Trying to Save

I can't complain about this year, not really. I focused on my catalogue debt finally and have managed to switch most of my credit card debt to zero percent cards. Also I built up some savings for the first time ever.

Personally, I turned thirty which I remember dreading and I also returned to work again after maternity keave. I also dabbled in my love of creative writing by attempting NaNoWriMo. More importantly though I found a best friend this year (other than husband, I mean) It has helped so much and I completely didn't see it coming.

As for next year, who knows right now? I want to continue paying down debt and saving but the first few months or so might just be about survival.

I got paid last week. So did hubby, it was his last payday. In three weeks our new reality will set in.

I haven't made any goals for next year yet, well none financial anyway.

I can count on one hand the number of Christmas cards I've sent this year. I'm going for quality over quantity this year. No longer sending a card because "we went to school together" etc. If you don't talk to me, don't expect a card.

I sent a parcel to my best friend. It was very well received. Totally worth it. They weren't expecting it so that made it better.

My mum came over today with three huge sacks, or four, of presents for the kids. She's coming over for dinner on Christmas day. Still not one hundred percent ready.

Need to check current debt balances... I've been laxidasical recently.

Emergency fund intact for now.

340.00 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 weekly deposit

_________________

352.00 New Balance

It's bittersweet though because it will be getting used soon. Such a pity.

I've been avoiding updating.

November went well, wrote 25k for NaNoWriMo. I enjoyed it.

Husband quit his job to help me more so hopefully I'll get back to my normal self. Emergency fund will be gone next month I think. Trying to adapt. It's only temporary, I hope. The sooner I'm healthier the better.

322.00 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 weekly deposit

-------------

334.00 New Balance

So I made a massive mistake last week: I missed a credit card payment. On the new card. Apparently, I obsessively check statements but not the date. I almost died when I seen it. After a few moments of panic, I decided to get in touch with them. I sent them a message pleading my case. Did I look desperate and pathetic? Yes. But I didn't care, I just wanted to know that I had tried my best to fix it.

They replied saying that they have refunded the late payment and that I was still keeping my zero percent deal. Phew. I was so worried I was going to lose out due to my mistake. From now on, I'm writing these things down.

I'm five days into attempting NaNoWriMo. It's been difficult to find some time. That plus the fact the only writing I do consistently is this blog.

I haven't started Christmas shopping yet. I really have to soon. Spoke to hubby and we're going to scale back on my cousin's kids presents. There's a bargain shop here that everyone raves about but I've yet to step inside. I might have to take a look.

What else?

Meals have been easy. That will be the theme for the rest of the month.

Found a new show: how the other half lives. It was interesting to watch.

318.00 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

----------------

320.00 New Balance

What to write about?

I went to Aldi this week. I forgot how cheap it is. Spent 31.10. Made a special effort to buy products from their super 6 range. I then made one of their recipes last night using what was on offer (every few weeks they change the recipes according to what's on offer)

Now that I've decided to participate in NaNoWriMo, I find myself thinking about it a lot. I only have a vague idea of what I'll be writing. Oh well I'll give it my best shot.

My biggest concern is actually finding the time to write. I might have to carry pen and paper with me in case I get inspiration when I'm out. Also, when I'm out I'm usually child free. I still have to go to work, run a household, look after kids, give hubby some attention, chat with my friend... I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. On Sunday. I'm sure it will be ok, I'll just need to manage my time effectively.

Been meal planning again this week. Got plenty leftover in the freezer from last week. I'm making toad in the hole today as per hubby's request.

Went with SG on her nursery trip. It was bucketing down. She loved it. Next she's been invited to a birthday party in a few weeks. She's busier than me.

I think it's time I changed some of my passwords. It's been ages since I've taken the time to do that. I've never been the sort of person who changes them every so often, but maybe I should be.

Met my friend for lunch yesterday. Spent 15.00 exactly. We went to a relatively new place, it was really good.

Found out at work that we're not getting a 20GBP gift card at Christmas. I've gotten it every single year since I've been there. I was going to count it as a snowflake as well. Oh well, I'll need to think outside of the box.

Dh and I always go Christmas shopping together, well, all of us go. We can't this year now that eldest is actually aware of everything. The plan is to divide and conquer.

For the past two months I haven't collected my payslip at work. I know what I've been paid anyway. However, it is a bit lackadaisacal of me to not collect it. Yesterday I got them. My rate of pay increased at the start of the month. Obviously, it increased so much I noticed. Nope. I had an inkling it might have increased, only because it happens every October.

