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

SillySillyGoose

They are adorable!

dawnybabes

They are lovely 🥰 

Catlady2025

Absolutely love the snugglers!! 

Do you think selling your pokemon cards could pay off a big chunk of some debt? 

daintydaisy

Thanks all for the lovely comments about my snugglers!  

@Catlady2025
I have only been collecting a few months so I don't think I'll get anything significant, and it definitely won't outweigh what's been spent, but at least it will be a start. I track my cards on an app and that tells me I can sell them on ebay so will have a look at how that works. 

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In other news I made a bit of a catastrophic error calculating my payday. I had it in my head that we were paid on the last Friday of each month,  but it is actually the penultimate day of the month! Unfortunately this left me way out of my budget, so I have had to take out an arranged overdraft to compensate. This will get me through to payday and then I will be cancelling it immediately as the last time I had an overdraft was when I was 18 and I struggled so much to get out of it. I've been feeling a bit down money wise lately as I feel like I'm just chasing my tail. I know it's only my first month of trying to have a budget so I should be more kind to myself. I really hope I will notice a difference next month seeing as I don't have any big payments coming out. 

Catlady2025

Sorry to hear about your payday woes. I'm glad you were able to catch it before you incurred any fees though(?).

As for selling cards, I actually use cardmarket to sell mine. Just FYI. It sounds like selling them will help the situation a little too. xx

daintydaisy

Catlady2025 said:

Sorry to hear about your payday woes. I'm glad you were able to catch it before you incurred any fees though(?).

As for selling cards, I actually use cardmarket to sell mine. Just FYI. It sounds like selling them will help the situation a little too. xx

Perfect! is it easy enough to sell? how do you ensure they don't get damaged? that's what makes me nervous about selling them! Thanks so much xx

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Received my payslip so I spent yesterday going through my finances ready for the month ahead. I've been using ChatGPT to help me sort a plan out and it's worked so well helping me brain dump everything. I've altered my expenses so they include savings towards annual expenses (car tax/insurance/MOT, dentist, xmas, birthdays). All rounded up.

Income: £2037
Expenses: £1676
Left: £361

Goals:

• £400 saved by end of July for holiday in Aug
• £300 emergency buffer by July
• £400 towards a new GPU for my PC
• CC1 paid by Sept
• CC2 (£2,800, 0% until Jan 2026 -> balance transfer over to new 32mo 0% card)

Monthly Breakdowns:

May:

• £135 towards holiday
• Minimum payment for CC2
• £100 in emergency buffer pot
• £91 towards GPU fund

Running Total:
Holiday £135 / £400
Emergency £100 / £300
GPU £91 / £400

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June:

• £135 towards holiday
• Minimum payment for CC2
• £100 in emergency buffer pot
• £91 towards GPU fund

Running Total:
Holiday £270 / £400
Emergency £200 / £300
GPU £181 / £400

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July

• £135 towards holiday 
• Minimum payment for CC2
• £100 in emergency buffer pot
• £91 towards GPU

Running Total:
Holiday £405 / £400 (complete)
Emergency £300 / £300 (complete)
GPU £271 / £400

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August onward...

Gets a little tricky here as my current contract is only until end of Aug, which means I will be on supply from Sept and will mean fluctuations to my monthly income.

£135 for holiday savings can now go elsewhere, CC1 should be paid off by end of Aug which leaves £120 to go elsewhere. I will allocate the £120 from CC1 to CC2, in addition to paying off the minimum payment, so that should mean I'm paying about £160 towards CC2 each month. 

My partner and I want to save to go to Japan next April (this was to be a joint 30th bday present for both of us), so after September, once CC1 is fully paid off, I'd like to start allocating around £167pm towards that holiday, which means I'd have around £1336 (goal = £2000) to put towards the holiday. We have been meaning to save for this the past 2 years but other things have always cropped up, so I'm hoping by keeping an actual pot of money it will help me manifest the trip actually happening!

I'm trying to be mindful with my budget, but I feel a little guilty about having these goals for things like my new GPU/holidays etc. Both of my CCs are 0% and I have a balance transfer sorted for CC2 so I feel like as long as I am making the minimum payments (including any extras where I can) then I'm on track. 

daintydaisy

Update: balance transfer request has gone through so money should be transferred soon. I feel so much better knowing that's another job ticked off, and hopefully I can just treat it as a 'monthly expense' by setting up a standing order each month. Not seeing that balance each time I open my banking app might help me feel a little less anxious too. 

enthusiasticsaver

I would set the standing orders for the credit cards as slightly over minimums so they don't go down as the balance decreases. I think I would also continue with the emergency pot as you have a car even if you drop the amount to £50 a month. 

daintydaisy

enthusiasticsaver said:

I would set the standing orders for the credit cards as slightly over minimums so they don't go down as the balance decreases. I think I would also continue with the emergency pot as you have a car even if you drop the amount to £50 a month. 

Hello! Thanks for stopping by and for your comment. That’s what I will be doing, my plan is to have a set amount each month to cover the minimum and a bit more - then make overpayments as and when I can afford it! I know I have 32months but I want to pay it off a lot sooner. 

And you’re definitely right, £50 would be manageable so I might keep that up. Last year I had 2 flat tyres and a coil spring go in my car which was a nightmare so I definitely want to be prepared in case anything like that happens again. 

daintydaisy

Hello, it’s been a busy (and expensive) month. I had my 30th birthday, and I also got offered a job for September by my school which I’m so happy about. The contract will be until January with the possibility of extending until July 2026 (fingers crossed). It’s payday again today so time to look at the budget… 

My pots worked really well last month and my partner and I have put together some joint pots for things like groceries, cat food/other pet expenses. I was doing so well with my budget but caved this week and end up spending more than I should have. As it stands, my CC’s look like this:

CC1: 371
CC2: 390
CC3: 2753
Total = 3514

All of the minimum payments have been made, and I have a DD set up with CC1 and CC2. My priority is to pay off CC1 and I have taken out the money I had in my PC parts pot to pay some more of it off. 

As it stands, my savings look like this:

Emergency buffer: 61
Christmas: 100
Annual payments: 82
Holiday: 270
PC parts: 4

After setting aside money for regular payments/bills I have about 200 left over, which I will leave in my account as an extra buffer/put any remaining amounts into CC next payday.