My Debt Diary

My Goals for December 2018

December is here, the final month of the year and my favourite thanks to Christmas, far too much chocolate and lots of time spent with friends and family. It scares me to realise how quickly time is passing and so I continue to set myself targets, both financial and personal, to help me maintain focus as the days flash by. Here are my goals for December 2018.

You can read my goals for November 2018 here.

My goals for December 2018:

 

Earn another £100 of side income.

Last month I set myself the goal to make an additional £200 of side income. I was on an absolute mission and after getting stuck into surveys on Prolific Academic and selling some personal items on Ebay I smashed that goal. December is set up to be a busy month with lots of plans for Christmas and so I’ve set myself a lower goal of £100 to suit the free time I will have.

For some, £100 will not be a lot of money. For me, it will mean covering the cost of two dinners. I am very lucky to have two close groups of friends who I make a point of seeing every year. This does mean however, that I have two expensive nights of dinner and drinks to pay for. This extra £100 will cover these and allow me to focus my lower income on my bills. If you’ve been a reader for a while you will know how important this is to me in order to have a debt free Christmas.

Keep spending to a minimum.

This goal might seem like a bit of a cheat as I don’t have to do anything as such, however December is always such an expensive month for me and as such I’m making it my goal to only spend on necessities. I don’t need any more decorations or clothes for nights out. Our kitchen cupboards are always well stocked without all of the extra Christmas themed treats. The gifts I have chosen for everyone are enough and I don’t need to keep adding to them just for the sake of it.

I don’t mean to be a Scrooge of course. Christmas is my favourite time of year and I will enjoy every ounce of it. My celebrations will just be more budget friendly than usual.

Make an additional £100 payment to my credit card.

If you read the results of my goals last month you will know that debt payments were very low. My work load has dropped quite a bit, which it always does over the winter months, and so I don’t have as much income left over to pay towards my debt total. Never the less I want to continue to make some progress on my credit card debt.

To keep things manageable I’m setting myself a goal of £100. It’s small but pushes my debt total down which is what matters. The smaller my total is the less interest I have to pay too!

Make my tax payment.

Over the last couple of months I have been working hard to save up my tax payment which is due in January. Lesson learnt, starting January I will put the money away with each invoice that comes in instead of leaving it to the last minute! Now that I have saved what I am due it’s time to make the payment.

Tax returns are stereotypically tedious so I am setting this as a goal to ensure that I don’t put it off. Ideally I’ll set aside some time this week to get it sorted out, but worst case I know I need it completed by the end of December. As much as I hate the process it will be a big weight off of my shoulders going into the new year.

 

Have you set yourself some goals for the month? Let me know in the comments!

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My goals update for November 2018

The days are disappearing and so it’s as important as ever for me to keep my monthly targets top of mind. Sharing a goals update with you last month really helped me to keep on track with them so I’ve decided to make it a regular, mid-month post. Here is my goals update for November 2018.

 

Boost my side income:

This is going really well! So far this month I have sold two things on Ebay and made over £40 on Prolific Academic doing surveys. I’m now almost halfway to my target of making £200 extra in November which makes me really happy and reassures me that I won’t struggle to afford bills and debt payments. Work has also picked up again, thank goodness, so hopefully I can make more of an income from freelancing before the month finishes.

Begin a sinking fund for next year:

With two weddings, two hen dos, my honeymoon, a 30th birthday, a 60th birthday and several other big celebrations next I wanted to make sure I was making a start on saving for them all. Yes our own wedding is paid for and the honeymoon is pretty much there, spending money included, but everything else needs to be covered.

I’ve made a small start, with £40 put away into my savings pot. This sounds like very little, but I’ve worked out that if I put roughly £55 into savings each month everything should be covered so I’m not doing too badly!

Clear another £500 of my second credit card:

As work has been slowing down for winter, I’ve made a bit of a revision on my debt payment goal. I would absolutely love to clear as much of my final credit card as I can before Christmas, however my tax payment has a pressing deadline and I do need to make sure I will be able to make minimum payments across December and into the New Year.

Small amounts will continue to be paid towards my card here and there, but my focus will be on my final goal until it is complete and I know that I am prepared for my quietest working months.

Finish saving my tax payment:

With roughly ten weeks to go until the tax return deadline (if you haven’t sorted your own yet, get started now. It will save you a lot of hassle and stress in January!) I am getting very close to hitting my goal. I needed to save roughly £1200 in order to cover all of my payments this year. I will know the exact amount when I complete the forms but I like to be prepared for the worst case scenario. Thanks to my first goal, making more money on the side, I’m really pushing towards my total now and will hopefully be completing my tax return in early December.

