Scottishmummy's Life and Debt Diary

boredofbeingathome

I'll join you in loosening my belt as well SM. I enjoyed Christmas and am happy to be the other side and looking forward to the New Year.

Scottishmummy

Okay it is 9.45pm on New Year's Eve. I am going to end the year without worrying about the past - the past is past and the future is where it is at. I am going to start the year off with a plan!!!

I will allow myself £10 every week starting on a Monday. This is outwith the household budget, groceries, petrol etc. To come out of the £10 is three lots of parking at work at £1.70 (£5.10), my £1 to the work lottery syndicate and any sweets or magazines I want to treat myself to. Hopefully at the end of each Sunday I'll still have £9 left as all I will have spent is my lottery money. I do not have to park at work, I could park further away and walk the last bit which I do more often in summer anyway and my body certainly needs the exercise. I could also offer to work Thursday mornings more often. I don't get paid for the extra 3 hours I do but I do get travel money and the carpark paid for so the travel money is a bonus as I would have been going there in the afternoon anyway. Anything left from the £10 will go towards holiday spending money. Managed to get a really cheap £94 Pontins holiday before the English schools come out in summer:j.

I have a creditor on my DMP that is now owed just over £200. My DH has been working extra this month and we may have enough left once January's direct debits are covered to go for a full and final payment with them. We are still overpaying on our mortgage and would like to continue this until our next update with CCCS. When the interest rates went down we told our mortgage company to keep taking what they had been taking so we are now paying just under £80 extra a month. Mind you interest rates might go up again by then so may not need to change amounts at all.

I will start to ebay items I looked out months ago. My camera has gone missing but i am sure it is still in the house so I will spend the weekend searching for it and if all else fails I'll nick DH's mobile to take some pics.

I will also start buying car tax stamps again and try and get a years worth of tax at a time.

Finally I have kept away from the sales. I don't need anything. DD needs a couple of items of school clothing but that can be bought at Asda or Tesco with the next food shop. Christmas was done without credit and I am going to keep 2010 going down that path.:j

Scottishmummy

So to all my fellow debt free wannabe-ers here's to a moneysaving 2010:money:


Have a drink on me:beer:, have a Happy Hogmanay and an even better healthy and prosperous New Year!:j:j:j

kissjenn

Have a great 2010 SM.

Like the idea of £10 a week spends but boo sucks to working 3 extra hours without pay to get free parking...that works out at 57p an hour! How about using the 3 hours to go ebay crazy and earn some extra cash that way?

Scottishmummy

kissjenn wrote: »

Have a great 2010 SM.

Like the idea of £10 a week spends but boo sucks to working 3 extra hours without pay to get free parking...that works out at 57p an hour! How about using the 3 hours to go ebay crazy and earn some extra cash that way?

I know it doesn't sound like much but I also get travel money which for 18 miles works out a reasonable amount and it is experience in a different department which looks great on my CV and could lead to a better job although probably not for a couple of years. It also means that if any extra hours come up at any other time I am their first point of call and these ARE paid for. Decembers wage had 28 extra paid for and January's will have nine. So all in it does work out better.

kissjenn

That definately sounds better than 57p!!

If you're doing something you enjoy then that's all that matters and if it brings you closer to your dream job then that's fantastic.

Looks like 2010 is going to be a good year for you SM.

Scottishmummy

Happy New Year everyone. Hope you all had a goodnight and not too many hangovers today.

Have just added my debt payments to the running total - it's looking good but not including the overpayments to the mortgage we have only repaid £2244 this year. I aim to double this at least this year.

Have been playing with the snowball calculator today with the debts and mortgage. If the interest rate on the mortgage stays at 1.5% and we continue to overpay what we are paying we would be mortgage free in 9 years. If interest rates go up to 6% we would be mortgage free in 12 years. If we are allowed to overpay on the mortgage until it is clear then total mortgage money gets added to the DMP payment we would be debt free in 18 years max. However if we are made to add our overpayments to the DMP and pay only the required amount to the mortgage we won't be debt free until 2038:o. I suspect that the latter is what will have to happen which is unfortunate. Do you think any of our creditors would go for the better scenario?

