Baby coming - 7 months to be debt free please!

Deloria87

Thanks for asking, turns out we've unfortunately lost the baby they don't know why just said its one of those things. Hopefully we can still stick to the plan though.

happinessismygoal

I just flicking through the diaries and saw your sad news, so sorry. Hope your ok and have people around you for support.

Keep going with the plan, will be a good thing to focus on.

Igamogam

Oh Deloria...just read through your diary and then your news - so sad. didnt feel I could read and run. Very true what FF says - take some time and talk.

clearmydebts

Just came across your diary. I am so sorry to hear your news

xxx

KarleyMarie

Sorry to hear your news.

If you keep up your paying off/savings will put you in a good position for the future but make sure you take time out for you too

If you need to talk to somebody impartial feel free to pm me

Karley xx

Deloria87

Thank you so much for your kind wishes last summer, it was very kind of you though I stopped posting, I still really appreciated them.

So, we have basically been rubbish and not really done anything regarding debts since the summer, as soon as we ‘didn’t have a reason’ we weren’t as strict with ourselves as we should have been and blew our savings on things to ‘cheer ourselves up’ but we seem to have paid around £1,000 just as and when we could. We also lost £400 on fraudulent festival tickets sold to us on gumtree which obviously then screwed up some of our ‘spare’ money for a couple of months and my OH had the odd week out of work which wasn’t helpful but couldn’t be helped.

However, I’m now pregnant again! Almost 15 weeks, had a couple of scans and seen a jumpy little baby which was exciting so we’re in a safe zone now technically due to a lower chance of miscarriage which is good but we have obviously now gone back into reality mode of having to clear everything, have savings and be able to buy baby stuff.

I’ve posted another SOA but I appreciate it may look as though we have gotten less strict with now spending a lot on things such as hire purchase furniture, our sky has gone up a lot but this is because we have hd, movies and sports on half price and now they’re full price so that’s all a bit annoying BUT it’s manageable as my OH has since got an employed job which pays more and is at home too

Income 1 - £1,800 (weekly and changeable as he can work overtime and plans to)
Income 2 - £1,341
Total = £3,141

sky £72
Water (quarterly) £200
british gas £99
council tax arrangement + monthly bill £265
food £120
brighthouse £232
debt £500
sundries
travel £100
rent £695
bt £18
orange £100
car insurance £88
house insurance £11
savings £400
Pet insurance £30
Total £2,930

Left over = £211

This is where we will be at from the beginning of February as this month is tied up with paying a vet bill which they kindly let us pay at the end of the month due to our dog getting conjunctivitis half way through the month, doesn’t she know it had just been Christmas! Also, my OH had to buy a new car at Christmas as the MOT would have been more than the car was worth so that left us on the very literal breadline all through the very long month of January, oh well at least February is short! Although I do somehow have to buy maternity clothes this week because I can’t keep sitting with my trousers undone at work and I’m getting a bit of a bump now!

I have literally budgeted all of our pennies until the end of 2016 although obviously things will change as I don’t really know how much the ‘running costs’ of a baby are, but I will find out soon enough haha. But our target, again is debts cleared by the time the baby is due (end of july) the minimum we are looking to be paying to these will be £500 a month, although some months we will pay off more as and when OH can work the *good* overtime meaning around £900 per week paydays, so this is manageable. We are also aiming to save £2,500 minimum before I go on maternity leave because obviously statutory maternity is poo poo and I will be getting less than half of my wages for almost a whole year then 2 months unpaid so we will need savings but we will carry on putting monies aside while I’m off as well. We have also accounted £600 to come out of savings to cover nursery furniture as parents have been very helpful already and we’ve saved £400 on them offering to buy things like the cot bed and expensive travel cot we needed as our parents wouldn’t be able to reach down into a travel cot with a baby we also have the pram from last summer and my sister also bought us the carry cot while that was reduced also. So, these will be bought as and when we have the savings to do it as the Mothercare Baby Plan doesn’t run without a credit check anymore so we wouldn’t be eligible we don’t think.

Next month we also have to pay almost £300 for a stag do my OH has to go to as he is a groomsman and he didn’t have a passport it’s worked out quite expensive but an unavoidable cost, then we have weddings in April, May and June to afford travelling to so this has all been allocated out of our budget while covering all of our bills. Also, as of the middle of March we are looking at overpaying our hire purchase agreements (double) so that these can be cleared by the end of the year, saving us a massive amount of interest, brighthouse are far more expensive than we originally realised now we’ve seen some of the items we have gotten on agreements and they’re SO much cheaper, but I’m not cancelling it because they could just take the items and what we’ve paid would just be written off and a waste of money. We knew they weren’t the cheapest option but at the time we knew they were the only option for us furnishing our house, but at least they’re improving my credit rating – hopefully!! No missed payments or anything so hopefully they’re making me look good on my report (which one day I will learn to read and understand).

We have also looked at any support we would be entitled to from July in terms of having a baby as we were told about sure start grants of £500 etc but I don’t think we qualify for much, only a payment of £20.30 per week which I think is child benefit (??) I think it used to be family allowance, but this will obviously be helpful with the depressing maternity payments that I’ll be getting. But this is where we are at at the moment, which although doesn’t seem far from where we were in May last year when we aimed to be debt free by last month, but I think we just actually need to learn to grow up and not avoid our problems like we keep doing!

Deloria87

Out of interest I was wondering if anyone knew; I looked at my credit reports yesterday from equifax and callcredit and the previous pay day loans I had taken out (2 and cleared on time) don't show on there, and neither does brighthouse, should they not be on there? I was hoping I was slowly re-building credit using brighthouse but if they don't show on my report I'm guessing it's not making one iota difference?

It looks as though I am a long way off the mortgage I was hoping to do before I go to 30 though, maybe I should set the target of 35 instead