14 months to go!

honeybee1234

Morning all!

Yesterday was quite positive compared to Wednesday when my anxiety was wild, thankfully! I took advantage of the lovely pleasantly-sunny-but-not-too-hot weather to venture out to the local Lidl in the morning, and did a small menu planned shop to see me through until the end of the month, based on what I have in the cupboards and what needs using up. One of my current 'things' is trying to shop closer to home - I spent some time a few days ago working out how far my regular Aldi is, and which supermarkets are closer, to see if it'd save fuel. Going to my local Lidl halves the journey, and it's always pleasantly quiet in there. Dropped off a return while there at the lockers - a shirt my son needed but was too big, so that will be coming off the Nationwide card balance. 

I was having a stress about having built a small balance on my Nationwide credit card yesterday after all my hard work the past couple of months, overpaying my M&S card before the 0% ends. I decided to be logical with this, and sat down and did some sums. I transferred the money my ex gave me towards the clothes I bought for my son, subtracted the amount I'll get back for the two returns I've made of clothing that didn't fit, paid some money I was owed from DP towards shopping, and in the end, the balance is around 137.00, and not the 249ish showing currently on the app. So feel a lot better now! 

Today me and DP are going to (try to!) venture out to the gym this morning, which always really helps my brain, then a nice quiet afternoon which I might spend working on the garden, my current project as I've realised somewhat ironically that my brain likes being outdoors in nature despite not wanting to leave the house! I'm creating a little oasis of calm, for me to enjoy when I can't face going out, or when the kids are here. 

Right, best get on! 

honeybee1234

A brand new shiny month has begun! Every month, I work out what I overpaid on my M&S card, so:

Minimum payment = 25.00
Total direct debit payment made including min payment: 171.91 (this was the result of taking my balance in May, and dividing it by the number of months left on the 0% deal)

Other overpayments made: 58.56

Total paid: 230.47

I'm really pleased with this! The other overpayments are a mix of bank account cashback and spare change, Prolific, TopCashBack, a little ebay, and some Vinted sales. My target was 30.00, so have achieved nearly double, am very happy with that! 

Was woken up at 5.30am by a very loudly meowing cat, so I've been contemplating life over a very large cup of tea whilst feeling very zombie like! Over the last few days, I've gone through June's grocery spends, and after working out how much I spent, then categorised spends. So, for example, I know I bought 6x 6 pints of semi skimmed milk, and it is 15p more expensive at Lidl than Aldi (2.30 vs 2.15 - this genuinely surprised me.) I bought 9 tubs of kefir yogurt, and it is 1.20 at Asda, but only 1.09 at Aldi. This kind of maths really appeals to my brain, so this morning I've been thinking how to split my shopping as it's groceries that always throw me. I always think I have the benefit of time to be able to work on this, so this will be my focus this month. My budget is 240.00, this covers food, household items and basic toiletries for me, then both kids two weekends of the month and whenever else they want to come over. I take other toiletries out of my personal spends, and I have a pot for bulk buys. This is a relatively new idea I'm trying, so we'll see how it goes this month! 

This morning I'll be:

> costing out all my toiletries to see what's on offer where - I've already started this so want to finish it before I go out shopping, probably tomorrow

> finish my list of ideas for meals I can batch cook - I'm vegetarian but the kids aren't so a chunk of this is finding a good balance, they'll eat a lot of my veggie meals luckily!

>watering the garden

>phone call to PIP to get my certificate of entitlement so I can do my free car tax this month

>definitely drinking more tea! 

honeybee1234

Good morning!

Another early wake up for me! I've had a very generous cup of tea whilst going over the last two or three days and reviewing my grocery and toiletries spends. This week has been manic - as is the way of my mental health conditions, I can only tolerate a short finite period of Getting Stuff Done That Involves Going Out before my brain implodes and I grind to a screeching halt, and that's where I am atm! 

Grocery spends
I've been shopping, using my notes to buy items specifically where I know they're cheapest, and anything on offer has been purchased for the month, as well as stocking up on basics such as pasta, rice, tinned tomatoes etc. The cupboards are full, so now I'm methodically working my way through my meal plan, and keeping an eye on using up fresh things. Tonight is spinach and ricotta pasta using frozen spinach, and a bag of 30% off salad from Aldi.

Toiletries spends

 This has been a real labour of love! I've spent time researching everything I need for the month, and finding out where the best offers are for each. It's been a real mix of shops I've used, Aldi/Amazon/Tesco and I need to get hair dye from Superdrug and my list is complete! I'm really pleased with this. I have bought a handful of different brands I haven't used before, mainly  due to needing to be careful with SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) as I've recently realised it affects our skin, scalp and hair, so I'm avoiding it. I'm trying some Faith in Nature shower gel so will see how it goes!

Today I'm officially proclaiming a lazy day! It will involve dressing in my best Adam Sandler style oversized comfy clothes, walking DH's dog, picking up a Vinted parcel, then back to the house to tend to my plants, carry on watching the Marvel films/programmes in order (just finished Daredevil: Born Again) and carry on reading my book, and hopefully not much more than that! 

honeybee1234

Afternoon!

This morning me and DP walked the dog (in the rain!) and picked up a parcel from the local locker from Vinted. I'm trying a mini project of reselling certain clothing items, so I've been scouring online this last week or so to see what I can find. I have a list of criteria for buying, and hopefully this will generate an amount on top of costs that I can use to overpay my M&S card.

