My Long Commute - To Work and To be Debt Free

rachelet

Right I have been inspired to start a diary by the other wonderful diaries on here. Over the years, myself and DH have been debt free but something has always happened to get us back into debt! Excuses I know but we are both determined to pay off our debt this time!!

Bit of background about us and why I have a long commute. We moved to France four years ago and the plan was for myself to stay in France with kids and my husband to work three months on a contract in UK, then spend three months in France. This worked fine for the first year, then the recession hit and he couldn't find a contract so had to take a full time job. This meant he only came back to France every two weeks for a weekend. We decided to change all this last summer and as I had been running my own very small business from home for the last couple of years, we decide to expand and both work in the business. This happened within a month of deciding and then a month after that my DH left his full time job to work in the business.

I now work three/four days a week in UK and my husband stays in France to look after the kids. So my commute is from Northern France to London each and every week!! We have decided that this is cost effective as I also do our food shopping in UK each week and take it back to France. I normally save my ferry fare in reduced shopping costs each week.

So onto the debts. We have two credit cards, one with Tesco and one with Post Office. We aren't using these any more and in the last month have just used the cash from the business to pay for everything. This is the first month is a very long time that we haven't used the credit cards! In addition to the credit cards, we have an AA loan which has two years left to run and we owe my in-laws some money.

As we run our own business, it can be quite hard to work out finances and when to pay certain debts. We are never sure when the money is going to come in. At the end of last week, I sent out our invoices for January, but no one has paid yet. Luckily in order to get our food shopping this week, I have withdrawn some money from paypal which I earnt from selling things on Ebay. By next week, we should have received some money in from the first lot of invoices I sent out, which will cover all our expenses for the rest of the month.

Our plan is to pay just over the minimum on our credit cards each month with our normal money, then concentrate on the Tesco Card as that has the highest APR. In theory based on our budget, we should have £500 per month spare after paying all normal expenses and minimums on all the debts. This £500, along with any money we can gain elsewhere such as ebay, poker (don't ask!!), trading in old phones, selling books/cds etc, will all be paid off the Tesco card. Then onto the Post Office card, then in-laws. In theory we should be debt free by Dec 2013, but our plan is to aim for earlier!!

I think that is a long enough post to start off with, so I will try and check back in again tomorrow to update on whether any clients paid, and therefore I can pay some off the Card!!

Thanks for reading (if anyone does bother that is)!!

jwil

Good luck!

joedenise

Good luck! I used to think I had a fairly long commute to work, 2 hours each way on a good day but yours is definitely longer than that.

Do you stay with family when you're in the UK? I ask because you don't say anything about rent for the days you are working.

Denise

rachelet

joedenise wrote: »

Good luck! I used to think I had a fairly long commute to work, 2 hours each way on a good day but yours is definitely longer than that.

Do you stay with family when you're in the UK? I ask because you don't say anything about rent for the days you are working.

Denise

Sorry haven't logged in for a couple of days. I went back to France to find we had no water still. Our pipes have been frozen for a week and a half and consequently the house was a mess and needing cleaning. The in-laws arrived Saturday evening, so Saturday was spent tidying and cleaning as best we could before their arrival! Then I had to pack to come back to UK and as the kids are off for half term, the two youngest have come back with me for two weeks.

Yes I stay with my nan when I am in UK. It is company for her and I do odd jobs round the house and get her shopping and other bits and in return, I don't have to pay her any rent. Then the kids can come and stay as well and nan likes to see them.

We are having a bit of a nightmare at the moment with money as some clients haven't paid so we are having to use the overdraft until they do. This is due to being a bit enthusiastic on paying some money off the credit card last month. We are hoping they pay tomorrow and if just one pays, this will clear the overdraft and give us the extra to pay some off the credit card.

Will check back again tomorrow to hopefully update on the credit card payments. We have been selling loads on ebay and all proceeds are supposed to be paying off the credit card as this is extra money. Unfortunately, this extra has been used on day to day spending! But I have a list of what money has come in, so I can pay it off the credit card, once we get paid!!