Why is there so much month left at the end of the money?

twinmum07

We thought it was time for a new thread as so much has changed since the last one.
We had our LBM in June 2010 and owed over £34,000, we are now down to around £28,000. We had a heftyish AWOL period in that time where we were plodding at the debts but not amazingly proactive.
I was a stay at home/running a business from home mum but went hack to work part-time to help debt-busting/affording to live and was 3 days a week, now 4 days a week and hoping to go to full time. My in-laws provided some free childcare but this will end this academic year and although it is a financial nightmare for us, it will be a huge, huge emotional relief and should cause a lot less stress.

Our twins will start full time school in September and the little man will be 2 in March. Since having the little one i have lost weight with weightwatchers but in the last year my weight has just gone up/down and cancelled itself out really, although I have still lost over 2 stone, I know i can do better. We are both trying to lose weight and we are trying to run. We are getting somewhere and building fitness but to spur ourselves on (and because we are stupid we have both entered this year's Edinburgh Marathon in May 2012 so the running needs to go from adhoc jogging into proper training)

We are currently snowballing and are working on my Virgin card first. This should hopefully be paid off in February and our next target is DH's HSBC card which has about £7500 on so a very slowburner that won't be paid off until the very end of 2012 so we have a very ploddy year ahead of us. However, once that card has gone we will be looking at losing a debt every 2/3 months so 2013 will be a much more motivating year if we get the groundwork in during 2012.

We are very lucky that our household income is around 77K, which is embarrasingly high, but we have huge outgoings and hope to pay around £1000 a month to our debts (our min payment is £500).

I have a job interview in mid-January for an internal job that could boost our household income to 93K but I am not overly hopeful!

I am so ashamed to look at our salaries and see that we really shouldn't be struggling but are.


Aims for 2012

• Both of us to lose 2 stones
• Both of us to complete the edinburgh marathon (please note I said complete not run!!!)
• Pay £12,000 on debts to reduce overall debt by end of 2012 to £19,000
• Declutter to ebay
• Start to enjoy life a little more (wood, trees and all that!)

Both of us have an account on here and DH is twindad07 (catchy eh!!!) but I tend to post more than him.

I love the support on here, as well as the inspiration and motivation, but the major thing for me is the being honest. My mum is supportive but has never had any debt other than her tiny mortgage back in the day and the inlaws use credit but are very closed to talking about money and don't understand what we are trying to do. They are more of the thinking that if we have to pay £500 a month on debt repayments the other £500 we use to overpay could be better spent on holidays and not shopping in Aldi!!!!!

Right, enough prattle

Muffin86

Hiya!

I have returned today with a new diary too after going AWOL following the birth of my little bubba earlier in the year!

Well done on your debts so far, were also snowballing and are starting with the virgin credit card - there's £2400 on it, going to try and reduce it using the payment a day method!

I will subscribe to your diary and follow your progress!! xx

twinmum07

Hi Muffin
Don't go getting me broody - we can't afford another!
I love my payments a day - I don't always manage everyday but love getting my credit card statement and it running to a few pages because I have made 31 little payments. It makes me feel positive about getting it and seeing it now - several year ago i dreaded seeing them turn up and they ran to a few pages for the other reason.

Muffin86

Im so broody too! Hubs doesn't understand how I can be when I have a little baby! One Born Every Minute starts on Wednesday so no doubt that will make me worse LOL its also an incentive as I would like to try for our second later in the year so the aim is to clear the credit card before we consider - eeeeeppp!! just checked my statement and my previous balance was 2,407 I paid 60 pounds and my balance is now 2, 399.30!! Disgusting isnt it. It has prompted my payment a days to start and i have just paid £4.30 off xxx

twinmum07

Totally demotivating isn't it? Virgin are !!!!!!s aren't they? At least the PADs are pure payment and you have the extra bonus of knowing you have screwed an extra 2p out of them if you PAD enough to need an extra sheet of paper in your statement.
DH would be quite up for more but more down to the trying part than the end result!!! At least if you know you have £2400 to clear before you can try you have a lovely motivator. We just need to get debt free to then get mortgage free or mortgage reduced to hopefully pay for having 3 kids at uni at the same time (not the best forward planning there!). Due you have a date goal planned for the Virgin card?

SassySuccess

Hi,

I'll follow your progress and hopefully we can chivvy each other along!!!

Sassy xx

Owain_Moneysaver

Only 2 months till February :-)

Only it's a leap year :-(

Determined_2b_Debt_Free

Hi Twinmum! Thought I'd pop in and say hello.

Good luck for your interview - that would be amazing if you got it. I'm hoping to earn a bit extra too but in evenings and weekends when DH is at home so we don't have to pay for childcare which would cancel out what I would earn. I've done some flyers for babysitting which I'll deliver next week hopefully, and I'm also a Neals Yard consultant so I need to get back on track with that.

Can't wait to see your progress - good luck with the marathon training too :-)

cutestkids

Hi

I have followed your previous diary and will be subscribing to this one:)

twindad07

Happy new year
Plan for today -
Continue house tidy
Clean old twin pram to eBay
List buggy board on eBay
Mazuma my old phone £50 apparently!
Do some exercise 3 mile run planned - need to start my premarathon training!
Sort some remaining stock from old craft business to eBay
Check finances
Suggest meal planning - have good intentions then order take away while planning!

twinmum07

twindad07 wrote: »

Happy new year
Plan for today -
Continue house tidy
Clean old twin pram to eBay
List buggy board on eBay
Mazuma my old phone £50 apparently!
Do some exercise 3 mile run planned - need to start my premarathon training!
Sort some remaining stock from old craft business to eBay
Check finances
Suggest meal planning - have good intentions then order take away while planning!

I am guessing that is just your list to do dear - crack on and bring us a cocktail to sip on whilst you do it!

We didn't have the wildest night last night but cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floor whilst watching Criminal Minds and overindulging in alcohol - we still have some alcohol left in the house but when it is gone it is gone - not good for the bank balance or the waistline!

We went to see my mum during the day yesterday as it was her 63rd birthday so we didn't have chance to exercise (obviously I could have done something once the kids had been dragged to bed but shhhh - lets just skate over that!)

My list for starters is
-Get the washing up to date (did about 5 loads yesterday but I think the stuff has been breeding so still many more loads to go)
-Put all the washing away (we seem to use our bedroom more as clean washing storage than somewhere to sleep so hopefully we can get it all away today and relocate the bedroom carpet)
-PAD
-Some school work (seems like we broke up months ago so need to get my head around going back on Tuesday and try to go back slightly organised rather than very blurred!)
-Menu plan - NO TAKEAWAYS!!!!
-Go for a run (it is supposed to be a cross training day but need to go for a run as it has been ages and need to get fitness up to start marathon training)
-Do some surveys (hate them but used £30 of my toluna amazon vouchers so need to ginet them built back up aga