 

My goals have already needed some adjustment this month, but I’m being flexible and ensuring that the important things are covered. It is great to try and storm ahead with debt payments, but bills need paid and my tax return is non-negotiable. Once those are covered I can get back to my debt snowball!

How are you getting on with your goals? Let me know in the comments and be sure to join in with the linky myself and Charlotte host!

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My goals for November 2018

We are now in November and it is time to set some goals for the new month. This is the bit I get excited about. I love making plans and writing lists. It always gets me motivated to get a move on and take action. Here are my goals for November 2018.

Charlotte from CharlotteMusha and myself will be hosting a monthly linky for you to share your goals. You can find all of the information at the bottom of this post. We’d love to have you join in through your blog or via Instagram!

 

You can read my goals for October 2018 here.

My goals for November 2018:

 

Boost my side income.

In the past I have been able to make a good amount of money on the side of my usual freelance income, however as work has become busier my side hustle efforts have been slacking. You’ve heard me talk many times before about Prolific Academic surveys, which I still do occasionally but could definitely be earning more from. I also have a pile of Ebay ready items sitting in the spare room that I could have listed very quickly if I could only get round to it. They’ll be going on this month too.

I want to be quite specific with this goal, so I’ve decided to set the bar at £200. This is the minimum amount of “extra” money I want to earn in November and it will all be going straight towards debt.

Begin a sinking fund for next year.

My wedding isn’t something I’ve spoken about too much on the blog but it is coming round quickly and I need to pay attention to it. In May next year we are getting married. The month before I have my hen do and the month after is my honeymoon. A close friend is also getting married the month before us. On top of this it’s my better half’s 30th birthday. That is a lot of potentially expensive events.

The wedding itself is covered and we have saved (almost) in full for our honeymoon, so neither of those are a concern. Everything else however, could potentially cost a small fortune. In order to prepare for all of the expenses and ensure I don’t end up going backwards with my debt payments I’m going to make a plan, set up a budget and start a sinking fund for all of it.

Clear another £500 of my second credit card.

This goal is a repetitive one but it’s also really important to me. I’m working on paying off my last credit card at the moment and I would looooove to clear it by Christmas. This might be a stretch for me, but putting £500 towards it in November will help to clear a large chunk of it.

As I’m trying to make more money this month from side hustles this should ideally come together quite quickly. As the year is disappearing I am feeling more motivated to push harder towards becoming debt free. Hitting another £500 milestone will only help this. Anything else on top is a huge bonus!

Finish saving my tax payment.

Last month I set myself the goal to save half of my tax payment in preparation for the deadline at the end of January 2019. Well I smashed it and want to do the same again this month. Having the full amount ready to go will allow me to complete my tax return long before Christmas and it means I can relax knowing that it is sorted for another year. It also means that if there are any discrepancies or I’ve miss calculated anything I have a further two months to sort it out!

 

 

Monthly Goals (and updates) Linky

Do you have any goals for the month? Join in with our monthly linky and share your goals for this month!


my goals for november 2018 - pinterest

Did I achieve my goals for October 2018

We have reach the end of another month and it is time for me to look back at the goals I set and reflect on how I have done. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but once again the month has disappeared! Thankfully I can report that it has been a productive one. So did I achieve my goals in October 2018?

My goals for October 2018 were as follows:

  • Buy all of my Christmas presents
  • Continue with “no spend days”
  • Clear £500 of my second credit card
  • Save half of my tax payment

Buy all my Christmas gifts.

So I have definitely not achieved this goal. There’s no other way to put it. I have plans for most of the gifts I want to buy and some are ready to click purchase, but I haven’t got round to buying anything yet. Thankfully a couple of invoices will be getting sent tomorrow which means my bank account will be looking healthier and reviewing my goals today has given me the kick I needed to just get on with it. Christmas shopping should be done in a week or so!

Continue with “no spend days”.

Having smashed through my goal of 20 no spend days last month I really wanted to try this again. Despite a week away in Yorkshire, a wedding, lunch with friends and several other things I have managed to do this again. As of now I think I will make tracking no spend days the norm. It really helps to make me more conscious of my spending and has stopped me making unnecessary purchases on several occasions. If you haven’t tried no spend days before I highly recommend giving them a go!

Clear £500 of my second credit card.

