DFSD's 'staying out of debt' diary

debtfreesomeday

I'm not technically a DFW as we managed to (finally) pay off our debt a couple of months ago. I had been in debt for most of my adult life and, although it does feel great to be debt-free, I am very aware that it wouldn't take a lot to make us slip back into debt.

I recently started a diary on the MFW board as our aim is to pay our mortgage off early, but our lack of savings currently means we have to build other 'pots' up first before contemplating throwing everything at the mortgage (although we are overpaying by £20 a month, just to round our payment up). In short, the time is not right for me to start a diary over there and I 'jumped ship' too soon!
So, hopefully no-one minds me sticking around here for a while longer... The aim of this diary is to keep me motivated and focused on keeping debt-free and making the most of our money. We're not always too good at sticking to budget and, tiredness and feeling low often causes us to overspend on the groceries budget and maybe have more 'coffee shop treats' than we should.

We also moved in April and so have a new household budget and new expenses. I will post this at the end of the month, as my wages are changing this month due to us paying more money in childcare vouchers to cover our LO's nursery fees.

We are currently trying to build up a savings pot of around £8K to buy a 2nd car as, when DS starts school (in 2014), we will need two cars due to the times and distance involved between work/school pick ups. The idea is that the 'new' car will be the main car and our current car will act as the 2nd runaround car. I just hope it lasts until then and beyond as it's getting old already! We just don't want to get back into the trap of having to get into debt to buy a car again.

The first thing I need to tackle is the grocery budget. We have let things slip lately and are spending way more than we should. DH has meal planned for this week and we are buying shopping from Aldi tonight after work, so we need to keep the meal planning up.

here goes... again....

DFSD
X

debtfreesomeday

Today I sold an item through a local selling site, so £10 up and a little more space cleared! I've been really pro-active in selling stuff we no longer want/need/can fit in our new house both before and after we moved. I have probably made nearly £1k by doing so, as we had a few bits of large furniture which made us around £500.

We picked up some shopping from aldi after work, only buying bits on our list for the meal planning. That was around £8 odd, so used today's tenner and let Ds put the (non gold) change in his money box, the one gold £1 coin has gone in our terramundi savings pot. :0)

debtfreesomeday

Last night I made some samples for a prospective customer of my craft business (I have a small business in addition to my part-time job. It's really profitable in the run up to Christmas, but quite slow the rest of the year). Hopefully that will bring a little more business in.

Work today and DH and I made packed lunches last night to ensure we don't spend any money today. We've also got tonight's dinner planned and have all the ingredients we need.

I've also emailed return postage receipts to a company to claim back postage on a faulty item (shoes for DH's birthday). It cost a tenner to send back so hope they refund that and the price of the shoes soon!

ElphabaThropp

Well done for getting out of debt! I've actually been in credit at odd points over the last few years and wish I'd had your attitude then.

You'll get that mortgage down in no time!

debtfreesomeday

Thanks loads elphaba x

debtfreesomeday

I've received a few orders in the past 24 hours and have managed to get them all made, packed and ready to go tomorrow. I've made around £150 too which is great. I've put £62 over to the savings to round it up to £1250, the rest will stay in the bank for now as I need to buy some more supplies and pay for postage. Any leftover will be put over to one savings pot or another.

beanielou

Great idea to have a staying out of debt diary

debtfreesomeday

Thanks beanielou, I just hope it is successful!


Another £100+ of orders today :0), so another £100 in the savings pot and lots more work to do tonight!

debtfreesomeday

More orders today and another £50 in the savings :j
That pot now stands at £1400.

beanielou

You have been a busy bee

debtfreesomeday

More orders tonight mean another £50 in the savings, so is now at £1450. I think orders may tail off for a little while now until we get nearer Christmas.

Very tired today, Ds not sleeping well at the moment and we're all pretty exhausted. Ds and myself not feeling too great tonight either :0(