The looking to stop and change direction diary

silkglade

Yay last night tonight, oh my what a busy night last night! ..... 13hrs of total madness....

Hope it is better tonight as I have woken up with a headache from hell that will not budge

Fingers crossed.

Not really done anything MSE over the last few days though..... Just work and sleep.

Got a whole week off though after tonight woo hoo

See you all on the other side.

prettypaula

keep going silk glade!!

just wanted to say on the xmas pressies thing, wilkinsons have some lovely little cupcake storage jars, and piggy banks and mugs with cosies and hot choc for £2.50. ideal gifts from kids to you and OH...

every penny helps xx

silkglade

Thank you prettypaula, will have to go and have a look. We don't really go into town as there is too much temptation there.

Well we are still are on track with out food and petrol budget this month even though most of it was spent in the 1st few days!!

Kids are thankfully back to school tomorrow and for the 1st year we really cut back on sweets for the trick or treaters (used to spend somewhere around £15 for sweets but managed to get some bargains and only cost £3.... Woop Woop (and there were still 8 sweets left at the end of the night too).

I feel like I am such a Scrooge now, but have to say that I feel free of all the worry about money now that we are in control by checking the bank every day and knowing what is going to be left for extra payments.... We even resisted a take away after a horrible day at work when I felt totally drained and shattered. :T

The thing is........ Do we treat ourselves at the end of each month (day or 2 before payday) with a take away IF we managed to stay below budget for the month (as long as we are still within the budget of course) OR do we go with the original plan of ONLY having a take away when another debt is cleared???

We have not had one at all yet (even though we finished paying my Dad back and paid off the Barclaycard) The thing is at the moment we are doing well and things are going down really fast, but as of April we will be down on Child tax credits as they work out on the previous years salary (I was on Maternity and off sick within the previous financial year) So in April it already stated on our award that we will get over £200 a month less than we are now (as I told them my normal yearly salary when we had to renew it).

So getting back on the subject we will not have anywhere near as much to throw at the debts from April and each one will take months longer to clear. So do we allow ourselves a treat if we come in under budget for food and petrol..... or just do as we stated and put it all towards the debt?

We have only 1 luxury in our monthly budget which is love film at a massive £4.07 a month (as we have given up buying DVD's AND going to the Cinema. So that allows us 2 DVD's a month to watch as we are total film boffs and that is a big thing for me to give up)

We do not pay for hair cuts (I cut the children's hair and do not bother with my own) Mine just grows slowly and spends the whole time up in a clip or ponytail. :cool:

Our tv, phone and broadband is good at £45 a month all in. (might give them a call to see if they can reduce it at all again though as I do every year)

We already cut down both our mobile bills too and now pay £42 for both of us and they are for contracts too with unlimited texts. Cut them down from £57 a month as of this month. :eek:

Cut down travel expenses getting eldest Daughter to and from school as we got her a yearly bus pass for £100, which is much better than £40 petrol a week!!!

My car insurance is due at the beginning of March and I am going to use most of my extra payments money that month to pay the full amount this year (could not afford to last year as pre lightbulb moment) so that will be another £34 a month saved on monthly outgoings too. :T

Phoned up water company as here we have a soakaway and that will save us £22 a year there too.... :j

What else can I do to save money???

silkglade

Right needing some more ideas of how to cut back more on the monthly outgoings............

I will be changing my Gas and Electric supplier soon (but locked in until the 1st Dec 2011) Have been looking around and should be able to make a nice saving there as recently my monthly DD went up from £72 a month to £99!! due to the price hikes. :eek:

How soon can I change now? Obviously I want to change asap - But not wanting to get stung for the early cancellation fee. :mad:

I don't know if I should start ebaying now of wait until after the new year?? If I am totally honest I usually freecycle everything as I can't be bothered with the Ebay listings and fees. That and the fact everyone wants everything for nothing now.

Last time I sold something on Ebay I was VERY out of pocket... Sold a massive bundle of baby clothes for 99p and then had under estimated the postage by over £5 so ended up paying them to have them. Then out of pocket even more with the Paypal charges so just gave up with it all together after that. :mad:

Thing is that some of you have done so well with de-cluttering your houses (and boy does mine need de-cluttering) as well as making a nice amount of money to go towards your debt and I am desperate to pay off as much as possible as quickly as possible to make a real dent in this due to the fact that our income will drop soon.

Do I bite the bullet and go for it again of do I just carry on with my pre lightbulb ways and carry on freecycling everything?

silkglade

Well Diary I am in need of your strength to keep me on track.........

Please help me to remain strong and not give in and end up buying and spending far to much on Christmas again.

At least I am back on Monday for 4 nights and then back again after the weekend on my rather heavy 5 day week..... Yawn just thinking about it, though can't spend any money while doing that lot can I

silkglade

Hmmmmm

Well we had takeaway on friday! :eek:

I am not very happy with myself for that, even though we said that we would have a takeaway as a little celebration when each debt was cleared (we have cleared Barclaycard and my Dad's debts) but I said we would not have takeaway as it was too soon at the beginning of our journey.