I got off to a great start with this goal at the beginning of the month, paying £200 towards my credit card on the 1st. When I did my goal catch up on the 17th I had added a further £100 to that. As of today I haven’t been able to contribute any more money to my goal, however as I mentions earlier I am sending out several invoices this week and so I should be able to reach my target of £500 by the 31st. That will leave me with just over £2000 to pay on my second and final credit card. It might be a bit of a push but I would be absolutely delighted to clear this completely by New Year’s Eve. Let’s see what happens!

Save half of my tax payment.

With just three full months until my tax payment for the year is due, I really wanted to focus on preparing for it in October. I am so glad I did. As of today I have managed to save £450 towards my payment and as invoices are paid over the coming days and weeks I will be able to set aside a lot more.

This time last year, this would not have been possible. My finances were out of control and I found it impossible to find focus with regards to making payments and saving money. I would have been in a state of panic. Now I’m calm. I know I will be able to afford the payment and I will also begin to prepare for next year as soon as it is paid, ensuring I am more organised for the 2019 deadline. What a difference!

 

While the month of October started out really well for me, I definitely feel like the last week or so has vanished. If you read my five frugal things post you will know that I was away on a trip with my family for five days and in my relaxed, enjoying slow life and time with the kids haze I sort of forgot about real life for a bit. All this considered, I’m not disappointed with my progress and I’m really excited to attack some new goals in November.

I’ll be setting my goals for November on the first of the month so keep an eye out for that post!

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My goals for September 2018

We are now in September and it is time to set some goals for the new month.his is the bit I get excited about. I love making plans and writing lists. It always gets me motivated to get a move on and take action. Here are my goals for September 2018.

Charlotte from CharlotteMusha and myself will be hosting a monthly linky for you to share your goals. You can find all of the information at the bottom of this post. We’d love to have you join in through your blog or via Instagram!

 

You can read my goals for August 2018 here.

My goals for September 2018:

 

Pay off my Halifax credit card.

This is a repeat goal from last month but this time it’s going to the top of the list. There is just under £350 left on this credit card and so I know I can definitely pay it off and cut it up in September. It was my first credit card and the one that started it all for me, so I’m very excited for this day to come!

Try out “no spend days”.

This is something I’ve seen other money bloggers talking about but I’ve never tried it myself. No spend days are just as they sound. Days when you don’t spend any money. These will be especially helpful on days when I think about popping out to the shops but don’t really need anything.

The idea is that you track them as you go and set a goal for a certain number throughout the month. I’m going to set myself a goal of 20 in September. I’m not sure how realistic this is, but I’ll give it a try. All going well, they’ll help me save more money.

Have a clear out.

More specifically I want to clear out the “stuff” cupboard and list anything that might be suit for selling on Ebay. We all have that cupboard at home that we put things in “just for now” or to get them out of the way when we have guests, but then we never do anything with all that stuff! I know I have a lot of toiletries that I could do with using for a start, so that will save me money alone. Then there are the piles of art supplies and crafty bits. It’ll be interesting to see what I find!

Grow my Etsy business.

If you read my post last week about how I earn an income from my sofa, you will know that I have an Etsy shop. I do get regular sales in my shop but the income I make is very small. Naturally, I’m keen to change this. I’ve reading up on Pinterest quite a lot over the last couple of weeks and I think this is the way to go in terms of marketing and increasing traffic. My shop sells digital wedding products, so I feel like Pinterest users are my ideal customer.

 

So there they are, my goals for September 2018. I’m finding four goals manageable. They help keep me motivated and focused, without being overwhelming!

 

Monthly Goals (and updates) Linky

Do you have any goals for the month? Join in with our monthly linky and share your goals for this month!


my goals for september 2018 - pinterest

Did I achieve my goals for August 2018?

We have reach the end of another month and it is time for me to look back at the goals I set and reflect on how I have done. The month has disappeared so quickly and I was worried that I had run out of time. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised when I finally sat down to reflect on what I had managed to accomplish. So did I achieve my goals for August 2018?

My goals for August 2018 were as follows:

  • Complete my emergency fund
  • Put £1000 into debt payments
  • Pay off my Halifax credit card
  • Be more frugal
Complete my emergency fund

Pull out the balloons and confetti guns, I have completed my emergency fund!! OK, so it’s only baby step one of many, but I am so delighted that it’s done. I can now relax knowing that if anything goes wrong during my debt free journey I have a safety net ready to catch me. It won’t set me back and I can continue to improve my finances instead of going back to the beginning like I have in the past. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this post on emergency funds.

