Cheesecake wants a bigger slice of the pie!

lemoncheesecake

Today, I have been paid and for the first time since I went to university (over 10 years ago :eek:) I was in CREDIT before this exceptional occasion occured. So inspired am I by the fact that if you spend less than you earn you actually see your entire salary in the bank that I am hence starting this diary.

With Mr Lemon's new shiny basic bank account also in the black I feel we are now ready at the ages of 32 and 37 to face up to the fact that we are 'proper grownups' and thus our finances should start to reflect that.

Only on this money saving forum do I actually feel proud to say we are commencing a DMP - everywhere else I go both in cyber world and reality, I'd have to think long and hard before exposing that sorry fact, so it'll be our little secret

So, now down to the grownup part - our debts (gulp). Well it's a figure of around 10-10.5k, I will update with exact figures when payplan have confirmed all the balances. Some of you may have read my post about wanting another baby and I desperately do, but after a long conversation with Mr Lemon, involving tears and tantrums (me) and 2 glasses of white wine (me, again unfortunately), we have decided that clearing the debts is a priority and as we have 4 baby lemons already we owe it to them to provide a secure financial future (:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: but tis the reality I have to face).

I'm quite enjoying writing this diary but have to go to work or I will be late and getting the sack would probably be the worst start to THE REVELATION ever! In the words of Arnold Swarzewhatever 'I'll be back'.

So before I go: Goal for today is spend no money (genius )

edinburgher

Hey lemoncheesecake - you're sounding very positive, so that's good

I have to agree with Mr Lemon on this one, as looking after the bambinos appears to be a costly business. Think about it like this - you already have four little lemons (I think these are children). If you put off having a fifth for a few years you'll have the cutesy scenario whereby slightly older lemons (again, assuming these are children ) will be all protective over the new arrival.

I'm dead jealous, as I would love a child, but the GF and I want to be debt free and settled before embarking on such a ruinously expensive course of action!

lemoncheesecake

Thanks for the reply! You are doing the sensible thing in waiting to have children but that being said it was having the little lemons that squeezed us into the dreary road of debt!

I'm now wondering how best to structure this baring of our bank balance. I'm going to set daily, weekly and monthly goals as well as listing potential danger zones and how to combat these potential downfalls to total destitution.

Goals:
Today:
Spend nothing (achieved at 15.42 but Mr Lemon has just left for work and 'quite fancied a packet of wine gums' so although on strict instructions to not spend anything I cannot totally guarantee this (potential failure already).
This week:
-Renew tax credits (been putting off in case it results in lack of income <slap with a wet fish emoticon>).
-Gain a full comprehensive understanding of cashback sites and (more importantly) start to DO IT
-Look for a cheaper life assurance policy (morbid).
-Start a spending diary
-Transfer the money left over from last month into my ISA for future budgeting purposes.
-FORCE Mr Lemon to start to get bank statements together so as to reclaim bank charges.
-Spend no more than £60 on the weekly food shop <Oliver Twist emoticon>
-Change my TV license rom quarterly to monthly as thanks to Lord Martin MSE, I now realise it costs me an additional £5 a year!
-Price compare my electricity costs.

This month:
- Stick to our budget (obvious)
-Price compare all other bills
- Put £300 total into ISA for budgeting purposes
-Flog my pram to the neighbour
-Know exactly how much we owe (shudder)
-Find a cheap deal to go to Thomasland at Drayton Manor.

Danger! Danger!

Takeaway Day: So Friday is traditionally takeaway day, we have cut back but given that with 4 mini lemons we never go out its been our treat. That being said I was amazed to discover that this treat was costing us £1,040 a year using the demotivator tool. I actually feel too sick to eat a curry after discovering that!

MOT, Service and Car Tax due: Potential disaster. Mr Lemon is going to service the car himself tomorrow so we are off to Halfords in the morning for the necessary items. I shall not pretend I know what they are. I have just read that I can register my card with a cashback site and get 3% cashback on this purchase so off to do that after this diatribe. I have an offer for a £25 MOT so thats ok and have to hope that the rust bucket passes. Then there's the little matter of finding £190 for the tax. Hopefully this time next year I will have put money aside for these sorts of things. The fact that I have only just decided to do it truly indicates that I am indeed a lemon.

Doing these aims and objectives is a bit too dullard business planny for my liking so I think music will be my main motivational tool to get through the week.

