The looking to stop and change direction diary

silkglade

Morning!!!!

Well last night was not too bad at work and I have known MUCH worse.

1 of 3 down.

I really need to try and stop loosing my way as I can't believe how down I felt once the Barclaycard was paid off...... I should have been happy and proud of myself yet all I felt like doing was crying.

I will have debt number 2 paid off in 2 days also, how exciting! :T

Already had my payslip and I have to say I was a little disappointed with the difference due to my overtime (I thought it would have been around £50 more in my pocket) but at least I know now.

I feel like I am in a race at the moment, a race against time as sometime in the near future (do not actually know when yet) my position will no longer exist and I will take a drop in pay of around £250 a month with NO pay rises in the next 2 years what so ever.

The second thing that will also make a big impact is that in April my Child Tax Credit will go down by approx £200 as well as they base it on the previous years income and I was off work on maternity for part of that and then long term sick.

Once we lose all that income we will only be able to afford less that £200 a month instead of the £611 at the moment, so if we do not make as big a dent in this as quickly as possible then we will NEVER be in a position to pay things off. :eek:

So due to all that changing I need to get as much as possible paid off as quickly as possible to make as much impact as possible.

silkglade

Hi everyone

YAY last night tonight AND its PAY DAY tomorrow too. :j

Got a grocery delivery booked for the morning (thank goodness)

Felt so much better after a good chat with one of my managers last night (was in the office for well over an hour) and was then fine to finish the rest of my shift effectively. Have been advised to go back to my GP with a view to starting meds again depending on what he advises though as I am really not coping at all. The only

silkglade

Morning world....

My weekend nights are finally finished. :T

Pay day is here and I have already paid the last payment to my Dad, so that is another debt gone. :j

What a great day already and only been awake for 27 mins!

Keentobedebtfree

Happy days! Well done, silkglade!! You're fair chipping away at it :T

Enjoy your day.

silkglade

Awwww thank you Keen :A

I am still feeling much better after my chat with my manager - who also checked in with me last night to make sure I was still ok.

Not many bosses would bother like that, would they?

Looking forward to a day with my children tomorrow (as it is the holidays) not sure what we will get up to though. :cool:

Spent about half our monthly budget today...... :eek:

But got a massive grocery delivery and to be honest the amount we got should last for most of the month apart from needing bread and milk and that, and also put £50 in the tank of my car as it was running on fumes (luckily it decided not to run out before pay day)

Have a lovely evening everyone. :beer:

silkglade

Good evening all

Another payment to my mum and signature has been adjusted......

Now comes the long wait for the next overpayment which is frustrating but better than none at all I suppose.

Not bad really when you think that we have paid £861 off our debt within the last week..... Let even just over a month ago there would have been NO overpayment what so ever and me constantly looking at how much (though never alot) was left on the limits so USE!!!!

I am a happy bunny and seem to be settling down within a good (happy) mood too.

silkglade

Hi Diary.... :wave:

Productive day today. I have now finally started on the xmas presents as my overtime of £150 is for that purpose ONLY.... and I will get about the same next month too and that will be spent on Xmas and then that is it..... Not spending a penny more (that includes presents and food for the holidays) as that is all to pay off the Debt asap.

This is both a major wake up call and achievement as in the past we have paid up to and poss just over £100 just on EACH stocking. Then god knows how much on their presents under the tree.... :eek:

I have gone for the prefilled stockings this year that cost £20 each (for my 3 wonderful children) which we will add a total of £5 between them to the stockings on sweets to pad them out just a little more and then that leaves another £30 each for 1 or 2 presents under the tree. So that is this months overtime used already. and will be them all finished So that is the £50 each sorted for them and the sweets are a Morrisons petrol voucher that you can spend in store only. :T

I have my Mum, my Dad, Oh's Mum, Brother and sister in law to get for out of next months £150 and then We will buy token (very cheap) presents to each other from each of the children. I am aiming for a max spend of £5 for each token gift so will be a total of £30 for us as we are not getting each other ANY presents until the debts are TOTALLY gone (which will be years) So that is a maximum of £120 between the rest of them. So say a maximum of £20 each and then £20 on food, but will also have part of the food budget for this too. It will only be a 1 day celebration this year as I am back to work boxing day morning!

