Daisy's Debt Free Diary [30F/Autistic]

daintydaisy

@enthusiasticsaver definitely! I’ve always paid annually and would hate to swap to monthly payments. I will definitely be budgeting for annual expenses from now on. I’m feeling positive about the future! In future I’ll make sure excess money goes into an emergency fund pot too. I think it’ll take me a while to get into the habit of giving every £ a job because I’m stuck in bad habits, but hopefully over time it becomes more automatic. I watched a few eps of season 2 Greys today, I’ve heard it’s good and starts to drop off after season 10, so I’m glad to know I have a few seasons I can enjoy before then! 

I finally got my autism diagnosis letter today after waiting 7 weeks. Had a little read through and I was expecting it to be more in depth than it was - it was pretty much just everything I discussed in the assessment/forms. However it’s nice to have a letter confirming it and I’m very grateful that I was able to reach a diagnosis so quickly. 

I’m shattered tonight (what’s new! Must remember to take iron tablets alongside my daily meds), going to read my book and have an early night. 

daintydaisy

Morning all. Will have to rejig my budget as I have been told I have underpaid my tax by £146 and it must be paid by 1st July. Slightly annoyed as the original letter they sent me said they would increase my tax deductions and take it from there. I will pay off what I can this month and then next payday hopefully I can settle the amount. 

daintydaisy

Right, updated budget… I realised the predicted spends included my car payment which I already have the money for in my account, so that means the bills are £120 less! 

Bills = 266

Insurance = 300 (yearly)

MOT = 50 (not expecting it to fail so fingers crossed)

Car Tax = 35

Mortgage = 610

Klarna = 66 

Monthly shop = 200

Petrol = 120

Fun spends = 120 (broken down into 30 per week)

HMRC = 50

Total = 1,817

Left = 107

I will double check this at the weekend but this seems a lot more manageable. Will see how my MOT goes and if there are no extra spends needed then I’ll put some extra money towards CC1  

Been a lovely day today. I’m slowly getting through my book (about 85%) so will hopefully finish it by the weekend. Not really sure what to start next, I think I need a bit of a break from fantasy so thinking about reading Yellowface. 

Sarahwithlove

Good news about the payslip. Are future payslips going to be the same or better do you think? Fingers crossed all goes OK with the car 

daintydaisy

@Sarahwithlove I think that will be my wage as the amount looks correct before deductions. Will plan future budgets with that amount in mind!  And thank you MOT booked in for the 15th! 

Little MSE win today: 
switched our BG tariff to a fixed rate, we will be saving £15 pa on gas and £80 pa on electric and that’s before the April increase. I know I keep harping on about Snoop (not sponsored haha) but if they hadn’t sent an email out I wouldn’t have bothered to check! 

Payday tomorrow. Can’t wait to organise my money into pots - I’m also thinking about keeping my current account (the one I get paid into) separate from the one I spend. Ideally I’d like to ‘pay myself’ first and just have that pot sitting there so I’m not tempted to check it constantly. If I set up a DD for CC2 then I won’t have to check my banking app as regularly (and in theory I hope this will stop the temptation to spend?) 

daintydaisy

Morning all, payday today (finally!). Ive paid off some of my bills and sorted money into pots.

Bills paid:

mortgage - 610
klarna - 66
insurance - 305
CC1 minimum payment - 20
CC2 minimum payment - 56
money I owed SO for big shop - 40

ive also separated money into my Monzo pots so I have 120 in petrol, 120 in fun, and 200 in groceries. 

That leaves me with 515 in my main account to pay for bills/car MOT etc. 
I think I will separate the ‘left over’ money into celebration pots (birthdays etc) as it’s Mother’s Day this Sunday and my Partner and I’s anniversary in April. 

Edit: another MSE win, our BT WiFi contract ends in may and we managed to find faster internet for almost half the price. We are paying £60pm at the moment but the new one is £35 until April ‘26 and then goes up to £40. This will take my ‘mortgage’ payment (which includes these types of bills) down to £590 next month

daintydaisy

Been a spendy weekend but it’s all budgeted for which is the main thing. 

I paid my partner £50 for our big shop this week. A little bit more spendy than normal as we had some toiletries to buy like shampoo/body wash. I also did a little top up shop on Friday which included 2 pizzas for tea, this totalled £25. 

Filled up my car which cost £23, won’t have to top it up this week and even possibly next week which is good. 

Spent £5 on lotto and £2.50 on a competition on Friday (silly). 