I think Geraldine Mcqueen can provide me with this weeks inspiration to combat our debts with her 'thought provoking' lyrics::rolleyes:

"I started with nothing
Now I have something
I proved them all they were wrong
So glad I kept fighting
And I never stopped trying
Been waiting to sing for so long
My winners song!"

TIME2GROWUP_2

:hello:Hello Mrs Lemon, ( I hope you don't mind the shorter version of ya name..)

I'm glad you have made the decision to hold fire on creating more little lemons for awhile anyway, sounds like your happy with your decision and it gives you some breathing space.. I can't imagine how you cope with the 4 little lemons you already have (2 x twins...) I think.....

Good on ya for starting the debt busting.. it will all be gone in no time and then you can make lemons again...:j

luv. T2GU. x

lemoncheesecake

thanks T2GU! (loving the user name - sums me up totally!). Not sure how I cope with 4 either! Lots of wine usually but maybe not so much now the party's over and the reality has dawned :idea: It's like the worst hangover of my life.

I checked payplan earlier and they have now got balances for all our debts. So drumroll please:

Capital One CC - 2118.49 (stoopidly expensive wedding dress and other wedding frivolity)

AA Loan - £930 (for a car that we have now sold and I honestly have no clue where the money from that sale went - what plonkers!)

HFC Loan - £1034.39 (this is an evil loan that i have had forever and everytime I had nearly paid it off, they phoned up offering me more money and being the fool I was I just agreed to it even when I didn't really need the money. The interest is :eek: on this)

HSBC overdraft - £1049.72 (Mr Lemon's now defunct account accrued mainly through not living within our means and then getting charges applied which makes whole thing worse next month and on and on and on - you all know the score!)

Hitaachi Capital - £985.13 (new settes, say no more please........but in my defence I had just had the babies and was hormonal and not myself at all:o)

HSBC CC - £3962.23 (this is really really stoopid, beating all the other financial faux pas we have made. We bought our current car on this CC as we had not sold the old one. Then we sold the old one and even though we had enough to pay this off we frittered the entire amount away on thin air so it seems:mad:)

And so the grand total = 9030.24

crikey, this must be the first time ever I have overestimated what we owe (I thought 10-10.5K) - I guess it's a sign that I truly have faced up to this :A Feel a bit sick and so cross with myself as this was so easily preventable.

So the masterplan is now to accrue £500 for a contingency fund and put money aside for things such as car tax and Christmas and then attack those debts. Fingers crossed that our creditors accept our DMP because if they keep whacking on the interest we'll be screwed.

On a positive note Mr Lemon returned home and did not buy the wine gums. So proud!

lemoncheesecake

Morning all,

The sun is shining and despite being woken at 6am by one child with a nosebleed and another with a nappy explosion :eek:, I'm feeling rather chipper.

Managed to achieve yesterdays goal of no spending :A todays goal is to collect all the piles ofpennies that accumulate in this mad house and start a loose change pot. Plan is to empty loose change pot every 3 months and add to debt repayment.

Unfortunately have to go into town as car needs a service but will hopeully be restrained. I have registered my card with wepromiseto.co.uk which allows 3% cashback from offline purchases at halfords.

Then I'm going to attack some of my weekly goals. TTFN

Cashwitch

Well done to you both! Your story sounds very similar to ours and it's great to read other people's thoughts As you say, it's not a subject most of us will happily share - most friends and colleagues seem to relish talking about the opposite scenario...what we've bought, what we're planning to buy blah blah... so it's refreshing to be in the company of people who share the view that there's another way, which is actually a good thing! I have my own diary which is proving to be cathartic, and will be keeping an eye in your progress, too! Good luck x

Fire_Fox

It's all about the positive and proactive new diaries this week!! :T Your username reminds me of something my dad used to say when we were little "the answer is a lemon, but what is the question?"

lemoncheesecake

ooh more visitors - lovely!

Yesterday went ok on the spending front. Spent £46.78 in Halfords on bits for the car service but unfortunately we have to order the filters which Mr Lemon managed to find for £9.99 on ebay which is cheaper than ordering from Halfords.

Took the kids to the city park then. Lovely place with big play area, large pets corner and a boating lake. Council apparently spent a fortune refurbishing it and you can tell. Best of all it is totally free. When I think of the money I have spent taking the kids to farm parks etc (probably £16-£25 a month) when this facility is on my doorstep I could really kick myself! Still at least I know for the future! Came back and looked at the council website for other free places in the county and there's ooodles so :T summer holidays not looking so drab after all.

