Tales from the debt side

Lucylocks · 12 June 2017 at 8:34AM

Crikey Mrs Spendalot - 5 kids! I have 2 and it feels like I spend much of my life in a constant cycle of cooking. I can only imagine how much work it is to feed 5, you're grocery spends must be a nightmare. Any tips I can nab?

Back to work today for me - not sure if I'll manage a no spend day but have managed to bring yesterday's left overs for lunch. Unfortunately for my colleagues its a curry which means I'll be stinking the place out. I'm not going to be popular:rotfl:

Lucylocks · 13 June 2017 at 8:38AM

Right so today I need NEED to sell those sodding tickets. Lots of interest but I need to get the cold hard cash in my sticky paws! I then need to remember that I am focused on cracking this debt busting and not view any money as free to spend on rubbish, or even stuff that isn't rubbish but that I really don't need.

I've been super organised, which is very unlike me, by prepping lunches the night before for me and the kids. They are mainly pasta based however and I suspect the kids will soon grow sick of this. There are only so many twists you can add to a pasta salad I've discovered. Any exciting lunch ideas - ideally that I can prep the night before as mornings in my house tend to be stressful enough already.

On a positive note I am astounded to report that I still have funds in the joint household account. DH and myself keep our finances mainly separate but have one household account which we both contribute to but I basically run (I don't think he even has a card for this account). Usually by this time of the month I've exhausted the joint account and am topping spends up from my personal account. NOT THIS MONTH:T. I cannot think that I've ever been in this position before. Everything is accounted for, I know when all the DD's are due to go and I question every spend. I am finding this weirdly exciting and enjoyable. Who knew I was such a geek? It's pay day in a fortnight and unless something comes and bites me on the ar$se in the meantime I think I might just make it. Hoorah for me!!!

Hiddenidenity · 13 June 2017 at 9:11AM

For lunches we did salads/pasta/rice/sanwiches/pittas/wraps/bagels.

Soups/leftovers are good for older kids/adults.

Pintrest has loads of ideas and I'm sure there will be some on the oldstyle board

Well done on being so organised

Lucylocks · 14 June 2017 at 8:46AM

Still no news on the sale of these darned tickets - am now trying to sell through work. I fear I may end up having to take DC's after all :eek:

I'm hoping today will be another NSD - am trying for at least 3 a week. It's been a real eye opener how this little 'couple of quid' spends add up over the week. I've never been a Costa fiend but certainly am a bit of a gannet when it comes to snacks which I think has probably cost me £100's of pounds over the course of the year.

Yesterday I looked at projected budget for next few months. I've not factored in any holiday as we've not decided if we will get away this year. Realistically we have all the camping gear etc so I may just take kids away for a long weekend somewhere by the sea. DS has an overseas trip in summer hols with one of his clubs and DD has just signed up for school ski trip next year so they don't do too badly. I'm thinking make it a cheap summer this year and plan/save for a big one next year which won't be reliant on credit cards. Hoping my patience lasts until then!

clearmydebts · 14 June 2017 at 10:47AM

Lucylocks wrote: »

Still no news on the sale of these darned tickets - am now trying to sell through work. I fear I may end up having to take DC's after all :eek:

I'm hoping today will be another NSD - am trying for at least 3 a week. It's been a real eye opener how this little 'couple of quid' spends add up over the week. I've never been a Costa fiend but certainly am a bit of a gannet when it comes to snacks which I think has probably cost me £100's of pounds over the course of the year.

Yesterday I looked at projected budget for next few months. I've not factored in any holiday as we've not decided if we will get away this year. Realistically we have all the camping gear etc so I may just take kids away for a long weekend somewhere by the sea. DS has an overseas trip in summer hols with one of his clubs and DD has just signed up for school ski trip next year so they don't do too badly. I'm thinking make it a cheap summer this year and plan/save for a big one next year which won't be reliant on credit cards. Hoping my patience lasts until then!

Sounds like a good plan re: the holidays. We are the same, holidays are our weakness and probably how a lot of the debt was built up.

