My 3 step challenge!!

epsilondraconis

Hi TooLittleTime,

Well done with posting the SOA. The main things of note are:

1. Definitely keep a spending diary (as you mention you will in post #8). This will be very useful in checking against what you believe you are spending. Ot may be worth you going through this SOA with your OH as you will both be able to focus on reducing your debt asap.

2. What is the endowment of £50.60? Perhaps this something you can put on hold for a while?

3. Certainly focus on paying off that Next debt asap. It's only £154; however the interest is quite high. It'll be a nice feeling when you can remove it from your list of debts.

4. As you're now getting quite into this debt free malarky, it may be prudent just to check your credit file to ensure everything is as you expect. This can be done for free in most cases (otherwise a couple of pounds). See:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/credit-rating-credit-score#files

In general, your SOA seems pretty good. On paper you have a reasonable amount of money to throw at your debt. I expect in practice, it's not quite like that. The spending diary will definitely help in that respect.

Well done and keep posting...

toolittletime

Thanks every so much for your comments - it's really encouraging!!!:beer:

The endowment is from our first house - we carried on paying it as a kind of investment. Need to check whether it's really worth paying into.

Can't wait til payday so I can get rid of next.

Went to the supermarket yesterday and spent just £8.33 on essentials! Real step for me as previously it would have been a big shop on the credit card!

Have got to buy a hair colour today - my friend who's a hairdresser has offered to help me put it on - big saving on a professional colour. Just hope it looks ok! Also going to take an unwanted item back to next - rather than keep it in my wardrobe - Just in case!!

My other big expense in the next couple of days is a night out with the girls tomorrow night. I know I should really put the money towards my debt but we are going out to celebrate a really good friend being given the all clear from breast cancer so will be worth every penny!:j:j:j I've have persuaded everyone to go to a bar that I've got a '25% of final bill' voucher for so should save us quite a bit off our food and drink!!

Right need to get everyone dressed and out. Main goal today is to go to Next and Boots without being tempted by anything else!!!:rolleyes:

epsilondraconis

Well done TooLittleTime. I think the night out will do you some good. Even though having the debt free goal is a great incentive, it is good to treat yourself occasionally. The circumstances surrounding the night out with you friends is definitely one to be thankful for. I guess when things like that happen, it puts things into perspective a little more.

One other thing you could consider is looking out any old items that you no longer need - the children could do the same with their toys. You could then do a car boot sale and see how much extra money you can make. It may be a fun day out as well (try not to get too tempted to buy anything from other car booters!). If there are some more expensive items, you could sell them on ebay.

Fire_Fox

toolittletime wrote: »

The gym is high I know - this is for 5 of us, includes lots of exercise classes, football, soft play and creche for the kids and we try to go 3 times a week.

As long as you are using this regularly it's a great deal. Gyms actually make a profit on the people that sign a contract and never go (80%+ of members) and make a loss on those that use the facilities!! :eek:

Congratulations on your all clear results! :T

toolittletime

Thanks guys! It's lovely to have some encouragement! The clear results were for a really close friend but I'm sooooo happy for her - she's only 31 and has 2 small children!

Successful shopping trip - managed to get in and out of Next without spending anything and the only extra I picked up in Boots were some baby wipes which we needed but I paid for with points so they don't really count!!!

Night out tonight has been postponed til Thursday which I'm actually really pleased about as it's payday tomorrow and I had been worrying that I'd have to use the evil credit card to pay for the meal!!

We went fruit collecting at the weekend and we got about 10lbs plums, 2 1/2 lbs blackberries and loads of apples. We've now got enough jam to last all year!! Was thinking about starting to have stewed apple for breakfast - not only to help with the money saving but also the weight loss!

You're right I really need to get back into ebay - we sold loads of stuff at the start of the summer when baby out grew the first stage stuff but have got loads more that we could get rid of - must try to have a sort out over the weekend. Wonder whether baby clothes would be better sold on ebay or a car boot sale? Or is it worht taking them to one of these second hand baby stuff shops? One of my friends took a load of hers to one - will have to ask her how much she got for them. This will also help with my other target of organising the house better!

