2014 - keep crunching away

Thanks baldybear - it's painful but not as bad as it could be and it's nice getting back into a routine to be honest. I did have an amazing tie off with family and friends though.

So I've done the below post and copied it over:

OK well as of January 7th the numbers look like this.

SLC £3318.9
CCV £11483.44
CCT £5490.04
CCR £3957.65
NTW £14451.24
OD £946.28
NXT £254.66

£39902.21

Yes it's scary but includes things I normally miss out. I'm not going to dwell on it, I'm just going to get on and pay it off. I'm lucky enough to be getting a pay rise from this month's pay so I shall endeavour to use that towards the debt. I say endeavour as I need to figure out if I was already living beyond my monthly pay as I wouldn't be in my overdraft if I wasn't!! However with Christmas and a busy month plus birthdays I spent lots more than I budgeted for. I'd saved up quite a bit too but not enough obviously.

So what am I doing to resolve this. Well as above I know it won't be cleared this year. This doesn't stop me reducing it as much as possible by:

• keeping grocery bills down
• no spending on unnecessary things for me or the kids or the horses!
• money that comes in that isn't expected goes to paying it off
• stay organised and on top of all payments
• whatever can be sold will be and used towards items required in the house instead of using monthly budget.

For example with the last one we're in the middle of doing the bedroom and the furniture we've picked is in the sale and I need £260 to pay for it. I need to sell some items to pay for this and also have my xmas money to go towards it.

I'm feeling really positive as always at this time of year

Right meals this week are porridge, cereal or nutri grain bars for breakfast then salad or wraps for lunch with extras for kids and teas have been shepherd's pie with tonnes of veg and meat and veg, tonight is slow cooker beef in gravy with new pots and veg (there's a theme here) and tomorrow I don't know yet. I have sausages for the kids as I'm on diet at the mo.

The no spending bullet point above means I won't be spending on lunches at work still, I've been making my own for a good while now. I got a flask for xmas for the yard which allows for soup so I will make some more HM soup and bring that it in for lunch as an alternate to salads. I do have items at work to pay for which I can't get out of and don't want to as it's things like flowers for people who have lost family members, retirement gift etc.

Tonight it's show night at the stables and previously DD would have had her tea there for an extortionate amount of money but now we eat before we leave, doing our health a favour too!

I'll leave it here for now as it's turning into a novel!

Todays' figures look like this:

SLC £3318.9
RBS £3918.07
V £11438.44
T £5490.04
OD £963.28
N £229.66
L £14451.24

£39809.63

Cash left: £256.56

　

　

The £256.56 will go to diesel (£50) for this week and another for next week so £100 in total. I have £50 coming out for food shopping yesterday so £150 total so £106 left which I need grocery top up * 2 (£10 each time) leaving £86 and another Sunday shop of £40 leaving £46. This is needed to next months money as I have to pay farrier, dentist and back woman - all at once Obviously £46 isn't enough lol but it goes towards the pay packet next month.

January's pay (one week on Fri) is going to need to stretch big time. It's my DD birthday too but that won't cost too much - we're making a cake at home and she is getting a main present so not doing lots of spends other than that.

I've got £48 of vouchers for Tesco actually which we couldn't convert for xmas as they weren't doing it on what we wanted so I can use them for groceries. I'll plan that online. That means the remaining figure is £86 which will cover farrier and back woman.

I love a challenge!

Evening
Haven't made the soup yet as getting through the other bits first. Going to Aldi tomorrow for fruit and couple of bits of veg so that will do, should be less than £10.

Had a bit of a crazy couple of days - DH found a property he thought was great but long story short , it isn't so for now he's placated (it used to be me who was looking all the time). I need to get these debts paid off before I can think about moving. It did mean that I found out how much we could get a mortgage for if I had no credit commitments and I'm very pleased and it's something to work towards.

I have items on ebay at the moment but that certainly won't pay the debt off alone lol. It's helping tho.

Lottery win wouldn't go amiss given how impatient I am!

Spends for yesterday/today include paying the £25 I owed, put diesel in for £50, £20 for my riding lesson (this is my only me time I get, one hour a fortnight) and that's it.

No bulk cooking done yet.

Oh and I managed to fix them hem of my work trousers which has been down for ages - using a needle and thread and not the wonder web which I can't get away with. Make do and mend!