Lucylocks · 15 June 2017 at 8:49AM

So the good news is that 2 of the 4 tickets should go today which means I'll be running off to bank the money - I'm rubbish with hanging onto cash, it just seems to evaporate. The other tickets should go next week so that'll be a bit more to put into my emergency pot.

The bad news..... cc statement through today

Although I've paid c £4K off this one over the last 5 weeks or so the interest is still £130+. I'm resisting the urge to apply for balance transfer until I know whether any of my current PPI complaints will be upheld. I just need to wait another 2 weeks for until the 8 week deadline is up for response. I'm not keen to accrue balance transfer fees if these aren't necessary. Sadly patience has never been a strength of mine :rotfl:

I need to buy and post fathers day card today and also settle up on one of DC's trips (£250

:( ) so massive spends anticipated on the plus side that means I'm now clear to start saving for the September uniform shops. This will be the first year that I'm intending to kit both kids out without resorting to CC's which makes me feel good. With the dreadful, awful news of recent days/weeks it does make me appreciate what I've got. Hope everyone has a good day x

Hiddenidenity · 15 June 2017 at 9:06AM

If you've paid of so much just look at how much interest you have saved! There's not much you can do yet about the interest you're still paying so look at the positive side

Amazing.

Have a lovely day

Lucylocks · 15 June 2017 at 9:38AM

Update - bit of good news DH has paid £200 towards trip rather than £100 I asked for so I've only got to fork out £50. Today is looking to be on the up!

Lucylocks · 15 June 2017 at 6:11PM

As we are bang in the middle of the month and I've pretty much changed as much as I can until next payday and I'm feeling a little jaded. I want to do more but have to be patient (as I said previously, this has never been a strength of mine and probably explains the hideous level of debt).

It's fair to say that there were a combination of things which finally got me to pull my head out of the sand;

40 next year - a sobering thought when I think of the plans and things I would have achieved by now. We've not done badly but I feel we could do a lot better if not carrying this debt.

Children are growing up - FAST! DD is now 14. Realistically I want to be able to support her, and her younger brother, should she or he decide to go to Uni or similar. Paying out silly amounts of interest and not reducing overall debt meant we wouldn't be able to support either child as much I would like to. I've been massively helped by my parents throughout my life and want to be able to do as much as I can for my children too.

We work to hard too be this skint! Seriously - I work full time and run the house, DH is self-employed so puts in 6 day weeks, long hours, much hassle. We need to start feeling that we are working to enjoy stuff not paying back for things we probably don't even own. My aim is to have a really truly lovely family holiday when this is sorted, something that the kids will remember for ever as they won't always want to be going with us. To do this I need to have the money to pay for it and not be stressing about how long it will take to pay this back.

We are fortunate; our house is almost renovated (another culprit for where the debts accrued from) with major works pretty much finished. It's much easier to economize when you're not living in a hovel I've found. Although this isn't our 'dream' house if we have to stay here for the next 30 years so be it, its home.

What I am struggling with is keeping this in perspective. Having ignored my financial predicament religiously since 18 years old, I now find it really, really hard to concentrate on anything else. I'm sure I'm on a spectrum somewhere! I need to chill a little and keep things in perspective.

Today I've opened second savings account. I now have 2 - one for irregular spends (school uniform etc) and 1 that is to be touched only in dire straits. It's got £200 in there. Not a lot but a start and it WILL grow. I've still money in the household account and, subject to not going bonkers in Mr A's at the weekend, we should make it to the end of the month with £100 under budget (more for the emergency pot :T) Roll on payday!

Florence_J · 15 June 2017 at 7:00PM

Good luck with everything, getting in debt changed my life, for the worse obviously but also in many ways for the better. I learnt so much and I couldn't afford to not learn those lessons.

Being a MSE person does make people a bit obsessive, I talk about people I chat with on here as if I know them, and last night I had my first ever dream about this website!

Good luck with everything.

Tales from the debt side

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