Right off to entertain the kids. A long walk with the dog I think. Want to avoid using the car as my petrol light came on yesterday and I don't want to fill up till payday tomorrow or it will have to go on the credit card.

toolittletime

Managed a complete no spend day yesterday:j:j! Really need to fill the car up with petrol today but hopefully that should last a couple of weeks. Was supposed to be going to a farm with a friend today but the weather here is awful so not sure what we're going to do. Hopefully nothing too expensive!

Payday today so have managed to make the following payments:
41.33 to Barclay, 50.89 to tsb and 170 to Debenhams ( sorry pound sign not working!) So 262.22 altogether for me!!

Am going to wait till Friday when OH gets paid before I pay anymore off Next - depends on how much overtime he's got in this month.

Right best go and have a quick tidy up before my friend comes - not really sure why because there will be 6 children in the house then so it won't stay tidy for long!!

toolittletime

Well I'm really living up to my name on this diary - haven't really had time to come on and post. Haven't managed to do much in the way of making payments (DH's wages were a lot less than we thought they'd be) but have managed to transfer everything onto interest free for either the next 6 or 12 months so that's good. Will update when all of the transfers have gone through and I've got the exact figures including transfer fees.

With regard to the decluttering I've listed 20 items on ebay. One's already sold and some of the others have got bids on and being watched so fingers crossed that will help with 2 parts of my challenge.

And the third part of my challenge - weight loss:rotfl::rotfl:well the less said about that the better! Really need to get my act together. It's about 3 months til my friends wedding and if I don't do something I'll not be able to fit in anything in my wardrobe and I really don't want to buy anything.

Right my sister will be back soon with the 2 older children so really should get something done while I've only got one to entertain!

toolittletime

Can't believe I've neglected my diary for so long!! Well there have been a few changes since last time I posted. OH has gone back onto reduced hours but still has some overtime available so it isn't all bad. Our debt currently stands at 10715.48:eek::eek: Yes I know it's gone up but that it's now all interest free so includes transfer fees! So I've started to try to the 'payment a day' to keep chipping away at it!

With regards to the other parts of my challenge I've been putting 10 items a week on ebay so slowly decluttering the house. Also I've managed to lose 6lbs! So heading in the right direction!!

Really need to keep up with this diary as it really helps to motivate me! The biggest hurdle coming up is trying to do Xmas as cheaply as possible. With 3 kids this isn't always easy and 2 of them have got birthdays before Xmas too! Any suggestions greatly appreciated!

mrs_robinson_3

Ah, have also got 3 DSs and one with a BD next week. Just before pay day. Gah!

For Xmas, we are taking ours to Center Parcs on 14 December (they break up from school early and it's super cheap that week!) so my plan is to say they can choose one main thing each and a stocking, as the CP week is a Xmas treat for us all. Which may keep costs down a bit and help me manage my stress levels better (they are always stratospheric at Xmas) this time. Plus mine are getting older now and would rather have something they really want than lots of things they don't! Still got to work out how to pay for it all but it generally works out somehow. Will know am truly MSE-style person when one year I start putting stuff away all year for Xmas. Not this year though!

Enjoying your diary, keep it up

Mrs R

toolittletime

Thanks for the reply Mrs R. Good idea about the holiday! We took the kids to centre parcs in March and they loved it. We're going away the day after boxing day with some friends for a week and I'm really loking forward to it but I'm a bit worried as both families have come into considerable amounts of money over the past year and I know their budgets are going to be a lot higher than ours. It's going to take a huge effort not to resort to the credit cards but I don't want our kids to miss out. Will have to think carefully about that one.

Nipped to Asda this morning - hoping to make a dent in my Christmas shopping but there was nothing really suitable. Did manage to come out with 2 litres of Smirnoff vodka for a tenner each! Ooops!! Have put them firmly at the back of the cupboard! Will open one on my birthday next month but must save the other one until December!!

Right better go and see what I've got in my present box for the kids to use for all of the parties they've been invited to!