Raychee's DFW diary - cutting back to move forwards

Raychee

Well, it's all out in the open! OH knows what I owe! He was quite surprised - his reaction being "CRIKEY!" but that's it. At least I could tell him that I've paid off a big chunk of it, and he knows it's now under control.

Why did I tell him? Well... we've been chatting about it for the past month or so (he's now paid off his CC and his bank account is in credit! :j ) and we had to write an account of our financial status for our Social Worker. It was hard to admit to the social worker about being over-drawn and having a CC balance, and I actually felt a little ashamed that I had got my finances into that state. However, because I now know what is coming in, and what is going out, I felt confident to tell him when I expected to pay off my CC, and when I expected to come out of my OD.

As he said to us, we wanted to hide any debt, then we could, and he'd have no way of knowing. But that's not the way we want to go about it. Besides, when we finally adopt, I want to be financially sound, and not worrying about how I'm going to pay off these bills.

On the plus side, because I've been putting aside 10% of my wages each week, and because of what I have in my ISA, I've discovered that I have £700 in savings! Now I know that I ought to use this to bring my debts down, so please don't shoot me. But it's MY emergency fund, and with added expenses in the next year, I need to keep it separate.

Work has been plentiful, which has helped. I've had lots of expenses this month (including tickets to see Spandau Ballet - my sister's 40th birthday present...) - I finally had to give in and get my windscreen replaced - £75 excess. Next month will be a new exhaust, (don't think mine will hold on for much longer...) and I will soon have to invest in 2 new tyres. Sometimes I hate being reliant on my car, but when you live in the a**e-end of nowhere (well, sometimes it feels like it) with a dreadful bus service, there's not much choice!

Aims for April.

To bring CC down to under £1000.
To bring OD down to under £1500
To build savings by £100
To get e-baying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

beanielou

Happy targets

Raychee

I'm in a jubilant mood today!

I can update my signature on a Tuesday, when I know what my wage for the week will be. This week is a good week because I worked 5 days last week. (I also got paid for some work I did back in February, which added another £100 to my account - though that went straight on the Spandau Ballet tickets!) I also get my pub wage this week - which may not be as much, because I had a weekend off, but it should be another £70.

Anyways, because of being able to update my target, I now notice that I'm only £50 off paying £2000!!!! How cool is that?

Is Easter holidays, which means that I have 2 weeks where I don't get paid, but this where the money I saved comes into play. It means I can keep up my £100 a week on the CC, and afford the extra. However, as I am already getting work bookings for after the holidays, I should soon be able to make the savings up again. (My agency is also giving me more money making opportunities, but I need to find out more before I commit!)

My out-goings for March were far too high -I should have been able to cut down so much more than I did. So I need to challenge myself to keep April frugal! Maybe we'll have to use up what's in the freezer...

Raychee

Well, hello!

I'm trying very hard to be frugal this month, but it's difficult. I have 2 weeks without big pay (Easter holidays) and pub wage isn't due for another couple of weeks.
Added to that, I have 2 trips to my family in April - one over Easter, and one for my sister's big birthday. This means £100+ in fuel... but much cheaper than taking OH's car. OH is being lovely (as always) and filled my car up last night, meaning I have one less tank of petrol to buy this month.
I finally took my car to get the exhaust sorted, and found that I didn't need a new one. The man put my car on the raised thingy, whacked on a new clip, and didn't charge me a penny - that's at least £75 saved. Thank goodness for lovely, honest mechanics - they're my new best friends!
My agency have given me a pay rise of £50 a month, for hardly any extra work, and the opportunity to earn lots more for very little effort. I must work hard to fill their criteria, as I believe there's at least an extra £200-300 I can earn each month. It means that I have be a little more confident with people, but I'm sure that's only good for me!
My main task is to get the house clean ready for my Social Worker visit. We're getting so close to the main event, and I just want everything to be perfect.
By Thursday, I will have hit my target of bringing my CC to under £1000. It means that I will have also hit my pay off £2000 by the end of April. Ideally, I would have liked to have paid off more, but I knew that I would have to dip into my OD again for the holidays. Then again, that's why I've put money aside each week. It means that I have been able to keep up my CC payments while not getting paid.

Am I making sense? I don't know. The sink is soaking in bleach, and I think the fumes are affecting me!

See you soon. x

beanielou

Sounds like you are doing so so well

Raychee

Things have slowed down lately.

The main problem was 5 days work which I had to turn down because of illness. That's an awful lot of money for me, and would have put my payback total to under £2000 easily. Added on to that, are 3 days work I have had to miss due to hospital appointments and now half term. I can see that I am having to get a job for the summer holidays, or I may be back where I started.

On the plus side, I have now paid back £1500 on my CC. My car tax (another £125 :eek: ) is paid for another year, I have not bought chocolate or magazines since January, and I know where my money is going. :T I know there will be weeks/days where things vary, and I am getting better at budgeting for these. I used alot of my savings in keeping up my CC payments over the holidays, but that's what I was building it for. I now need to start to build it again. I still believe that I'm on target for for being debt free by October, which is good. However, I wanted my CC gone by the end of June, and I now know that this is not going to happen. My new deadline for the CC is the end of July. That way, I can be CC debt free for the summer holidays, and concentrate on my OD.

Plans to car-boot have been abandoned as OH's brother is really ill, and we're spending many weekends travelling to visit him. It's a stressful time for OH and family, and we want to help in anyway we can. However, this means that come the summer, I can REALLY get going on my wish to become an ebay queen!

Adoption plans are progressing, though our panel date has been postponed by a few weeks. I'm disappointed, but it isn't a problem for us, as three more weeks isn't going to make a huge difference in the long run.

That's all really. Not feeling very positive today I'm afraid.