A Thread for After Debt?

Mort

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

Just booked a holiday for 2015!!

We are going to Scotland for our 5th Wedding Anniversary, with our friends from Norway, who have their 10th Wedding Anniversary at the same time!

We are staying in a huge house (4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms - 1 with a Jacuzzi bath, 2 sitting rooms - 1 for children with a Wii, PS2, DVD and Freeview TV, a washing machine, tumble drier, dishwasher, BBQ)!

Wahay! :T

Don't forget the umbrella and raincoat should you decide to go for the BBQ.:rotfl::rotfl:

JulieGeorgiana

You never know Mort, it was sunny and hot when we got married/honeymooned... And it rained in England that whole week!

backinbusiness

Don't forget the midge cream too!

Good to see some old posters back. I still check into MSE pretty much daily to check on the DFW Board, but other than that I don't have the same need to trawl posts for hours.

Savings going up slowly. It's been an expensive school trip year, but I aim to have my magic figure in savings by Dec, and then I'll feel I can really relax. DD1 is now working part-time and is enjoying becoming (partly) self-sufficient. DD2 is going through a lazy period of teenager-hood, and therefore doesn't earn much in the way of chore-money I've told them both that any more trips will have to be paid by themselves. Given that DD1 has been to Iceland and DD2 to Paris - I hardly think that's unreasonable!

Both are now in Regional Orchestra, but that is really good value for money and such an incredible opportunity that I don't mind that in the least. (It also gives me 6 child-free weekends a year!)

Relationship still going great guns, (although at the age of 52 one can hardly call him a boyfriend - what is the correct term anyway?). This means I am spending more on myself, nights out, theatre trips, etc. We are heading to the Edinburgh Festival in the summer and hoping to get a late deal abroad in October. At least I can do this now - I'd never have been able to go away without credit before DFD.

I know the credit score as such doesn't count for much, but with Call Credit I've managed the heady heights of 2/5 lol. 3 defaults on there, but now 3 years old, so halfway to falling off. My biggest regret is that I didn't understand the implication of defaults properly back then. 6 whole years of impact! Nightmare. Partly forced my hand and forced my LBM tho' - so I suppose good out of bad.

On hols up here now for 7 glorious weeks, although the weather is pants. Cold, wet and windy. Hopefully we will get some sustained sunshine at some point.

I sometimes get the urge to re-arrange all my finances, accounts, etc - then I realise I spent so long tweaking that I should really just leave well alone. It works fine for me. Think I hark back to the days when I was (probably obsessively!) checking every single penny, every single day!

Hope all are well, and do update with your news.

BiB x

Bubbalou

Had an exciting development. I've been saving for my car insurance and managed to save up nearly £600. Just done comparing online and it's going to be more like £300 !!!

So £300 to put in my house deposit saving fund bringing it to four figures. Very exciting. It's lovely to be moving around MY money in MY savings accounts, such a good feeling

Mort

Bubbalou wrote: »

Had an exciting development. I've been saving for my car insurance and managed to save up nearly £600. Just done comparing online and it's going to be more like £300 !!!

So £300 to put in my house deposit saving fund bringing it to four figures. Very exciting. It's lovely to be moving around MY money in MY savings accounts, such a good feeling

Double bubble, that's brilliant. Congratulations.

166million

Bought a couple of new sofas (cheapest I could find of the type we wanted) and my boyfriend said, what if us three years ago could see what we were doing, we'd have said. What's wrong with the one we have, we can still sit on it!? Still feels weird to be spending 600+ on something we don't really need - for survival

have couple of days left of this month's budget, and i want to make sure I have some to sweep into the savings account at the end of the month

oh - and have started christmas shopping already! used to have to wait for December's pay before I could do that

JulieGeorgiana

I suppose that's the odd thing about being debt free, being able to spend it on things you want. But part of the lesson is saving first, paying in full and getting the best value for money you can.

You did all that, so well done you

I finished my Christmas shopping in July for all but my immediate family, I've even wrapped those

I did my daughter in August, and my husband in September, so now I only have my son left, but since it's an electronic I can't buy it until December (to make the most of the warrantee)!

I'd like to say that the baby being due in November is the reason I am so organised... but no, I really am that sad!

I'm just waiting for the baby now, then life/money will never be the same again...! Lucky I now have everything for baby, so I really am just waiting! a month and a half to go...

Mort

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I suppose that's the odd thing about being debt free, being able to spend it on things you want. But part of the lesson is saving first, paying in full and getting the best value for money you can.

Sage and sound advice. These tactics have allowed us to have two excursions abroad this year.

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I'm just waiting for the baby now, then life/money will never be the same again...! Lucky I now have everything for baby, so I really am just waiting! a month and a half to go...

Hope it all goes well for you.:)

JulieGeorgiana

So I am back on the bandwagon of Frugal living!

Ok, Maybe not quite there... but the baby is due in 2 weeks and since March we've overspent on our food budget by £405! We knew this would happen and estimated £400-500... but it's still a huge hit to our savings, especially when there were baby things which needed buying too

So I have just done a big order at MrS for food, and done a meal plan and I suspect (or know) that we will go over £20 this month too!

But I am in the process of OCDing my meal plan, and writing a HUGE master shopping list... and I will get back into budget once the baby is here (and my need for protein heavy meals and lots of milk goes away)

I AM DETERMINED TO BRING MY SPENDING BACK UNDER CONTROL!

Especially since we've had lots of unexpected costs recently, DH and I went through our savings (as we have spent £100-200 a month extra) to find out where we have been spending it, and about 25% is stuff we wanted but didn't NEED... so it's back to the drawing board for this family... and we're taking back control!

Boy do I need strength

Mort

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I AM DETERMINED TO BRING MY SPENDING BACK UNDER CONTROL!

I'm sure you will. How are things going? It's so easy to let things slip and hard to get a grip again.
Our "slip" is currently due to one of the Mortlets returning to the nest after the breakup of a long term relationship and job loss. As a consequence Mrs Mort has insisted the heating goes on before the end of November.