SM

Scottishmummy

Well I have done very little today except play on the pc and a couple of games on Wii sport.

Have joined the £2 savers club again although I collect them anyway and kept forgetting to post on the group last time - must try harder.

Have also joined a weight loss group. Will see how that goes. I used to be 10st 4lbs which for my height was on the low side of just right. Then came child no1 followed by knackered thyroid, then child no2. By the end of that pregnancy I was up to 16st 4lbs:eek::eek::eek:. With the underactive thyroid I find it difficult to lose weight although I did manage to lose nearly 3 stone with scottish slimmers but had to stop as couldn't afford the weekly fee. I tried my hardest to keep the weight off then had another thyroid blip and after putting weight back on again they finally agreed to up my dose of thyroxine however I was back up to 16st by then:mad:. In Feb I decided to get the Mirena coil fitted. Worst thing I could have done I have gone from 5 days on to up to 18:eek::eek::eek: and have been told things are still settling. I have also put on more weight and I blame it all on the coil as I don't have any of the other symtoms of it being my thyroid getting worse again. So the last time I weighed myself about mid december I was 17st 4lbs. :mad:. I shall weigh myself on Monday and see what damage Christmas has done but to be honest I know I haven't been anywhere near as bad as previous years so the damage shouldn't be too bad hopefully. Oh well I'm depressed now looking at those figures. At least I have the SSbooks already and hopefully with the support of the group I aim to try and lose 1lb a week so 52lbs this year.

I am also going to start doing lists again. I found myself much more motivated to do things when I had a list to cross off so I'll work out what needs done over the next couple of days and write a list up.

SM

Scottishmummy

Okay that didn't take too long although only have a few things, will probably add more tomorrow. Have written up my whiteboard again.

Sunday/Monday

Empty cat litter tray
Weigh and measure myself:o
Wax legs (will probably knock a lb off as haven't been done for ages)
Accept party invite for DD
Find Camera
Look out work clothes for Tues

January

Sort clothes out (1 drawer/side of wardrobe a day)
Sort out various boxes of paperwork
Inventory toiletries/make up and use up
Inventory storecupboard and freezers
File or shred paperwork
Get something sold on Ebay

Scottishmummy

My broadband connection has been coming and going and been mostly gone since Sunday. So far I have had a full hour of it this morning so hoping it has been a weather thing and that it will hold out.

Scottishmummy wrote: »

Okay that didn't take too long although only have a few things, will probably add more tomorrow. Have written up my whiteboard again.

Sunday/Monday

[STRIKE]
Empty cat litter tray
Weigh and measure myself[/STRIKE]:o That was scaaary:eek:
Wax legs (will probably knock a lb off as haven't been done for ages)couldn't find the wax
[STRIKE]Accept party invite for DD[/STRIKE]
Find Camera nope not found yet
[STRIKE]Look out work clothes for Tues [/STRIKE]

January

Sort clothes out (1 drawer/side of wardrobe a day)
Sort out various boxes of paperwork
Inventory toiletries/make up and use up
Inventory storecupboard and freezers
File or shred paperwork
Get something sold on Ebay

Well Sunday/Monday progress wasn't as well as would have liked although I did do other things which I hadn't put on my list like take down decorations and clear out last of Christmas food. Today will be spent catching up on here and emails before work this afternoon. Moneywise the £10 I put in my purse on Monday is still untouched.:j Managed to park outwith work so no carpark fee. Will try and do the same today. Weightwise it was scary. Have measured my waist, hips, bust, arms and thighs too as sometimes you don't lose weight but you still lose inches. Got the wii fit out on Sunday. My BMI was horrendous and my Wii fit age 9 years older:eek:.
Dh dealt with kids this morning so I could have a bit of a lie in - didn't work as all i could hear was shouting. Still haven't had breakfast so off to find something healthy and nutricious. Will let you know if I find it:rotfl: