Running around in circles again

So I totally misjudged how my credit card payments work and on top of the £200 pounds I just paid off, another £25 minimum payment went to it, whoops! Oh well - I did a quick roll with the punches budget shuffle and we're still on track. At least it was unexpected debt payoff rather than an unexpected bill!

My debt figure has now recovered from my depressed - whack - a - holiday - on - the - card thing and is the lowest it has been. It's really encouraging to watch my net worth report on YNAB and see the debt shrinking and the net worth creeping up through negative to zero (Oh how I long for the day that I become worth zero, haha!).

I'm super excited for February and more debt payoff - obviously the mortgage payment brings the principle down by just over £125, and we pay our monthly payment to my Mum for our little home improvement loan.I'm thinking that with the pay period between February payday and March payday being the shortest of the year that I'm going to attempt a No/Very Low Spend Month. I'm going to try to keep the grocery spend low, minimise the petrol spend (probably just not driving anywhere on my lunch break, and trying not to drive anywhere at the weekend), have a very, very minimal fun spend - maybe just £10 so if I want to go to the pub with the girls I can manage a diet coke or two. This has the potential to free up so much money to be paid to my debt - my spends are always little fritters that leave me with nothing to show for it and no money at the end of the month. A cheap DVD here, a sandwich there, all adds up and I'm always kicking myself at the end of the month.

I know I have no self control so I've set myself up a few barriers. My husband is currently holding both of my debit cards. He will give them to me if I ask him for them, and he will give them to me on a Friday when I go shopping for the groceries. It sounds a bit pre-women's-liberation I know but just having the barrier of having to ask him for them will make me think twice about using them. If there are any emergencies I have a credit card linked to my mother's account; so I know I can use it in an emergency and send the money straight to her. That helps me to evaluate whether the situation really is an emergency or not.

I guess people will think I'm pathetic, not being able to do this stuff by myself. Honestly, I've got so much on my mind that's driving me crazy, so many things that need to be worked on at the same time that I think the only way to deal with it is physical barriers. I know what my goals are and I try to tell myself not to do something as it impacts those goals but sometimes in the very short term I just don't care about the long term. £3 on a meal deal doesn't feel like it hits the goal very much but it does every day that month.

Right, the washing machine has finished so time to go work on another goal (that goal being that my house doesn't look like a giant pigsty 24/7)

Well, I'm two days into my pay period, one no spend and one low spend day. Today I've got to do the grocery shopping so I need to write my list, and I also need to stay in budget which is £30 for this week.

I've paid off a whopping (to me) £250 off my credit card with another £25 to come for the monthly direct debit (this card isn't one that reduces that amount if you make a payment, as I discovered last month). I wish I understood how people make £500 payments or more a month. I would have nothing left (I suppose that's the answer, they earn more money than me!).

I'm super happy with this as now my card has hit it's lowest balance since it was opened - I'm really proud of myself. I can't remember if I've already posted this but Mr MM was so disappointed in me when he found out about my card debt that it's making me even more proud to be facing it.

I'm looking forward to 1st March as that's another big day in my money month - mortgage payment applied to the balance (another £125 off our debt), the payment to mother goes out (another £200 to the debt) and also I get the interest paid on my post office account (woohoo! £1 to the emergency fund! Well, better off in my pocket than theirs)

So with this low spend month I've got £100 sitting in a separate category in YNAB. Each Thursday I get to I'm going to release £25 from this category and pay it off my credit card, providing I haven't spent any off budget money that week. I'm liking the idea, and thinking it will help keep my motivation up rather than trying to save it until the end of the month and pay it in a lump sum.

I keep looking ahead to the future and thinking about how much money I could have to save once our main two debts are paid off (the card and my mother). I'm humming and harring as to whether to take a break in between debts to build up more savings. We'll see - it's a long way off yet.