We also ended up spending £20 on fireworks for last night too (I am back to never wanting to leave the house again. I felt really bad for the children as they are missing out so much as we never go out any more as I just can't manage to do it) which I am also not happy about! :mad:

Seems that I am spending too much time being unhappy about everything!!!! even when we have been clearing each debt I am not happy as I instead of focusing on what her have achieved I am focusing on what is left!

I feel like I need a kick up the you know what, to snap out of this obsession of all things negative.

I want to put EVERY single spare penny towards the debt...... BUT after talking to OH I am wondering if we are cutting back too much!!

We have taken every luxury out of our monthly plan (except lovefilm) and I wonder if this is just too much to cut back suddenly as we now don't really have anything to look forward to each month.

I am wondering if as a treat each month that if we go through a month without touching the overdraft that we between us choose a DVD to buy (must be less than £5 though).

What do you lovely people think about that idea???

Also I am just wishing my life away and focusing from one pay day to the next and working towards that.

prettypaula

hmm its a toughy silk...

i think you have to maintain a certain level of "fun" in order to stay sane and not feel like you are living to work....

however, reducing is the only way to really pay stuff off and get yourself ready for the drop in income.

does your local library not do DVD borrowing? mine does!

also, try to think of things to do that are FREE!! walks in the woods, park, and how about cheapy weekend challenges...? like a day out using vouchers etc so its ALMOST free.

how about taking up an inexpensive hobby with each other or the kids?

we cant really afford nights out like we used to, so this weekend we had people over for dinner 2 nights. its felt very luxurious but they brought wine and i cooked. :T

there are certain things i CANT give up from our lifestyle. i cant stop having my hair and nails done (i work in cust facing corp environment) and i still need a decent clothes budget for the same reason.

hubby still plays golf, but maybe 2 times a month at the cheaper times (£8 a round instead of £20)

we have however stopped the take aways and buying lunches. thats saving alot of money in our household.

silkglade

I can see where your coming from but with reference to going out (cheap and free days out) I can't go out..... I suffer with anxiety and depression and I never leave the house apart from to go to work. I get into such a state and almost suffer full blown panic attacks at the thought of going out.... The one time I did manage to go out I suffered with severe depression and almost suicidal for several weeks as a result.

We have played on the wii this afternoon which the girls enjoyed lots as they always do.

I do not pay to get my hair cut at all or my nails done (I am rather good at doing my own nails when I have the time) and I cut all the childrens hair myself.

We now do not keep any money for ourselves the only money we have access to now is the food and petrol money.

silkglade

Hi diary

Just dropped in to report this months extra payment of £475 which has been paid off the Sainsburys card.

silkglade

Well another £730.00 off the Sainsbury's card and we will be able to pay off the remaining balance on payday which is the 22nd so will be gone before xmas as I had hoped. Which will just leave the final interest only payment for next month. Also the card expires at the end of the month and as predicted they have not sent out new ones (so that is another card that there will be no temptation to ever spend on again).

The excellent news is that in years past I would have blown all that money on extra Christmas presents, but not this year!!! We have totally stuck to our budget of £300 total for presents this year. (OH and I have not got presents for each other at all) I think that to be honest that is why I am not looking forward to it this year.... Same with my birthday which is 6 weeks after Christmas.... I am not getting any presents then either (OH has been told not to get anything for me as it will just take away money that has been allocated for additional card payments).

With the Sainsbury's card gone that is another £42ish a month that will be available to spend on paying off the next card. Then in March I will pay my car insurance in 1 yearly payment like I used to and that will be another monthly saving of £34, so over £75 a month extra available for additional payments soon... Yay.

All of my credit cards are refusing to re issue when they expire now so by the time we get to the end of our debt free journey will will not even have access to credit any more.

We are still plodding away with the payments and are still on track with no missed minimum payments.... That has to be a good thing and I am just relieved to have got help to get us started before we got to the stage that we could not afford either the minimum payments every month or any additional payments.

Obviously if we had waited until our tax credits and my money dropped then that would have been the situation we would have found ourselves in..... Luckily now we will have paid off lots... My Dad's loan of £300 a month, our overdraft, the Nationwide card, OH's Barclaycard and now the Sainsbury's card. So even though they were all the smallest amounts (we are working from them in value of smallest to biggest) there are alot of minimum payments that we now do not have to pay.... And my Dad's one was £300 a month so I nice big extra chunk to use too.

Getting worried that I will lose my determination soon once we are not able to pay off anything like we have been though, It will work out that will only have roughly about half of what we have had available as extra payments. This month and the next 2 months are a different though as they are the months that we get the extra payment in for tax credit and child benefit payments and the 2 months of no council tax payments too so making the best use of all the extra help of the next few months - not spending any of it on us..... Just additional payments off the cards.