Eager Elephant's Effective Everyday Excursion ...

Ellieseleven

Hello EE,


Looks like you have a breakthrough with OH, just a shame about the tummy pains.


Fingers crossed on the work front but you are determined so I'm sure you will make the best of your situation and you never know what will happen in the future;)


I would like to wish you and your family all the very best for 2016 and I hope it brings many good things for you:)


Take care
Ellie xx

Eager_Elephant

Sorry, hit submit just in case I lost my post.


So yesterday I brought YNAB up to date and sorted the Xmas spends etc and then wrote a budget for DH and I (we have separate accounts due to DH's previous issues with running up debt) and then this morning we had the budgeting chat:j

We are going to pay into our savings on payday instead of waiting and seeing what we have left- usually nothing!!


DH confirmed what savings he wanted to put away every month and even said that £20 per month spends was enough:j
So per month DH will be saving:
£200 into a Halifax H2B ISA
£100 into a normal savings account
£113 into his regular saver


This is in addition to the money he already saves for his truck repair and replacement.


I have set up all the standing orders to come out so there is no stopping him.


From my £400 per month I have left after outgoings I will:
Save £100 in my Halifax H2B ISA
Save £100 in my emergency fund/debt payoff savings account
Pay £100 each to DH and DS who lent me money so I could buy my car in cash. (DS will be paid in May so I will then pay that to DH)

Again this is in addition to money I save for car repair/replacement and medical (glasses etc)

We have also discussed what projects we want to do this year to include the house and the field/smallholding. We have estimated costs and so will be able to start the smaller ones soon.


We have an issue with our living room floorboards which have rotted:eek: - a surveyor has been out and we are due a carpenter sometime in Jan to take the whole floor up and to check to see if the rot has spread to the joists - if it has then the whole of downstairs will be taken apart to have new joists:eek:, if the joists are ok they will just fix the floorboards in the living room.
We have listed on our projects a new carpet as not sure if our current one will go down again once it has come up??




I also need to get my food budget under control - for the last few months we have been buying weekly which not only wastes money but our valuable time so from January we will have a monthly food shop delivery and weekly we will pop to greengrocers for fruit/veg and I will go into a supermarket near work for anything urgent.
I may join the grocery challenge - this month we have £100 to last us until 25/1 but the freezer and cupboards are full so we should be ok for most things.


I have also looked at the NST challenge - I like the idea of this and may join this month - not sure how 21 NSD's will work though?!?!?


Does anyone do any other challenges that I might need to take part in?

Eager_Elephant

:eek: - I have joined the NST's (if NSK can pay off her debt and go travelling round the world then I can buy my house!!)



So these are my objectives for this month:

1. I will aim for 21 no spend days.

2. I need to concentrate on my main credit card – I have £107 at 27.5% and £1030 at 0%. I want to pay at least £100 to this to clear the high interest part (£7.77 came out by DD today) and by the end of the month if I haven’t spent all my bus fares/parking budget I will move this across.

3. I want to stick to my 2016 budget and with DH (finally) on board I think we can buy our current home in the next few years.

4. I often read my subscribed threads every day but rarely post – this month I will.

5. I already play the East Anglian Air Ambulance charity lottery which is £8.68 per month (just started but hoping to win as the odds are very good). I will donate £5 to SULSAR as they came out 2 years ago to help find my husband when he went missing (mental health issues).

6. I must start meeting up with my best friend every month like we used to – I know she is away in the middle of Jan so will suggest a meet up at the end. I also have a committee meeting in a pub so will definitely need money for a drink and another meeting at a caf! so may need money for drinks as food provided. Think that’s it although we have panto on Saturday – tickets purchased at the weekend, may grab tea when we leave (my children are deprived and want McDonalds!!:D).
It is DD’s birthday tomorrow, the birthday person gets to pick the meal and she wants Chinese (although will buy tonight as they don’t open NYD and then that won’t count as a January spend!!:rotfl:)

7. We have spent most of our grocery budget on Xmas – we have loads of food and drink left and only £100 in the budget to last until 25/1/16 so this is what I will stick to. Loyalty points/vouchers cashed in for Xmas so will start building this up again for Xmas 2016.

