Becoming debt neutral - a long haul!!

RedLipstick

Love the plan, looks really solid! It's good to track all the DDs - some time ago I've moved most of mine to the 1st of the month so I have a better picture of what's left until next pay day, maybe that will help? Happy Christmas and all the best in 2026 xx

Sarahwithlove

Ive done same, moved all but 3 to beginning of month it does make life easier that way. My water bills are switching to 12 monthly payments from April booooo. I too like the free months. My council tax has also done same, think I will only have one bill left then thats only 10 months. 

Happy Christmas and New Year, wish you the best of luck with your 2026 goals. 

leftatthetrafficlights

Happy New Year! 🎉

Thank you @RedLipstick and @Sarahwithlove 😁 I do have most of the dd's coming out around the same time but there are a few I can't move unfortunately - it shouldn't be too time-consuming to get them checked and the money moved though 😉 

So, today I've shifted the 'pots' interest along with the remains of the December grocery budget and a few other bits into the DNF so I've started strong for 2026!! 

I've done the shopping today and should have enough food in now to do at least 2 weeks 😁 Dh buys coffee bags normally but decided today that he wanted a cafetiere and coffee instead so I used the vouchers I had to get them for him - it will save a fortune in the long term and is much more sustainable 🙌 

Anyway, time to go and make some tea 😁 

DNF: £802/£1000
DNF 2026: £510/£6700

leftatthetrafficlights

No change on the money front 🙄 I hate this point of the month where I have nothing to add... I have had a pretty good month so far on groceries so I don't even have any 'cashback' to send to the fund 🤦‍♀️😂 However, I'm still thinking about how I can speed up the savings while I'm waiting to add to them...

I collected a load of horse chestnuts in the autumn which have been sitting in my greenhouse ever since - I'm going to chop and dehydrate them today so I can use them as laundry liquid throughout the year. I'm also going to make some ivy laundry liquid this weekend - it's a good way to save money and is very environmentally friendly 😁 

I've done the menu plan for the week and other than salad stuff, everything is from the storecupboard/freezer/garden/greenhouse. I'm hoping to keep the grocery bill to £20 this week. 

I've been thinking of other ways to save money and I know that one of the biggest things I can do this year is start to use my washing line to dry laundry when possible. I use my tumble dryer constantly and I know it has a massive impact on my electricity bill 🙄 I'm actually considering getting a dehumidifier and a clothes horse for the days (paticularly in winter) when outside drying isn't an option 🤔 I'm not sure how cost effective/environmentally friendly that is though so I need to do a bit more research on that....

I've updated all my spreadsheets with the 'pots' money, savings and DNF on them as we've had a couple of household purchases (a heater for the kitchen and a fireside set for the front room), some coal and kindling and I've ordered oil in recent days. Keeping up with the figures without the pots was stressing me out (having to boot up the laptop every time I wanted to check or edit something) so I dug out one of my old 'project' books and wrote it all down - it's easier to add to/update and I can transfer the info to the laptop monthly on paydays when I have to update figures anyway 😁 

leftatthetrafficlights

I've bitten the bullet and ordered a dehumidifier! Looking at my electricity bills, I'm pretty sure that it's a good investment and it will make life a lot more environmentally friendly in the winter months/bad weather days. I found a voucher to get 20% off too! 😁

I'll have to invest in a clothes airer now but I'll get a cheap one of those 😉 I don't like having laundry hanging around but I'll be keeping it all in the yoga room for now so at least I won't have it constantly in my eye-line! 

1stTimer

I have a dehumidifier and I couldn’t be without it now! Clothes still dry in a day and an added bonus is it warms up my cold house 😃

leftatthetrafficlights

Terribly late for a response but @1stTimer - thanks for that! 😁 I used the dehumidifier for a while during the winter and it was really useful although I'm not sure about how economical it was but I'll check that out this winter 😉

Sorry I've been awol - rl has been chaotic this year so I've only recently come back on the boards! Financially, this year has been brutal - thankfully it's okay but it certainly hasn't been conducive to saving 🤦‍♀️ However, things have settled down a bit now and I'm getting back on the debt neutral mission!

Unfortunately, I have some large expenses coming in the next few months - I became a foster parent to 4 housecats to prevent their owner from having to rehome them permanently due to a relationship breakdown and subsequent housing loss; they could be here for a few more months until the housing situation is resolved and they have destroyed carpets etc which will need to be replaced once they've moved on! 🙄 As a result, I'm basically starting from scratch again with the Debt Neutral Fund (DNF) which isn't the end of the world, just slightly annoying!

Getting back into concentrating on building my DNF will also help me become more disciplined with my finances - due to circumstances this year I've become sloppy and have let go of the control that I like to have and I have definitely wasted a lot more than I am comfortable with. I've used my td instead of the washing line, I've been cooking but not eating so throwing food away, I've overspent on lots of stuff etc and basically just been pretty disinterested in my finances.

It stops now though - I've just transferred some excess from my bill account to my savings account to restart the DNF. I've got the full amount of grocery and petrol money in the budget which I'm going to try to hang on to until the 1st of September (I've got £41 of August's food 'budget' left - not sure if that will see us through until 1st but I'm going to do my best!) and the bills account is healthy.

I'll be doing a food inventory and meal plan over the next week to try to get an idea of where we are as well as going over the bill account with a fine toothcomb to see if I can put a bit more into the fund. Tomorrow, I'm cleaning my washing line and bringing that back into use on good days - I have plenty of things I can do to rein in the day to day costs - I just need to stop losing the plot! 😂

I'm still going to do 1k increments for the DNF as it feels that I'm making more progress by doing 'chunks' so I'm over 10% of the first one today! 🙌

£126.80/£1000

itsthelittlethings

I use a dehumidifier during the winter. I also find the noise quite soothing!

leftatthetrafficlights

@itsthelittlethings - mine is used in a different room to where I am so I don't hear it - not sure I'd find it soothing! 🤔😂

£1.01 from rewards paid in 😁 It is small stuff but it will build!

Didn't get round to cleaning the washing line on Sunday so I need to do that over the next couple of days before I do the next wash.

We did some harvesting on Sunday and made my tomato sauce that I do every year now - it's just tomatoes, courgettes, onions, garlic and basil, glug of olive oil and then roasted and blitzed. It's beautiful and I use it as a base for loads of things. Everything other than the olive oil is homegrown (apart from the garlic this year as ours failed 😔) so it's entirely organic - it would cost a fortune in a shop so it's lovely to have a good stash in the freezer!

I am considering purchasing a pressure canner - I know it seems counterintuitive as I'm trying to minimise my spending but I'm always conscious that if we have a prolonged power outage we would lose our freezer contents and that would be a massive personal loss due to the time and energy we put into growing our food as well as a financial loss. I love eating homegrown stuff as I grow veganically and can't purchase food grown like that locally - organic produce is very expensive and the more we can grow here, the better it is for my budget! I think that I'll do a bit more research on the canners but I'm pretty sure it would be a wise investment 🤔

I have started on the food inventory - basically because I used the last of the opened black beans so got the new bag out and wrote down what else was in the box! It's going to take a few days to get it all done but there's no hurry- I'm not shopping until the weekend so no chance of duplicating anything 😁

It's nice to be back on the frugal wagon! 😁

£127.81/£1000

leftatthetrafficlights

Did a money shuffle from our bill account - due to the chaos this year, I hadn't moved the two months of 'free' of water and council tax as I pay over 10 months so I've done that today - very pleased to get it into an interest paying account! 🤦‍♀️😂 Big boost for my first 1k too!! 😁

DNF: £627.81/£1000