Put £1000 into debt payments

As for my second goal of paying £1000 into debt, I haven’t quite achieved that yet. Instead, I have paid in just over £500. That’s still a huge amount and I’m really happy with it. What’s better, work is picking up for me. The last ten days have been very busy work and it looks like it will continue so my total payments towards my debt should definitely increase. You can follow my progress in more detail with my debt payment progress reports. 

Pay off my Halifax credit card

Unfortunately, due to invoices still being processed, my credit card isn’t quite cleared yet, but I am so so close! This was the card that started it all for me and so I am very very keen to pay it off completely and enjoy the moment where I get to cut it up and throw it away for good. Honestly, I think I could have it gone in a week or so. I’ll make sure to keep you posted on my Instagram. If you don’t follow me over there already, here’s the link.

Be more frugal

On Monday I wrote a post about the Five Frugal Things I have done this month. So I would say this one is definitely a success. You can read about them all here, but I’m going to tell you about my absolute favourite. My fiance and I went to the cinema for 70p last week. Yes you read that correctly. We combined some Natwest rewards points with our 2-4-1 deal that we get through our insurance and voila, only the booking fee was left. We’re doing the same tonight (I’m writing this on Wednesday). It’s such a cheap way to spend the evening, especially when full price tickets would normally be around £10 each!

 

All in all I’d say I’m pretty chuffed with my efforts. I’m finding that setting the goals alone is making a big difference to my progress as I have more of a focus. Also, I don’t want to embarrass myself by having to come back at the end of the month to tell you I’ve achieved nothing. That certainly helps too.

I’ll be setting my goals for September on the first of the month so keep an eye out for that post!

Did I achieve my goals for august 2018 - pinterest

My Goals for August 2018

We are now in August and it is time to set some goals for the new month.his is the bit I get excited about. I love making plans and writing lists. It always gets me motivated to get a move on and take action. Here are my goals for August 2018.

You can read my goals for July 2018 here.

My goals for August 2018:

  • Complete my emergency fund. Last month I set the goal to save £500 for my emergency fund. As of today I have reached £364.11 so I know I can definitely complete it this month! You can read more about my emergency fund here.
  • Put £1000 into debt payments. So again referring to last month I set myself the goal of paying £1000 towards my debt. I was way off on this one as work was slow and I was focusing on my emergency fund. Work looks like it will be picking up in August, so I’m going to keep this goal and see how I do. I’ll adjust next month depending on how I get on!
  • Pay off my Halifax credit card. If goal number two goes well, I will be able to say goodbye to credit card number one for good. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be updating you with a cut up card and a confetti canon as my first debt disappears!
  • Be more frugal. This one is a little vague at the moment because frugality is not something I have personally explored much. I do however follow a lot of blogs based on frugal living and I have been inspired to make more of an effort myself. Ideally, it will help me to save more money to put towards debt.

So there they are, my goals for August 2018. I’ve kept it simple again with just four. I think the fewer I set, the more focus I can give to each and the greater chance I have of achieving them all!

You can find more of my August goals on my lifestyle blog Sunshine and Rain.

I’m taking part in the  Monthly Goals Linky hosted by Charlotte over at CharlotteMusha.co.uk

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My Goals for July 2018

My first goal setting post!!

This is the bit I get excited about. I LOVE setting goals and making plans and writing lists. It always gets me motivated to get a move on and take action. What I would say though, is that I do often find myself losing motivation and chopping and changing my goals quite often too and so this is something I need to bare in mind and try and try and tackle. Here are my goals for July 2018.

My goals for July 2018:

  • Save £500 for my emergency fund. Anyone who has been in the #debtfreecommunity for more than five minutes will understand the importance of having an emergency fund. Add to this the unpredictability of being self-employed and this is a vital first stepping stone for me!
  • Put £1000 into debt payments. I want to make a good start on my debt payment this month. Once the emergency fund is in place, the first £1000 is going straight to debt!
  • Find one new income method. As you will have seen if you read my Starting Point post here you will know that I currently only make money from my freelance work and through Prolific Academic. I want to diversify my income so this is an important one this month!
  • Take time to nurture my mental health. The main focus of this whole journey for me is of course money and debt payment. What I have recognised however is that I need to pay attention to my mental health if I want to remain motivated and productive. I’m not sure what I will be doing yet and how I will be looking after myself, but it’s something I want to spend some time on. This is definitely a topic I want to explore in more detail in a future post.

So there they are, my goals for July 2018. I’ve kept it simple with just four. I think the fewer I set, the more focus I can give to each and the greater chance I have of achieving them all!

My Goals for July 2018

You can find my lifestyle blog Sunshine and Rain here, where I chat about my more day to day, non-financial goals.

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