Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility
Comments
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Pancakes sound good - recipe please?My mortgage free diary: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6498069/whoops-here-comes-the-cheese0
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Hi Redofromstart , the recipe is this one. I added in 1/4 tsp of cinnamon too and it worked perfectly. I fried in butter / oil. You've probably made blueberry coulis before but basically I used a normal size punnet of blueberries, a dash of water and about 25g of sugar and just sweated it all down in a pan for about 10 / 15 mins whilst the pancakes are cooking. Whatever's left can be used as a jam thanks to the soluble fibre in the blueberries solidifying it. Yum!!
We're having the pancakes again tomorrow as they were so delish! DF wants them with yoghurt and honey.
Enjoy!0 -
Hi Starmummy :hello: Thanks for dropping by! I think my positive approach has basically resulted from being brainwashed by watching too many Dave Ramsey videos on youtube :rotfl:
But, yes, the lifestyle / positive outlook adjustment that's happened since beginning to repay debt has been unexpected but really pleasant. I feel in charge of my money, not the other way around.
I'm not under the same huge financial / family pressures that some other folks on here are - they are truly courageous! And everyone is in debt for different reasons. It's interesting to reflect on why debt became a part of your life and what it may be a symptom of. For me, I think I'm just impatient and a lifestyle inflator (more salary, yay, more treats!!).
Look forward to checking out your diary
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Hi Peeps!
A quick catch up before I get back into the late afternoon work flow.
Was out and about yesterday in the local hills having an explore on foot and getting generally muddy. Finished off a nice walk with a quick pint before a lovely roast pork dinner. I always forget how much I enjoy roast pork. A NSD for me as DF bought the round in the pub
Today has been a WFH day and I've had a dental check up which went well with no further work necessary. :T A big relief given the £500 of work I had to get done before xmas!! I was concerned about my partially erupted wisdom tooth but it seems to be okay for now. I suspect I'll have to get it removed soon, like I did my other one, but hopefully I can delay that as much as possible.
Other than the £20ish for the dental check up, it should be a LSD. I got some leerdammer cheese to go with leftover roast pork for sandwiches (pork, leerdammer, pickles, mayo and mustard, yum!) and some fresh bread, as my resident baker as not produced homemade bread in quite some time. Deserves sacking!
Tomorrow is a WFH day and I plan to make it a NSD. Fingers crossed!
Desperate for hair cut (I blame the fish oils and my hesitance to get much chopped off at my November cut) so that is booked in for Friday. I use the style director so it normally costs me £55. Not so MSE friendly but, having looked at my planned budgets through to my DFD, it makes no signifiant difference, so I've justified the expense accordingly :rotfl:
DSL :j0 -
Morning folks,
A WFH day today and hopefully a NSD. No plans to head out and we've got stuff in for dinner thanks to our meal planning / shopping extravaganza at the weekend. It is SO nice not to have to fret about what to cook for dinner and spend ages trying to do a healthy 'ready steady cook' from the fridge, with the inevitable scoot to the local shop for missing ingredients.
From my YNAB forecasts, it looks like I'll technically be on course to make around £910 of debt repayments in April. My EF will be up to £1,000 by then too. But... I've forgotten about decorating and joiner costs from our planned paint refresh for a couple of rooms. I may keep a few hundred ££s back from this April debt repayment to cover that. I'd funnily enough sidelined £200 in May for this, but I'm not sure why then and not in April. Doh.
DSL0 -
Today turned out to be a NSD :T
DF and I came up with a pretty good dinner, given the ready steady cook challenge we faced. Last night, we had Swedish meatballs with a homemade sauce and some fries and gerkhins. Tonight, we put the leftover pork (sliced) from Sunday in a pan with last night's leftover sauce, added some dill and cooked it through and served with roast new potatoes, pan fried green beans and some pickles. A bit of a mad mish mash but it was delicious and super MSE friendly.
In the office tomorrow and haven't got anything in for lunch so will need to grab something there which is a pain in the bum but I haven't any bread or frozen soup in the house to fix a quick packed lunch and can't be bothered to cook pasta just now. You win some, you lose some :rotfl:0 -
So, I got a text from my home insurer yesterday saying my account was in arrears. :eek:
I bought buildings insurance in early December (paid upfront online) and then a week later added on contents insurance (paid upfront on the phone). Apparently the second payment didn't go through as for some reason I used my CC3 (I think to get points) and they rejected the transaction (not sure why, can't you not pay for insurance with a credit card..?). However, it turns out the insurance comany's system didn't register the declined payment until two days ago because of a technical glitch! :mad:
I rang them and went a bit mad at them as I was concerned about the 'arrears' status of my account but they said it was their fault and it wouldn't be registered externally and would be immediately removed from their system upon payment. Phew.
Anyway, I've had to take the payment (less than £100) from my EF as it's not in my budget. Funnily enough, my YNAB budget was up by a very similar amount at the end of December / early January (obviously because I had registered the payment in YNAB but it hadn't been taken out of my account). Now I know why! At the time, I though it was due to my xmas money / sale shopping / returns not been processed / lack of keeping up on transactions.
Here's to having an emergency fund :beer:0 -
Brrrr. Snow again. I usually love the snow but it makes my commute a nightmare so I'll be glad to see the back of it!
Whats new? Not sure, really. Got an email from our energy supplier saying we're using more than we're paying by direct debt so the monthly payment will be increasing by 50%. Expected and budgeted for going forward but will need to submit meter readings soon to keep on top of it.
Had a NSD yesterday and most likely another one today given it's too snowy to go anywhere. DF is just attempting to head out to the local shop to get some supplies for dinner - we're having a beef stew of some sort and DF insists in chucking a glass or two of red wine in. Not so MSE but it his ££s!
Took advantage of the Clarks sale and ordered some spring style shoes to wear in the office, something my wardrobe is lacking in. A few pairs to choose from should be arriving this week. Will help me make more use of my existing pieces - its funny how a pair of shoes can transform an outfit and help you put together new outfits. I have the clothes, just need the shoes.
Yesterday we went through a budget for decorating the house (before putting it up for sale) and agreed a maximum. I've already set aside my half from April's salary. This afternoon, we might sit down and go through finances for moving house to figure out what we want / can borrow and how much we want to be spending on a mortgage monthly payment. We were meant to be driving around a local village near here where we would be interested in moving to, but the snow has scuppered those plans!
Enjoy the snow!
DSL0 -
Finally, the snow is melting! Hurrah.
Today is a WFH day for me. DF has gone into the office and might go for a beer after work. If he doesn't get his booze on, we'll be eating last night's leftovers for dinner. If he does, I'll fix something from the cupboards for myself (probably gnocchi or spinach pasta) and save the leftover stew for our dinner tomorrow.
Need to meal plan for the rest of the week but we do have stuff in so hopefully we don't need to do a huge food shop. I have £40 in my groceries budget to last me to the end of the month!
Only about 10 days to go to payday. Can't wait to start making big repayments on CC2 and to see that balance go down faster. After reconfiguring my budget, I'm hoping to pay £650 off, which will take me below £7K! Yay!
Back to work!
DSL0 -
forgot to add, I'm also hoping to add £463 into my emergency fund on payday, bringing it up to its target total of £1,000.
Still, my inner devil is shouting at me to use it the £1,000 to pay off CC2, but I shall resist!
DF bought me lots of sweet cakey treats over the weekend - I think he's turned into a 'feeder'. Trying to resist opening up the second box of cream slices after polishing off the chocolate eclairs. Bad times.0
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