Time to be completely honest

Seaxwyn

Brilliant news Sea - that debt will wither away in no time and you can start planning how to use your earnings positively. Holidays... savings.... well done you!

Sea78

Thanks- I know it's good as the DFD has come forward significantly!

My SOA is:

Mortgage - £556 - repayment type, all fine, currently £97000ish outstanding (but another loan linked - more of that later)
Water Rates- £39
Council Tax - £108
Gas - £60
Electric - £60 I know these are VERY high - I don't actually spend this much but it's comforting to know I have a bit of extra room - I save this each month and also means I can use a little of this savings for home emergencies - such as the cracked double glazing at the back will need to be replaced, so I can get it from this savings pot. i'm also going to compare and see if I can get a better deal as currently on British Gas. I am allowed to have these amounts according to CCCS.

Buildings and contents insurance - £25 - messed up this year, but hope to cut this down next year. This is the best deal I could find and searched a lot.
BT/2 mobiles/Internet from tiscali - not more than £75 a month.
British Gas coverage (we use this regularly lol) - £16
Childcare - £605 (we will get savings using the childcare vouchers scheme through OH's and my work - save probably about £100 a month which will disappear on OH's side, but I will save - will update as I find out how much I save!)
Life ins - £15
Car:
Spare/servicing - £20
Road tax - £11
Ins - £50 (points and accident - grrr...not my points or accident)
RAC - £0 - through tesco
Fuel/parking - £80 - trying to cut it down.

Food, toiletries, cleaning, nappies, baby milk - fam of 4 - £315 - I can and do spend less than this but then beer (and to be far a couple of bottles of wine come out of this, as do other supermarket items!)
School meals (I am not going to make her packed lunches, she gets a good cooked 2 course meal and I am sticking with it lol) - £32 for Sophia, we also have a £42 allocation for us, but I usually take packed lunches and make them for OH, unless unusual activities etc. So this is a little extra that I can squirrel away, if I get it from OH!
School costs - seems to be always something! - £5
Clothing & Footwear for 4 - £60 - this is good, kids keep needing new shoes though lol!
Hairdressing (OH) - £8
NUT - £16
Prepayment prescription/my meds - £11
Dentist/opticians savings - £5
Sports, Hobbies, Entertainment - £40!!! We've been allowed this as our repayments have gone up Am pleased- this will be used for Sophia's dance lessons, OH going out (hah!)
Sundries/emergencies (savings for christmas, birthdays, extra costs, lucky to be allowed this I think!) - £40

Total expenses: £2261

Total income : £3343
Me - 1849
OH - 1340
CB - 117
CTC- 37

total debt repayment (to CCCS) : 1082 - hmm...this is different to the amount she said on the phone so will update when I get the paperwork from them next week

DFD will be in approx 2.5yrs!! - so around June 2010! We will have to start to pay back the relocation loan through OH's work - paid through salary before tax and NI - but that will be about £150 a month, and that is from next August, so the DFD will probably be more like the October 2010, although childcare costs will go down as well as Will gets older.

Sea xxxx

Snaggles

Sea, that's great news about your debt free date - well done! :T

lunar

just catching up on your diary, well done on reducing the debt free date, i love it when i can change mine even by a month. you have the same dfd im aiming for.

taxi73

WOW sea that's great news...and think what a lovely stress free time you can have when your debt free...2.5 years isn't far away...well done xx

Sea78

Thanks again

I think me and OH have come to an agreement tonight - as this year, B-i-l has offered to pay for the holiday next year again. however, we would have to find the money for travel, spends etc. We've agreed it's just not feasible to be able to afford it so we're going to have to say no. But it's all for a good reason! We've agreed we could afford a small weekend away - perhaps borrow camping stuff? I'm not sure.

Also we've decided that we are going to have Christmas dinner at home here - therefore I can cook a nice chicken (not so keen on turkey lol) and also it'll cost probably about £10 for Christmas dinner for the 4 of us, rather than the £50 it'd cost us at the in-laws! So this is progress with OH I think!

Sea xxx

Snaggles

Sea, that's fantastic - I'm so glad you're not going to pay £25 each for a meal with your (or rather your OH's) family.

chocaholic110

I think that is the best solution. I bet you'll enjoy it more anyway (if it was me, my day would be spoiled begrudging paying the £50...but then maybe I'm just mean!!)

taxi73

WOW...Sea your DH is def having his lightbulb moment ...well done to him!!!...it's so much easier when you work on it together...what a turn around...you must be so proud of him!!!...take carexxx

Sea78

HI all

Feeling a little brighter this evening - think I might have a touch of PMT but shhhhhh...don't tell OH that that is what it is lol! He'll be saying I told you so!

I've done a coupleof good surveys over the last few days - now I am getting some rather gross sounding nappies to try out and also so rather expensive dishwasher tablets (so will actually be using my dishwasher fo rhte first time in ooooh 7 months?). It's always nice to get free stuff!

Made an online Avon order last night - but in my defense, it was fully bargainatious!! I got LOADS of stuff and free postage (but QUIDCO didn't work - bah!) and when that stuff comes through I will have finished quite a few Christmas pressies completely

DD got really upset in bed tonight as she could hear all the fireworks and was demanding to know why we'd not gone out to a display. So I bundled her up in lots of coats (hers, mine lol!) and took her out for a quick drive to see what we could find! it was a scream! I told her to keep her eyes peeled for fireworks and then later she spotted some and said "look mummy - there! See I kept my eyes peeled off to see them"!! Classic! We saw some fabby ones and then came back - one very happy girlie asleep upstairs!

Hope all are well

Sea xx