Pay off as much as you can in 2011 Challenge!

pinkarsenalprincess

No61....Have paid £40 to MBNA today. Have had a really bad month shopping wise (£300 spent on clothes) so am a bit disappointed with myself. That £300 could have cleared the Tesco card!

Ho hum, onwards and upwards.

Total now £884/£4000

fedupandskint

pinkarsenalprincess wrote: »

Have had a really bad month shopping wise (£300 spent on clothes) so am a bit disappointed with myself. That £300 could have cleared the Tesco card!

Hi there, I am staying out of the clothes shops and avoiding shopping to try and focus on repayments. This is a new thing for me as I've always buried my head in the sand about cc's and pushed them out of my mind

I joined the 2011 clothes challenge again to set a budget for the year for clothing which is £250 meaning I have to stay out to make it last all year! Going ok so far and I'm trying to make use of what I have, wear things I hardly wear and stop buying things in the sale because they're in the sale

Good luck with everything

donna_dynamo

Hi can i update my total now £588.06/ £3500. thanks regular cc payment still waiting for my other statement to arrive will surpass £600 by then. Very proud of our achievements so far.:d

sarahs999

pinkarsenalprincess wrote: »

No61....Have paid £40 to MBNA today. Have had a really bad month shopping wise (£300 spent on clothes) so am a bit disappointed with myself. That £300 could have cleared the Tesco card!

Ho hum, onwards and upwards.

Total now £884/£4000

Can you take any of them back? If any of them have the labels still on and you have the reciept, do it. You don't need them!

BirdSeed

Hi everyone

No payments to report at the minute, although it is payday on Tuesday so i'll be back then to show my reduced balance.

However, I feel it is necessary to get it off my chest that my finances aren't going to reduce this year. My target was £8k, and it shall remain at that. Initially, this amount would clear off my debts completely and all the money I earnt afterwards would be mine.:)

However, I was in a car crash in January and my car was written off. The insurance company paid me what they believed the vehicle was worth, which was a very small amount in comparison to the cars for sale.

Since the accident, I also found out that I'm pregnant, with my first child.:) Therefore, I have had to change my thought processes about buying a little runaround car to having a safe family sized vehicle. I know some of you may feel like shouting at me, but I opted against a second hand car as I still would have needed to get a loan or finance to cover the difference between what money I had and how much the cars are. So I chose to get a new car on one of those payment plans where I pay a relatively small amount (compared to loan repayments) and after 3 years I can trade in the vehicle for another. I know this means I will be with the car company for a very long time but at the minute it seems more realistic in terms of the amount to pay out each month.

So, husband and I have had a good old discussion and have decided to pay off as much to the outstanding debts as we can over the next few months, as I'm concerned about having to pay off the debts whilst i'm on reduced pay later in the year.

In terms of baby stuff though, I've been doing my own prce comparisons between the main stores to see which have the best prices and loyalty offers, so we know what to save up for (or ask for gifts from the soon to be grandparents!).

Sorry for the very long post, i don't have much else to do on a Saturday night it seems!!!

Hope you're all well.

Birdy

sarahs999

congrats birdy! DOn't forget Freecycle for baby stuff.

Also, if you're anything like me you'll want to go mad getting anything and everything baby-related. Don't. There actually isn't that much that they need, especially when really small. And a cot bed is a really good idea. It will last from six months or so to when they're six (my son is six and we only just got him a grown up bed, which will last him til he leaves home, hopefully!).

boysma

Morning all

Another 10.00 padded to cap one cc this morning bringing my total to

2460.67/10,000:j

Hope to be able to round that up to 2500 by the end of the week:)

Pinkarsenalprincess - 300.00 is a lot to spend on clothes:eek: I agree with Sarah if you can take some of them back do - then you can pay the refund money off your cc. Just a thought:A

Hope everyone else is doing well. Catch up later.

boysma

Since the accident, I also found out that I'm pregnant, with my first child.:) Therefore, I have had to change my thought processes about buying a little runaround car to having a safe family sized vehicle. I know some of you may feel like shouting at me, but I opted against a second hand car as I still would have needed to get a loan or finance to cover the difference between what money I had and how much the cars are. So I chose to get a new car on one of those payment plans where I pay a relatively small amount (compared to loan repayments) and after 3 years I can trade in the vehicle for another. I know this means I will be with the car company for a very long time but at the minute it seems more realistic in terms of the amount to pay out each month.

Aw congratulations Birdy:j. I would tend to agree with you regarding the car as you will need a reliable car and a rather large one with all the baby stuff you will soon be carrying round. Hope everything goes well for you:A.

BirdSeed

Thanks Sarahs and Boysma.

I hadn't thought of freecycle, I'll definitley look into that.
Fortunately for us every single one of our friends has children and babies so we'll be sure to acquire quite a lot of items from them, for free (or I might babysit for them to get practice in!!!).

I suppose for the timebeing I just need to concentrate on debt busting to ensure we're in a good position later on in the year so not to gain additional expenses.

Thanks again.

BS

pinkarsenalprincess

They have all been worn!
£300 in a month on clothes is a massive improvement on my past shopping behaviour. Plus it is the first time I have bought clothes for myself this year.
Last year I would easily spend £500+ on clothes every single month.