Jo_R's debt-free diary, slow and steady progress!

Jo_R_2

Hi all!

I have posted a handful of times recently about various debts I have, and received some very good advice. I am in the process of starting to implement some of the suggestions I have received, and wanted to start my own DFW diary, more for me but if anyone fancies a read then feel free!

About me: aged early 30s (ahem ), live with lovely OH who works full-time, my two DDs aged 5 and 2, and baby due next week!:j I'm currently a stay-at-home mummy although hope to get back to work sometime later in the year.

I have a number of debts. I wouldn't call myself a spendaholic, I don't go crazy for clothes, shoes, drinking (in fact I don't drink really at all anyway), I don't smoke, anything like that I suppose my main 'indulgence' (although I wouldn't even call it that as I'm not frivolous) is organic products, but only when pennies allow really.

I think mine and OH's problem is that although we are fairly aware of our finances, we can be a bit careless, I'm terribly forgetful about moving money around where we need it, and so there's always a panic when it's rent week rather than budgeting for it over the month; same for DD day at the start of the month.

My debt is comprised mainly of an unsecured loan I took out when with my ex and found out I was pregnant with DD1. He had before meeting me run up various amounts on store cards and CCs, and it would have been impossible to survive without dealing with it in the short-term, so I consolidated his debts, in my name only as he couldn't get credit... :eek::eek::eek: So eventually he moved out and here I am left with said loan and no contributions from him at all for it since then.

I also have a CC which is just over its limit, a tax credits overpayment which is halved again with my ex - so he'd better pay his half or I'll be liable for it! - and also a Housing Benefit overpayment and Council Tax one, both of which I am starting to pay off at the start of next month.

My initial goal is to refine our finances, basically redo my SOA. As it stands, we are just about balancing things out, but I want to see if we can make any cutbacks to allow us to throw any extra money at these debts. Once I've done that, I want to give myself a target as I think this is going to be my motivation for keeping on top of things. I suffer with on/off depression which can affect my ability to remember things, so impacting on how I handle money, and I'm hoping that having a goal/target in mind at any given point is going to really help.

Hopefully one of my next posts will be my SOA, kinda like a new starting point for me so I can keep referring back and working on it!

penniesgrowintopounds

Good luck with your diary, Jo. Looking forward to reading about your progress.

Jo_R_2

Just wanted to add, I redeemed an old travelcard I forgot I had. We are short on pennies this week as pretty much all of OH's wages have gone on rent which came out on Monday, so I have used a portion of the money on food shopping yesterday (was a bit more than usual as I needed to get some stuff for my planned home birth!) and a 'new' chest of drawers from the furniture project in town, plus £20 in petrol to go in my dad's car that we have borrowed.

That left me with just under £200, so I have been down to the Post Office just now and paid off a whole debt, an Income Support overpayment from around the time that OH moved in. I did think of throwing it at either my loan or CC but figured knocking one of the debts on the head in full (this IS one was the smallest one) would be a great starting motivation.

I now have £90 left, and apart from needing to buy some new mummy garmentage (been checking out where I can get most for my money), whatever is left I am going to use to pay off a bit on my CC. I don't want to put this money in the bank (all too easy to just spend it on bits and bobs , I'm soooo much more aware of what I'm doing when I have the actual cash in my hand - anyone else like that?) so I need to go to town at some point as I gather from reading my CC bill that the only way I can pay by cash is to go to a certain bank and pay over the counter.

So my targets for this week are:

• use surplus cash to pay towards CC bill
• get bargainous mummy garmentage
• go to my bank and hand in standing order form for Council Tax debt payments and HB payments
• revise our SOA
• pursue ex-OH about contributing to loan payments, he said he may do, I have sent him the details he requested about the loan but not heard anything back yet so going to chase him about it

Also to start our new financial money weekly routine:

• ensure OH transfers 1/4 of rent money over to me when he gets paid
• ensure OH withdraws weekly shopping money in cash for me to do grocery shopping
• work out what to do with small surplus amount of money left over

beanielou

Happy shiney new diary
Look forward to seeing your SOA.
hope all goes well for you

Jo_R_2

I'm pleased with myself to say I'm back again and still on the case!

Went to town today and sorted some bits and bobs out, feel very pleased with myself for dealing with them rather than thinking, oh I'll do it tomorrow/next week :T

This is what I have done since I last posted:

Jo_R wrote: »

So my targets for this week are:

• use surplus cash to pay towards CC bill - done today, have paid the amount over my limit, won't make much of a dent but is a start
• get bargainous mummy garmentage - still looking!
• go to my bank and hand in standing order form for Council Tax debt payments and HB payments - handed in HB SO form, realised I didn't have a form for the Council Tax payments I need to make, so going to phone them up to get another SO form
• revise our SOA - not done this yet next on the list!
• pursue ex-OH about contributing to loan payments, he said he may do, I have sent him the details he requested about the loan but not heard anything back yet so going to chase him about it - had a bit of an email barney with him over something completely different so thought would give it a bit of time to sort that out before approaching him about it.

Over the weekend I shall be doing our new SOA - which will change again when baby is born, quite extremely very soon I hope as I feel ma-hoo-sive, baby is due on Tuesday but despite what OH says I think I look like a beached whale, I swear my bump defies gravity! Mind you DD2 was three weeks late so we may have a working SOA for at least that long before I have to adjust it again LOL!

Jo_R_2

Just been planning next week's finances and realised the bank charges from the last month or so from when I went overdrawn will be coming on on a couple of days this week. So told OH to hold off on transferring rent money - in fact I've been thinking of opening a separate account solely for rent to avoid any slip ups.

Used to do this with my friend when we house-shared and found it took a lot off my mind kwowing the rent was dealt with and there when it needed to be without the worry of it being swallowed up by anything else.

Also have had my dad's car for the last month or two, kindly lent to us, but realised today it is costing us a fortune in petrol:eek::eek::eek: and that's without having to pay tax or MOT on it which are both coming up shortly. So have made decision to hand it gratefully back, and look at buying something when we can more afford it.

On the plus side got given lots of baby stuff by OH's mum so less things to buy!

Jo_R_2

Went grocery shopping and managed to spend just over £30 instead of the normal £50 :T My current budget is £200 a month for four of us (me, OH, DD1 aged 5 and DD2 aged 2, includes packed lunches for OH and DD1 and nappies for DD2) but I knew I'd have to balance things out this week because I have bank charges coming out.

So technically we don't have that money 'spare' but it will go towards making up the difference with the bank charges, if that makes sense?

Think this week and next week are going to be pretty much like that but apart from usual bills and money for rent, alongside groceries which we can budget on, we won't have many other outgoings - or I don't plan to anyway! - as baby is due tomorrow so we won't be going out or buying anything extra (that I can think of - got a good stock of baby stuff and all the essentials from when DD2 was tiny.)

I've just remembered...! sometime very soon should have the Sure Start Maternity Grant arriving. Sent my form off last week, and last night texted a friend who has done the same a couple of weeks ago, and she said it was pretty much a five-day turnaround from posting the form til the money going in her bank, and as my claim will be dealt with by the same centre, I shouldn't imagine it will take too much longer. So that might help to balance things out with charges - a real pain as IIRC there's a good four amounts of £35 coming out if not more :eek:

I think things are going to be a little like this before they get steadier and better, if that makes sense... Dealing with the problems from before I started my new quest for DFW'dom, it was inevitable I'd get bank charges and have to rebudget here and there around them but once we've gotten through that and get into a steady cycle of handling our money every day, every week and every month, I know things will even out and we can start looking at throwing money at our debts.

beanielou

Great idea on seperate rent account

Jo_R_2

beanielou wrote: »

Great idea on seperate rent account

Yep - don't know why I didn't think about it before! :rolleyes:

Was thinking of opening a Co-op one (different to my bank, and using a basic bank account.) Had also thought of possibly opening one for grocery shopping as this does tend to differ wildly from week to week and month to month sometimes and does sometimes get eaten up unintentionally (bad budgeting) when other things need paying for unexpectedly.

I am also thinking of opening up separate 'pots' for yearly budgeting - contents insurance, Christmas and birthday present spends - but taking it one step at a time so as to not overwhelm myself with dozens of new arrangements all over the place!

beanielou

Ive been thinking about seperate 'pots' too but not sure if I am ready for the faffying about at the mo.

Jo_R_2

Was dreading today - DDs been at my parents yesterday so first day of half-term with then both (aged 5 and 2) but went quite well - suffice to say I am knackered! :eek:

Went to playgroup this morning with them both (£1.50) and on the way back "splashed" out on a couple of 15p drinks and a caffeine boost for me, a little treat to motivate DD1 to get home as it was a long walk for her leggies and she did really well bless her.

Pretty average tea of wholemeal spaghetti with tomatoey sauce (two tins plum tomatoes chopped up, squeeze tomato puree and seasoning) topped with grated cheese, added half a head of broccoli chopped up I bought with shopping as I threw a whole one away last week through bad meal planning/being utterly tired come cooking time and being quite slack

Good news today - got my letter confirming I was entitled to the Sure Start Maternity Grant whcih will be paid in tomorrow! Great considering the first of four lots of bank charges will be coming out but hey, as I said things will get worse before they get better and at least I'll have a fair amount left.

Can't agree with OH what to do with it, I suggested using £200-£300 to put towards my credit card, but he wasn't totally on board - he said it's such a small amount to put towards it that we may as well use it for something that will benefit us - he wants to buy a cheap car :rolleyes: I explained really nicely that much as I would LOVE a little runaround (and oh, I really woudl love to have a car of our own again), factoring in petrol, insurance and MOT plus any repairs adds up to the complete antithesis of what I/we are trying to do, and the amount we spend on it in a year even on something small would pay off probably the Council Tax bill, so I cannot see any way of justifying it to ourselves, even more so as we don't "need" it, eg for work, but just to make our lives more convenient.

I did however try not to sound like a complete spoilsport and said that when hopefully I go back to work after baby sometime later in the year, I think we could definitely think about it then as an option.

I'm sooo keen on working towards DFW'dom but I don't want to sound like I don't want us to have any fun and am totally single-minded! He did say after I explained that whatever I decided to put towards my credit card, he would match it from our 'entertainment' fund which is decaying through underuse with imminent babyage!