Time to get the monkey off my back!

AntoMac

Have a great break. It’s surprising how possible it is to get debt right down once you get the bug for doing it. This place is full of people who have succeeded and are in the process of succeeding. 

Great work with all that you have achieved already

Willow1403

Thank you for your nice words of encouragement

I know I am lucky that our household has a good income. Hasn't always been this way (hence the massive debt!), so each month we can afford to pay it down. We are also learning a lot about sinking funds, and also how to delay purchases and SAVE! I used to be brilliant when my income was very low. My husband was not so good, and his way was more fun because we got to buy things My mindset gradually changed to one of 'we deserve this', which wasn't really untrue, but we couldn't afford it. Anyways, we are changing the mindset how and having some fantastic conversations about money which we have never done before. 

Had a lovely couple of days away. Lots of time spent in nature which I find very soothing, I need to be outside quite a lot. I was silly though, as I took my cross stitch (I did NOT take my ipad!) and was looking forward to lots of stitchy time. Did I take the threads? No, I did not. I was so cross!! Still managed to get some done as the stitching method I use leaves threads in the work, so had those to play with.

So since Tuesdays payment a day (PAD) I have paid another £4 and £8 from vinted sales, and £15.89 from prolific. Then on Friday it was payday and the snowball meant I could then pay the remaining balance of £454.10. Another one bites the dust!! 

Also can't believe I have a snowball now  

On to the next one, HSBC great card with a current balance of £9507.07

Haven't had anything to pay on Friday or Saturday as paypal has been down so I haven't been able to withdraw my money. It's back up this morning though, so will be able to make the first snowflake payment to this card. 

Sorry, bit long and rambly today. Hope everyone is enjoying the bank holiday weekend.

Willow1403

Hi all,
Haven't checked in for a couple of days, been a busy weekend here. 
My son had his birthday on Monday, he turned 17. So we all had a steak dinner (his choice) and a brownie stack instead of a cake. Yum.
Making steady progress on the HSBC card and made a payment a day over the past three days. £26.41 (prolific), £237.68 (minimum payment) and £15.51 (prolific).
Have got some more to pay today as I had a £5 amazon voucher in my account and when I make an amazon purchase using a voucher, I budget the whole amount from whatever category then pay the voucher amount off the debt. Also been to the post office and paid in £10 of cash so will pay that too. Bank is down at the moment though, so have to wait for that.
Had a busy morning just walking the dog and in to town to run some errands. Just going to use the afternoon to get some housework done but also try and enjoy the last few days of my summer holiday

Willow1403

Hi All,
Hope everyone is having a good day. Very quiet here today, just pottering round and enjoying my last day of the summer holiday (I'm in tomorrow morning and term starts on Monday). I do love my job and going to work, but it's nice to be able to spend some time at a more relaxed pace. 
Have the dentist today, just a check up, and I have dental cover through my husbands work so can claim the money back. 
Also having a bit of a home learning day with my youngest. He's starting year 12 next week, after spending the last year resitting his English and Maths GCSEs (passed in Nov) and doing a couple of extra BTEC courses. The college he has spent the last year at is where he was originally offered his place in Y12, but because he didn't get the grades he needed for English and Maths, he has been with them doing an access course. Over that year, they changed the grades needed for one of his courses, which meant he didn't have what he needed again! Had a chat with the head of 6th form, who is willing to take him based on knowing him over the last year and knowing how rough his year 11 was, as he should have done much better than he did. So phew! So we are just refreshing on some things from GCSE to set him in the right direction next week.
Pleased to report I managed to make FOUR payments to the credit card yesterday! One was paying some money in to the post office - I have chickens and when people give me money for the eggs I save it. One from prolific pay, one vinted pay and some money my son owed me and paid back. Hurrah! 
Right, off for some lunch I think
  

Willow1403

Having a day when it's difficult to get motivated. 

Have been in to work this morning and had a big list of things to get done. Managed it all except a clean of the fish tank, which I can do on Monday now. 

Came home and had a very tasty bacon sandwich - sometimes that's just what you want!

Done a few bits this afternoon, cleaned all the fronts of the cupboards in my kitchen which was well overdue. 
Also discovered an outbreak of red mite in one of my chicken coops I have two omlet ones, which are plastic and less prone to mites, but apparently this summer has been great for them with the dry conditions. Ordered some spray which will hopefully arrive tomorrow so will need to take the coop to pieces and clean it all down. That explains why three of my hens have been so reluctant to get in to their coop at night.

Pay day today though, hurrah! School support staff were given a pay rise, which has been reflected in my wages today and backdated to April so that's a little bit extra which will come in handy.

Last weekend then before back to work. Got a chicken coop cleaning day tomorrow and then going out for lunch on Sunday for my husbands birthday. 

Have a good one!

EatingBeans

Congrats on the payrise! Less so on the red mites. 😞 I used to keep chickens and those critters were the bane of my life! Fingers crossed you manage to get rid of them. 🤞

Willow1403

@EatingBeans - absolute nightmare! Still both coops have now had a fabulous deep clean and the chickens are happy going in at night.

First day of term today! Inset day today and tomorrow before the kids come back on Wednesday. Was so good to be back and to see everyone. Also staff breakfast was a bonus Getting up at 5:30 was a shock to the system but at least it's still quite light in the morning for my pre-work dog walk.

Love the start of a new month and doing all the little budget adjustments. A few of my YNAB pots had some left over in so rolled that in to the debt payments. I have the money coming back from the dentist tomorrow so will also shove that on the credit card. Only a couple of hundred pounds away from having the debt beginning with a 2. Whilst it is still a massive number, it's on the way down which is very exciting!

AntoMac

To get your figure into the twenties will be a great achievement. That will be nearly a quarter of your starting debt cleared in around 6 months.

Willow1403

Hi All,

I did it! The total debt now stands at £29,981. A massive number, but a much smaller number than it was.

Just realised I haven't posted in a week! Well I don't know where that went. I think going back to work this week and my son going back to college, the time just flew by. The very early mornings take some adjusting too so by the evening I'm pretty tired.

Been keeping going with my decluttering, putting things on vinted still but I think I've had all the easy wins of clothes and shoes already. It feels great to have less things in the house.

Not much else to report though, but just wanted to check in. Oh one thing was that my husband FINALLY got to the cash out point on you.gov, so he cashed out £50 which went straight to the credit card. It took ages, I don't think he's going to do that again in a hurry.

Willow1403

Another week done
Not really getting a chance to get on and update each day at the moment, which I'm kind of missing. I must try and get that in to the routine because it makes my writing feel more chatty.
This week went pretty quickly. It's busy at work which I always enjoy. I've been so tired in the evenings though, not quite used to the early wake ups yet. I think I said that last time
Had a few more vinted bits sold and have some more to upload this weekend. Also had our food processor on ebay for sale and that went yesterday, so got to package it all up for the postie to collect tomorrow. That's £85 coming in for that! 
Got rained on so much on my way home today. Quite annoying! I'd left 30 minutes early as I realised I'd done my hours for this week, so thought I'd just leave and have a bit of quiet time for myself. If I'd have left at my normal time I would have missed the rain. Sat in pj's now, so not all bad!
Off to cook some dinner in a mo, having halloumi burgers which is a firm favourite in our house. Yum!