5 year plan for debt and mortgage freedom

Deeperblue

April 12

"I wanna be a billionaire so fricking bad
Buy all of the things I never had"
Billionaire - Travie McCoy

Hello everyone!

I'm back off my holidays and in a FANTASTIC mood Got good money news and a bit of an 'Epic Fail' to tell you about.



Naomim - Yep, a car-boot is definitely on the cards as we'll have plenty of stuff to take... I do feel a bit weird about the thought of people going through my stuff at a car boot... I don't like the thought of it somehow but I'm sure I'll get over it.

DFW - Hope your having fun now your hubby is back! I'll check your diary out once I've done this or tonight so I can catch up on the goss

Walby - The decluttering is going -brilliantly-! We've reclaimed our basement now and it's going to be lovely to sit down there when it's all finished :T We're still working on the baby but the baby-making part is fun (when we have the energy):rotfl:



Holiday was so lovely down in Penzance. The weather was gorgeous and it was really nice for us all to be together for a week, though I think my OH had had enough of his in-laws by the end of it :rotfl:Bless him. I haven't added up all the spends but I'm guessing all in it probably cost us £300 odd, which aint bad. My parents have invited us to go down there with them again in September but OH's parents have invited us to Portugal too around then so we may go there instead.

So, I was supposed to start my new job at the beginning of April but since I was on holiday today was my first day. It's a pretty nice place, and I've worked here before for about 4 months, but it's not somewhere I want to work for the rest of my life. My contract is for 16 months, so at the end of that I'll have completed all my training and hopefully be starting my 'forever' job :T

Good money news: I got a check through the post today for £160! :j I have been going to occasional meetings these past couple of months and got an official place on the board recently. It was nice because it will look good on my CV when I next start job hunting but I didn't realise I actually get paid extra for going on these meetings! :beer: This means £160 extra after tax every month! Add to this my little pay raise I'll be getting this month and I could be bringing in £1850 a month.

Soooooo chuffed. Wont know exact figures until I get my next pay cheque though.


On to my fail.
I've bought a TV

Only a small one!

It's for downstairs now that we've sorted out the basement we thought we would make it nice enough down there so that we could sit and watch a bit of TV now LO is old enough to want to play in the back garden on her own.

So that was a £180 whoopsie. I did at least buy it the :money:way though. It was £270 in Curry's, but reduced to £180 on Amazon. Surely I get points for that? :rotfl:

The really bad thing is that while we were in Curry's we were drooling over the 50 inch plasmas :shocked: If we clear all the credit cards by xmas and have enough saved we may treat ourselves to one

No news on the baby front yet, but I'm due on next Monday so if I don't have any action by the end of the month I'll do a test. Don't hold out much hope though, we've been to knackered to do the old baby dance very much :rotfl:

Hope your all doing well and enjoying the lovely free sunshine I will catch up on all your diaries today if I can.

XXX

~ D.B. ~

debtfreewannabe321

YEY welcome back :beer:

glad you had a fab holiday! and spends aren't all that bad for a family of 3! (i'm sure i could have done worse lol)

Well done on the money front, it's great to receive something in the post that isn't asking for money but giving you some :rotfl:you'll have your debts paid off in no time with your extras coming in

If you are feeling bad about your 'epic fail' you should pop over to my thread :rotfl:DH is back with a nice bonus and only 1/5 of it has gone on debt, the other 4/5 well, ahem, they have been treating us to holidays, days out, clothes (omg the list goes on) in fact am typing on my new netbook now

Oh and good luck on the baby making front hope you're enjoying that job ! x

Deeperblue

25 Apr

OMG I haven't posted for soooo long! That's terrible and this is only going to be a quicky too.

So, news since last post:

- Got work to pay for a Management course for me :T but it's pretty hard core and I have to write essays for it! I haven't written an essay in 10 years! But it'll be worth it in the end and look ace to future employers

- Still decluttering the house which is the main reason I'm not on here much as the only time I get is when the little one is in bed and it's taking bloody ages. I'm going to see if I can get organised enough to do a carboot this weekend or next and get rid of some of this crap.