I'm getting the impression at work that things are not going well. At all. I wonder if redundancies are in the future? This happened to lots of management years ago. I'm not exaggerating; a ton of them went. I remember coming back from maternity leave and noticing a lot of people were gone.

At work yesterday upper management kept getting my name wrong, or my nickname rather, so I assumed he must have been talking to my former supervisor who always uses my nickname. Before he used my full name. He only got one letter wrong but I think I missed my chance to correct him since when he first did it I was dealing with a customer and I didn't think he was talking to me - since it's not my name. Never mind.

My mum told me last week that she is saving up for her funeral. Told me she doesn't want to leave me with the burden of it. (She's fine, she was just talking to her friend about it)

The clocks went back. It didn't feel as bad as last year though when I was still doing night feeds so it's not been too bad.

316.00 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

---------------------

318.00 New Balance

32.00 to go

I've been keeping track of our spending and it isn't going too bad. Meal planning is definetly helping with our grocery budget, but then I knew that it would.

Bought us all some new hats, scarves and gloves for winter.

Our Christmas savings vouchers are here. I'm getting them on Saturday. I am also meeting a friend for lunch that day. We haven't hung out together in over a year.

I've decided to attempt NaNoWriMo this year. I haven't tried it since 2010 before the kids. It's going to take some time management, I think. I want to try as much as possible to get it done without letting other areas slide, such as meal planning, running a household etc

One of my credit cards has updated, waiting on the other two. The final one isn't until next month though.

This week's meal plan is looking like this:

- Sausage and bean hotpot with mashed potatoes
- Tuna Pasta Bake
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/kerryann-s-tuna-pasta-bake/#m4u51tzt2cDVWcyf.
- Spaghetti Bolognaise
http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pasta-recipes/family-spaghetti-bolognese/#0X4E4RSXmBZkSKd7.97
- Macaroni and cheese
- Leftovers

A few little things to write about...

I paid off the last of the council debt this morning. One less debt to worry about now.

I got completely out of the habit of transferring money to my mum's savings (from her account). She came over to visit a while ago and told me there had been fradulent activity on her account. She said that someone had been taking money out of her account and putting money in. I was confused. She had the paperwork with her. I had a look, it was her annual savings statement. I had to explain that this was her online savings account and I was the one that had been doing that, like I'd told her ages before. I added some more money to her savings. It's been a month so I was behind. I'll transfer more next week because she's got plenty spare. When I told her it was her savings, she wanted to use it for Christmas shoppping. We explained that it's for emergencies only. Christmas shopping isn't an emergency. Also, she saves up for Christmas too.

I think I might have a survey reward coming my way soon. I had to fill in a food diary for J for a minimum of four days, but I'm not sure if I met the requirement.

I've went back to meal planning properly. I feel more organised already.

304.00 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

------------------------

316.00 New Balance

There is really not much to report.

I paid extra to Littlewoods, and paid something to my BNPL item which is due by April. I also paid 11.10 to the council for the overpayment.

I looked through three months worth of bank statements earlier. As of today I have paid 122.10 towards what we owe the council, so I only have to pay another 24.70 then it's done with.

I told dh that we will be using cash only for this four week pay period. It's been a while since we've done this.

I increased three budget categories: food shopping, baby/toddler and miscellaneous. These are all variable expenses so they will all be cash only this pay. It's looking like this:

Food: 180.00
Baby/toddler: 70
Misc: 70

So 320 total. I overbudgeted for both baby and misc but I will probably end up buying one of dh's presents and there wasn't a line in the budget for it, so I suppose that's cheating.

None of my credit cards have updated. So they haven't been paid yet.

I'm not talking about my bank balance; I'm talking about attitude these days, or more specifically, my moods. I used to have no problem with my moods - except for during a day or two of the month (sorry male readers!). Recently, this is not the case.

I've been back at work about six months. Yesterday I was doing a job that months ago I decided was a good job that I enjoyed doing. My reasons for this were that it is out of the way of everyone and I can talk to my co-workers.

Yesterday these were exactly the reasons that put me in a mood. Out of the way of everyone? Because nobody likes the job so they don't want to be there. That's why you are usually alone when you do it. Chat to my co-workers? Not when they start conversations that as soon as I hear know straight away that I won't want to get involved in. Lets just say it would have led to a debate about wider issues that I don't discuss at work.

Yesterday was also the day that I bumped into someone who just wanted to argue with me. Seriously. Haven't seen someone in a decade? Start an argument with them. That's one way to make friends and alienate people.

See what I mean?

Of course, the problem with all of this is that I am stuck in a rut. (The other problem might also be that I'm talking to the wrong people?)

When my mood goes, so does my ability to track spending. And make payments. The last week or so I lost track of spending and missed a payment to the council who I still owe for their overpayment last year. I'm not even sure how much is still left to pay because I've been on such a downer I haven't had the energy to work it out. I'll be doing it today or tomorrow. I only realised I'd missed it because I was looking through paperwork, which wasn't organised... I will be making a payment today.

One of my former close friends got in touch recently. I say former close friend because we're not close friends anymore. More of an acquaintance, really, however at this point I think the term acquaintance is being generous. If you only know what someone is up to based on their facebook profile then you're really not friends. Anyway she got in touch literally the night before she wanted to visit. Also, she got in touch through facebook. She has my phone number. I've got no problem with people getting in touch that way if that's there only option, it's annoying if they've had your phone number for years and don't use it. Anyway, the visit never happened because I told her I wasn't free.

Ok that was a bit of a rant...

Tomorrow is payday, thankfully. Next pay will be a bit less because I went away an hour early yesterday. From tomorrow's pay I will be buying dh's first Christmas present. Payday weekend is always good because more money gets thrown at the emergency fund.

This entry is all over the place. If you made it this far reward yourself with some chocolate or ice cream. You deserve it.

302.00 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

--------------------

304.00 New Balance

46.00 to go to reach my goal. I'd love it if I could get this done in one swift deposit but I will have to wait for my automatic deposits.

So I know it's still a while away yet but I want to attempt to plan for Christmas.

We've finished saving up for our hgh street vouchers like we've done every year for the past five years I think. I only managed to get 10GBP saved on a supermarket savings card, so that plan was an epic fail.

Christmas stuff has started appearing in shops. I will probably write a list of non-perishable items I want and start picking them up.

Christmas dinner will be at home.

I still have to decide what to get the kids. SG is now at the age that she wants every toy from every advert she sees.

DH wants a couple of games. I can't remember exactly which ones, but I can check with him.

I haven't asked my mum what she would like yet but I am sure it will be pretty similar to what she usually wants: pyjamas, chocolates and wine.

We will be doing homemade cards for close friends and family. I think SG will enjoy it although I will have to buy more in soon.

Sometimes you just need to reflect. If you don't look back on things you forget what you've accomplished. I know most people reflect on their lives at the beginning or end of the year; I like to do it then too but it also helps to look back when you're feeling like you haven't achieved much.

It's not an exact year-on-year comparison to the day but in November last year I had 5172.29 worth of credit card debt. Today I have 4452.31. That's 719.98 paid off since then.

I don't have a year-on-year comparison for the catalogue because it was on the backburner and getting none of my attention. From my records I can see that it was sitting at 4441.68 in June (including bnpl) now it is 3766.23. That's 675.45 paid off since then.

My emergency fund last year was practically non-existent. Now I've finally reached the 300 mark.

If I hadn't started this blog way back then this probably wouldn't be the case. They say one small thing can change everything so, to me, this blog is the little thing that turned into a big thing. But I didn't even notice. I know I'm still on my journey to becoming debt free but thank you for your support guys!

300.00 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

--------------------

302.00 New Balance

292.78 Beginning Balance
+_1.11 Tesco coupon
+_3.75 Survey rewards
+_2.00 Weekly deposit
+_0.36 To even out amount

-----------------------------

300.00 New Balance

It's been a few weeks since my last update. I'll try and remember everything I wanted to write about.

We've just been plodding along here.

I've been making more of an effort to track spending, especially miscellaneous spending. So far this pay, almost two weeks in, miscellaneous spending has included a bake sale at SG's nursery to raise money for charity, a sponsored walk to raise money for her nursery, a magazine for me and a few impulse purchases at the checkout.

I seem to be blowing my way through the food budget. I have been doing my best to meal plan again recently and use things up. Maybe it's time to increase the budget. I'll admit though I have noticed that I have been spending more on food in an effort to gain weight and return to my former self.

I started Christmas shopping. I used 24GBP worth of catalogue rewards to get the kids something, so it was essentially free.

