Brighterdayz' Brighter Days Diary

brighterdayz

Hey everybody, I'm Brighterdayz, and I'm currently looking forward to Brighter Days.

I've been in debt for years now, and would really like to get rid of it once and for all. With all of the doom and gloom of the recession looming over us, it can all get a bit depressing sometimes, and I feel its time to start looking forward, and clearing a path to a brighter tomorrow.

Between my partner and I, we have the following debts;

2 overdrafts,
3 credit cards,
1 loan,
2 catalogues.

This is pretty daunting for us. A pretty accurate figure would be around £13k + of debt.

We find it pretty hard getting by anyway, and to make things worse, my partners wages will drop considerably starting from January, as he stops working shifts, hence losing his shift pay.
That's right - thanks to the recession.
The upside to this though, is that we'll have a better quality of life as we'll see each other more.
The downside, obviously, is the drop in wages.
If we found it hard to cope before, it will be much worse now!

Some belt-tightening is definatly needed, and we're both quite bad at spending socially, so this will have to stop aswell, which will take some adjusting.

So, we've assesed our budgets, and tightened everything we can tighten, we are quite confident in this, so won't be posting up a SOA. The only real ''luxury'' we're keeping is Sky TV/Internet (a nifty package deal) as with not going out much, and needing to have something ''fun'' this, I guarantee, will help to keep us sane. I guess its all just personal choice.
The bad news is, although there is expendable income, there's not a lot, at all! Most of it, also, beginning in the new year, will be saved up towards a course for partner, to improve his career prospect allowing him to get a more rewarding job that he will actually enjoy. I believe that wherever possible you should enjoy what you do. There's not much point in just plodding along.

Anyway, I digress.

The plan to begin with is;

-Save money wherever possible, reasonably,
-Do things for free/cheapER than we would usually,
-Cook healthier, and from scratch more often, and therefore more cheaply,
-Write down all outgoings, to keep an eye on the bank balances,
-Still have fun, so we don't feel miserable and deprived whilst debt-busting,
-Be more organised, and therefore less stressed.

My hope is that hand in hand with these will come clearing the debts!!

These are just a few things I will concentrate on first and foremost, to get me into the right mind frame.

Right, well I think I've babbled for long enough.

Speak to you soon,


Brighterdayz.

keza

hiya! good luck on your debt free quest!

Try meal planning and batch cooking/freezing. saves time and energy of an evening and money in the interim!

We batch cooked some sausage casserole last nite (4 portions in the freezer) and spag bol base for chilli, cottage pie, spag bol etc (6 portions in the freezer!) we get by on £120 a month food budget for 2 of us and lunches everyday.

xxx

brighterdayz

Hi Keza, thanks for writing!!

That sounds like a good idea, Im not much of a cook but I'm willing to try! When I'm preparing my next food shop I'll bear it in mind. Christmas is coming and after all that party food I'll definatly need to do something like this.

:T

keza

its so cheap! i love it! haha!

1kg bag of frozen mince = £3.90 (i think!)
2 bell peppers = £1.40
1 onion = 50p
1 tin chopped toms = 49p
1 bolognaise sauce jar = £1.50 (tescos own brand!)

6 portions of yummy bolognaise for under £8! u cud prob do it even cheaper if u wanted or bulk it out with some lentils! xxx

brighterdayz

Thanks for that. Looks yummy! Will be putting it on my shopping list.