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

Jo_R_2

Okay...

So I have been thinking I can use my written diary more efficiently by keeping a running balance, ie using it as an ongoing spending diary as well as noting incomings and outgoings each month.

I'm also as mentioned going to make notes of other things including when to plan online shopping to keep myself super organised. Also I need to put in things such as when to make overpayments (been ebaying and built up a small amount in my Paypal account) and forthcoming things such as birthdays.

We found out yesterday we got the house we viewed (yay - more space and extra rooms for only £10 a month more!:j:j:j) so we're in the process of cleaning the house. Found DD2 this morning writing on her bedroom wall which has somehow been pretty mich immaculate since we painted it last year so you can imagine what I was thinking but I smiled serenely and took the crayons away. So that's another room to sort out :rolleyes:

bevan840

Hi Jo
I thought I'd have a peep at your diary I'm stuck at work and completed all my jobs so now I'm just doing little things (easier to concentrate on than my mess of finances )
The house sounds 'Lovely' and bless DD2, she wanted to leave her mark on the old house
Little treats are ok I hadn't had a 'treat' since I moved up here but when my Sis and BIL came up, then Dad came up week after, I went treat crazy!! I spent £80 on DVD's!!! :eek: In only 2 weeks!!! But they both left me some money which is what I used for the treats
You sound like your doing really well, in regards to your little 'pots' I'll see if I can find a post with EagerLearner as she has a spreadsheet which I use. You have one savings account and put everything in there, christmas, birthdays, special events etc that your saving up for, and on the spreadsheet you type in how much you've put in towards your goals, that way you can see on the screen how much is in each little 'pot', at the moment the only thing in mine is £10 for the honeymoon!! lol EagerLearner is also the one who sends out the guide for Free Daily Clicking and Scratchcards, I've made £10 so far on Scratchcard and withdrawn it to bank account I haven't decided what it's going on yet though, my original goal was to put it in honeymoon but I'm very tempted to put it on a CC.
I've also got a similar thing going like your diary but on the computer, easy to use if your not computer savvy, let me know if you'd like it and I could email it to you Helps me see how far I'm in overdraft etc as it comes up in bright RED! I have everything in date order to Dec 2012!!! Thats how crazy I went with it lol Although most of the amounts are rough guesses from 2010 onwards.

(Sorry about the long post)

I'll stop babbling now Hope your ok and your doing really well, Keep it up and thankyou for the kind messages on my diary

PS At Xmas Boots do a special diary which would be perfect for you, I'm using it now, its a sort of home organiser and in the back it has the months and accounting pages

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1695385 < This weeks Flylady thread if you'd like to have a peep (in case you haven't seen it yet)
http://uk.f870.mail.yahoo.com/dc/launch?.partner=bt-1&.gx=0&.rand=11f2u45usnru0 < The Daily Clicking thread, send a PM to EagerLearner with your email address and she'll send you 'The Guide' If you do them all you can make up to £4.70 a day! I haven't got that far yet lol Also in EagerLearner's siggy is the link for the spreadsheet I said about above

Keeping_Positive

Great news about the house Jo, good idea about using your diary for more notes.

Bevan840 - great post

Jo_R_2

Thanks Bevan for that!:T

Things been pretty hectic recently. OH been doing overtime which has paid for letting agency admin fees, been remembering to transfer money from OH's wages to my account for rent. We have got the house we viewed, subject to references:j I'm being quite tentative - the cynic in me says hold off until references and checks come back okay which should be v. soon. It's loads bigger, three bedrooms, semi-detached, garden back and front, in nice area, quite near to OH's mum and good schools.

Also have collected £60 in my Paypal account from ebaying to put towards my credit card bill, that's transferring as we speak and am going to keep a running total in my signature once it's paid in to keep track.

It's OH's birthday next week and have a little bit of cash and not sure what to get him... Got him a card already, he gave me a bit of pocket money (LOL!) from his overtime (we went halves on what was left after the admin fees) and wanted me to buy something for me but want to get him a little something:smileyhea

Jo_R_2

Am feeling super productive with phone calls, forms and errands at the mo, just need to step up with sorting out the house so we get the deposit back!

Am supposed to be cleaning the kitchen carpet but baby (just fed and now sleeping on me :shhh:) has other ideas... Oh I know I should just put him in his bouncy seat or sling but I just love being all snuggled up with him!

