My new pay a debt off before June 16th challange

beckseven

I've decided to set myself a challange to pay off a debt of £1353.03 before June 16th. I am going to do a daily diary to keep myself motivated and keep on top of things. At the moment after all my bills and essential outgoings leave I have £160 spare per month. My aim is to be as frugal as I can with this and on the 23rd of each month see how much of this I have left and pay this off the card. I also work shifts so will volunteer to do extra to get extra premium on top of this. I am just finishing a night shift right now so on the right track! I have just come to the end of Week 1 and have £23.60 left out of the £40 I allocated for the week so have popped it into my debt drawer! I'm going to ebay, carboot and mystery shop my way to a smaller debt too! I have a £40 cheque from my auntie that I got for Christmas that will go towards the debt but can't get to the bank until Tuesday so will pop that in then. I'm almost looking forward to being really scroogy!:rotfl:

GirlRacer_2

Good luck on your challenge. Keep us updated on your progress.

Sea78

Good luck with your challenge - don't forget the surveys too

beckseven

Day 2 of my pay £1353.03 off before June 16th (don't forget the 3p!). I'm on nights again and thinking of the money as I feel really tired! I spent £3.58 today but that was on a few food bits and pieces from my food budget so now have a lovely £40 until next Friday so i will try and hang on to as much of this as I can. Plans for the week spending wise are that I am going to buy a bottle of wine for Monday night as I will have finished my nights by then so will fancy a couple of glasses and on Tuesday I am meeting up with some friends at one of their houses and we are getting a takeaway so i reckon that will set me back about a tenner. I used to go to Weightwatchers on a Wednesday night but have decided that at 5.50 a pop-thats £22.50 a month that could be used elsewhere-I have some scales at home after all! The only spanner in the works is that I had a credit card statement for another card (a 0% one that I am paying the minimum payment on for the time being) and I used it in early January to pay for my dog's vet bills-unfortunately she died on New Years Day as she had incurable cancer. She was insured but as of yet I haven't had my cheque back from Tesco's-am due about £650 so now have a minimum payment of £40.50 to make on that. I suppose if some of the money has to be used for this it is still making a nice dent in my debts but it kind of upset the apple cart a bit. Tonight I will put in my expenses for my work mobile phone-I get £4 in rental back and I think I will look at one of the items in Martin's Money Makeover article.

beckseven

Didn't spend anything yesterday as slept for the whole day-hurrah! I'm not a complete lazy slob though!-i was working nights and usually I don't sleep that well but yesterday I went to bed at 7.30 and woke up at 17.30-what a result! The most exciting thing to happen in my moneysaving quest was that I found £2.30 in the bottom of my bag! I know how to live I do....Getting royally fed up with these nights though-had to sit with my hubbie last night watching him drink red wine-it was torture! Must think of the money though-£50 before tax extra tonight plus I get to spend the majority of the week with my little boy instead of him going to nursery.

carrottopsuk

Good luck with your challenge! I'm sure you'll succeed. :money:

Lemon_Tree

good luck, i'm sure shifts are a killer but as you say you get time with your little one. I'm sure you'll meet your challenge with more to spare and you'll be other MSE who gives us the courage to keep going.

beckseven

Thanks for everyone who has posted kind words of support for me. This is my last night shift (until next week when I've got another 3 to do but I won't think about that yet!)-hurrah! These unsocial hours are great for not spending though! Have again spent nothing today but tomorrow will be heading to the shops for a bottle of wine..drool! Today i will grab about four hours sleep and then go and put in my aunties cheque in the bank and when it clears I will pay it off the debt-looking forward to starting to see those figures go down. I've been without a washing machine for two weeks-what a nightmare-had to go and do my washing at my mums last weekend and my mil this weekend but it's finally going to arrive at some point this week. When it comes I'm going to wash all my ds clothes he no longer fits into and will ebay them. I've got a beautiful Coast dress that I'm going to put on as well that I bought before Christmas-it breaks my heart to sell it but realistically it's a formal dress that you can only wear to a ball or a special do so it may as well go on ebay whilst it's still in fashion as I don't go to many formal dos!

beckseven

I spent £5.87 yesterday on a bottle of wine and some body lotion and then I spend £2.80 on 10 cigarettes. i'm really trying to cut down and have got down to 10 a week. I also paid for a Lazermaze night out with work which was £7. I've gheyot £27.40 left until friday and I'm having a takeaway tonight at a friends house. I rang up tesco pet insurance and apparently they need to give me another form for my original vet so the payout is going to take longer so I will need to make my minimum payment of £40 on that rather than paying it off with the cheque i'd hoped to receive so ho hum. Means that i am going to be really pushed for money this month-arrrgh! Tomorrow I will ebay my Coast dress-got to be done.

GirlRacer_2

Hey Beckseven, Glad everything is still going OK for you. You can do this and good luck with your e-baying, hope you get loads for the dress

beckseven

Thanks Girl Racer for your support-and well done on being debt free. I still haven't put dress on ebay-how rubbish am I? I will do it tonight. I changed my signature today and made myself really look at how much I actually owe. It's horrendous but I've started dealing with it. i'm going to pay £40 off my Capital 1 tomorrow so at least the figure will reduce. Hopefully at the end of the month I will pay more off as well and I have the minimum payment for my Halifax card (this is the one I have my vet bill on which I am waiting for a payout on.) It's my little boys birthday on the 23rd so I really need to do more ebay so I have some money to spend on a present for him. How did i let myself get like this? Feeling a bit down today. Perhaps tomorrow when i bring the figure down even slightly I will feel a bit better.