£66,512.11 and falling - OK £325,909.93 but still falling!

joanne109

...and it will be even more saved over the weekend as I tend to spend £30+ a weekend!

Joanne

joanne109

After dinner we took the children out for a walk. I found £1 in the street and I am going to my online bank and pop it on the M and S card.

On the way back we walked through Beech Bottom Dyke and collected a few arms full of wood each. It should be enough to keep the fire going for an [STRIKE]autumn [/STRIKE]summer evening and keep the gas off :j:j

Joanne

joanne109

Well I put that £1 on my M and S card then checked my snowball.

Before I put it in, my final payment (on the M and S card) in Sept 2015 was going to be £264.80.

After the payment it is going to be £263.41

Therefore I found £1.39 in the street tonight :T

Joanne

chevalier

Well done on starting the journey. Is your OH on board with the debt busting too?

Sorry you found your SOA embarassing, but at least you did it, so you know what your baseline figures were.

Have you also given your outgoings a good look at? Ie checked that you have the cheapest insurances and utilities? It can make a difference to the monthly spend.

If you are stumped for meal ideas, then have a look on the moneysaving oldstyle part of the forum. There are several threads over there offering healthy AND cheap recipes.
Good luck
chev

lucielle

Good luck on your journey, you've got a similar amount of debt that we started out with. Keep plodding, baby steps etc.
L

FreebyFifty_2

Just popping in to say hi and well done on the AFd's :T I don't know about you but I am excited about the challenge set for June. Yes I don't get out much - maybe if I had I wouldn't have quaffed so much wine

I see you have added your debt free date - that will be really good going :j By the example of the £1 you found if you use the £300 you used to spend on wine that will equate to £339 off the M&S card won't it?

Have a fab weekend

joanne109

FreebyFifty wrote: »

Just popping in to say hi and well done on the AFd's :T I don't know about you but I am excited about the challenge set for June. Yes I don't get out much - maybe if I had I wouldn't have quaffed so much wine

I see you have added your debt free date - that will be really good going :j By the example of the £1 you found if you use the £300 you used to spend on wine that will equate to £339 off the M&S card won't it?

Have a fab weekend

Problem is [STRIKE]most[/STRIKE] all of the wine was bought on credit card but knocking the wine on the head means I am not spending £300 monthly on the cards :j

My cards have been maxed out since Christmas and all but 4 are closed due to rate jacking. I have been using those 4 - paying of minimum payment and then running them up to the max each month. This month I have only used one card (necessity) and will in due course drop that one as well.

I have around £100 to last until payday (15th) which should be doable. The main problem is school, we do packed lunches but there are so many "extras" swimming, outings, one off lessons (in school lesson time but needing a parental contribution). What is galling is that we paid £15 for DS day out to Epping Forest then he was unwell and missed it. The school wouldn't refund it. Just waiting for the next request for a "voluntary contribution". I've never missed one before but I think on principal I'll be ducking out

Joanne

joanne109

To some degree yes, he is tired of being skint as well. He spends very little money, doesn't drink or smoke or do takeaways, he does pretty much as he is told;)

His one splurge pleasure is to take the kids to the bakery once a week on the way back from school and buy them all a cake and a drink, costs around £5 and I can't begrudge them that.

Joanne

joanne109

I went with DH and 3 kids to the steam fair. We have been seeing various steam engines going past the house all week and I promised they could go. It was only last night that I checked it online and saw the entry fee was £18 :eek: (family of 4 ticket £15 pus 1 extra child £3)
Fortunately they let us in for £15 so I bought a programe for 50p

The first hour went well looking at the various engines, we took a picnic lunch with us and the children enjoyed that. Then the trouble started.
They wanted to do "hook a duck" - £2.50 each (but a cr4ppy prize guaranteed!). After that we said they could have a ride on one of the funfair rides. Oldest two 10 and 6 went on bouncy castle, youngest (also 6) went on big wheel with dad.
That was another £2 each.

Then DS wanted to go on another bouncy castle so I relented and gave him £2, he immediately ran off to the toy stall to look at 2nd hand toy cars etc. We took the 2 girls to the waffle stand and they had ice cream and waffles.
DS then came over having bought a little plane with his £2 and wanted a waffle, we said no and pointed out that his waffle money had been spent on a plane. He then threw a strop, chucked his plane in the bin and demanded a waffle ice cream.

Time to go home...

If I ever mention going to one of these events again, can somebody kindly point me back in the direction of this post? All in all, I spent £35 and come home stressed and depressed.
I was so angry and upset I wanted to go out and get some wine - but I will not allow the children to drive me to drink any more

FreebyFifty_2

Hang on in there - it won't be that long before they are teenagers like mine and being seen out with parents is 'social suicide'!!

Unfortunately though they don't cost any less!

Well done on refraining from the wine :T