Speaking of the catalogue, the minimum payment is now at double digits. I can't remember the last time it was this low. I will enjoy it while it lasts since my horrendous BNPL item will be added on in December, and that will add 44.xx to my minimum payment.

I don't know my snowflakes total for the month. However, I did finally get all of the money transfered to debt and savings for the month. I am stil getting bored of doing surveys, although I did do one yesterday which shoudl reap rewards soon.

I've saved the best news till last: I finally hit 300 in the emergency fund!

280.78 Beginning Balance
+10.00 Four-weekly deposit
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

---------------------------

292.78 New Balance

It's going to be a long four weeks. Pay was less than I thought. Back to tracking spending since for the past few weeks the only numbers I've been counting are calories. (It helps when you have people cheering you on, otherwise I would have lost motivation)

Paid extra to catalogue and paid BNPL item.

Currently meal planning and ordering shopping online. Using up what we have first.

I think I'm in an okay place right now, financial and otherwise, despite the setbacks.

I should reach my EF goal this year. Fingers crossed.

Continuing as normal here. Payday on Friday.

Making an effort to use things up and meal plan.

Dh's birthday soon. Budget should be fine.

Extra to debt as normal on payday.

Still thinking about upcoming events so they don't impact the budget much.

All is well.

278.78 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

----------------------

280.78 New Balance

So I've spent some time thinking about my blog updates. I've decided that I tell more than I did way back when I first started this blog, which is a good thing because my entries were tiny back then, but I don't overshare and reveal too much.

I need to track spending when I get paid again. It's hubby's birthday soon so that will involve some extra spending and I want to keep track.

The first statement for the new credit card arrived the other day. Payment is due at the end of the month.

I still haven't done anything about Christmas shopping yet. In the last week or so, Christmas items have started appearing in the shops.

I haven't added any snowflakes to debt recently. PayPal was acting up and I'm still waiting on those survey rewards.

I will most likely be sending a parcel overseas this Christmas. What's everyone's experiences of this? Specifically, Cj, buendia and my English castle. Although if anyone else has any dealings with this, I'd be interested to hear. I'm not sure how reliable royal mail is at that time of the year.

Dh has decided what he would like me to get him for Christmas. I told him what I would like.

I'm on holiday from work now for a few weeks.

Still paying attention to counting calories. Teeny bit of progress there.

276.78 Beginning Balance
+_2.00 Weekly deposit

--------------------------

278.78 New Balance

I was debating whether or not to update, even though there's not much to talk about. I think I was losing interest in my blog there but I don't want people to think I'd fallen off the bandwagon and was away racking up debt or spending my minimal savings (if I disappear). I realise it's only been a week since my last update. I guess I just think I'm at a point where I will talk about anything in this blog. Or, almost anything. I'm unsure whether this is a good or a bad thing

Anyway....

Spending has been all over the place. Seems to be the theme these last few weeks. Food shopping has not been helped with me buying some processed foods. And steak.

I got my haircut. It's a total change.

I haven't totaled up my snowflakes for August.

EF is now at 276.78.

I think that's it.

It's been a while since I've taken a proper good look at my debt. Ugh. I hate it. I spent a while earlier working out some numbers.

Four paydays until my massive bnpl item from last year will be added. I keep on paying 200 each pay to my actual bill, so it will be 800 less by then.

111 left to pay of J's cot and mattress. I have until April to pay this.

Last week I just paid the minimum to BoS. I checked my budget this morning and I had budgeted 90, so I sent an extra 42 to make it up.

I set up faster payment via my bank for the new credit card. If I paid 106.30 every month I would have it paid off in 26 months. Nothing has been put to it yet.

21 months left to payoff Tesco credit card before the interest-free period is up. Balance now is 1555. I'd have to pay 74.04 to get it paid off by then.

I would love to pay it all off, obviously. I need to find a way to pay extra to the 0% cards so I'm not carrying that debt over when it ends.

The catalogue is the biggest problem though. If I wasn't paying that I'd have extra to pay to the credit cards. Also, I still have to get rid of the remaining BOS balance.

Right now I pay 300 each pay to debt, roughly.

Catalogue: 200 + 15 bnpl payment
BoS: 70 (although 90 this pay)
Tesco: 30 (35 today though)

I need to add Nationwide's credit card payment on to this too.

Hmm. I didn't actually solve anything.