Here I go again!

alimac23

Hi all,

I used to use this site a lot around 5 years ago when I had approx £20k of debt. Since then I have cleared that debt, moved to our dream home and built the debt back up again ( see sig).

A few things led to this:

1. DH and I are both spenders not savers
2. Furnishing/decorating new house - still loads to do
3. Using all our savings and part CC to fund a course of IVF
4. Said course of IVF was successful and baby is due next week - money has been spent on decorating nursery/other baby stuff
5. DH has had a 20% pay cut at work due to recession

I am now on maternity leave, 6 months full pay through my work and hopefully 3 more funded from our small amount of savings.

While I am off work I need to get my finances in order and seriously start planning for our future especially as I hope to go back to work part time.

Hoping a diary will keep me in line this time round. Any comments always welcome. Off to read some other diaries for inspiration!

alimac23

Should also mention approx 50% of the Virgin CC is 0% and all of the RBS CC is 0% also.

I have a balance transfer offer from Virgin for 0% also which I may use to transfer the M&S card balance over.

alimac23

My plans so far:

Realistically June and July aren't going to be up to much on the paying off front. My mat leave pay doesn't kick in til end July so we will be living off DH wage, some small earnings I still have to come in and a small bonus I am due mid July. Also we will have arrival of the baby,although I have enough nappies etc to last a couple of months. So the main aims for the first two months will to be to avoid spending on the cards rather than overpayments.

In the meantime,while I have some free time before baby comes I will:

- have a careful look at all outgoings and see what we can reduce/ get cheaper
- meal plan and batch cook ( do this a bit already)
- send Dh to work with a packed lunch ( we do this already)
- sort out an Ebay pile and get listing
- aim for zero unness spending and lots of NsD's
- pay the pennies balance of my current account to the rbs card ( the two are linked on online banking and it is the only card to allow payments of less than £1. Did this the last time I had debt on this card and it was amazing how quickly the debt reduced without me noticing a change in my current account).

Any other ideas?

Right off to make a ( however small op!)

alimac23

£0.78 paid.......well, it's a start. Think I will only update sig once a month when my main payments clear.

Plans for rest of day:

-relax in the sun with the bump and DH. Lovely and most importantly FREE!

Darkphaery

Hi Alimac
Just stumbled across your diary and will be subscribing Although not "nice" that you're in debt it's nice to see someone in the same situation as me! I have an 11 week old daughter and about the same amount of debt so will be popping in to see how things go for you. Good luck with the arrival of the little one. x

alimac23

Oh Darkphaery, nice to know someone is reading and in a similar position ( although not nice to hear you are in debt either). Congratulations on your baby girl :-)

Small steps today again today:

- found a coupon in purse for £2 off any pampers product, forgot this was there! Along with the supermarket promotion this meant I got a pack of nappies for 49p! Result!
- made another small op to the RBS card - £0.59 today
- set up a spending diary to start tomorrow ( payday)
- about to check onepoll for some surveys DONE- 25p

Now for the bad:

Had to pop to the supermarket for 3 items today....but came out with a magazine and a pasta salad for lunch when I have plenty to eat at home. I always do this and to be honest it would have been worse if it wasn't for this diary and seeing my sig. So what to do? The cost of these extra items was greater than doing an internet shop with delivery would have been. Do I stick to this in the future?? I often feel when I internet supermarket we get into a bit of a food rut because I'm not looking at the full range of what's available. Hmmm....

Rest of the day sitting in the sun and not spending a penny. Roll on payday and at least the minimum payments getting made!

alimac23

Quick update today:

Not much been happening, not been paid yet, hopefully that will happen later today.

DH's grandparents were visiting so I popped out for some decent coffee for the coffee machine £4.05. Didn't buy anything else . This turned out to be about cost neutral I think, they brought some packets of cakes/biscuits which were on my shopping list to have some things in for visitors after the birth. Now I don't need to do this! And there is lots of nice coffee left which will be a treat for DH ( I almost never buy it). They also brought some nice flowers from the garden so my window is looking very cheery- I love fresh flowers but I suppose this will be an indulgence that needs to go

DH was also given some money for his birthday from relatives, he gave this to me for the maternity fund so that's £60 to help out. This is a breakthrough as normally he would have been straight on Am@zon or at least have suggested dinner out!

Rest of the week should be low/ no spend also, not planning on going far....the nesting continues!

If anyone is reading, I hope your debt busting is going well. Can anyone recommend some diaries to inspire me? So many to look at!

alimac23

Well, I've been paid and due to the fact it was mostly part time hrs in my final month before mat leave it was rubbish. To top this off other than a small bonus in July I will have no more income until by first maternity payment at the end of July. Very scary! So as I said the challenge for the first two months is simply not to increase my debt any further.

Plans for today:

- stay at home all day so a NSD DONE

- keep checking for one poll surveys - screened out off 3 so far
- menu plan for the week ahead and organise home delivery shopping Half done
- join topcashback - DONE
- ironing and cleaning -DONE
- read breastfeeding book Half done
- make storecupboard dinner from mealplan DONE
- prepare packed lunch for DH for tomorrow DONE
- spend some time on here getting tips!

Also got hubby to join topcashback for the £10 referral fee. He won't use it often but I can deide which account to go through if I need anything and will use my own for cash and his for amazon vouchers towards Christmas :-)

Darkphaery

Hi Alimac

Glad things are going well.

I find it really difficult not to spend £££ as i'm home all day with baby so to get out i tend to pop into town...bad idea Going to try much harder this month not to do this. Little one doesn't need anything, she's just about moved into her 3-6 month clothes so am going to list some 0-3 on ebay and see how they go.

Good luck for your special arrival, can't be long now

x

please-let-me-be-lucky

Congratulations on the imminent arrival, hope it all goes well. Really impressed that you are so focused at the moment, well done :T.

alimac23

Darkphaery wrote: »

Hi Alimac

Glad things are going well.

I find it really difficult not to spend £££ as i'm home all day with baby so to get out i tend to pop into town...bad idea Going to try much harder this month not to do this. Little one doesn't need anything, she's just about moved into her 3-6 month clothes so am going to list some 0-3 on ebay and see how they go.

Good luck for your special arrival, can't be long now

x

Darkphaery, have a look about your area and see if there are any regular baby related sales organised you can go to. Up here (Scotland) we have a couple of markets that move around the country with more regular visits to the big cities. They are like car boot sales but inside and just for maternity/ baby stuff. You can arrange to be a seller or go along as I buyer. I got a some perfect condition maternity clothes and a few books I wanted to read so cheaply at the ones I have been too. I plan on going back to supplement the baby's wardrobe if I need too as well. And in the future I plan to buy a stall and sell some stuff myself :A

Thank you for reading guys, starting a diary has given me some focus but it's nice to know you aren't talking to yourself! X