Post wedding debt plan

Pengwern

Today was my first day back to reality following my lovely wedding. As planned we now have a few (but expected) bills to pay. So I am hoping that by writing it down I can sort them out a lot quicker.

As my husbands job means he does not know what days he is working from one week to the next. He also lives away as it is too far for a daily commute. We are trying to resolve this ASAP. But when he is not here spending money can become all too easy.

So current plan is to sort out debt no 1 which is on 0% until end of this year. Perfectly achievable but would like it gone sooner. £4,000 in 7 months or less!

Currently have 3 items for sale which end on sat, all have sold so far so a good start, I am hoping they will sell for more than the current £20 they are at.

The next challenge is for me to keep my money in the bank and not to spend it in the shops!

castlelough

Best of luck Pengwern! :beer:

Pengwern

I was thinking last night what would help me this week and as normal I came up with a long list of jobs. My tasks currently for the week are

Renew driving licience and change name at the same time. Really nervous about sending them my original marriage certificate. Also will cost £20.

Sort out our joint account so we are mr and mrs then I can pay in some of the cheques we received at our wedding. We still have not decided what to do with this money. It is going to be kept separate for a month and then we will decide.

Take back a faulty item.

trying to make sure I do these jobs with minimum travel and parking costs. I live 40miles from a town with the banks I need. Unfortunately the local village bank does not do very good deals! I hope that the few times I need to get to a branch is outweighed by the good deals I try to get.

Currently switching my current account. I hope it goes smoothly. Most people think I am mad that I do this due to the hassle, I think they are crazy sticking with a company that gives them nothing!

LittleMissKitty

Hi Pengwern, happy new diary. Sounds like you've hit the ground running, I live in a village too so I totally sympathise with the travel issues, though I'm not quite 40 miles away!

I can recommend First Direct as a new account, they're excellent - plus they give you a hundred quid for signing up with them! (I'm not an employee - promise!) Kitty x

Pengwern

Thank you for the two lovely posts. Well today I did not buy any non essential items. Only purchase was £35 of desiel and that will last me a week (I do a daily commute of 80miles!). I manage to work at home one day a week so that saves a bit.

Plans to pop out at lunch to do jobs were halted by the torrential rain. Hope I can get them sorted tomorrow. But it did prevent non essential item purchases. Just got the tea club at work to pay me the money it owes me for buying supplies. That is £15 in the wedding pot.

We are very lucky and have a £500 surplus in the joint account every month however over 7 months that is only £3,500. I need to find another £72 per month roughly to pay the debt off. Any more and it will be gone sooner. After today's refund and the items for sale I am nearly half way there. Sounds much better writing it down.

timetogrowup89

Congrats on your wedding!!

The spender in me (that will just not go away and let me get on with being debt free) really would like to suggest you make sure you treat yourselves with your wedding money rather than pay off debt... hehe.

Good luck, whatever you decide

Pengwern

The jobs finally got sorted today, so I have a new joint account in my married name and paid in the Mr and Mrs cheques. Driving licience was sent off with original marriage certificate the privilege of renewing my licience was £20 with £13 in recorded delivery fees to ensure my certificate does not get lost. Plus the £1.20 parking fee I am down today.

Just got my official wedding photos and was slightly disappointed with them, so currently cannot sleep reliving a decision I made on the day which turned out to be a bad one. Thinking of getting dressed up again and having a go ourselves, it could be quite fun and my dress cost per wear will go down!

WAH tomorrow so fuel saved but it is the food shop night. So I need to make sure I stick to the list and do not go off piste.

Did recycle the white company catalogue that came today without looking. Passed the discount code onto a friend. i therefore prevented non essential item spending.

Weekend looking fraught with spending opportunities so need to make a plan to minimise as many of them as I can and avoid some all together.

Pengwern

This weekend has started well on the no spending money front, lets hope it continues. Managed to pay in £55 at the bank yesterday which was from the tea club refund and money we have been putting into a jar. This will go straight on to the credit card when I log on tonight.

Went for a run this morning as the weather is perfect today. Also persuaded my husband to do the weekly shop, he is much better at sticking to the list than I am. He thought he had managed to dodge that one this week as he only came back home last night. We both hate going supermarket shopping and it is much better if we do it on our own. Together just causes arguments as we both have very different approaches to getting it done!

Planned out the jams and flavoured alcohol I am going to make this summer. They make great presents and so far I have only had good comments from people who get them.

Friday and sat both no spend days. Sunday looks promising but we have not decided what we are doing yet.

Pengwern

Well today was lovely, items for sale ended with a grand total of £85.50! I cannot believe it, that is going to help the balance drop. Managed to get another 8 thank you cards written, I have set myself a target to write a minimum of 4 per day until they are all done. we had 120 guests so a lot of cards to write. I also want to make sure I personalise as many as I can rather than the generic thank yous you sometime get. Only downside is the cost of stamps. So will try to hand deliver as many as possible.

Went to the garden centre as we had some vouchers given to us but only came away with a few veg plants. they will help keep us fed and any left over tomatoes I can make into chutney.

So after fearing this weekend I have not spent a penny. I think the lovely weather has helped but writing it down here is making me think before I buy. In the case of this weekend not buy anything.

I am on 8 NSD this month and hope to add to that this week.

Pengwern

Managed to get to the post office today to send items I sold. That is the bit I dislike the most about the process. I also had another NSD which I am pleased about. Husband managed to successfully do a balance transfer yesterday so that is another 0%deal for 24 months. That is his to worry about and he is making good progress, he has paid half off in the last 12 months. So 24 should be plenty of time to get it sorted. Finally think I have managed to get him to see the benefit of the 0% deals. It was for a long time sitting on a normal cc rate! Once he switched he was amazed at the difference his over payments were making to the balance. He is a much smarter person than I am but on this it took a while for the penny to drop and for him to see the benefit of taking the time to get it sorted. I have to remember the dates the deals end, but I am quite happy to do that bit.

So plan still on track for the one cc to be gone by Christmas. Think it will be a quiet week as I am away with work for a few days and doing training the other days so no chance for me to pop out and visit the shops. Also means my fuel will stretch a little further and cover my weekend trip.

Pengwern

Today I almost broke my pact with myself and purchased a non essential item. However I managed to resist and I am feeling much better for it. Got home from work and started looking at lovely items on the Internet, but looking did not turn into buying so that is good.

Just realised that it is nearly 3 weeks and I have not purchased anything that is non essential. My husband and I were having a conversation about what constitutes a non essential item. You would think it is straight forward but our discussion came to the conclusion it was quite complex. I thought that if a pair of shoes wore out then buying a replacement would be an essential item, however my husband said that unless that was the last pair of shoes I owned then the replacement purchase would be a non essential item! It then moved on to food, toiletries, sports kit etc etc. very interesting the differing view points we had, not sure if a male female thing or just dependent on the funds available or lack of you have to spend on such items.