Diary of a Secret Saver

Harri-bear

Hi Brizzled, hope you are well.:) A lot has changed since the start of my diary - have had to bail hubby out to the tune of £1500, have begun teaching him to budget and finally cleared up the mess he made with door step collectors. I am definitely trying to include him more and I think this has been positive for both of us. Unfortunately, I am now quite heavily back in my overdraft.:(

I think the problem with our debt at the minute is that it's too manageable (I know, I know, that doesn't really make sense ). Let me try to explain. We don't have a big mortgage and the payments are low, the loans (whilst a pain) are easily affordable on our combined income, I don't have credit cards and we do have money to spare if we are careful. We could quite easily carry on plodding along, paying our debts gradually and it wouldn't be any hassle. However, for me, it's now more about getting the debts paid so we can have holidays, can have a nicer house, can have cars that don't look ready for the scrapyard! That may sound a bit selfish, but we both work bl**dy hard. I would have loved to go part time whilst the kids were babies but we could never afford it, we are having our first holiday in four years this summer, our cars are respectively 11 and 14 years old and we live in a not-too-nice area. I just think that now is the time to do something about it! I hope that makes sense!

Harri-bear

Oh and Brizzled, well done on telling Hubby about the extent of your debts. Whilst it's kind of been the other way round in my house, I feel much better now that I know - although I do keep asking Hubby, "Is there anything else I need to know about?"

brizzledfw

Harri-bear wrote: »

Okay, time for an update, it's been such a busy week!

...

Oh, and Hubby has been doing really well with the new spending regime. Out of his £40 a week 'spends' he has managed to save enough to take me out for an anniversary meal tomorrow! We will have been married 12 years (together for 18) so really looking forward to it.:)

Now things are all out in the open, things seem to be going so much better. I think we must have been stuck in a bit of a rut (I didn't even realise it at the time), but we are having so much more fun recently - I am really enjoying our time together at the moment.:) Uh-oh, just realised how 'soppy' that sounds :rotfl:.

Pleased to see this bit...

brizzledfw

Fab going Harri. Have subscribed and will be here cheering you on!

Have to say when I got to that bit about the 'loan shark day' as it were, I gulped, hadn't expected that so maybe you controlling the finances by yourself does work best, but like I am finding..the joint accountability and transparency of what's going on is making me feel like a huge weight has been lifted.

We have a big income but still manage to usually spend much more than we earn. Shocking really and I do know that some of that is having girls and wanting them to have experiences I couldn't or didn't have as a kid. I want them to be physically confident and resilient...so stuff like climbing and skiing and horse riding...not cheap. Problem is it doesn't stop there. Have traditionally spent a lot on holidays too..but this summer it's a camping holiday in Wales!

NSD today..yipedeedah...

Have a great weekend with not too much school work! X

Harri-bear

Okay, so I haven't dropped off the face of the planet, but this has been one tough week workwise. All reports done, so very happy.:D

Had a bit of a spend day today. I am by no means a baker but bought some cherries and ground almonds today and made a cherry and almond loaf cake. It is delicious! If I sound surprised that's because I am! It is also huge and would quite easily feed a small army :D.
I also bought two foxgloves for my back garden and some poppy seeds (the flowers not the bread!). At the till the kind shop assistant knocked off £1 on each of the foxgloves as she said they 'needed a good water'. Now, I really don't mind watering them for that reduction!
I also bought a new flowering plant for the hallway, as the last one had been sat dead in the pot for about 6 months (I know, I know, but really if it's not right in front of me, I forget it's there).

Will catch up properly with my diary tomorrow :).

debtfreewannabe321

Yippee to the reports being done :T :j

brizzledfw

Ditto!!! Have a large glass to celebrate!!

Harri-bear

So much for checking in yesterday!

Well, hubby seems to be grasping the fitness and healthy eating nettle. He has used his spends to 'buy' some points for his X-box and has now got a variety of [STRIKE]torture[/STRIKE] fitness programs 'for us to do together'.

We started the other day with Nike Fitness, only doing the 'assessment' part - to find our level, so to speak. Anyway, it nearly killed me. Press ups?! There's no way this body is getting up off the floor once it's on it! Now, I know I need to lose weight but I really didn't expect to be soooooo unfit. We finished the 'assessment' and Hubby was chatting to the neighbour in the garden and ... well... I suddenly remembered I had a Mars Bar in my bag and scoffed the lot before he came back in! :rotfl:How shameful!!

So, today I have joined slimming world. I can only really do it online as I don't want to take the girlies to meetings with me. So that's either £60 (for 3 months) down the drain or £60 as an investment in the new me! The juries out at the moment.... so watch this space.

Harri-bear

Okay, so just had a stupid argument with Hubby and need to vent! :mad:

Hubby went to make lunch and I said I'd just make myself some crackers and cheese, at which point Hubby said, 'I'll cut the cheese for you as you always cut it too thick'. Would anyone else find this patronising? For heavens sake, I'm a grown woman I can cut a piece of cheese on my own. This follows on from his comment (directed at me) about how many crisps we had gotten through in a week. Grrrrr, he says he's 'only trying to help', but is treating me like a two year old really the way to go?!

Anyway, he's gone to do the shopping and I'm torn between eating a whole block of cheese just to spite him or having nothing at all - also just to spite him.:rotfl:

Mara_uk7

If i was you, id go get the block of cheese and put bite marks all round it !