Living for the Present...after all who doesn't love a gift!

pennywisepoundstupid

I'm thinking of trying aldi this month after seeing the tv ads, worth giving it a shot.

debtfreewannabe321

I have been thinking about long term goals lately, also the fact that I will be 35 and nearing middle age is also playing on my mind. Especially considering I have not a penny to my name so to speak and no job, am in debt, live in housing that I hate (and doesn't belong to me) etc etc :cool:

So anyway I have come up with a '5 year plan' the 5 years is a loose time span and i'd be happy if it happened before (obviously ) or after so long as it happens!

So this is it, my 5 goals in 5 years:

1) Save £34,000
- £25k for a mortgage
- £6k towards a contingency fund
- £3k for the rental contingency fund

(works out to £567 per month I need to save for 5 years)

2) Buy a newer more economical car (happy with 2nd hand again but preferably a car to suit us a little more!)

3) Take the kids to Euro Disney before DS1 leaves home! (he's 15 in October, time is ticking it feels like )

4) Find a long term job to suit me/children (in an area that I enjoy I hope)

5) Re-locate nearer family/friends/country (happy to rent to begin with so long as it doesn't hinder savings plan too much)



And that's it. I used to have 3/5/10 year plans on the go all the time many years ago and they served me well I bought my first house by making a plan and sticking to it. I hope to buy my third house (3rd time lucky eh) by sticking to this one! Wish me luck

debtfreewannabe321

Personal goals: (as I realise all the former relate to money saving of some kind!)

1) To start Yoga again regularly and also meditation (good for mind body and soul!)
2) Keep exercising (staves off depression)
3) Smile more something i've not done enough of these last few years :)
4) Spend more quality time with the kids separately (not sure how I will manage this but I feel it's important)
5) Spend more time with OH (no wonder our relationship suffers we haven't been out alone in months)




I hope I can stick to these. Also coincidentally my friend messaged me asking if I would like to go to Yoga with her once the kids return in September to school. I've been thinking about it (so not pro-active ) so I jumped at the chance and said yes :T.

debtfreewannabe321

I've opened an ISA! Now awaiting funds to make my first payment in there

debtfreewannabe321

Banking is done! It's Payday :j

Tried to have a chat with DH this morning about our 5 year plan and to get him on board. He's often wallowing about how little he has so I thought he would be happy. Perhaps i'll try again later as he didn't get in until 2am from a works do and then had to be out again by 9am :eek:. I've asked him for £1400 per month and he can have anything over and above that (which is at least £150...!) i've included the money from my new part-time babysitting job and my rental and also benefits (child benefit and child tax credits) but this how our income will be shared out from September:

Savings for everyday expenses: £565 (i.e car insurance/tax/repairs. House fund/emergency fund/clothes etc)
Cash: £1055 (pocket money/petrol/food/exercise class for ds1 etc)
Direct Debits: £600 (approx i rounded up slightly, mortgage, utility bills, debts -would be fantastic if i could transfer this bit to savings...)

Our income should be: £3,000 approx
Income- Outgoings = 780
Taking out some money for entertainment/everyday expenses I am hoping to still pay in nearly £700 to savings per month. I am only getting paid term time for babysitting so I need to save as much as I can on the months I get some money as other months I won't be getting hardly anything. Be lovely if we could have some savings before I go looking for a 'proper' job though to set us off on the right path

The above includes debt payments on the dmp still in case all creditors don't accept the f&f offers. We should only be left with a couple of grand on the debt anyway even if they say no because the money we have given them will be spread across the debt if they say no. Debt freedom is so close............:A

DH has £600 left or thereabouts, from his inheritance he's said I can have this to get the savings off to a start. So even though I don't get paid this month for babysitting I should be able to pay the same amount or thereabouts into the savings so this may count as month 1 yet of our 60 month plan :T

cottage_retreatist

Hey debtfreewannabe321!

I love your 5-year plan - me and the OH spoke about our 3 -year plan the other week so maybe I'll update my debt-free diary so i also have something i can use almost as a tick-list to look back on (I do love lists!).

Also well done for removing all the DH's money from him - I do this too - leaving him his 300 quid 'fun money' which I am steadily cutting down month by month but i wish he could manage with just 150 like your Hubby!!

And great news with the ISA! I want to do this too - maybe with a building society so I can't see the money when i open my internet banking and then it 'hides' the money from me so I'm not tempted to spend it!!

Keep up the GREAT work - i do love reading your diary - and of course i have to like someone who uses smilies as overtly as I do too!!! :rotfl: :beer:

C-R xx

grannyx2

Loving that 5 year plan, thinking of something similar myself

Great to see how far you've already come and before you know it you will need a new user name

Granny x

debtfreewannabe321

Big monthly top up shop done in a1di, no meat because freezers are full-ish and needed rearranging which I didn't do . Spent £116 in there so very happy with that am hoping to come in well under my food budget this month so money can be spent on fun things or put into savings :j I told the kids when the sweets run out there will be no more till September not quite sure they grasped what i was saying as they were all 'yes, yes, yes mum now can we have a penguin' A1di own brand or not and cheap or not you mark my words I won't be buying anymore

They are currently outside on their didicars travelling between legoland and America. Oh to have their imagination again, means cheap holidays for me though as we don't need to leave the garden

Thanks for popping in granny and c-r , I do love a plan and a list I can tick things off of so thought a plan would give me the motivation I seem to be flagging lately and yep I do love my smileys :rotfl:

debtfreewannabe321

Have been on Stepchange this morning and nothing new on there. Bit disappointing really I'd like to log on and see a big fat zero. The two creditors that sent me letters accepting offers still haven't been paid so I hope they are going to be done soon. The letters stated they would only uphold offer if paid by 3rd August and it's now the 1st :eek:?!

I received a book this morning I ordered :j going to read that over the next week or so. I do love the Nook hubby bought me but I do actually prefer a real book in my hand and at 1p for the book plus £2 p&p it was cheaper than the kindle version!

I ordered some toothpaste this morning and house soap as running very low on washing powder now! Total spends for grocery this month are up to £133. I'm watching it like a hawk this month after last month's disaster!!!!!

Hubby hasn't given me the inheritance money yet so no updates on the isa savings either.

Bah i'm just so impatient!

Today there is something on for DH work regiment am really not bothered about it and would rather have gone to see my mum (which I will now do tomorrow when it rains ) but my friend wanted to go and has no kids nor many friends as we don't really go in for the whole clique thing round here! So that starts at lunch time ish. Funny thing is DH is not even parading (which he's happy about in this weather) as he's driving VIP's around all day to and from homes. Typical. I may just point a soldier out to the kids that looks like DH and pretend it's him as they were looking forward to seeing him marching. :rotfl:. I will never forget the time I videoed him on his passing out parade and showed him the footage after. I'd videoed the wrong man! In my defense they did look similar and were same height and build and they were stood a long way off he was not impressed :rotfl: oh well....:D

ta ta for now!

debtfreewannabe321

Ok in my impatience I rang SC. 2 debt have offered counter offers. 4 have accepted (the ones i already knew about) and 5 are still procrastinating (grr) One of the counter offers sounded good the other was only £20 off the original amount I owed? I wonder why they just didn't say no?? So more waiting...... really narked as it's the 3 big debts that haven't replied (as well as 2 smaller ones) really wanted them ones gone especially!

:A