8. This could be interesting – not sure where I can get something for free but I will try.

9. I need to get back into doing surveys so I pledge to do 80% of the surveys which come into my in box. I do cashback on purchases but this gets donated to SULSAR instead (I only really spend at Xmas and birthdays). I have a reward bank account so I get cashback on DD’s – last month I got £11.

10. I last checked my credit report years ago and managed to get some things corrected – I have defaulted on my Barclaycard since then so it won’t be pretty!!

Savvy_sewing

I am doing the grocery challenge this time, and for the foreseeable future I'm aiming at only £25 a week as my cupboard and freezer are over flowing.
Off to see what the NST challenge is.

I also have decided to channel 20% of all income straight to the credit cards until cleared.

Eager_Elephant

Happy 6th Birthday Dear Diary


Well another year has passed and my initial plans back in 2010 are not moving forward very fast but this year feels different, DH is feeling a 100 times better than he has been for the last 5 years and he is really on board with saving to buy this house and also getting his life on track.


As mentioned the other day we have had the budgeting talk and the budgets for 2016 have been agreed and all standing orders have been set up for savings and all other pots.


Last year my debts were:

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Barclaycard - £7271.11
Paypal - £0.00
Amazon (now Halifax) - £1205.86
Abbey - £1021.26

Total - £9498.23.

Today they are


Barclaycard - £7216.11
Halifax - £1057.85


Total - £8273.96


So £1224.27 paid off in a year which is not too bad but I also owe DH and DS money which I borrowed to buy a new car - I won't count this in my debt totals though as paying it back at £200pm.


My Halifax is on 0% for 21 months so the majority of my spare money will go into savings and I will just pay the minimum payments for now.
Any money I make in surveys etc will be paid into my H2B ISA as that pays 4% and I am only going to pay in a planned £100 per month by s/o and the limit is £200pm so it gives me some leeway.


My Barclaycard is in default and is on 0% - I pay £5 per month to this but really I need to look at a full and final to get rid of it once and for all.


DH still has around £22k of debt as he only makes token payments to all but a few of them, one of his debts will finish on Monday (last s/o payment) and then the same amount will be paid to another one of his debts to clear this by next Xmas.
Now that DH is on board and wants to save he will also need to look at full and finals next year to start getting rid of some of his debt.


I feel more determined this year and have joined some challenges - I need to come on here every day and keep motivated.


I don't want to be sat here in another 6 years in the same position or even in another 35 years be sat here renting with loads of debt still!!

mary_hinge

Happy New year EE :beer::beer:

I am loving the transformation of Mr EE, goes to show what affect (or is it effect?!) chronic condition has on a person and what a difference the right treatment can have.

Heres to a fantastic 2016, long may the positivity continue!

Mrs H x

Savvy_sewing

Have a great year EE. Snowballing the debts is a great way of doing it.
Throw the minimum payments at the lower interest rates, and everything spare at the highest, when one debt is paid throw the extra at the next highest etc.
Although I know some people like to clear the smallest debt first, not necessarily the higher interest, but they then feel they have achieved a victory when one debt is gone.

I bought a set box on Argos last NIght and used my "homebase" card to pay for it, but as I don't owe anything on that card anymore this morning I just made a payment to clear it straight away. So I don't get back into running up debt on it again.
I also made the link through quidco, so eventually I will get paid some cash back too.

muppets

Eager_Elephant wrote: »

Does anyone do any other challenges that I might need to take part in?

I have been a lurker on your diary for a while.
I do Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2016! ( I'm running the thread this year)

please-let-me-be-lucky

Happy New Year EE, happy diary anniversary and happy birthday to your DD! What a busy day.

Lovely to read so many positives Xx

Eager_Elephant

Thanks everyone for your comments and best wishes for 2016!!


I wish today was not a bank holiday as I am itching to see all the s/o's come out and go into all the savings accounts - this is the first time we have made the effort to save to buy this house. We have talked about it for years but it was only watching :money: programme last month that motivated DH to do something.
No NSD today as got DD a Chinese as her birthday meal - was going to get it yesterday so I wouldn't have to count it as a spend but they were open today so thought better to have it fresh!!


Just trying to work out how I can fit 21 NSD's in to my month:rotfl:

Not much going on here - DD spent the day on her new Xbox and I have been reading blogs and trying to sort through 1500+ emails, these were mainly surveys so I have done a few today and am deleting the rest ready to start afresh this year and do them as they come in.


Hope everyone has had a good New Years Day!!