The current balance is 326.24, down from 1031.45 in mid-April. Two payments remaining, September's payment will clear the balance and will start the snowball onto my next card, Capital One, current balance 1059.27, ticking over with minimum payments for now. The 0% ends on that in January next year, so it's going to be a huge push if I want to get it cleared by then, and I'm not sure it's feasible. We shall see when the time comes how the land lies! 

honeybee1234

I'm struggling quite a lot today with my mental health. I've been on the go all day as a result of my horrible panic and anxiety; being busy is both a side effect of feeling like that, but also ironically, the physical exertion helps burn up the adrenaline.

So as a result, I have a very clean house, a batch of soup that will last the next couple of days which used up a stray onion, potato and some garlic, and a very delicious lime drizzle cake that used up some leftover ricotta from the spinach and ricotta pasta I made a couple of days ago. Now I'm ensconced on the sofa waiting for tea to be ready (a mish mash of tofu, potatoes and peas plus anything else I find that needs using!)

I was going to create some listings to start selling the clothing I'll be reselling... but that will have to wait until tomorrow, I don't have the bandwidth to focus on it at the moment. 

Hope everyone else has had a better day! 

honeybee1234

You know that feeling you get when your money plans are lining up with what you'd worked out at the beginning of the month? I have that 😁

I sat down yesterday to balance the books as it were, and taking control and making decisions is paying off (literally!) Everything is ticking over nicely, I have pleasingly full kitchen cupboards so only need to mainly pick up fresh stuff tomorrow, and I've been making Good Decisions about whether things I've had my eye on are reeeally necessary. 

As a result I'm still in possession of a good £40 of my money and I'm pretty happy with that! 

Earlier today, I managed to list a number of things I've been meaning to get online to sell, so fingers crossed I can go some way to generate the £30 overpayment that's my monthly target on top of my direct debit for my M&S card 🤞🏻

vampirotoothus

Morning, it sounds like you have a good plan for this now and it is all coming together. Well done V x

honeybee1234

vampirotoothus said:

Morning, it sounds like you have a good plan for this now and it is all coming together. Well done V x

Thanks @vampirotoothus - I'm telling myself this is me building a solid foundation by setting things up, and making them easy to follow. Luckily I've actually really enjoyed spending time in depth on my grocery budget, which is where I struggle most, it's a pet project now!

Woke up early doors and rocked up at Aldi just after 8am armed with my shopping list and menu plan. I've been putting more fruits and veggies in the mix, and out of the 2x packs strawberries, grapes, broccoli, cauliflower, onions and salad bag I picked up, everything except the cauliflower and onions were 50%.off. Also got 50% off bread and wholemeal rolls.

Spent 33.37 in total, some of which was stocking up on staples such as flour, cheese, spread and sultanas (I count these as a baking staple, okay? 😁) The month is going well so far, and even saying that I think there's still savings to be made next month. Currently have 44.59/240 left, which lines up pretty well as I'll just need to do a small shop for the next two weeks of fresh things.

After unloading all the shopping and sifting through a very large handful of Vinted-ers (is there a word for this? Like ebayers?) trying to lowball me on a couple of my items, I mowed the lawn and ducked inside before I got sunburnt.

The rest of the day has been spent cooking (made a bake for tea and same for tomorrow) and catching up with chores. Feeling very optimistic for the rest of the month! 

honeybee1234

This morning, I dropped DS2 off at school, and on the way back stopped by Asda to pick up milk. The amount of milk I get through when the kiddos are here at the weekend is madness!

Had a lovely albeit quiet weekend. Saturday was spent at home, watching films and I tried out a new recipe for dinner of a one pan broccoli rice meal. "Just OK" seemed to be the consensus, so not sure I'll be making that again! I've been trying out new recipes and I'd say I'm at a 50% success rate so far, but it's fun experimenting so far.

Had a welcome bank transfer of some money towards shared expenses for the kids from the ex, which has been paid onto my M&S card, bringing the balance down to 270.51. My planned £0 date for the M&S card was 1st October, but after doing some calculations earlier, due to the overpayments I've been making, I'm a month ahead so now September 1st! Then onto Capital One. 

I'm so, so pleased with this! It's been a really hard slog so far - I realise I'm not in as much debt as other people, but I decided to go the snowball method and it's been hard work. There's been a lot of "I can't afford to do things with the kids/treats/a small holiday over the summer/etc" and it all ties into feeling a lot of guilt about why I'm in this situation in the first place, which is the effect that trauma has had on my mental health, having to start from zero, and wanting a place that feels like home for me and the kids.

I keep thinking of how it'll feel in just over a year when I no longer have debt repayments, and will be able to get some savings under my belt and take the children away ⛱️

honeybee1234

Productive day today, spent mainly in front of the computer finishing a really important form. That was after my antiquated heap of a desktop computer decided to actually start up... It took me an HOUR to manage to get it going 😭

As well as that, I got a few moneysaving tasks ticked off...

= NSD today

= transferred 5.40 cashback+round ups from my Chase to my M&S card balance

= used up leftover veg for tea

I sold one of my Vinted items, which has been packaged and sent, but not had much traction on the rest despite a lot of views and favourites. So I've bumped a handful of them, which generated a few sales last month.

Having said that, I don't think reselling is for me. On balance, it's good to earn a few pounds to put towards the debt, but as something to rely on, I've not found that it's been worth it, factoring in the amount of time I've spent and what I've made from it. I'll have to think about what might be a bit more fruitful 🤔