£6 on a Mother’s Day card and £15 on a voucher for today. 

£24 came out for Pokemon cards I’d pre ordered weeks ago. Think I’m getting over this hobby now as I haven’t had the urge to buy anymore. 

I had originally planned to get my nails soaked off and re done on Saturday but estimated this would have been about £50 so instead I soaked them off myself. Ordered a nail drill and some other bits on amazon totalling £35 (including a new toy for Todd) so I can continue doing my nails at home. I have a gel kit already.

£22 came out on prescription cream I order online, and my Amazon prime membership came out which is £9. 

My friend and I also split the price of a game we wanted to play together so that was £6. 

All of that leaves me with £68.50 in my ‘fun spends’ category, £116 in my ‘groceries’ category, £97 in my ‘petrol’ category and £470 in my main account to cover £320 in bills. That leaves me £150 in my account and I will be using some of that for my MOT. 

It’s been nice to be able to budget and pay for things through my current account rather than add to my CC debt! 

I have been updating my CC debt progress in my signature, and it’s nice to see the numbers for CC1 slowly trickling down. On the other hand, the opposite seems to be happening with CC2 but that is due to last months poor planning on my part. My total debt sits at £3,136.69 where it previously sat at £3,124.06. My aim for this month is to bring it below the original starting point which is definitely manageable. 

daintydaisy

Hi all,

Had a lovely weekend in the Lakes and it ended up being 'free' which made it even better. The hotel we were given cost nothing as this was a goodwill gesture from last year when we were unable to attend due to a poorly Todd. We did go out for lunch on Saturday but this also ended up being 'free' as my partner won some money on the Grand National. The weather has been lovely and we've had lots of lovely walks (another MSE win).

Other spends this week include:

Fortiflora for Todd (£23)
Car payment (£124)
Car tax (£35)
Top up shop (£33)
Apple iCloud subscription (£5)
Wellness Plan @ Vets (£19)
Top up shop (£11)
Top up shop (£10)
Starbucks on way to Lakes (£11)

Total = £271

Left over:

£215 in main account (£50 for MOT, £146 on bills)
Petrol Pot = £97
Fun Money Pot = £68
Groceries = £86

I will be doing another top up shop tonight for the week ahead, expecting this to be around ~£30-40 ish. 

In other news, I applied for a 32mth 0% CC to shift the debt over from CC2. Not sure if this was the smartest thing to do as I still had 0% on it until Jan, but it seemed like a good deal and I would eventually have needed a balance transfer anyway. Once the amount has been transferred over, I will set up a standing order payment. I feel a lot better already knowing I have a longer period to pay this off, however I don't plan on using the whole 32mths as I want it all paid ASAP. I still plan on doing the debt snowball approach.

From April's payday I would also like to start saving for our Japan trip in April 2026 - I think we will need around £2500 each which is around £208 per month if I start saving in April this year. My partner and I have been discussing moving down to 1 car to save a little bit of money which might enable us to put more towards our holiday. 

I have a very busy last week ahead before the Easter hols, so my plan tonight is to catch up on the washing, sort out some resources for next week and plan my lesson that I'm being observed for tomorrow, and do the top up shop we need. Also getting lots of cuddles from Toddy as we've missed him this weekend!

Hope everyone has had a lovely week. 

daintydaisy

MOT was fine so only cost £54 - just an advisory about the front tyres which I'll have a look at over the next few months. Might start a pot to save up for changing them.

In terms of my budget, my debt has increased on CC2, but I feel a bit better about this due to the balance transfer. This will mean it doesn't need to be paid off until Dec 2027, however I plan on having it paid off well before then! Still chipping away at CC1, I have a £120 standing order due out soon which will bring the balance down to £559.  

I have enough in my current account to cover bills, however I have been dipping into my pots so I must get better at this next month. I think I possibly stretched myself too far with having my insurance/MOT/car tax payments all in one month, so looking ahead to next year I must begin saving a separate pot so it doesn't happen again. Payday is a week on Friday, and I'm off work until the 28th (yippee). My partner is also off this week so we've been going on lots of walks. I've also been crocheting and playing some games with my friend. I've lost interest in my Pokemon card hobby so thinking about possibly selling my collection. 

I crocheted 2 snugglers (one for a friend's baby shower and one for my partners sister who is also expecting). I only got into this hobby last December but I absolutely love it. My autistic brain loves repetitive tasks. 

vampirotoothus

They are so cute! V x