- I've still been trying to be money conscious, but have to admit I think I've slipped off the wagon a little since my holiday It's not been anything huge, just the odd comic for LO here and there, little car boot buys, easter eggs, but I've got a feeling it's all adding up. I seem to have withdrawn a few £20 notes this month with not much to show for it really. Roll on payday!

- I'm pregnant! :j:T:rotfl: I was in shock when I found out! And this is another reason I haven't been on here as I've been lurking on the pregnancy forums instead I can't believe we managed it in our first month of trying. But this is a real insentive to get debt free (at least the credit cards anyway) by xmas as LO is due on the 18th . I have to admit I've been cooing over baby buys already (despite having so much stuff left from my little girl) but I haven't bought anything yet. REALLY WANT TO THOUGH! :rotfl:

So it's going to be a busy 8 month count down to xmas.
By then I've got to:

- Wipe £8k off the debt.
- Pass 2 very important exams.
- Have a baby!

I must be out of my mind. I promise that come next payday I will make an effort to get on here at least twice a week because it definitely make me feel guilty about spending anything!

Love you all and happy Easter!!!

~D.B.~

walby1993

Wooohooo, congratulations DB!!! How exciting! :j As you say, the impending arrival of baby number two will help focus your mind, I'm sure. And you have done so well so far so I am sure you will reach your goal of £8k!

Walby

skaps

Im so happy for u DB, was wondering where you had gone. Really enjoy reading your diary.

debtfreewannabe321

WOW you've been busy!!! Congrats hun :j:beer::T what lovely news really made up for you! Hope you have a nice easy pregnancy now! & also get those debts down!! x

saorsie

Congratulations DB :j ~ lets get those knitting needles going now!

-s-

Deeperblue

30 Apr

Thank you for the kind words everyone, it's very much appreciated :beer: and your right about getting knitting now Soarsie!

Got paid a couple of days ago :j and in total I got about £1700 and OH got an extra £450 from extra work, which will all come in handy in getting out of the Santander over draft.

In other good MSE news, I've lost my debit card :rotfl: which means no spending for me until I find it or order a new one. That's one sure fire way of staying on budget and I'd recommend it

Been scouring ebay for baby bargains I'm trying to restrain myself because I often justify purchases by saying "Oh but it was a bargain!!!" when actually I didn't need it in the slightest. BUT there is an absolute bargain on my watch list at the mo A pine childrens bed which I thought I could get for my little girl and then the new little one could have her cot bed. It was only at 99p (!) but theres 22 hours to go and it's crept up to a dizzying £10.50... may be too rich for my blood

Hmmm..... oh, I did my shopping yesterday and bought LOADS. Much more than I should have.... much much more.... but there was so much reduced price chicken I couldn't say no. So my big spends were:

6 Free Ranged whole chickens - £3.50 each from £6.50
4x2 Free ranged corn fed chicken legs - £1.20 each from £3.50 :eek:
124 nappies - £20 (though my little sweet heart has decided she wants to start using her potty after all so these may end up getting stored for 3 years until they fit the new arrival :wall:

£13 - OH's razor blades! These better last him forever otherwise he's growing a beard!

£10 - lawn feed, weedkiller and lawn seed. Didn't really -need- these but if we spend more time out in the garden I figure we'll get our monies worth.

So, yeah... that's £70 and then there was my regular shop on top of that, making it £100 But, thanks to a few donated joints from mum too, I now have enough meat in the freezer to easily last us the month.

Oh! I got a great bargain on tinned tomatoes and tinned tuna the other day too.... 50p for 4 tins of tomatoes and the same for 3 tins of tuna! So I now have about 30 tins of each and can makes loads of super cheap tuna bakes now :T This is helped by the fact my local Asda (dunno if it's the same with all of them) are doing their little bags of penne pasta (about 400g maybe) for 9p each! Down from 18p I think.

Oh dear.... the things that excite me nowadays. :rotfl:

I also bought little one a couple of toys on Friday too since we had just got paid and I was feeling frivolous. A Mr.Potato head (reduced from £12 to £8 at T 'r' U, and a 'View Master' - I didn't even realise these things were still about, but I remember them from when I was little. It's like a pair of binoculars that you look through and can see 3D pictures in.... I'm rubbish at explaining stuff :rotfl: Anyway, they were both cheap as chips and the poor thing never gets anything new now the car-boots are on again.

