Starting my journey

beanielou

Yah to only having 2 creditors & not 6
It wont be long.

choogirl

Has anybody got any gems of wisdom that they can share with me regarding making life a little easier with regards to time juggling. I am a little fed up with spending all weekend cleaning and ironing but find it hard fitting it in during the week due to work so any helps/tips would be appreciated.
Leaving it is not an option as my middle name is "Monica":rotfl:

Thanks

choogirl

Yay had a NSD today the first since Monday 8th November!
I am still revising but the end is in sight. Looking forward to analysing my diary and identifying where areas can be cut back on, think it will be a shock once it is all added up but will be worthwhile to do. Will post up the findings when November is over.
Trying to get christmas presents organised, have bought a few so far but no-one has told me what they would like so that is half the battle.
Right back to my revision x

choogirl

Paid a big chunk off the balances last week, felt abit disappointed that the balances still look high but at least they've come down from September and are on 0%.
Managed to do some christmas shopping last week, it feels so liberating paying cash - no nasty credit card statement this year or spending the rest of the year paying it off.
I have a nice (cheap) notebook with a page allocated for every person that I will be buying a gift for, the amount of money I will be spending on them is wrote at the top and when I have bought something I deduct it from the total. The balances on all the pages should then tally back to my overall budget for christmas gifts. Simple but so effective!

boysma

choogirl wrote: »

Has anybody got any gems of wisdom that they can share with me regarding making life a little easier with regards to time juggling. I am a little fed up with spending all weekend cleaning and ironing but find it hard fitting it in during the week due to work so any helps/tips would be appreciated.
Leaving it is not an option as my middle name is "Monica":rotfl:

Thanks

Hi Choogirl. I have subscribed to your diary as you owe similar amounts of debts as us. Like you we decided we needed our treats and would do it long haul as a family holiday is a necessity for us rather than a luxury:) We do not pay by credit card anymore and buy low cost flights and book private accommodation usually a lovely apartment. It nearly always works out cheaper than a package holiday. Saving for our spending money motivates me from not wasting money the rest of the year, though i still have the occasional splurge:o

With regard to your housework have you tried the flylady thread?

Good luck on your DFW journey:A

choogirl

Hi Boysma
I am soo excited that you have subscribed to my diary, I was starting to get a little bit de-motivated waffling away to myself.
Thanks for recommending the flylady thread, I've just had a quick look and its just my type of thing I will definitely be trying it out.
I totally agree with not being over strict with debt busting, the people that can feed a family for £150 a month are amazing and inspirational but I am too weak hence why I am in this position.
We love our holidays as well and have booked flights and accomodation seperately in the past and had a fantastic time, all the kids want is a beach and pool.
Good luck with tackling your debts and please keep chatting to me.:)

boysma

Have you tried putting your debts into the snowball calculator?http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx You put your debts plus their interest rate and total amount you can pay off each month it then calculates your Debt Free Date. Warning though it can be addictive but very motivational.:D At the minute my DFD is June 2012 but i am hoping to bring that down by even a few months. Just seeing an end date helps in our debt free journey:A

choogirl

Hi Boysma
I had a quick look at that way back in September but the thing that I'm having difficulty with is my monthly amounts will vary due to 2 months of council tax payments that won't need paying and a few other things, I will be using these 2 months of extra money for debt repayment. I wonder if I should just deduct these from my total debt at the start of the calculation and see what happens?
I also need to start saving for a summer holiday as well but was going to leave that until April just so I could repay as much as possible really quickly. However I am now thinking that it might be better to start saving for this after Christmas and spread the debt repayments more evenly. Hmmm what to do? Everything is all on 0% until January 2012 so no interest to worry about. Need to think about that again!
Hope you've had a good day:)

boysma

I only use the snowball for credit cards/store cards i am paying off to give me some idea of when we will have them paid. However we are paying interest and it works by paying off your highest interest account first. It may not really work for you as you are lucky enough to have 0% interest.

Have you tried the old style boards for meal planning and cutting down on your grocery bills?

choogirl

Well I have just added up my spending diary for November, it doesn't look too bad
I had 9 no spend days
I spent the following cash
1.50 Carpark
6.80 Coffee
3.20 Bus
0.50 Savings pot
24.80 Going out
1.00 Lottery syndicate
6.33 Lunches
1.50 Donation
6.00 Kids

I have also bought a few items that weren't budgeted for - iron,school cardigans, school tights and buspass top up, DD party top.
Still room for improvement, December will be tricky but need to try hard x