Am feeling v. excited about paying some extra off my credit card once money has transferred from my Paypal account... I really need to put my maternity clothes on ebay to start collecting funds to overpay next month but I can't find the lead for my camera, I suspect it may have gotten thrown away by an overzealous OH when we threw our PC out!

I also need to post the form to transfer DD1 between schools asap for when we move so gonna do that later on.

Keeping_Positive

It does cound a bit manic over at yours Jo. Maybe babe is trying to say sit for a bit!! Well done on cc overpayment you have come reallyfarin the last few months.

bevan840

I agree with Keeping Positive Jo You have a very clever baby
Extra well done with CC :j:T

That extra £10 I made turned into £40 after a win on winkbingo and I decided what to put it on, a Wii Just wish I had the energy to play with it!! lol DH is scared to use it if I'm not there as he think's he'll end up breaking it and think's I know what I'm doing!! :rotfl: So the kids are only allowed to play if I'm in the room (bang goes my weekend being lazy in bed!!! :rotfl:)

Jo_R_2

Hehe oh well Sal - did you manage any quiet time for you though at all?

Me and OH just driving back from his mums where we spent the afternoon, sat out in the garden with baby, chatting about the impending house move. OH talking as we drove back but I must've totally zoned out because he did his little "funny" trick of indicating at the end of our road where you have to turn left down to our house, when he doesn't need to (the "humour" comes in because he is frankly terrible at indicating usually and I'm always moaning at him when cars come flying at us at roundabouts - he thinks it's funny and I gchuckle to humour him:D) and he said, faux disappointedly, "you usually laugh then!"

I explained I'd been thinking about the weekend. The big plus is upon checking both our accounts, we are doing really well, OH had more in that expected due to overtime and us not having the car anymore thus not spending on petrol, and I'd only spent on bills and small top up amounts of shopping, plus OH had remembered to transfer money over ready for the rent next week:T

The drawback was we'd been a bit slack and both Friday and Saturday evenings "popped to Asda" for something for dinner (knackered and too lazy to cook:o) and spent £20 a go:o:o:o

We've been really good at not doing that so it was a temporary blip (have given ourselves a talking to) but I was thinking of all the times we spend on stuff we don't need, or could do without, and how it would add up, when we'd been saying earlier about how we wish we could buy our own place instead of renting.

I suppose I was thinking of it in terms of "getting the most out of our money." We keep saying how we wish we could buy somewhere and I feel that such slackness in our finances is holding us back. Okay, so if we were both working full-time then the odd £20 each week wouldn't be such a big deal but we don't and we really need to be vigilant with every penny because I'm adamant we could be building up a little nest egg, but to do that we need to throw EVERY SPARE PENNY at our debts.

I don't want to be 40 and still not any further forward with buying a house. I know that just being here and starting working towards being debt-free is the start of something better but I'm thinking having very specific targets and goals is going to be so helpful in spurring us on rather than a vague, oh we'll be able to save up once the loan is paid off...

I think a payment a day may be in order. Part of the plus side is that this month hopefully we can sort out increasing our regular monthly payments onto our credit cards.

Bad news is that it doesn't look like the ex is going to contribute towards the loan payments. He's very helpfully said he doesn't have any spare cash "available":rolleyes: Funny how he has spare cash to go out and to go on three-week holidays abroad though:mad:

Jo_R_2

Been pondering some more specific targets in order to keep my focus and spur me on...

CHALLENGES

• Sealed pot challenge: Based on a daily spend of 69p for a bottle of Pepsi, right up until December 1st, I aim to save £126.96.
• A payment a day: not sure how this one is going to work but am going to make a payment a day - any suggestions welcomed!
• Ebay challenge (my own little challenge): I aim to ebay enough to make an overpayment on my credit card. I have a stash of bits to ebay, and my challenge to myself is to beat the previous month's amount, even if it's only by a penny! My rough amount from last month was £40 (my total overpay was actually £60 but £20 came from something OH sold on my account then generously said I could have the proceeds!) So this month I aim to ebay a £40.01 overpayment towards my CC!

Jo_R_2

So I've found the ultimate motivator... I did the snowball calculator based on my current SOA and I could be debt-free in two years!:j

It would mean really stepping up to a higher level but being debt-free that soon is something in my situation I could have only dreamed of. My loan has four years to run so I knew just keeping up with that would be four years away, but that doesn't factor in my credit card balance that up til last month I had only been paying the minimum on.

I'm worried though about those unexpected expenses, or unwittingly overspending somehow and messing things up I need some advice and words of motivation on how to step it up because I *really* want to do this!