Collected my pennies as per yesterday's goal and I have £7.37 in coppers. They're going straight into my ISA.

Whilst browsing this forum I also discovered that I can recycle old mobile phones. So after scrabbling around in cupboards I found 3 mobiles which all work and apparently will earn £48.50! Just need to pay for postage.

Mr Lemon is slowly coming on board to the masterplan. He is keen to have a go at matched betting so is going to have a good look at the info tonight and he has found a job that he is qualified for (niche area and don't come up very often) so fingers crossed on that front.

Today's goal: Sort out tax credits renewal as per weekly tasks. I am so scared of a drop in income. They have overpaid us before and in honesty they seem to pluck a number from thin air :mad:

lemoncheesecake

So true to form I have started to slack already. Many minor traumas and beginning to grasp the reality of our debt compared to our income. Our big mortgage is bothering me too. But baby steps baby steps.......maybe I need to thinl of 'The Winners Song' this weeks theme tune....................that's better, a bit.

The bad bits
So, I didn't achieve my daily goal yesterday. Still have not renewed tax credits. I have till Friday (deadline) to do it. No further payments until then. Analysing what is preventing me from doing this and its a mixture of fear that they will say they've been overpaying and it'll be cut again (or worse ) and also the sad fact that I've got to turn the house upside down to find P60's.

Forgot to get the chicken out of the freezer last night for tonights dinner which means I have to buy some and that means I won't have enough money in my purse (which was to be todays goal)

Reactivated my ebay account so I can start to sell some of the vast amount of baby clothes accumulated and found out that I owed fees so am now £7.05 worse off.

Needed a chocolate fix last night so spent £1.93 on chocolate and ate the lot (with help from Mr Lemon). Actually I'm amazed how much chocolate costs now I'm paying attention! Is it possible 9kplus of my debt has gone to Mr Cadburys?

Chinks of light

Spent £2.60 on milk and realised that my corner shop sells milk cheaper than anywhere else I have been buying it. Same size usually £1.50 and cheapest I've bought is £1.49.

Signed up for a Lovefilm trial through topcashback. That's (hopefully) £15 cashback and some 2 for 1 days out tickets which may be useful. Plus I have a month of free DVD's which should help keep the kids occupied this summer holiday on these rainy days we seem to be getting so much of. I've found some popping corn in the depths of my kitchen so will make an 'occasion' of it.

I thought I had used an ISA this year but turns out I have not so was able to open another ISA at a better rate with Intelligent Finance. Probably not going to be able to save too much but better to have my contingency fund in an ISA than anywhere else I suppose so am returning my signed forms today.

Daily Goal
Well, 2 today since I failed yesterday :rolleyes:. Firstly renew tax credits - and secondly spend only the money in my purse at the shops (minus purchase for chicken). I have to pay for posting the old mobiles to fone bank, and buy bread, carrots, chicken stock cubes, baby wash, nappy sacks, more milk (my 4 kids drink gallons of the stuff).

So, down to the shops this morning, maybe eed the ducks if not raining and then got to go to work later.

Have a nice day

lemoncheesecake

Just a quickie today as have a busy day at work and got to be in court (not for me ).

Managed to complete yesterdays goals - tax credits renewed and topped up groceries with money in my purse (including chicken!). Decided not to get nappy bags - had ran out a few days ago and not really needed them so decided that I'll no longer pruchase these - so that saves £1.59 every now and again. Thought I'd follow Martin's money makeover advice and spend what I have available not try to buy the cheapest of what I want. So I went to the butchers instead of Tesco (never been before and have lived in this area for 5 years:eek:) and asked the butcher for something I could put in a casserole that would feed 4 kids, 2 adults for £3.15. And I came out with 4 huge chicken legs which were really tasty and had loads of meat on. I bulked this out with pearl barley which I've never had before but was suprisingly nice with the chicken. 3 out of 4 kids liked it which believe me is a sucessful meal in this house :rolleyes:

It's a simple concept to spend what you have but I have always been more of the mind that 'I want this - how can I get it cheapest' -

Grocery shopping later today - so am going to go with one of my weekly goals and set todays task to spend no more than £60 on food to feed 6 - which is going to be difficult as I need nappies.