Paying my Next bill with Wool

So, if you've read yesterday's post, you'll understand how I'm really going for this.

I was a little disappointed to receive my next bill as usually it's for about £20. I then remembered that before Christmas I forgot my debit card so bunged a bit of Christmas shopping on it to the tune of £200.

Bah. 

They are getting use out of their onesies though and it saves me loads in washing and ironing!! :-)

So, it needs paying off hasta pronto and I mean like in a week, because it's bugging me because I didn't think it was there.

I'm taking the Mortgage Free in Three advice of breaking down the amount into 100 chunks. 
I'm already 30 squares in.

£20 from my penny jar
£4 from making dinner not buying it yesterday
£30 from eating from the freezer and not shopping
£6 from not getting popcorn and a drink at the cinema

So that's £60 without much effort!!

I've just listed my wool stockpile on eBay. There's 60 balls so a potential £60 there as I've priced them to sell.

I don't have the time (or skill!!) to knit and crochet and its taking up space I need.  So it needs to go.

Please do go and have a look and bag a bargain!!

Do can I do it? £140 by this time next week?

I'm off to make sell some cufflinks to make sure I do!!

Project Mortgage Payoff: Budgetting Spreadsheet

Well there's a title guaranteed NOT to be clicked on!!

But that's my starting point on shifting the millstone of my mortgage. After yesterday's post about my renewed enthusiasm, this is my first step to making changes.

So. (in a Will I Am fashion). I've downloaded a budget  spreadsheet from  www.moneysavingexpert.com and filled it in. I used the spreadsheet version so I don't have to be online to view it.  But there is an online version you can log in to as you wish.

My conclusion...reduce outgoings and increase incomings. Not rocket science and quite frankly, I knew that already.

So. How?

Well money god Martin Lewis always says pay off debt before you save. So good news for Next, you're first as I can pay you off in one go. How? By shopping at Aldi rather than getting my shopping delivered from Tesco. More about that in next Saturday's post.

For those with larger debts to pay off, a sensible and achievable amount is 10% on top of your monthly minimum payment. When I last payed off a credit card I paid..

Minimum monthly payment + the interest added that month + 10%

It made a massive difference.

And when you've paid it off, that amount can either be paid off your next debt or saved to pay off the mother of all debts - the mortgage.

So anyone with me so far?

The less daunted and still enthusiastic Claire