Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

Well it's time to come clean and admit to how frivolous we've been with our credit card It currently has a balance of ....£3680.68 :eek:

Time to write a new signature to remind me to start battling this down! This will get reduced in the next few weeks, once we get the refund cheque from our old council tax area (:mad: it's been nearly 2 months since I notified them we were moving - I suspect if I was 2 months late paying them I'd have heard about it but they can take as long as they like apparently :mad:) and I also need to pay some off from our very meager savings as I used it to buy a shed for our new, storage-less, garden. That should take the balance down to close to £3000, which is a bit better but not much .

We had a nice, spend-free, morning at the local library but I did have to call in the shops and pick up some bits of shopping on the way home so not a NSD unfortunately. I'm still loving the fact I can walk every where here and if it wasn't for the fact the DH now has a much longer commute our petrol budget would be looking very healthy.

I seem to have blown through all my spending money for the month already, which is a bit rubbish The children needed some new clothes this month (not shoes thankfully) and although I got them from eBay and paid a lot less than new price, it was still quite spendy. Coupled with ordering Mothers Day flowers for my mum and a few household bits (clothes line props - how exciting!), all my cash seems to have disappeared. Well, at least it will help with NSDs for the rest of the month!

White_Iris

Well the cheque for the council tax refund has finally arrived, I'll get that paid in tomorrow and then pay it off the credit card once it's cleared. I've also paid off the money we spent on the shed and some outstanding petrol money that needed to transferred from one account to the other, so the credit card should be down to about £3300 now.

Today has been a NSD courtesy of MIL who paid for the children to go to the soft play area at our local leisure centre and bought coffees while we were there but yesterday wasn't quite so good. DH needed a new jumper for work and I also picked up a few toiletries and household bits - not massively expensive but they were probably 'wants' not 'needs' - must be more frugal!

We've decided to try and swap one of our cars for something a lot smaller and more economical. Now that DH is using my newer and more efficient diesel for commuting I'm left with a gas-guzzling monster! The tax and insurance on it are far too high in relation to the amount it's going to be used, so it's time to go. Hopefully we can part-exchange it for something and not have to put too much on top, otherwise we'll have to go through all the fuss of trying to sell it privately.

lucielle

Good luck with the car. They're always a pain.
L

White_Iris

Not much to report really. We haven't been very good lately and have spent quite a bit on the credit card but I'm deliberately not checking it until the end of the month, so I can update my signature and work on a plan of action for April.

We tried to go look for a new car on Saturday but got completely lost looking for a local dealer with good prices - going to try again this Saturday, armed with a map and hopefully there will be something there that both DH and I agree on.

Managed to list 16 items on eBay over the weekend, one has sold already on a buy-it-now, two others have bids and several others have watchers, so I'm hopeful I'll sell a fair bit of it.

White_Iris

Well, we managed to p/x the old car and get me a new one. It's much nicer than I imagined I would get; low miles for the age, low tax (and doesn't need to be taxed again until the end of November) and slightly lower insurance. Hopefully the running costs will be less as well. Unfortunately we spent about twice as much as I thought we would, which means the credit card balance is about £1k higher than it is in my signature I'm trying to stay positive though and keep reminding myself that with the money we've saved not having to tax and MOT the old car (due at the end of April), I can know a few hundred off that figure and long-term we're going to recoup the extra spend through cheaper fuel and maintenance costs.

DH and I have both solemnly agreed to not use the credit card AT ALL now an try as hard as we can to reduce the balance before we try and refinance everything in August.

White_Iris

Just picked up three lovely oak dining chairs from freecycle. I'm so pleased with them as they are a great match to a pair I already have (also from freecycle about 18 months ago) and I've been looking on eBay for some for ages. It's also solved some storage issues and saved me even more money, as I no longer need to buy a little table for the lounge since I've been able to rearrange things and have used a spare chair as a small table!

White_Iris

Oh dear, just checked the credit card and the balance is way more than I expected, even with the new car payment. I'll update my signature and confess all in a minute. Feel slightly sick thinking about it . I do have about £500 to pay off it but it still leaves a huge balance. Off to have a think about how we can deal with it.

debtfreewannabe321

Hi WI *waves*

Great news you have moved and love the new place not so great about the higher petrol costs though! Also glad to hear about the NRAM :T lots of positives in there even though there are a few downers.

I have been absent from here for a while and really need to get back into posting as it keeps me on the straight and narrow with the spending! And your talking about eBaY has reminded me I should sell some bits....I just gave 8 bags of 'stuff' to the charity shops though instead, oops!! Next time..... xx

kellymunsch848

freecycle is brill, Ive found a brilliant new computer desk on gumtree aswell in the freebies section. Always have a look through the freebies, theres litttle gems on there all the time.

White_Iris

Booked the (old) car in for a service and MOT - mostly budgeted for, so wasn't too concerned about paying for it but the garage found a problem with the oil sump so it's going to cost about £250 more than expected :eek: There may also be a problem with the clutch (they can't tell until they can drive it, they can't drive it until they replace the sump, they can't get a replacement part until middle of next week :mad:) so if that needs replacing that will be another £500ish. This is going to have to go on the credit card, so the already high balance is going to shoot up again

Financially, things must start getting better soon, please!