£12k in 12 months!!!

Woowoo

Hi

Nice to hear you sounding chilled and happy

Only 1 week to go, so exciting!

Well done on beating your June target x

rachelww1

All the best with the baby. Hope everything goes well xx

DebtFree2012

Hiya

WOW things are moving quickly!!!! I guess baby will be here now? How lovely. My son was 1 a few weeks ago - good times!!!

If you can, stay in touch - I have been away for a while but back now and hoping to hear from you.

PS you seriously whooped June's butt - congrats on that too!!!

x x x

mrsspendalot

Dear diary

Baby has arrived

After a very quick 1hr 22min labour, baby William arrived on 26.6.11 at 22.22. He is so beautiful. Had to stay in a few days due to some rare complications so he could have some blood tests and monitoring, but everything is fine and we are home safe and sound. The extra good bit is I can now walk again as my SPD has all but disappeared.

I've only just my spreadsheet up to date again, after some inevitable new baby-related expenses (and a bottle of champers to celebrate his arrival). We also part-exchanged the car the day before he was born, so I had to juggle a couple of things around on the budget to free up the cash, but we shouldn't be too far off target and we did need a 7 seater, and it was a good price - and not a penny on credit

However *confession time*, just used a credit card to buy DS1's bike for his birthday (a good deal we thought, £109.99 down from £189.99 for an Apollo mountain bike) and we treated ourselves to some 50% off Denby from Dunelm Mill for our 1st Wedding Anniversary (we already have a large collection which was bought as wedding gifts) so that needs to be paid off before the bill comes to avoid interest (it went on an empty card so get 56 days (I think it is) interest free). Feel a bit guilty using a credit card, but not going to beat myself up over it as it will get cleared immediately when the bill comes. I will blame the new baby hormones :rotfl:

So, his child benefit application is in the post, and I've put my tax credit change of circumstances in writing as I need to re-estimate my income for the year due to maternity pay, and thought if I at least did it in writing I would have some proof in case they make a mistake!

Anyway, must dash, I can hear a baby crying

Will try and pop back later when I can update amounts etc.

DebtFree2012

Awwww CONGRATULATIONS and Welcome to the world little one.

Am all teary!!!!


x x x

livingwithinourmeans

Big congratulations, and welcome to the world William x

mrsspendalot

Thanks for all the well wishes. Very tired, and very busy, but trying to keep on track with the debt and finances.

Payments made so far in July total £309.64

Also need to find £301.43 to clear my personal credit card which was previously empty before any interest accrues :o:o

This £1k a month challenge is feeling harder and harder to achieve .... not sure I'll make it this month, or next month due to school uniforms ....

Ah well, life is too good at the moment to get depressed over credit cards :cool:

DebtFree2012

I agree - as long as you keep paying what you can - you need to enjoy life in the mean time.

x x

mrsspendalot

Dear diary,

Everything is going wrong in the quest to become debt free by next year at all, nevermind within the 12 months I set myself

I sit and stare at the spreadsheet and wonder how on earth it can be that the overall debt balance outstanding never seems to come down despite throwing what feels like endless amounts of cash at the debt :mad:

Summer has proven far more expensive than I budgeted for, especially the back to school costs as DD is transferring to secondary and needed so much stuff I hadn't thought of. They all then had a huge growth spurt over the summer and outgrew their home shoes, which had to be replaced as well as their new school shoes. All in all, it's been very costly and my bank balance is showing the scars

Looking at the figures again now, without going overdrawn, I am going to have to cut back the debt repayments some months to £500 to stay afloat. Some I can manage £1000 if I'm careful. It all means though that the debt free date is now looking more like December 2012 rather than April (which was always optimistic), or July (which was my fall back date). I could cry

Oh well, hopefully I can sell on baby stuff as and when we're finished with it and recoup some money there.

Hope everyone else is doing better on their debt free journey than me!

DebtFree2012

Hi hun

Don't give up - it's so easy to lose sight when you are feeling this way out.

I have changed my debt free date from 2012 to 2014! So hope that makes you feel better even if it made me feel worse lol.

It's coming through this that will show you what you are made of. I don't have a set date now as you never know what's round the corner and remember good fortune can come your way as well as the bad that you have had (ie more expense).

Go for Dec 2012 and if it changes, so be it. I don't plan on doing mine until alot nearer the time with mine being so far away - give yourself 6 months from now then you can start counting the days down!!!!

x x x