Not sure if I have missed anything out and if I am spending too much (I am sure there is always room for improvement) but we can live and learn this year and perfect next year if needed.

Right must get to sleep as have to be up at 5 for work!!!! (my overtime money for my next pay packet).

Night night all

AllThatStuffIsJustStuff

Hi SG,

I've just come to have a read since you posted on our diary. I've only had a quick skim read but can so you are doing really well

Particularly interested to read your detailed budgeting for Christmas. I'm a bit of a scrooge so have no problem being mean at christmas but conventions and family obligations always make the costs get out of hand. I think I need to properly budget ours out soon. We have only the two children but I have a large extended family. A couple of years ago me and my siblings agreed not to get presents for one another and only get small gifts for each others kids. I get them a £5 gift voucher each but theres a lot of them so it all adds up.

One other though - if your kids are young enough (sorry if you've said their ages), then you shouldn't be afraid to get them second hand stuff. Last year we got DD a rocking horse off ebay. It was still pretty pricey (£50) but the new price was many times this and if we hadn't got a second hand one she simply wouldn't have one. It was her thrid birthday last weekend and a few months back we got her a job lot of wooden train set off ebay for £25. It is the equivalent of over £100 worth of new bits if not more. We set it up the night before and she has absolutely no concept that it didn't come in a shiny box. All she cares is that she's got an enormous train set that she has played with for hours every day since.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on on your diary.

I will be subscribing so hope to read more progress soon

silkglade

Hi All that stuff

Good to see you. :wave:

You have just made me think actually that I need not buy littlest one anything other than a stocking really as I have loads of little people stuff in the loft that has been waiting for him to grow into.... That and the fact that youngest daughter is sooooo into cars (like my little man) most of the sets are perfect for him (think there is only 1 house and a pink castle that he might not like so much).

Most of it has been hardly used as my daughter was given EVERYTHING that was available in the whole collection (I did say that in the past we went mad at birthdays and xmas). :eek:

Result really there, even better than buying second hand toys are hand me downs

On a less positive note I am a little deflated in the fact I was caught out today and had to BUY lunch and a coffee.... AND had to pay £6 for parking, what a rip off. :mad:

I was doing so well too. Unfortunately it is out of my hands as it was a one off and unexpected event. I will make sure it does not happen again though. I will try and work it into my food and petrol budget (should be able to I hope).

Well I have the joy of weekend nights again.... Oh deep joy.

silkglade

Morning diary

I am in the joyous throws of working weekend nights again and have the joy of a 13hr shift instead of a 12hr one with no extra pay for that either (how lucky am I).

I have been good and thus far avoided the takeaways which is a nightmare on nights (and I avoided last week too) as I have been taking in home made casserole and tonight I have home made sweet and sour (yummy).

Not really have much to report to be honest as I am busy with work until Monday morning, both my girls are off school still on monday and we are taking them trick or treating in the early evening (our little estate is VERY big on Halloween).

Nothing happening on the debt front now until much later in the month so boring and frustrating!

We have a massive £144.41 to last us until payday, and OH still needs to get petrol for his car. so will probably have £100 ish left for food until payday on the 24th! :eek: Ouch....... 5 days after payday and three quarters of our food and petrol budget has gone... (we did do a massive shop though and to be honest should need very little to last the rest of the month, mainly bread and milk)

The children's prefilled stockings arrived along with a free gift worth £20 and I have to say I am impressed - also due to the fact that we now have much smaller ones for them from now on.... They used to have massive sacks that I always felt pressure to fill them to the top which would cost a fortune to fill. These are the ones we will be using from now on and therefore cutting costs for future years. :j

I think it is all the little steps that we make heading for the future as well as the nice big (or small) additional payments we make that make a huge difference too.