Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

Quickly checking in before I get stuck into the working day.

The weekend was busy but rewarding. Ran a lot of errands on Saturday and caught up on the neverending laundry (how do just two people manage to create so much laundry!!). Managed to send all my various clothing parcels back - G4P are so annoying in sending orders out in multiple packages! Not much of the stuff I ordered 'worked' for me and my existing wardrobe, so I've sent most back and kept a few staples (long sleeve t-shirts and turtlenecks) as layering pieces which were only £8.49 each. I've still some money left over in my clothing budget to spend and have a few other things I'm waiting for to arrive. Hopefully, I'll find what I'm looking for and if not, I'll put the money aside for another day.

Sunday was a work catch up day and I was rather productive in the end!! Then we watched some sport and had dinner, so a NSD for me.

This week I want to get a work project at least 50% finished before Xmas, so I'm going to try and nail it! WFH all week so I'm looking forward to a relaxed end to the working year.

I'm heading off to see family at the end of the week and will be away for at least two weeks over Xmas / new year. I will be adopting my annual self-imposed internet ban for these two weeks so I'll be going a little quiet towards the end of the week.

DSL :j

Thanks Enthusiastic! Wow, you're sooo close to retirement! Hope you enjoy your last few days Have a wonderful Xmas and new year!

Sneaks back in...

It's been a while since I last posted. I've taken a couple of months off my extreme debt slaying, not for any particular purpose or with any motivation in mind, but I felt I needed a break from the gazelle intense focus.

January was expensive as I had a big car service and a few trips away for work. February was okay but I changed up my skin care routine and invested in buying new products. We also booked our summer holiday so had deposits to pay. And we stock piled on fish oils (we don't eat much fish but take a reasonably expensive fish oil supplement) and vitamins (an extra boost for the winter months, which is paying off as we've had no colds / illnesses since April last year).

However, the good news is I've been keeping on track with budgeting and YNAB and with paying off the debt. In fact, it's just normal to me now. It's not even 'keeping on track' anymore as I can't imagine spending more than I earn and not being able to reconcile my YNAB categories. My light bulb is an industrial 1000 mega watt shiner!

My current debt status is:

CC2 Balance: £7569.39 (whoo, below the 8K mark!)
Car Finance Balance: £789.55 (whooo, below the 1K mark!)

My current DFD is 1st October. I've pushed it back a bit from August because we've booked a summer holiday and that will cost me a few £000s (we like our summer holidays and take great pleasure in them. Its something I'm willing to spend my salary on).

Also, I decided on an emergency budget. I got to the point where I wanted some savings. So, it's up to £660 and will be £1000 by April 1st. I'm still mildly reluctant to keep the money in my bank rather than paying off CC2 - I could be below the 7K mark if I did (!!), but I'm currently in a savings frame of mind so I'll run with it and see how I get on. I may, come September, just throw it on CC2 and be done with debt a month early. We'll see!

Other updates? Not much, still not put the house on the market as we need to do some redecoration but we'll get to it soon.

It's been 6 months since I start properly debt slaying. In that time, I've reduced my debt by £4,226,20. Insane.

Because CC2 is interest free until June 2019 and DF now knows about my debt, the secretive keeness I had when I first started my diary 6 months ago has vanished. But, it's been replaced by a financial maturity that I wasn't expecting to have developed over the past 6 months. In fact, I almost take it for granted now. I think taking two months off being gazelle intense has been good - I've enjoyed meeting the minimum debt repayments, saving some and having the rest to spend on indulgent things like new beauty products, an expensive food shop or a couple of bargain pieces in the late January sales. It's given me insight into what my DFD will bring. I'm particularly enjoying the savings part!

But, I'm back on it properly now. I want to be debt free by October. Challenged laid bare! I don't have any significant expenses coming up, aside from our holiday, so I'm hoping to reignite the fire of debt slaying once again.

Look forward to catching up on others diaries over the next few days!

DSL :j

Thanks Enthusiastic! Hows retired life? I hope you're living the dream

Afternoon peeps.

Had a fairly quiet and low spend (ish) few days. Yesterday I went into our local town and picked up a couple of online orders and then did a Waitrose food shop using my £25 voucher (from JL Partnership card points). Always nice to get free food. We needed quite a few store cupboard items so it wasn't an ultra cheap shop but the voucher helped.

Today I've been out of the office for most of the day at a work meeting. Even though I'm on expenses and can charge my coffees and lunches to my employer, I still have to spend my own cash first and it's beginning to get a bit tiresome, with all the work trips I've been doing lately. So, today I decided to take a packed lunch to reduce spends but I couldn't resit the allure of a coffee. Only £3.05 spent, which isn't too bad! I also had to put £25 of fuel in my car but avoided the motorway services (£1.34 per litre for petrol!!!!!) and drove around on fumes until I found a cheaper petrol station (I think it was £1.16 per litre). I should have filled up before I left home but I forgot and then the queue in the petrol station before the motorway was backing up on to the road so I thought I'd wing it and fill up at my destination.

Tomorrow I'm back out at work meetings, this time in the opposite direction and into town on the train, so I will have to pay for a ticket and probably a spot of lunch too. I also want to head into a department store whilst I'm in town as I need a colour consultation for a new foundation I'm thinking of getting. I'm not getting on with my mineral power foundation at the moment so I'm thinking of changing to a liquid based one and seeing how that works.

DSL :j