Money Mayhems Money Muddles!!

Money_mayhem

Wow! This is scary...but this is me taking the first step (sort of).

Like many I suppose, I have been lurking on MSE, reading with interest the Debt Free Wannabee diaries, never being brave enough to start my own, until now...:T

I had my LBM in march when I successfully applied for a 22 month 0% cc and realised that if I paid much more than the minimum (which Im intending to try and do) I could pay it all off but then the horrible realisation set in that if I didn't have that debt I could actually afford to do better things with my family and so the seed was sewn.

So, abit about me...I'm married with four lovely kids, currently on maternity leave which means money is tighter than normal..I intend to return to work full time next month. Children will be going into childcare and I will probably be stressed :eek: but I feel it's meant to be this way.

OH know about my debt and has debt of his own but he probably is clueless about the exact figure.

So, this morning I have worked out my debt, which is as follows:

Cc. £5777.84. 0% 22 mth. 1st payment on 8th of £130 min
Next £120.00. Going to pay this off when I get paid.
O/D £1700 max. Had to increase this to stay afloat £1 a day charge
Loan £3082.45 this was as of Feb statement. 8.52% £123.29 per month.

Total debt £10660.13 :eek:

If I'm being honest, the od is what is worrying me the most, I hope by spending less, it will eventually decrease.

I intend paying £300 per month on cc and Next, obviously I've made the last Next payment I'm hoping the full £300 can go to cc.

I usually forget about the loan, it just takes care of itself.

Additionally I'm trying to make extra money where I can, after reading a dfw diaries, I've taken to eBay and music magpie, nothing selling on eBay yet but it's early days and I've made the grand total of £9.16 selling about 20 cd's :cool:

The car tax is due at the end of this month and this is something I never plan for so that's 220 extra to be found...I'm doing a car boot this week end and whatever pennies are made from that will be used for car tax.

So, after reading all of your diaries I have managed to do the following:

Set up a spending diary
Set up saving pots for car/Christmas and birthdays/emergencies
Set up accounts for surveys, only valued opinions accepted me and it doesn't work on my iPad (missed out on £2 so far)
Set up a pot in my house for spare change - all monies going on debt

So I've put some good things into practice and I'm hoping my positivity doesn't fall by the wayside *keeps fingers crossed* and that is what made me start this diary....that and the fact that I'm already dreading the thought of Christmas :rudolf:

So I'm thinking, May 2014 for a debt free date :think:

Well that's it I think, a long rambling post I know, but at least it's all written down and I feel better for it.

I think I'll try and make a signature.

MM

Money_mayhem

So Ive made my signature (I hope) and then stopped to have something to eat...then the postman came with a letter for OH informing him that his bank couldn't meet all of the payments this month due to a lck of available funds in his account.

I don't know if our next move was right or wrong but he had a 0% offer on money transfers on his cc and so we've wiped out his overdraft with that :-/ Its abit of a worry, were just trying our best to keep our head above water and hopefully when I'm back at work, we'll have more income which should put a stop to things like this

The annoying thing is that he doesnt use his account as such, it stemmed from not being paid enough and the going overdrawn and the the charges eating into available credit...its just a vicious (sp?) cycle.

Annoyed now! :mad:

Money_mayhem

Feeling abit overwhelmed...I hope I've made the right decision regarding OH's overdraft, ultimately it's still debt. Feel like I'm sinking

I've updated my spreadsheet showing ins and outs, same for OH as well. I initially thought I would tackle my debt first before moving on to help OH with his but from now on I'm going to keep a close eye on his bank and cc statements.

At least we've enough food to last till payday! :eek:

Does anyone knw of any other survey sites I could sign up for?

Mm

Money_mayhem

Well, OH has had his lightbulb moment! The realisation hit him that we never go anywhere or do anything purely because a lack of funds. We have vowed to tackle things together and I'm sure everything will feel alot less restrictive once I'm back at work.