Speaking of which.... car-boot tomorrow! It was sooooo good last week, there was a guy there selling kids stuff and his wife had obviously said to him "Get rid of it ALL, I don't want that junk back in my house" so he wasn't there to make money. I was looking through one of his boxes full of kids books and he said they were 10p each or I could have the lot for £1. BARGAIN! 30 odd books for £1, and he let me have the box too I need more sellers like him... or maybe I just look really poor :rotfl:

And for my records here's where my accounts are standing currently (as usual figures are minus all the DD's and spends for food petrol etc for the month so it's how it should be at the end of May):

Financial state as of........01-01-11...05-02-11...23-02-11...06-03-11...27-03-11...30-04-11:
HSBC OD..................................1650.......... .705. 69......942.25........300.00.........0...............0
Santandar OD............................2000...........1796. 96......1823.33......1925.33.......1900............400
Natwest Loan.............................7900...........76 61.88.. ...7661.88......7309.30.......7133.01........7133.01
Santandar CC.............................4020...........3988 .00......3988.00......3948.00.......3908.00.......3868.00
Virgin CC..................................4230.......... ..4210. 11.....4210.11......4210.11.......4185.11........4143.26
Parents Loan.............................4000............4 000.00. ....4000.00......4000.00.......4000.00........4000.00
HSBC CC..................................140........... ..0...............0..............0...............0................0
Natwest OD...............................0................ 1432.50......1540.02......900.00........0................0

Totals.............................£23,940.00.. .£23,7 95.14...£24,165.59...£22,592.74...£21,126.12...£19,544.27

So the goal for next pay day is to get out of the Santander over draft and start making dents in one of the credit cards. If I could get our total debt under £10k by Christmas I would be over the moon.

:beer: Have a good weekend all.

~D.B.~

mummychicken

JUst caught up on your diary, sending you my Congrats on your pregnancy :j, lovely news. Take care. xx

Deeperblue

9 May

I'm such a lazy bum, I hardly ever post on here any more I do come on most days though and read diaries since I'm so nosey, just don't get round to updating my own very often.

Thank you mummychicken! :j

I've been having crises every now and then about how I'm going to cope with 2 kiddies and I know how rediculous that must sound to some of you who've got more than two but I don't think I'm a natural mother :rotfl: My little'n had so much trouble sleeping during the day and night when she was younger, not sleeping through till she was a year old, and I just have no idea how I'm going to handle that kind of sleep depreivation AND a toddler :eek:

What doesn't help is the only friend I have whose had 2 children ended up being admitted to a psychiatric unit with severe depression 6 months after her second was born.... so yeah... terrified pretty much sums it up. But I know there are people out there who manage 2 kids, I'm not the first for gods sake :rotfl: Just need to keep a positive mind set.

With number 2 on the way we've been thinking about what we're going to do with the house, since 2 bedrooms for 4 people may be pushing it at some point. Our options are to either pay off as much of the mortgage as possible with the hope we'll be out of negative equity in a couple of years and move then or if we change around the house we're in to make it 3 bed and stay here for a bit longer.

At the moment we're more up for changing it to 3 bed, which will mean less money will go towards getting mortgage free but if we stay here longer there's a greater chance we're get more money for the house when we come to sell. Gah.... I don't know. A renovation would cost us about £15K I think so maybe that'll be my saving target for next year if I can get all the cards paid off by xmas

Money saving has been a bit lax this month I think. I didn't really budget for the water bill thats come through the door so we'll have to soak up that somehow. Then we went to an open farm at the weekend, £15 for all of us, I sent £6 at the car boot on jigsaws for my little lady.... oh, and I've signed up for My Farm

If you've not heard of it it's a new thing the National Trust are trying out that supposed to help educate adults and children about farming and where their food comes from. Basically what their saying is that all the big decisions on the farm, such as what crops to plant and where, which cattle to raise etc will be voted on by 10,000 people who sign up to the web site.

It sounds like a lot of fun and I my excuse if that I can use it to help get my girl interested in food and that kind of stuff when she's a little older.

Anyway, it cost me £30 and I can change my mind in 30 days for my money back if I'm getting really short at the end of the month.

See you all soon.
XXX

~ D.B. ~