Chapter 2: Building a brighter future for my family....

Lookingtothefuture

Hello everyone, after much lurking in the shadows I too have decided to start a diary

A little about me. I am 26 and live with my OH and our daughter who is nearly 9 months old. My Debt Free journey began, as they all do with the famous 'Lightbulb' moment. I had nearly £6k on credit cards, two of them, both with a high APR. This hadn't really worried me until the day that little line appeared on a certain stick. Yes we were preggers! Much hoped for but mingled with the joy and excitement, I had an unexpected feeling of fear of my debts.

From that day I worked really hard to get rid of the debt. I managed to make my last payment to the cards in August this year, and it was all down to the fantastic support this site offers. I took part in the challenges, and read other peoples diaries. I needed this motivation to keep me going. Often I was lurking in the shadows, too scared to post. So in August the first 'Chapter' of my Debt Free journey was over. I was free of the credit card debt. :j

And although the dreaded Credit Cards have gone, I am no way home and dry just yet...:cool:

'Chapter Two'!:money:

We have a small mortgage on our home, however we want to move to somewhere bigger within the new few years. Although we would like to move and get a bigger house, we do not want a bigger mortgage and so over payments on the current mortgage are required. Also I currently have very little savings and so I want to get some sort of emergency fund in place for us, just in case.


So for 'Chapter Two' I have set myself two goals;

1. To Save £1000, into my ISA for emergency fund. (so far have £85.17)
2. To pay £2000, off the mortgage. (Currently overpaid by £796)

I hope to achieve both of these goals by 31.12.10, and so we can really celebrate the New Year!

Wish me luck! :T

Lookingtothefuture

I think I may have set this diary thingy up wrong ??? hmmm !

CathT

Hi and welcome, achievable goals there and your diary looks fine to me.

Cath

Lookingtothefuture

Hi Cath, thanks for dropping by. Good Luck with your MFW journey too!:beer:

I think that the goals I have set are realistic. Since having my daughter I have gone back to work but cut my hours to just 16 hours a week. My pay has therefore taken a big hit.:eek: My goal of saving £1000 into my ISA will be just me saving, however the £2000 mortgage OP will be a joint effort between me and OH. Due to my (now cleared) credit cards we have kept our money quite separate.

I have managed to save up and pay for the house insurance and car insurance in one go this year (which I am very proud about) which saves me having to pay a high APR. Plus it cuts out two Direct debits each month. :j

I have three direct debits now a month; mortgage, phone and life insurance. So not so bad. I then pay half of the food shopping which is about £50 a week between us. This includes everything (i.e. food, nappies, toiletries etc) however I am trying to get it down. So far no luck, even with meal planning, using mysupermarket etc. I will keep going though!

I currently hve a few things on EBAY after the free listing weekend, these end on Sunday so I am hoping to have a little extra from there. I really need to get into in as I made quite a bit last time. Enough to pay for all of our holiday spending money... we even managed to bring £50 home which went off the mortgage.:D

Looking forward to Monday as according to my calculations I should have enough to pay £30 into my ISA and £100 off the mortgage! plus whatever I get from EBAY (cant believe I am actually looking forward to a Monday! lol!)