How I'm taking control of my £164,893 debt

OberonSH

Me too! I thought -woah, this is going to be one to watch!

I really do think it's worth posting up a SOA - I can see you've just bought new furniture etc which could seem to be extravagance, unless of course its been budgeted for etc - why don't you focus on maybe one area if you're not keen on letting us in on all of it - how many people are in the house, and what's your grocery budget like? You said you're worried about critisim - don't forget we're all in this together, and we're all just trying to help one another.

That list of meat is rather large - I hope you have a freezer big enough to accomodate it, otherwise it might go to waste! I would sit down and do a meal plan from it all, and try to use up what you have in the cupboards already. Portion up the meat when it comes in if neccesary - when we get a large pack of mince I split it into smaller portions to avoid waste. Old Style board will be your best friend for this sort of stuff!

gingernutbizkit

thanks Spendaholic Chick - words of encouragement appreciated:beer:

thanks overon - bedroom furniture was budgetted for and needed (we're in the process of doing up our house and I need somewhere to hang clothes!)
My freezer is big enough to store all the meat. I've planned my meals and will split down when it arrives on monday. Grocery budget is currently £250pcm but I have plans to lower this..... will check out the OS board.

Spent today baking. Made 45 muffins, banana cake and 25 cookies. Most stored in the freezer but some didn't make it that far

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

Quick update.......

I've done pretty well this month on keeping to the budget I did in Jan. I need to make some amendments to it as i've realised that some catergories aren't very realistic. I also need a contingency fund as in the last two weeks my oven has broken and I had to replace the front door after I had to break in to my own house because DS1 had locked us out :mad:

I changed my plans for the fence in the back garden and for an extra £30 made it out of fruit trees..... so free apples and pears for me

We booked our holiday to Lanzarote for next month and can't wait for a bit of sun! Got a good late deal

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

we're continuing to try and make ourselves more self-sufficient in fruit and veg. Yesterday I bought some reduced price fruit trees from homebase - cherry, peach, blackcurrant and raspberry. I've got all my seed packets and this weekend will start to make some sowings of our favourite veg.
Started using my new breadmaker regularly - with varying degrees of success. On a positive note we have not bought bread for a couple of weeks now. Don't know if I am actually saving money but most of the loaves are delicious.
Managed to use tesco vouchers for two days out during half term and will use another for this weekend's trip. Still trying to work out the best tesco deals for us.

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

Latest update.......

I've now finished creating the raised beds for our square foot garden veggie bed. Still got to start to sow some seeds so must get on to that. I've also made 6 planters with trellis to screen off the shed - planning to grow squashes and runner beans over them.

Been sticking quite well to budget but still need to get around to tweeking it a bit. Been thinking that our grocery money might be better in cash so we're more enouraged to spend less but then we will miss out on our cashback credit cards

My fixed rate ISA comes to an end this month. We have been getting 6.25% and saving the money to pay off the mortgage. However this percentage rate will drop significantly in april so we have realised that it is probably better to use the money to pay off a chunk of debt. Our mortgage rate is now 2% so whilst it's so low it is worth putting the money towards paying off our northern rock loan which is at 5.9%.

I contacted NR for a settlement figure (not expecting to pay it off but just out of interest!). It's 8241.47 which is a bit lower than I expected so I'm now wondering if we could actually get this debt gone - the settlement figure is valid until 1st May.

In our ISA we currently have £5819.85 whichmeans a shortfall of £2421.62.... so how to make this money in less than two months? Well, I think we could get £1000 from our salaries and (if necessary) we have a 0% £1500 overdraft with our bank account that could make up the rest. Having this debt gone would mean not paying them £407 each month.... money we could use elsewhere.:D

I've taken the advice of those on the OS threads and decided to creat a house organizing file..... off to make a start on this.

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

forgot to mention - signed up this morning for ING direct savings accounts for me and my wife - £40 for doing very little!!!

gingernutbizkit

Right.... I've cast my peepers over the figure and there's a possibility that the £2500 is possible..... if we really really really tighten our belts.

I've got £300 which was the excess in my current account.

We're on holiday for the final week of this month and have a tonne of food in the cupboard so anything that can be saved from the grocery budget can go towards it too (estimated £150 if I'm very very good)

Likewise we won't need as much petrol this month (estimated £60) and can also use the £250 from not having to pay the council tax.

DW has some overtime money coming from her job next month and some expenses being repaid..... estimated amount of £300.

Off to ebay the dog.........:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Ging x

gingernutbizkit

Ok, so I decided not to put the dog on ebay...... not sure i'd have got anythign for him anyway! Did put on some old furniture.... just on a 3 day auction as I need it out of the house.... it's already got 11 watchers

SPent time today starting to put together my house organizer file. So far it's got:

* A 4 week checklist of household tasks (so they might actually get done!)
* A budget plan
* Spending record sheets
* A northern rock loan sheet - so I can keep track of the extra money I am putting towards paying this off on 1st May
* A savings list - so we can plan for things we need to buy rather than just going out and getting thing adhoc and then wondering where the money to pay off the crdit card will come from
* A menu planner so I can at least plan our main meals and not have the last minute panic dash to the shops where other things seem to drop into the basket off the shelves without me realising!
* A store cupboard list to go on the fridge to be ticked when we run out of something - this will then be my shopping list.

I have also bought a £3 file for organising my bills etc and 2 letter trays for post and things to be dealt with.

Feeling soooooo organized :T

Catwoman_Kent

I am so impressed with your blog. My debt is around £30,000 in loans and credit cards (no interest on the cards now) and I have a mortgage of £94,000. I'm on a fixed rate until June but expect my payments to drop considerably after this. You have inspired me to clear my debt ASAP and my current calculation is end of 2019. Trying hard to bring this forward though.

gingernutbizkit

Thanks Cat woman...... I'm trying not to think about how long it will take to be mortgage and debt free...... I worked it out at the start of this blog and haven't looked at it since..... too scary. I'm thinking baby steps now, one debt at a time. If I can get the NR loan paid by May as I hope then that will leave me with the car loan (finishing in July) and a few other bits and pieces. Hopefully I'll be debt free in September

My mortgage will be renewed in April 2010 so my goal then will be to get some money together for then.

Without MSE I dread to think where I would be.

Currently I'm one of the few who is finding that the recession is working in my favour