I'm tackling my debts in 2010

emmie26

Oh damn I've just emptied the boot and found another bag I had forgotten about some baby clothes for a friend who had just had a baby and some baby clothes for my nephew another £20 I am such a fool. Old habits die hard!

£64 overspend

emmie26

Well I had a brilliant night last night and managed to spend a grand total of £5 of my £11.75 budget. The meal last night was at the stately home where I got married so it was lovely to go back, although did make me think how things had changed, husband a little rounder and hair a little thinner (he blames me -:rotfl: ).
Of to swimming lessons now, normally spend a good £5 on coffee and a snack for the children after, but have decided to take a snack with us for after, and will resist the dreaded caffeine although I may develop sudden and irreversible narcolepsy.;)
Wish me luck for tonight sticking to the budget!

se999

Been reading through your thread, good luck.

When things are really tight with us we've always gone back to using cash only, so we know how much we've got, and when it's gone it's gone, it does reduce the overspend potential. You could try it with either a weekly or monthly amount and see what works best.

beverleyhills

Hello emmie

Welcome to MSE. Congratulations on seeing the light. Probably most of the money went on interest and possible charges.

You probably need to discuss more than debts with OH. When you got married you made a commitment to each other, for a life together with shared goals and dreams and accommodating personal dreams. How will you both resouce these goals and dreams?

You seem to be making good progress. Work out a strategy that suits you both. Don't expect OH to have the same attitude as you.

Are the 'Jones' really your friends. The 'Jones' fade into the ether when you have a crisis with 'give us a bell sometime'. You may need to change your social life.

Do not be the only one to make sacrifices.

Good luck. Life is a roller coaster ride.

jo1972

Good luck with your debtbusting!

I do agree about the hairdressers, I used to spend £50 for a cut as as my hair is short I had it done every 6 weeks, but my hairdresser left and is now private and only charges me £15 :D:D and so I'm very lucky in that respect.

With the packed lunch thing, I find that as much as I try I can't seem to make the packed lunches much cheaper than school dinners. The dinners are £1.93 a day and by the time I've made them a sarnie, a piece of fruit or sometimes 2, a drink and a little cake or similar it's cost about the same! I always said at the beginning I'd be really good and cook chicken drumsticks or sausages and make wraps or pots of rice and pasta, that has never happened, it's lucky that I actually get out to work on time let alone making them a gourmet lunch!! So I think I'm going to go back to giving them school dinners next term!

Good luck, I shall watch with interest! x

emmie26

:TWell two good nights out and I came home with, get this, £5 change from my original budget of £11, I could not believe it, I'm sure my liver will be in tip top shape as well as my bank balance with my strict budget, I'm quite chuffed after my massive overspend on christmas pressies the other day.

I cannot believe how many presents I have brought OH suggested we wrap all the presents tonight so I started to get them out from all the hiding places throughout the house and cannot believe the pile of presents that confronts me! It has just made me think that I really must budget better next year and really stick to it. My problem is I think of all the things people do for us throughout the year and try and get them something that will reimburse them for their trouble. This year we have got a few friends who have just had children and I am thinking about the years they have brought presents for our 2 children, so have tried to get them all something good. How do you get out of these vicious circles without seeming really tight and selfish.:rolleyes:

On a good note some of our friends are coming to our house for a sunday dinner tonight instead of going out for a meal which will save some pennies. On a bad note its OH birthday a few days after xmas and I need to get him something cheap and cheerful but also that he wants. Was thinking of making him some "early night" vouchers (if you know what I mean) but I think thats too much of a sacrifice on my part!:rotfl:

emmie26

Had a good day yesterday, as I was at work had a spend free day! OH on the other hand went and did the christmas grocery shop and spent a massive £200, admittedly half of this was on alcohol because we never normally have any in the house and he brought wine and spirits for some pressies. Consequently he has been banned from tesco in the new year, I should think that we won't need to go proper shopping for a couple of weeks at least, just will need to get perishables.

Today I finished at lunchtime and had arranged to meet up with some other mums and take the children to wacky warehouse it was £6 to get in and then spent a further £1.30 on a fruit shoot for the children to share, a grand total of £7.30, this sounds a lot really but when I factor in that normally I let the children have a drink each and I normally go and get a coffee (offering to buy one for everyone) so all in all I probably spent a good £5 less than normal at least.

Tomorrow should be a busy day but hopefully also a spend free day, we are just going to drop lots of pressies off with friends and relatives.

emmie26

:mad::mad::mad:

You'll never guess whats happened, just as I'm starting my new year was excited to have a look at internet banking to see what I'd been paid unfortunately the damn tax man has taken £800 out of my wages after I phoned them last month to say that I didn't think that I had paid enough tax on my 2nd job. Thats what u get for being honest!!

Luckily I had done lots of overtime in my second job so overall I am only about £200 down, phoned payroll who had a look and said that I am completely back to normal next month which means that I will have to be really good with money this month. I have worked out that I only have £23 left out of my wages for treats:eek: looks like I am having no treats.

On a good note I was a little bit concerned that my tax code would change next year to make my allowance next to nothing so at leas the pain is out of the way in one fail swoop!

I think that I will be really disheartened at the end of the month because there is no way that I can stick to that budget and will be in deficit at the end of the month.

emmie26

:santa2:Hope everyone has had a lovely christmas!:santa2:
I have had a great time, we were given lots of money, children got lots of random £10's so have put them all into an envelope to save for when we got to center parcs they can pay for the extra activities which always add up.

Me and OH got just short of £400, so we are putting £250 towards the credit cards and then the rest is going to be spending money for the month after such a horrible shock from the taxman.

Whatever is left at the end of the month can go towards a new screen for the laptop, because yesterday in the rush to the christmas pressies one of the children stepped on the closed laptop and cracked the corner of the screen luckily it has not casued too much damage and could probably be lived with for a while but OH watches DVD's on it in bed so wants a new screen, will see how much it will cost to replace if its too much then we will have to wait until next month. Previous to starting this I would have thought nothing of buying a new laptop immediately.

On another good point have been looking for ideas in other forums and came across discussions about slow cookers and asked my mum if she could get me one for my birthday, she said that she already had a good one that she didn't use so I could just have it! :T
Children have been given lots of chocolate for xmas which I usually eat myself :shhh:, but have decided to keep it and it will do for when we go swimming on a saturday as I usually just buy something from the cafe at the gym so will save a bit of money there.

I am really quite excited about the new year, I think in some ways the taxman did me a favour because it means I am going to be going cold turkey in January as I will literally have no money to spend, I really need to stick to my budget of £120, which sounds quite a lot just for treats but it is mine and OH's birthdays so will need to buy a few pressies and also have a night out although am hoping birthday money will pay for the night out.

Lemon_Tree

i love my slow cooker, it's fab and it does all the work for you which is even better to my minds.

the only good thing about the tax man is that he's now paid, he could certainly make a real problem for you if he'd have caught up with you later on, plus you'd have probably had fines and interest to pay as well.

I was lucky this christmas, i got a voucher for the hair salon i go to, yay my 'fingers crossed i can spread the gifts out through the year' plan is working at the moment.