Blinded by the LBM...!

Beencounting

Hi

This is my first attempt at a diary, although I’ve often thought about setting one up. I think the difference this time, which has actually made me start writing is that despite a flickering light bulb for well over a year, the last few days has seen it come on very brightly . It really is time to knuckle down and move forward.

We are a family of five – me, OH, DD1, DD2 and DS. The children are all in their teens, with the eldest recently moved away to University. Luckily both OH and I have full-time jobs, although there is little if any scope for overtime.

In the last week or so, we well and truly ran out of money . The timing couldn’t have been more awkward, what with the additional costs of moving DD1 to Uni and giving her enough money to keep herself going for at least a week. Luckily she will be paid from her part-time job later this week, so will then have enough money to keep her going (hopefully) until her student loan arrives.

As part of the fall-out from running out of cash, we’ve decided to sell my car . This will happen tomorrow all being well, as we have an appointment at a well known car buyer (think annoying TV and radio ads). I know this is the right thing to do, but still feel a bit upset! We’ve also cancelled Sky and changed utilities supplier.

I’m not planning to put an SOA up, as I’ve been using the forum for quite a while and have pared our budget down to the minimum. The main issue is CC debt, which is well in excess of £30k . We also have a loan with two more years to run.

I’m hoping this diary will help keep me motivated and moving in the right direction . My focus will be to reduce the CC debt by making overpayments when possible. The only way to achieve this will be to keep strictly to our monthly budget and make small savings where possible.

I’m already a ‘member’ of the Small Things daily thread and will join a few of the challenges too.

I hope one or two of you will help cheer me along/kick my butt as appropriate!

Been

Beencounting

Right, I've been off doing some ironing, which is sooo boring, it always help me think

Payday is next Friday, there's no cash left and the money in the bank is to cover the last few DDs/SOs. I want to avoid putting anything else on the credit card, so will need OH to review what's in the cupboards and freezer to see what meals can be made for the next four or five days.

The plan is for packed lunches during the week for me and OH, DS tends to take a packed lunch to school but DD2 prefers a warm lunch, but I think she still has a few £s on her lunch card, so that's all covered.

Dinners are down to OH, and food audit is defo required.

On the car front, the 'garage' have just been on the phone to make sure we're coming tomorrow. Hope that's a good sign :undecided

Been

Beencounting

Slight change of plan with the car, we’ll go to the garage tomorrow rather than today. It’s because we have almost half a tank of fuel in there at the mo, so I’d rather use up a bit more of it travelling to work today which saves the fuel in our remaining car. I’m hoping we can get to Friday without having to re-fuel.

I've reviewed my October budget and my monthly ‘cash’ spend budget looks like this:

Food 400

Clothes 30

Fuel/PT 340

Cash 265


I’m fairly confident that we can remain within the food budget, we’ve managed it in the past and I’ll only buy clothes if necessary (although DS is looking for a new pair of football boots. .).

The other two might be a bit trickier. October will be a five-week-month for us, and I’m planning to draw the fuel and cash money (that covers everything else, eg, kids pocket money, any entertainment, one-off unplanned spends etc) every Friday. The new family motto will then be once it’s gone, it’s gone!

Roll on Friday and payday .

Been

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Hi Been,
Good for you facing up to things, always a big step in the right direction.
Is your loan for a lot each month? Have you got scope to move your cc debt to lower / no interest?

Good luck xx

Claree__x

Didn't want to read & run so I thought I'd pop in and say good luck!

Big step selling the car - do you still have 1 car between you or are you running on none now? Will take a lot of getting used to but I'm sure once you get used to it - it'll be a home run!

Beencounting

Hi Polly Wolly Doodle

Thanks for posting on my thread

The loan is for nearly £250pm , so it's a lot and will make a difference to our finances when it's finished.

We've recently moved a relatively small balance (£2700) to interest free, but no further scope at the moment to do anymore.

The plan is to use most of the money from the sale of the car to pay off against the CC balances, but I haven't decided yet which one/s to pay off against. Will consider this on the weekend when hopefully the funds will have cleared.

Been

Beencounting

Hi Claree_x

Thanks for the vote of confidence

We have another (much older) car besides, but need to sell the newer one to raise as much cash as possible. I will be setting aside some of the proceeds to keep in an emergency fund, just in case there are an problems with the older car.

Besides, one of the reasons our debt has climbed this year was due to some unexpected expenses which we had to put on the CC as we had no emergency fund. This is the beginning of a new life, where we prepare for the unexpected :T

Been

Beencounting

One of the more positive effects of the blinding LBM, is that my OH is now finally on board . We had a stressful and upsetting few days last week while he came to terms with our situation (he already knew about it, but hadn't accepted the truth ). An upshot of this is that he's now going to give me the final say on financial decisions and will (try) not to argue when I say 'no'.

This is a major move forward :T

The first test of this is going to arrive soon as we're not going to be able to accept an invitation he's received to go to a friends wedding party . I'll post more about my reasoning on this in the next few days as I get my head around the numbers.

Been

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Morning Been,
Good plan to have some emergency money, although i have a horrible feeling :money:says to pay off debt first.
Which card is costing you the most in interest APR, that presumably will give you the answer as to which to pay off first, although there is a nice feeling in getting completely rid of one if you can clear the total balance, plus they might offer you 0% to stay - worth a call.

Keep us posted xx

Beencounting

Well today’s the day the car (should) go. The appt is at 6 this evening and OH will meet me there so I’ve got a lift home. This feels like a really big step :eek:, but it must be done if we’re to kick start this debt-busting.

Also today, I’ve advertised some travel tickets in the hope of getting about £25 for them. They were for a weekend away next month, but we’ve decided that it would be a luxury to go ahead with the trip . If they’re sold today (someone has expressed an interest), then it’ll cover a bit of petrol and a few food bits to last us til payday.

I’ve also just exchanged a 5-euro note which we didn’t spend on holidays in the summer. I got £4.08 for it. Not much, but there was a good chance the note would’ve been lost at home.

Said holiday is one of the things which has contributed to the increase in our debt levels this year. We really shouldn’t have gone …but that was pre-LBM and we'll be good MSE-ers from now on .

Been

Beencounting

Hi Polly

It's a difficult shout between paying-off debt and holding back some savings. In the past I've always gone with the former, but then when we were hit with unexpected bills they had to be put on the credit cards and it felt like a real blow . My plan now is to save up to £1000 to keep in case of emergency whilst making at least minimum payments on the cards, although I think with some careful juggling I might be able to make the odd overpayment. Once I've reached the level of savings I want, I'll then divert all spare cash to the cards.

I've got four cards with APRs above 21%, two around 17% and one at 0%. The amounts owed vary between the cards, but there won't be enough from the car sale to clear the higher APR cards, but will be for the lower APRs iyswim. As you say, I'm mulling over whether to use my head and lower the balance on one of the higher APR cards, or use my heart and clear a lower APR card altogher, which would be really encouraging .

Anyway, I'll think about this on the weekend, as I also want to consider how much our minimum payment will reduce on the selected card(s).

Sorry, that was a bit of a ramble !

Been