To remind myself how far I've come - my debt diary. - SOA added

chocaholic110

Been browsing on the competitions thread. I did enter some when first had lightbulb moment but got bored filling forms in. Have downloaded roboform now though so can do them more quickly. Last year I only won a Dirty dancing CD and some pens and paper, but better than nothing!
Fingers crossed!

chocaholic110

Oops!
Went to Asda to get the shopping and accidently went into Mothercare and bought a travel system! In my defence it was on special offer and did have everything I was looking for, including car seat and carrycot and it was quite reasonably priced.

It's gone on the Egg card which means I will have it to pay for next month.

Let's hope the baby really is a boy though as it's quite a masculine looking pram - but ever so soft and snuggly!

hypno06

ACCIDENTLY went into Mothercare

How can anyone ACCIDENTLY go into Mothercare :rotfl:

And will the pram fit in the campervan?

pandapaws

Hiya!

Just catching up as I've been offline for about 3 weeks, and as always loads has been happening to you!

Good-ish news about your 20 week scan, at least they didn't find anything wrong so although they couldn't confirm that all's perfect, they must have been reasonably confident or they'd have dragged you back for another one, so that's good to know. You're totally right to go for the 4D one, to hell with the cost! Let us know how it goes as I'm considering getting one, depending on how my 20wk scan goes (which they've bizarrely booked for 23 weeks! At least baby should be bigger and clearer and have more pronounced girl/boy bits by then!). I had to giggle to hear that it was 'possibly' a boy. I'd have had to ask with a straight face if there was anything else that she thought it could possibly be, or was 'boy' the only option for now!!!

Sorry to hear that the family wedding is causing a bit of grief. You don't sound particularly keen, so my gut instinct would be to say stuff it - do something nice for your anniversary instead. What about saying that your DH has just told you that he was going to take you to New York that weekend for your anniversary, costing thousands, non-refundable, booked before wedding announced? He's just told you now because of the wedding date! Or the excuse about no babysitter being available that someone else gave above was a good one. Good luck whatever you decide!

Better go before I take over your diary! Take care!

chocaholic110

hypno06 wrote: »

ACCIDENTLY went into Mothercare

How can anyone ACCIDENTLY go into Mothercare :rotfl:

And will the pram fit in the campervan?

If it doesn't we'll just tow it behind. That can't be a problem surely?

Hi Pandapaws, I was just thinking yesterday it's been a long while since I saw you posting anywhere. Hope everything has been ok. You are patient waiting until 23 weeks for your scan. I was miffed waiting until 21 and a half!

chocaholic110

I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was logging our spends on spendingdiary.com. Well, I am hoping that I just chose a particularly expensive month to start keeping track as our monthly spend this month is enormous! Yes, we have had several yearly or one-off expenses but even so we have somehow managed to spend £4444.63 in one month! :eek: I only budget for having £2800 a month income! However, as OH has pointed out this month has been a 5 weekend month, therefore 5 weekly pays for him (also 5 grocery shops). Also when I budget I do it on his lowest possible weekly wage - £350, and every week lately he has had £450+ so that does account for where some of the extra money has come from. Also I don't count the child benefit in my incomings but that has been used to so there's an extra £120, which partly goes to explain how the debts have still gone down despite spending loads.

However, it's still mindboggling (see my use of one of hypno's smilies ? ) how much has been spent so I am going to post a breakdown here so that I can shame / embarrass myself or alternatively challenge ourselves to spend less than that the next month (which I think we should be able to do anyway!!)

Here goes!

After school clubs: £15
Baby items (Travel system and bath box): £269.98
Baby 4D scan deposit: £50
Book Reservations (library): £0.60
Breakfast club: £9.90
Bridge Toll: £5.50
Broadband: £17.99
Car payment: £260
Car Service: £184.24
Car tax (one year): £117.50
Charity: £4
Christmas: £29.45
Cleaning: £40
Clothes - DD: £12.75
Clothes - Baby: £18
Clothes - me: £15
Collection at work(flowers for sick colleague): £2
Contact lenses:£15.50
Council tax: £95
Credit card repayment: £1090.94
Credit Record Watch: £7.50
Dancing fees (DD): £101.66
Digital TV: £45 (Broached dropping this with OH yesterday but he wasn't having it!)
Dinner Money: £86.44 (This will be less next month as DD's dinner money paid until half term so doesn't need payng in October)
Drinks: £1.45
Eating out: £56.94
Ebay fees: £17.45
Ebay postage: £9.68
Electric: £38
Entertainment (family pass to agricultural show and DD school theatre trip): £48.60
Games rental: £26.99 (this is paid three-monthly and saves us buying Nintendo DS and Wii games that DS gets bored of in two weeks!)
Gas: £75
Groceries: £350.43
Holiday spending money (DS - he provided the rest): £40
Life Insurnace: £19.85
Loan: £484 (this was the final payment)
Lottery (works syndicates - includes some back money i owed for holidays): £20
Magazines: £2.50
Mortgage: £340
Newspapers: £6.10
Overdraft interest: £11
Overdue book fees (libraray): £1.50
Parking fees: £4.70
Pension (OH - mine comes off my pay before I get it): £63
Petrol: £91.59
Phone: £24.28
Pocket money: £17.70
School equipment: £46
Stationery: £1.50
Student Loan (my oldest one, my other SL comes off my pay before I get it): £92
Sweets and snacks: £7.22
TV Licence: £12
Union fees: £15.50
Water rates: £20
Window cleaner: £6


It's a bit scary when you see it all written down like that! And I can definitely see areas where we could save.
Also, possibly now is the time to confess that I have an additional debt that I've never listed here as my old bank account that I hardly use is currently £748 overdrawn (It was originally £1000 overdrawn). think I should really add that to my monthly update and signature or I might never rid myself of it.

chocaholic110

UPDATED UPDATE(!) - To include Overdraft


My Debts

Marbles Card: £3,600
Barclays Overdraft: £749

OH's Debts

Egg Card: £299 - *sigh* so near , yet so far!

Total £4,648
Total reduced in September: £1300.43
Total reduced since LB moment (August 2006) : £23,326.60
Total reduced since debt at highest (January 2006): £25,234.60
Target for end of October - £3,400

chocaholic110

Stupidly, just realised I could have bought my pram via quidco and got 4% back. Gah!!

pandapaws

chocaholic110 wrote: »

Stupidly, just realised I could have bought my pram via quidco and got 4% back. Gah!!

D'oh! Can you not take it back for a full refund, and then buy it again through Quidco?! Or have you been playing with it?!! Even if you have, if you were feeling really sneaky (and REALLY wanted that £12 cashabck!), you could still order a new one through Quidco, and when it arrives in its full packaging, you could return that one with the original receipt for the full refund! But that would be sort-of dishonest, so I'd never suggest actually doing such a thing...:o
Imaginge how annoyed you'd be if you did all that and it didn't track?:rotfl:

pandapaws

BTW, your spending diary has REALLY made me take notice - I bet there are loads of people on here who'd go into shock with some of the things that are on it (you PAY someone to clean your windows?! The woman who does my ironing does mine for me!! ), but if I was to be totally honest and do one myself that was as comprehensive as yours I think half of the DFW commubity would drop dead in an instant.

Well done for being so honest with it! And look how much debt you've paid off - even if you're spending a bit more than you thought, you're still clearing it at an unbelievable rate so don't forget that when you're feeling guilty about the spending!

Good luck with the scan tomorrow - can you post the picture here? (Not that I'd know how but it's a nice thought!)