Making 2026 a debt busting year

YORKSHIRELASS

Well that's the end of my first week back in the office.  I do need to work tomorrow but from home, and it's a shorter day.  I am proud that I have taken my lunch to work every day and in fact have spent very little.  I know that doing it for one week is easy, but it's a start.

ThriftyPrincess40

A week is massive and first week is hardest in my opinion  💪🏻 get in! 💕🥳 well done 💕

joedenise

@YORKSHIRELASS - you can just cancel your DDs via your bank account.  Curry's will then contact you to say they couldn't take the money and you can let them know that you've cancelled it as no longer need it.  Sounds like you've been paying for it far longer than necessary!  The laptop's probably given up the ghost by now!

amber03

The weeks and the month of January are the longest of the whole year. Doesn’t help with this weather but noticed it’s a little bit lighter of a night. I’ll take that for now.

YORKSHIRELASS

Thanks for the positive comments, it made me smile.  Today's random thought came when I was reading about the feel good dopamine rush you get from buying stuff and how you should replace shopping with something else to get the same feeling.  Which made me wonder whether life wouldn't be simpler if you just stopped trying to chase those highs altogether. 

Thanks for the DD tip @joedenise I will try that. 

I have £285 in my personal spending account.  I am going to pay £100 off the debts and aim to save £80 leaving me £100 for anything else, however, we are going away to meet up with family next weekend and I need to be realistic about unexpected spends.

YORKSHIRELASS

So, it's been a very pleasant weekend and other than DHs trip to Li@l we have not spent anything. I went for a short snowy walk yesterday and met a friend who bought me coffee.  Today I went to see elderly parents.

We have been chatting about our financial priorities for 2026.  DS gets married later this year and we want to contribute something to that, DH is keen for us to do a bit of work in the house, particularly in the living room, and we must keep throwing as much as we can at the debts.  We have decided to cut down on trips away after our January meet up with family but we will still go camping. 

A new budget has been drawn up, let's see if we can make it work. 

YORKSHIRELASS

Well, one week of January to go.   Our food spend is £269, petrol and diesel £207 and £42 on small odds and ends.  We have also spent a whopping £700 on New Year with family, a weekend away with more family and a birthday meal with friends.  Yes this is a lot but we have made some special memories and it is what it is.  The last couple of years we have gone away in February for a few days but not this year. 

Yesterday we drove to the coast, found a free parking space and did a 6 mile walk using our English Heritage membership to explore a castle in the bitterly cold wind.  Coffee and sandwiches cost us £11.

DH has sorted out our BT contract and saved us about £150 a year. The car goes in the garage this week and I have the dentist, which could be expensive. 

Blackcats

Sounds like you have been doing great thinking and planning for 2026.

i've just started reading Atomic Habits by James Clear (borrowed from the library 😇).  It has some interesting ideas about making little changes and how they accumulate to make big changes and it does include money habits.  So taking your lunch to work, finding free/cheap places to park will add up to spending less and saving more.  Even selling lots of things for not much money on Vinted will still add up to some money in your account.  Although I don't use YNAB I do enjoy the articles in their email newsletter - lots of inspiring stories and some thought provoking psychology.
good luck with your goals for this year.

YORKSHIRELASS

Thanks @Blackcats I will see if they have got that in our library too. We are trying to be more intentional with our spending, so working out the cost of something, deciding if we can afford it and if we want to commit our money to it, or if there are other options, before we spend. This is a huge shift in focus and really getting me thinking.

I am insanely pleased with the fact that I haven't bought a single work lunch so far this year. I have spent time at weekends making batches of things like veggie stew or dhal and then freezing small portions to throw in my work bag straight from the freezer. It's worked really well.

As far as my personal spends go I have spent £33 on clothes at Vinted, but I have a special occasion this year and saw a lovely outfit that would be perfect, so I bought it. Its a gamble because it might not fit but I am hoping its OK. I have managed to save £80 and pay £100 off the debts leaving me with £16.04.

Our car has had £591 spent on it sorting the brakes and a new battery. Thats £1121 in total on the MOT, service, brakes, battery and other bits but our last garage bill was in 2024 and it's 13 years old. Still cheaper than a new vehicle! Thankfully the dentist was only £27.40. I shouldn't need to spend anything else this week.

YORKSHIRELASS

So, I have been asked to be part of a project at work that is going to take me way outside my comfort zone and in the next few weeks I have to attend several workshops explaining the project to external partners and important people in our organisation. It's slightly terrifying. I found myself looking on Vinted yesterday because of course a new outfit is going to make all of this easier (as if). I only spent £13 which is something, but I did have to rein myself in. Not easy. I have decided that I could do with a new black jacket for work, the one I usually wear is starting to show it's age but I will wait.

DH and I went to a local National Park visitor centre and did a lovely walk this afternoon. We used our annual parking permit and took a flask. We did stop at a bakery and buy flapjack but that meant a total spend of £3.20 today, I can live with that.

I have drawn up our budget for February but I will go through it again tomorrow with DH. Oh and DH has done a balance transfer because his 0% deal has run out. I need to check the rest of our 0% deals.