The kick up the a&Јe diary for debt busting

A question about : The kick up the a&Јe diary for debt busting

Hi anybody who may read this. I've been inspired by so many people on mse since I joined and I've ummed and aahed about starting a diary for a while now. Im brilliant at deciding to set myself financial challenges...problem is when push comes to shove I come up with all the excuses under the sun as reason for why I've constantly fail miserably. So I decided to start a diary to give me the kick up the backside I need.If I log everything down Ill have to do it right? That's the thinking anyway.
I'd like to achieve certain things but often stall due to lack of motivation. The main things I want to achieve this year are:
Pay off holiday-Ј400
Pay Ј3,000 off the mortgage
Pay a catalogue debt-Ј600
Save Ј3,000
As you can see there are a lot of things I want to achieve.
Now I have written them down I need to get on and implement my plans.
So far this year I have paid an extra Ј92 off mortgage in January and so far this month Ј53. So still got a long way to go there.
Will make a payment on catalogue next week and the same with the holiday.
Wish me luck and if anyone has any ideas or hints and tips on how I can achieve my aim please shout up.
If you got this far- thanks for reading.

Best answers:

• Just found a sweet tube full of change in cupboard. Will count it up and report back...Ј18.70 in loose change. Good find. I'm sure there'll be more loose change kicking about around the house.
  Not been food shopping for a while so tonight I used up some sausage meat from freezer and an onion, I made sausage meatballs and served with potatoes and carrots with gravy out of freezer.
• Aims and objectives 2013
  Pay off holiday Ј400
  Pay Ј3,000 off mortgage
  Pay catalogue off Ј600
  Save Ј3,000I
  may add to it as and when objectives are achieved.
• Just totted up I have Ј7,000 to find... i don"t have anything like that as disposable income-not that I've checked should keep a spending diary. I need to think of ways to stretch my cash or raise some more...
• Good luck
• Thank you jwil.
  Been rummaging through old handbags etc and now I have another Ј12.00 making a grand total ot Ј30.70 in change so far.
• DH went to Icel@nd for me today and spent Ј38.15.He bought:
  lamb shanks Ј5.50
  4kg potatoes Ј3.00
  Sliced sausage Ј1.00
  Grill steaks Ј2.00
  240 Tea bags Yorkshire Ј4.00
  Lamb chops Ј4.00
  56 chicken dippers Ј3.00
  8 baking potatoes Ј2.00
  Cucumber Ј1.00
  Iceberg lettuce Ј1.00
  Smoked bacon economy x 2 Ј2.00
  Bacon grill Ј1.50
  8 pints milk Ј1.90
  1kg cheddar Ј5.00
  A dozen eggs Ј1.25
  Just need to work out some meals now...
• Been sorting through some stuff today... I need to seriously start ebaying. .. Open to any advice and suggestions. My house is literally bursting at the seams with items no longer required. Would cs them but to be honest the money would be very handy to pay some bills.
• Checked bank account this morning and managed to pay Ј8.00 off catalogue and another Ј12.00 off mortgage.
  Baby steps ...
• Just checked bank account-again, Paid Ј14.00 off mortgage.
  Expecting money in account tomorrow....so hopefully I can pay some more bills and/or start savings.
  Just trying to sort out some junk-if it's organised it won't look so bad until I decide if i can bear to / how to dispose of it.
• Hey, just wanted to pop by and say you sound like you are doing well.
  Just thinking though, would the extra payments maybe be better spent on other debt than your mortgage at the moment ?
  Obviously I don't know your catalogue debt % for interest or even it is has any but might be a thought ?
• Hi. Thanks Claire.
  My catalogue is interest free as long as it's paid before December 2013-it will be long gone by then.
  No other debts apart from holiday and mortgage
  We owe CTC overpayment-also interest free but needs paying off. I am on a monthly repayment plan for that but plan to concentrate on that after paying off cat and holiday.
  At the moment I'm on a mission to pay as much off mortgage as possible while interest rates are so low. We owe sub 80K but I would like it to be sub 50K by end of 2015-preferably even lower.
  It's a big challenge really as it means over paying over Ј3000 extra a year for next 3 years.
• That's great that it is interest free at the moment.
  That is quite a sum but you seem focused and have a plan you want to follow
• I've had one of those days today.
  I got up alot later than I wanted to.
  Then I couldn't get motivated
  Once i got motivated everything seemed to take longer to do than it should.
  Tonight a task I did took over an hour and a half and 3 computers-I am stressed and my head hurts.
  I've decided to uninstall loads of !!!! from my lap top.
  My picture programme is playing up-keeps saying link snapped. It's been alot worse since i downloaded swagbucks toolbar-so I'm unistalling it.
  The only time success comes before work is in the dictionary!
  So I've got to knuckle down and work as hard as I can in order to achieve my objectives.
  Time for bed now. night peeps. xx
• Good morning. Just paid Ј100 off mortgage and Ј60 off the catalogue. Need to find holiday documents so I can pay something of that too. Off to update signature.
• Got to try and get some stuff ready to either ebay or car boot. Need to try and make some money and get rid of some junk asap.
  Note to self-must check when free listing is on ebay...
• Hi, thought I'd have a nosey in your diary! I'm very quiet, I'll just sit in the corner and chew on my bourbons, I'll be no bother!
  You seem really determined and that's half the battle IMO.
  I don't know if you've got books or CDs you no longer need but I used Zapper for mine and did all right. You might only get 50p for some but if you've got a lot (I had TONS!) it all adds up! Hoping to get some time to sort a load more books out for them in the near future.
  Meal planning - check the Old Style Board for topics like "What are you making for dinner tonight?" and other specific meal plan topics - (and, if you can, buying the ingredients from local shops/markets rather than the supermarket where you get distracted by lots of things other than what you went for!) is a good moneysaver too. I've just spent about Ј70 on ingredients that will make me (2 adults and twin 4.5 year olds) meals for at least a month. Also, I feel good that I've given my cash to local businesses rather than the big supermarkets.
  Keep on keepin' on.. you WILL get there and imagine how great that's going to feel!
• Hi Sessie.
  Thanks for stopping by.
  I must take a look at the boards.
  Part of my plan is to go to the butchers instead of getting meat from supermarkets-at one of our local butchers you can get 3 trays of meat for a tenner. So i'm going to go and do that at some point.
  I am also thinking about buying my laundry detergent online-depending on price.
  At the moment I think we spend about Ј350 a month on food (that does include cleaning stuff too.) for 5 of us! So i want to try and cut that down to about Ј200. We need to cut out some takeaways too. I did buy the takeaway secret book but i haven't done anything with it yet and I've had it for a while now.
  Thanks for the tip re. zapper. I'll have a look.
• Ooh-exciting news. I've just found out it's free listing on ebay this weekend. Just got to try and remember my log in details and dust the cobwebs off my account so I can start selling some stuff.
• DH took a bag of old clothes to recycling today.-so that's some stuff out of the way.