EF and 200 into the joint EF, plus I still have my secret investment savings which have also increased. ✔️

I've paid £2820.10 OFF my debts in 4 months - that's over 7% paid back. That's not too shabby at around 700 quid a month and I am managing (bar this week's blip) to stay within budget. 

So all in all it's been a productive 4 months - it could have been a different story entirely.

browneyed_girl

Congratulations on these last 4 months - that is an amazing amount to have paid off!

jwil

That's brilliant progress, well done!

FootyFanDan

Amazing progress you are making.

LzzyIsGod

Don't forget your shovel - Christy Moore

Song today chosen after a particularly topsy turvy day at work and (this makes sense only if you know the song !!) Ive felt like I've been digging away all day.

Been a very busy few days - 3 out of 4 were NSDs other than the usual grocery shop so that wasn't bad. Today I did dash out to purchase some additional ingredients for youngest yoofs birthday cake which he has tasked me with making tomorrow- what started out as a cheap thing to do has crept up cost wise and probably have been cheaper to buy but I guess a shop bought one won't have been baked with love and the inevitable swearing when I come to decorate it!!

Yoofs presents were all purchased out the birthday pot - quite pricey purchases for a birthday but we managed to find both things refurbished so not as expensive as new and totalled £150 and will be well used. I did.splash out on a specialist book related to his new hobby which I was never going to find 2nd hand and that was £9. Fortunately next family birthday is DH who had joint Christmas/birthday presents so no additional spending and then a bit of relief from birthdays until later in the year.

No further debt repayments since my last update but I think ive found a good SIM only deal for my phone and a subscription i was tied into has now finished so from march onwards I potentially could be 30 quid better off each month whoop whoop. Every pound is a little more breathing space.

 March is shaping up to be a costly.month though with 2 school residential trips to pay for and the next summer holiday payment is due but money has been put aside for these so im hoping i wont miss it too much. I do get sad when the pots go down!!

My bargin of the week came.on Friday when I was gifted brand new waterproof trousers and a cagoule which will fit the youngest- perfect for his school trip and camping with the scouts. I will gift these onwards when he outgrows them. 

On we go ...... digging, digging, digging dum de deeble dum!

jwil

Good news on the sim deal and the free waterproofs!

Debtfree2026

I'm the same - I'm so pleased to have my pots but almost reluctant to use them?! Even though they are being used for what I intended!  I feel it's a better mindset than previously!

Very good news on the waterproofs!

browneyed_girl

I seem to have the same problem next month with school residential trips - it's like the schools know just when you've started to breathe a bit easier after Christmas and then they pounce! 

Best of luck with the baking today - I'm sure that a lovely homemade birthday cake will be infinitely nicer than the overly artificial and cardboard-like shop bought alternative.  Never worth the money in my opinion and I've tried almost every choice out there over the years!  

LzzyIsGod

Cake by the ocean DNCE

My mind went blank trying to think of songs with cake in them so this was the best I could do!

The cake turned out not too shabby and yoof was suitably impressed and overjoyed which was nice. A labour of love on my part 🤣 needless to say I won't be applying to Great British Bakeoff and quitting the day job any time soon but it did taste pretty decent even if it wasn't the most perfect of presentations!

A spendy day all round  - as per house birthday rules the birthday person choices dinner and it was a rare takeaway. Last year he chose steak so clearly a pattern of expensive tastes emerging 😂 He loved the gifts so that was good and said he'd had one of the best birthdays ever god bless him.

2 days to payday! Can't come soon enough this month!!