Stop the ride, i wanna get off!

DebtFree2012

Congratulations honey!!!! May your married life be full of health, wealth and happiness
xxxx

ragstoricheswannabe

HELLLLLOOOOOO!!!!!

Well, i am now married and back from my honeymoon and ready to get busting these debts!! Had them for far too long now! DH (!!) is onboard (or says he is) as he too is fed up with the chain of debt round our necks. We want to do the house up but properly down to new windows, skirtings etc as the people before bodged everything to just make it look nice to sell. Also want to save up for a bit of an extension as dont think we will be able to move despite really wanting to.

Have paid off all the little bills i had on next etc that i never counted in the total so have now only got the loan and credit cards!

I am waiting for my name changes to go through at the mo so cant even check to see total debt yet..
People were very generous with contribusions towards the honeymoon. Thats in the bank clearing ready to be paid off.
The debt fund is all set ready to start collecting. Hoping this new approach will work out better so i dont get over excited and pay off more than we can afford a month and get back into trouble with the overdraft again!! (the last few years has taught me some lessons!)

Thanks to the payment holidays from the mortgage i think we are now clearish from the overdraft, although the payment holidays have not run smoothly thanks to the lady who said we could have them not putting it through so they still took the mortgage every month! all sorted and refunded now. Stooopid lady!!!!

July's pay will be the first since my pay rise so will be nice to see what difference it makes. Heard on the grapevine that we may be getting a further payrise in oct which would be the one we used to get in april with interst rates increasing etc.

July's budget on a guessed wage is looking good, august may be a little tight as kids on school hols so childcare gets a bit high in price. Sept will be doable as the second half of the month ds2 will start school on full days and hoping to have the honeymoon cc paid off by oct.

Oooops, this is turning into a monster post.
right, off to get a plan sorted.

xxxxx

ragstoricheswannabe

Based on loose figures, guessing i have about £28k of debt (to be confirmed of course)

My original debt free date was late 2014. Now this is not doable as would have to pay off nearly £1k a month. Would be nice, but not even setting myself up to fail!

So new plan: debt free by july 2015!!! only 6/7 months longer and will knock about 2 years off the loan and save us heaps in interest.
To achieve this i need to put £777.77 towards the debt a month. This is very do able since i already put £478 towards the loan and then £50's towards the cc's and i have my extra wage thanks to a pay rise.

I have also set up a house fund, so that i can save bits here and there to start doing up the house and make me feel better. Going to do one room at a time. This way i can explore the inner interior decorater in me and will hopefully stop me feeling like its the end of the world as i have no money, huge debts and a house that looks grubby with wallpaper peeling off etc.

Just need to hold on now till payday for wage increase and for my name to be changed to i can tally up debt acuratly.

Heres to the new and final light bulb moment!!!!

DebtFree2012

Whoa - you are on a mission

I love the fact it was all the 7's!

xx

ragstoricheswannabe

Turns out that guestimating lulls you into a false sense of security............ finally managed to get figures now my name has been changed at the bank................i had forgotten about the interest they add to the loan at the start so my plan is all out!


my debts are as follows:

• CC1: £2941.22
• CC2: £3395.47
• CC3: £860.47
• Sofa: £260.48
• Loan: £25,345.66 Total: £32,803.30.

I had taken my eye off the ball with all the wedding stuff and hadnt noticed the car insurance and house insurance had renewed off CC3, DH had tried to cancel it but obviously they hadnt done it for him.
I have just over £1k in the debt fund thanks to the wedding guests so thinking i might get rid of the CC3 straight out as thats the highest APR.
The sofa ends in oct and is 0% so still going to let that run its course. CC1 is still 5.6% LOB and CC2 is my 0% for 15 months although will have less than a year left now.
So i am going to save to pay CC2 off first, Im going to call him Terrence the Terrible.

Still going to keep my dfd at July 2015, although i will have to try and put about £900 a month to debts to do this. A bit of a challenge but will hopefully keep the motivation going. I am chuffed that i managed to save for the wedding for 18 months and only the honeymoon went on credit, so think i have finally found a system that works.

Just need to work on my 'I wants..' now that i convince myself that i need. I dont need to keep up with 'the jones' Other people i know manage to cope on far less money and are really happy. Possesions dont make you happy.

Going food shopping later so my renewed LBM may mean i come under budget this week. Went a bit OTT with fruit last week and most of it hasnt been touched. Lesson learnt although we did look like a healthy family to the trolley watchers! :rotfl:

Going to try and start making treats for the kids boxes, have got hold of recipes for their favs like jammie dodgers and fig rolls. Will give them a try and let you know how they go down.

I just want to get started now and see the numbers coming down, all these plans and cant do anything yet!

ragstoricheswannabe

Well the CC3 is now paid off! DH is gonna ring up again and cancel when he gets home from work. Toying with the idea of paying the sofa off to free up another £64..........................

The weather here is very stormy, rain has stopped for now and its still blowing a gale so have put the washing out to dry. Might lose a few pounds with all the running and checking its not raining im doing! :rotfl:

Gonna check on all my old books and stuff for the cheap meal ideas i know the kids like but havent had for a while. Try and do some sort of shopping list before i go anywhere.
Got loads of fruit left so i might stew it up with some sugar and add to some cake mixture for the boys lunch boxes. Their not so keen on crumble which is a shame as i love it. Might make a batch and try them again. Not tried in a while, will just add extra sugar to the fruit to make it sweeter.

LivvyLoo_2

Hi,
Hope you don't mind me dropping by.

Banana muffins are meant to be lovely if you have any spare.

Good luck on your journey. I am a 'I want' person, it might help to save just a little a month into a seperate account so that every so often you can have a reward.

xx

Pips_Mum

OK so it was worse than you thought but at least you are facing up to it again now and have a plan, youvedone well before you will do well again x x

ragstoricheswannabe

I did well with the shopping yesterday, came in at £50 so £20 under my budget!!!!! Think this week wasnt too bad as did a huge shop last week as not done one for 2 weeks. Will see how next week goes.
We have decided to just shop in a!di and not top up on the wants/likes in mr a's/m's as this is where we go over budget getting all the "bargains" on offer. There are a few things a!di dont sell but gonna see if i can get them at elsewhere than the big supermarkets.

Still need to have a proper read of my takeaway recipe books, used to love the sweet and sour sauce from a!di but they have changed the recipe and it tastes a bit watery now. And i really dont want to start getting back into take aways, even the chippy down the road. Have got some frozen chips in the big freezer for days where i cant be bothered and will have a homemade chippy night. (the takeaway book even has the recipe for chippy curry sauce:))

Right, off to work for me to earn the pennies.

DebtFree2012

Morning Rags

There are few ppl who will find that it isn't worse than they thought. For me, seeing the figures written down was a scary total. But it gives you your challenge.

My budget is tight this month so we can keep each other motivated.

xx