A Thread for After Debt?

QueenB.

A very belated congrats JG, its been so long since i was here but it seems we have all been having our slips for whatever reason. I also need to really knuckle down and get my budgeting back in control and build up my savings. We have a small debt again, mainly because so much has happened in the past yearish that we went through our savings and then even with budgets and planning somethings cropped up that couldn't be helped. It was an exhausting and rather deflating year but im staying positive and making myself go back to basics in 2014.

Hope you all have a wonderful NYE.

rising_from_the_ashes

Slips .... someone mentioning slips ..... *sigh*

Let me join in

Nice to catch up with everyone .... my slip's been down to having cut my hours at work by 1 day / week for several months (I've been quite ill unfortunately) and 25% off the salary meant it didn't cover all the bills :eek:

So ... must get back to extra frugal ways to try to recoup the losses!


Happy New Year everyone - here's hoping 2014 beings health & happiness and makes all your dreams come true

QueenB.

My slip was a mixture of health issues with seemingly the whole immediate family which affected work situations and therefore money plus general home issues and me slacking on the whole keeping and eye on budgets and so on. So no savings left, a long list of things that need fixing or replacing, a small debt and a year of big birthdays means that 2014 needs to be really focused year.

JulieGeorgiana

It's nice to hear from you both, I'm sorry to hear about your problems queenB, and about your ill health Rising. We seem to be hitting our saving really hard at the moment, but since DD2 was born we've started to buckle down and trying to curb it, because if the car goes (it's 11) we need money behind us, or we'll be in debt

Anyway, we're just plodding along and enjoying our expanding family

Rising - have you checked you're claiming all your entitled benefits??

QueenB.

Happy new year everyone. I just can't believe how quickly time goes. Seems like only a little while ago we where all welcoming DD1 into the world JG then i come back and find out i have missed all the excitement of DD2! In my head i feel DF still but we had to buy a washing machine on a pay later thing and owe the in laws £900 so our new debt is £1130. Its a huge difference from the large debt we had years ago but as we all know debts have a tendency to snowball if left unattended and i find it very unsettling. The washing machine has to be paid by august so that shouldn't be too hard and the in laws are in no rush but I want it paid as quick as is realistically possible. since becoming DF i feel guilt if i spend money on fun things if i still owe anything elsewhere.

JulieGeorgiana

QueenB - the scariest thing is that DD1 is 2 years old in 8 days time :eek:

It's good that although you have a minor debt that you're tackling it head on to stop it snowballing, I think being debt free makes you more determined to stay that way.

We're talking about borrowing £1k (possibly from family) to overpay the mortgage, so we own 25% when we remortgage in June, which will hopefully allow us better rates, and to lock ourselves in for longer (what with rates due to rise in the next year or two). It's a hard decision, I don't like borrowing, but it may save us a fortune. We're going to look at it in April and see how we're doing, I think we are borderline right now (looking at 24,8% by June). I suppose if we do, this is what Martin Lewis refers to as a 'good debt'

Jx

Mort

Happy new year everyone.

On the plus side the Morts are still debt free, however our savings are flattened and the car has gone to that great car park in the sky (I got just under £150 scrap value for it:D).

2014 will have to be a saving year so I intend to trim back the budget to DMP levels, or as close as Mrs Mort and the Mortlets will allow.

Hope you are all well and that 2014 is a good or better year for you.

JulieGeorgiana

Happy New Year Mort

It seems 2013 has been a hard year for us Debt-Freebies... Here's to hoping that by Christmas 2014 everything starts looking healthy for us all

Isn't is great that you managed to get a new car and stay out of debt

Mort

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

Isn't is great that you managed to get a new car and stay out of debt

Well I achieved the first part. I am borrowing a car at the moment on the understanding I pay all bills for it while I do so. Just need to build up the savings so I can buy a semi decent runabout.

JulieGeorgiana

Ok, well at least you're not in debt!

Seems we're all struggling a little doesn't it

DD1 is 2 on Monday! How fast does time move?