the maccas Debt Free Diary - 20K to pay in 18 months

themaccas

Thanks goodness for the child benefit (£169.20)! Went in today and nearly all spent:mad: Things have needed to be paid and not in any budget-

Graduation tickets - £20
Graduation gown hire - £37
DD school jumper, have looked everywhere for her 2nd jumper and can't find it anywhere:mad: :mad: . That'll be another flippin' £23:eek:
DD gumshield £35.50

TOTAL: £125.50:o

I have gone back to checking my accounts more regularly, it had been getting to the stage where I was getting scared to look because I was getting worried about how short we might be this month. So glad I am back on track again and in control:T

Our weekly budget is looking a bit high but the most money gets spent over the weekend then we 'coast' to the weekend. So far:

Weekly Budget - £150
Spent:
Tesco + drycleaning: £108.28 ( I blame DH for this, he did the shopping)
Petrol:£15.87
Diesel: £18.25
Tesco bits and DD treat:o : £18.89 (bought DD high school musical in concert, she is a MASSIVE fan and we have tickets to take her to the High School musical ice show at the O2 arena at christmas)

Total: £161.29:rolleyes: Will need to make up for the £11 next week, I have £8 in my purse and will be getting my 'pocketmoney' OH and I have agreed to have this month.

themaccas

Just having a bit of a wobbly moment.

It's my birthday this week and I always, always have naff ones. I have told my family including OH and kids not to buy me anything for so many years that now they never do. However this year is different and I want a bit of a fuss and have told OH so. He has arranged the following:

Golf lessons
Meal out
Presents from the kids

SO far so good and quite mse - golf lesson - £20
Meal out - using tesco deals so free £0
Kids gifts - around £30 I think

However OH wants to buy me a piece of jewellery - around £1500-£2000 and I want it too. We can't afford it obviously but the 0% cc is really tempting us!

Snaggles

I have just had exactly this problem with my hubby. He wanted to buy me a gorgeous eternity ring from his redundancy money because he says I have been brave this year :rolleyes: coping with his depression, having a baby (did I mention the 1 hour 24 minute labour??!! ), a bereavement and Ryan's possible Aspergers syndrome.

But much as I would love a pretty, shiny new ring, the money could go towards becoming debt free, and he can always buy me one once we can afford it. If we really are going to be together for eternity, a couple of years wont make any difference, and him buying it outright will mean much more to me than him bunging it on the credit card.

One of the loveliest birthdays I have even had was at the height of our financial problems - Stu bought me a little teddy bear that cost about £3, but he made such a fuss of me that day that I couldn't have felt more special if he had spent a million pounds.

Having said all that though, once we are debt free, I will be expecting a bloody good present!!! :rotfl:

beanielou

IF it can go on the interest free credit card & you can pay it off in the interest free period then I would go for it.
But thats me.

themaccas

Ok I've done it!!!

I had an amazing birthday yesterday - Loved the Golf!!:D OH and I have booked another 5 lessons which cost £125.

Lunch came to £34.80, we used £30 in tesco vouchers so a lovely 3 course meal only cost £4.80:T

Then went into town to look at jewellery.........I am now the proud owner (or OH's 0% cc is) of a lovely white gold and diamond ring:o It cost.....£1255:eek:

Ok confession over now need to work out when I'll pay it off. Hopefully by xmas, I want to feel like I 'own' it and that it's not another debt I'm looking at on my finger, no matter how beautiful it looks.......

chevalier

I think you have done amazingly well. Considering how much debt you had 18 months ago to now. I would love to have paid the same amount say off my mortgage!
best of luck with the last push
chev

Verbatim

OOh sounds lovely. Enjoy!

taxi73

That sounds like a wonderful birthday!!!..glad you enjoyed it

themaccas

Oh and I had a 'good chat' last night about our house that we have done up to sell. It has now been on the market for 6 weeks and apart from 3 viewings in the first week, we have had no further interest. We can't afford to keep it vacant and pay rent and the mortgage so inview of there being no interest we have decided to move back in in a couple of weeks. There are obvious costs involved, the biggest is removals. The thing is I also want a water softener installed and we need more storage - wardrobes as we have built in ones here but none in the other house. So costs are:

Removals - getting quotes today and next Tuesday approx £1000
Wardrobe - £445 could make do with just one I guess for now
Chest of drawers - £275
toilet roll holders -?
curtain tracks for 2 bedrooms - ?
bathroom cabinets x 2 - ?
Carpet cleaner hire to clean the carpets in the married quarter we'll be leaving. - £?

Water softener might have to wait. OH wants to do this the cheapest way without adding to our debt too much. The one thing I have drawn a line at is moving ourselves.

By moving back in we should save around £250 a month. We intend to keep the house on the market, OH is due to posted very soon so we might only be in there for a short while if we do manage to sell. However once we are resident in the house if we sell on posting, we get £5000 towards selling costs (estate agents /solicitors/stamp duty etc) so ineffect we should be better off eventually

I just feel totally relieved now we have made the decision.

dreams_R_free

Congratulations on your birthday, it sounds like you had a lovely day.

I'm so sorry you haven't sold the house yet but it's a bit quick to expect a result really, in these unsettled financial times. I read today that mortgage lenders are going to raise mortgage rates very soon :eek:. Maybe the viewers you've already had are waiting to see what happens next in that respect. When my brother sold his house he had one viewer on day one who he didn't hear from again although he seemed super-keen on the place. The next 4 all came back for repeat viewings, one of them came 3 times. Then it went quiet, just the occasional person, but no-one put in a definite offer. Then, about 2 months later the original viewer made a really good and definite offer, quite out of the blue! My brother had no idea why he appeared to loose interest for so long as he was happy to pay almost the asking-price(which my brother would have lowered a lot if necessary) with no quibble when he eventually decided to go for it:rotfl: