£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

Treadingonplaymobil · 24 June 2017 at 9:52AM

Week 19: Day 7

Darn it. Still not the end of the month! We aren't spending much, but then there isn't much money to spend, so that works well

.

Nothing really to report, just want to make sure I keep checking in so I don't get tempted to spend any money before the end of the month.

Hoping to get by with a really cheap top up shop for the last few days of the month on Monday, then there will be a tiny bit extra leftover from the food kitty to put into another pot for next month.

Working all day today and tomorrow, so assuming I can resist the lure of online shopping, it will be two NSDs. My to do list is so monumentally dull that I'm not going to insult you all by sharing it here, but I'll share a new list for week 20, which starts tomorrow. 20 weeks of debt repayment already, seems like an awful lot of time and not a lot of debt paid off; £2,582.58 paid off, a little over 4%.

Kantankrus_Mare · 24 June 2017 at 6:00PM

£2.582 debt paid off.???? And you dont think thats much?

I think you have done fantastically!!! Just think where you would be if you hadnt started to see the light?

You WILL get there!! Keep up the good work. I know it all feels like a slog but it will be soooo worth it.

Suffolk_lass · 25 June 2017 at 7:29AM

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Working all day today and tomorrow, so assuming I can resist the lure of online shopping, it will be two NSDs. My to do list is so monumentally dull that I'm not going to insult you all by sharing it here, but I'll share a new list for week 20, which starts tomorrow. 20 weeks of debt repayment already, seems like an awful lot of time and not a lot of debt paid off; £2,582.58 paid off, a little over 4%.

That works out at an average of £129.13 per week. If you are not happy with your rate of progress, you could take mini-steps to change this. For example, you could challenge yourself to increase that a bit - say to over £130 a week in the first instance (I know bills don't come in like that but you could track it as a target...)

The other thing you don't seem to have counted in that figure is the pots you have saved into - paying up front and budgeting, which I think I am right in saying you were not doing before you started. I think if you add that in, the amount you have designated through this new approach will be quite a lot bigger, and more reassuring.

You could then look critically at all the bits you are spending (I track everything in a spreadsheet) and start to adjust the balance if you want to see faster progress.

I think if you reflect on where you were, it is pretty good actually - well done!

Treadingonplaymobil · 25 June 2017 at 7:40AM

Week 20: Day 1

Into the 20th week! Goodness me. It seems like I have simultaneously been doing this about five minutes, and for about a million years.

Continuing to limp towards the end of the month - figuratively and literally, since I have done something to my back by (I think) overdoing my yoga practice, which is tiresome.

Free activities with the DC today - there is an open day at a local archaeology site which DS1 wants to go to, so DH is heading off there with them while I work.

to do today:
1. menu plan and shopping list. already done. Keeno.
2. Get the front garden planted up while DH puts the fence up (HURRAH).
3. laundry out on line.
4. Plan next week's work out.
5. Go through the camping stuff.
6. Set up the laptop that I was kindly donated by BIL.
7. bake bread.
8. ironing cleared and put away.
9. batch cook chilli.
10. manicure (I have some work on this week after a couple of weeks being v quiet with main business, need to smarten up!)

to do this week:
1. Get ahead on one of my regular bits of work, in advance of the summer holidays
2. charity shop run with the tat that is cluttering up our hallway.
3. finish spring (ha, maybe it will be done by autumn) cleaning upstairs.
4. buy a washing up bowl!!!
5. plan July's budget, once the month begins

Weekly round up
Last week's debt total £56,462.86 (actually 2 weeks ago, I forgot last week)
This week's debt total £56,025.55
Total paid off last week (fortnight) £437.31
Grand total paid off £2,582.58

Cherryfudge · 25 June 2017 at 8:18AM

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

a little over 4%.

If that were a cc interest rate, people would be saying 'See if you can do a balance transfer to a 0%', and if it were mortgage interest, you'd hear 'That's awfully high, see if you can get a fixed rate' - so take heart, what you've paid off so far is significant and Suffolk lass is right about money squirrelled away in 'pots'.

£2,582.58 is a lot of money that you will not have to pay interest on, and £437.31 is a lot to go in a fortnight.

As to the washing-up bowl, I'm not sure how long I can take the suspense! :eek::rotfl:

warby68 · 25 June 2017 at 8:24AM

In terms of progress , ToPM, I think you also need to add in the overspending/new debt that you HAVEN'T incurred since you started.

You didn't have a balanced budget so its that PLUS debt reduction that you are achieving which is no mean feat.

It might be less gloomy for you not to dwell too much on the total debt as I honestly think you won't be able to tackle that more aggressively without a step-change in your income. But what you clearly can do is make yourselves more resilient short term with a balanced budget, an emergency fund and leaving your pots to grow so in a year or so you can meet things as they fall due without constantly robbing Peter to pay his mate Paul. You say yourself you have a long way to go on getting the budgets under control and just not spending what you can't afford. You're trying to change the habits of a lifetime, and I don't really mean the overspending itself, I mean the belief that your income bracket affords you a certain lifestyle when really it doesn't (at the moment).

Take your £7 coffee stop, I suspect that was because you still wanted to visit a 'certain' type of cafe that fits with your style and wealth aspiration and simply can't make yourself drop down. A quick drink and snack for a mum and toddler can be obtained much cheaper in any number of ways. This is the stuff where you will have to take some pain to succeed and I suspect for you it will be by just not doing it at all as the Asda cafe will just never appeal to you (me neither lol). Perhaps not for ever but if you could do it for 12m say, you could get a balanced budget, something in all your pots as well as chipping away at the debt. Once you have that you can build in some choice again so that when your income exceeds its basic level you can choose whether it goes on debt, emergency fund, the house or some luxuries.

I think it will be much simpler for you if you could get to that stage and then a good income month becomes a true bonus with choice attached and not a worrying necessity because you've spent it in advance.

I am rabbiting a bit again, sorry but I don't want you to lose heart or focus or sabotage yourselves . Your progress is really good, its just a long journey so keep breaking it down into manageable chunks

. Its the habits as much as the debt that you have to crash and I think they're actually harder.

Karonher · 25 June 2017 at 1:54PM

The amount you have paid off is amazing and remember you have money in your business account that you would not normally have.

Normally I would agree with you about Asda cafe Warby68 but I went to one yesterday. I took the car for the MOT and rather do it while I waited they were busy and it was going to take a few hours. Rather than £10 on a taxi there and back I walked to Asda had a look around and then went for breakfast. £2.40 for coffee and toast and while the toast was OK the coffee was one of the nicest I have tasted.

enthusiasticsaver · 25 June 2017 at 4:47PM

Reducing the debt by more than 4% in around 4 months is worth celebrating given the amount of your debt and the fact that your expenses were more than income initially so you don't have a lot of spare money to throw at it.

Re coffee shops we could just as easily go into a Morrisons or Asda cafe if that was closest and we just wanted a drink.

emmie26 · 25 June 2017 at 5:58PM

4% is fab when you consider how high your original debt was, but I love to think of the actual money, £2582 is a lot of money in 4 months, if someone offered you that amount of money it would be amazing and you've managed to save it in such a short time. Imagine what you will be able to save when you are debt free!!

warby68 · 25 June 2017 at 6:56PM

Sorry, wasn't meaning to cast too many negative vibes about Asda cafes or similar. Never actually been to one, ours only has some kind of stand up sandwich bar thing. It was meant more that a supermarket cafe isn't a 'treat' or 'reward' like the stylish trendy coffee shop or tea room is, even though the brew might well be just as good.

£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

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