So far today I've had a NSD, although I cant say that for OH and I was in the process of completing a survey but the darnthing crashed before I got to the end. :mad:

Im quite concerned about my overdraft...I feel like I'll never be able to pay it off, I never had a permanent od before maternity leave but the cost of living has meant I had to extend it to keep the charges down. I'll have to have a think about what to do.:cool:

Quite often I feel overwhelmed by it all but I keep telling myself, if I can make the minimum payments or sometimes more, I'll be ok but then things pop up that Ive not bedgeted before (until now), like birthdays and car tax, and it sends me into panic mode, wondering where all the money is going to come from, and then the whole lot just goes round and round in my head _pale_

I'm having a car boot tomorrow which is going to cost me £12. It was only supposed to be £6 but my friend has pulled out - again. Whatever monies I make from that will probably go towards car tax.

Think I'll go and have alook at the spreadsheetand keep my fingers crossed for a lottery win :rotfl:

Mm

Money_mayhem

The time between pay day is just tooooo long. I wish I had some money to pay off the cc!

Something I've just been pondering over is Childcare vouchers...not sure if they're going to be worthwhile signing up to. I did it before with dd but felt worse off for it, however that could be psychological I suppose. I've just tried to access HMRC's calculator but apparently there are glitched with it Never mind, I will keep trying.

I've done a nice spreadsheet showing the cc and loan balances and each month I can input what has been paid against them to see the balance :T. That's about the extent of my Excel skills I'm afraid. I read someones DFW diary and it made me think that their spreadsheet was much more sophisticated than mine, with pivot tables (!) and things like that. I only wish I was that clever :eek:

I think I'll sit with a cuppa and read the Debt Free Roll of Honour for inspiration. It will be me one day

x

Pinky15

Hi there - just thought I would pop by and offer some support!
With regards to Car tax a canny way I have found to save is as soon as I get my family allowance I put £20 onto the p offices budget card - by the time it's due the following year the money is there ready:)
Also I can understand you putting the overdraft on the credit card to save on interest - now the trick is to not go back into it otherwise you will end up with more debt. I know a lot easier said than done.
You sound like you are in the right frame of mind and are making a good start! Well done:)

Barbeduk

Hiya, just read through your diary. Don't worry, it's always worse at the beginning. I had my LBM then a month later a massive tax bill which made things even worse. Desn't seem fair does it?!

One thing I did was keep a spending diary for a month and I could then see the amount of money that was being wasted on stuff we didn't need. Then I cut the grocery budget, mwah ha ha! DH has been banned from buying lunches, it's packed lunch or nothing!

I really admire you for sorting all this out with a new baby, I was hopeless at that stage. Think that's what got us here tbh.

Have a great weekend.

Money_mayhem

Thank you Pinky15 and Barbeduk. I really appreciate you both stopping by

I'm definitely going to put money aside every month for car tax once it's been paid this time...this has been one of the reasons we've got into debt because its been forgotten about

With regards to OH's overdraft, I'm going to regularly check his bank and try, if needed, to move money into it to avoid going overdrawn - or at least that's the plan :eek:

I've just been reading DF roll of honour. Very inspiring, all my loose change is going in a jar and is going to be paid off the cc as an additional payment every month. This is my last month of maternity leave and I really want to savour it but I'm finding myself counting down the days until payday :sad:

I'm going to be on that roll of honour list someday

Money_mayhem

Pinky15 - totally agree with your signature re children :wall:

Money_mayhem

Just back from car boot sale and am pleased to report that we made £73 profit :j

It's all going in the pot for the car tax

Money_mayhem

OH made dinner for us all whilst I was at car boot (what a star he is!) and we had quite a few potatoes left over that were really past their best but instead of binning them like we would have normally, we've boiled and mashed them and have made smaller freezable portions...never had mash from frozen before but its worth a try and its better than waste (I really do hope its ok )

I didn't bring loads back from the car boot this time :j, which is great news so I'm going to sort through whats left and try and sell some via ebay and the rest can go in the attic until I venture to the car boot again. While I'm in the mood for selling we've also got a hi-fi/surround system that I'm going to sell. It's been sitting unused for far too long :cool:

I also used quidico for the first time yesterday to buy a second hand xbox game for ds's birthday and I've recieved cashback :T- a massive 57p:D:D Im not complaining though cause it all helps.

I think thats all I can update with at the moment, but I'm chuffed with my money saving/making efforts today. Long may it continue!