2026: The Final Year

ryandotdee

Well done! I have a few bits around the house I keep meaning to sell, but I can never gather up enough motivation to do it, need to get better on that front for sure.

crunchy_time

Morning! 

Extra cold here today as heating not working properly. My husband is on the case though. 

Sold some books yesterday to the grand total of £6.36 but every little helps!! 

Off to take them to the drop off place along with the Vinted parcels today and then doing our first big food shop of the year.

Hope it’s a nice day back to reality for everyone!

Crunch x

crunchy_time

Morning all

We have had a sprinkle of snow this morning but it hasn't settled. 

It's been a bit of a slow start in this house this morning.  I've felt a bit unwell - dizzy and headachy so mostly been sitting down.  The upside is that I have sorted out a better way to manage the Amex card going forward.  Its annoying as my husband is the main card holder so I cannot see on my app all our transactions.  Its like the 1950s when money couldn't have bank accounts, or thats how it feels.  I have to ask to borrow his phone so I can keep track of it all.  We jointly manage what we spend money on etc but I manage the spreadsheet.  Anyway, I haven't managed to sort that part of it, however I have decided to log it on a spreadsheet rather than keeping a A4 piece of paper in my diary which I then struggle to reconcile.  

I have also paid for all the things that needed to be paid for for the year like school trips etc so we are now on an even keel.

The interest on each of our credit cards for December is as follows - £52 for husbands card and £36 for mine so I need to make these transactions and make sure we don't use them in January.

Yesterday we had a discussion about snacks in the family and how to manage them this year as we seem to be constantly spenidng money on them.  We decided to have school snacks and home snacks - both are very different types.  They are allowed 2 of each pot and once they are gone they are gone.  I will keep a list on the fridge to remind everyone.

I spent £155 on food yesterday for the week - I just need to get crisps or similar, milk and eggs.  Our budget is £200 a week so fingers crossed we don't have to use anything else.  I am very deterined this year to stick to this goal.

No movement on any overpayments today.  Fingers crossed for next week!

Crunchy x

sudonum-mum

Following along after I was on your last diary...haven't been on here for ages and then discovered your new diary.

crunchy_time

sudonum-mum said:

Following along after I was on your last diary...haven't been on here for ages and then discovered your new diary.

Oh hello!! Thanks for commenting! I hadn’t been on for ages either. Will get back to the mortgage overpaying once this debt has cleared. Do you have a diary?

crunchy_time

Happy first Monday back to reality!

The first few items from my Vinted selling spree have been paid so slushed £10 to the credit cards today.

Its snowed overnight but fingers crossed when I leave to do a visit for my new job the roads near me shall have cleared by then.

In the mean time I have lots of phone calls to make and things to organise as usual.

Crunch x

crunchy_time

Morning all,

Well I have managed my first week in my new job.  The weather was kind to me and the roads for my commute were clear so I had no issues there and I made it back in time for the school run which is what I wanted.

Some more payments have come through from Vinted so I paid off another £9 this morning.  I'm still waiting for the book payment and a large Vinted payment of £20 (large to me) so about another £25 in total, in the next few days which will tip me over into the over £200 paid off.

We only did one quick top up shop this week which was for crisps that I missed at the weekend, so this is great news!

Today is a food shop day so I will be going through the cupboards and freezer shortly to see what I can make for next week and keep costs down.

So in all very pleased with our progress so far!

Crunchy 

crunchy_time

The £20 from vinted has arrived in my account and swiftly been paid onto my credit card meaning I have now paid off over £200 in about a month from selling clothes, round downs and mini windfalls over Christmas.  I cannot wait until I can do this again with the mortgage.

I spent the day cleaning our wardrobes and under our ottoman bed.  There was nothing to sell but plenty to clean and reorganise. I've been reading a book about Feng Shui and apparently you should only have soft things under your bed so everything with angles has been removed and will need to find new homes.  We should have a better night sleep tonight.  I have also made a list of things that we will need to buy over this year - we need some new sheets and washbags for example.

It will be more of the same tomorrow as well.  My husband has been lining the garden office walls ready for the plasterboard to go on today so there will be more of that tomorrow.  Meanwhile, I will be finishing our bedroom and tackling the bathroom cupboards as I have noticed there is loads of rubbish in them at the moment.  

So lots of decluttering and deep cleaning going on in the crunchy house at the moment.

I want to get the house sorted so come the Spring I can ladscape the garden so I can enjoy it in summer!

Not sure where the next payment to the credit card is coming from but likely to be the books I sold.

Crunchy x

bigbeff

I need to do under our bed...i have no idea what is under there 😂

crunchy_time

My little win this morning was deleting my credit card off Vinted and Amazon so I can only pay with my bank account now.  Etsy was a little bit more difficult to find and I will have to change it next time I purchase something.

I will still keep my credit card on Next as this is where I tend to buy things in different sizes and mostly send things back but I am buying less and less on Next now so I don't see it as massively holding us back from our goals.

Crunch x