Emerging from the dark - a dfw diary

Chrysalis1976

Slow day today although I did make a £10 sale of items, took some things to the charity shop to get rid of clutter.

Pay hasn't gone in hopefully will be tomorrow or Monday, don't mind waiting as statement for c card comes out on 27th so would wait for that first.

Hubby told me he had won £50 in vouchers for being runner up in good idea of the month comp at work, don't know where they can be used yet but yay!

Plans for the weekend include painting skirting boards and varnishing door in dd's room, not much else we can do until window is replaced but will be another job done. We have all the materials so no expense to do them.

C x

Seasidegal58

Happy belated birthday Chrysalis! You sounded like you had a great time with your family. I love walking past a LUSH shop - they always give out such a lovely smell! Clever old hubby with his idea!


x

Chrysalis1976

Good afternoon, a few manic days trying to get an assignment done which I really struggled with and fully expect to get a referral for but never mind.

Pay from second job went in late and is still sitting in account as needed for the rest of the month.

I realised over the last couple of days that I am rubbish with money, I am rubbish with budgeting and I am rubbish with sticking to plans. I am good at finding bargains and earning extra money so I need to put these into action to make everything come together and really attack this debt otherwise it will be years and years!

My first thing has been to install a budget app (free) on to my tablet so I can enter every transaction and it will give me clear indication of where everything is going, I will also go back to having my little bags of cash for each part of the weekly budget I.e. food shop, fuel, spends, this will make everyone realise that there is a limit to how much is available.

There are too many things that I am trying to do at the same time and nothing is getting completed:

* paying off debt
* decorating the house
* having some savings

The debt is holding us back from doing anything else but I'm also conscious that we have no savings so if anything went wrong we would have nothing to fall back on, I know we should have a number of months salary saved but then I would feel guilty about not paying the debt except minimum payments. Confused

Need to have more of a think.

C x

Chrysalis1976

ok chatted with dh last night, showed him the budget tool and explained about the money bags each week, he also agreed that we were doing too much and said that he thinks we should build up a buffer then pay off the debt.

I know some have several months wages saved but I think that if we can have one months at least then this would be great for now, so plan is to save £3000 and then hit the debt.

I think that if we can get in this mindset of saving, budgeting and planning then we can achieve the savings which will then prove that we can pay the debt.

So lets get started!

C x

Seasidegal58

Hi there Chrysalis


I wouldn't beat yourself up - if it is worrying you about not having a savings safety net then you go for it! That was one the first things I did musing over my own budget/debt plan and I feel a lot better for having an emergency account with £1,000 even though I did it via my then O/D. If I ever get this debt paid in the next few years I'm definitely doing the next stage of Dave Ramsey's financial plan and pay what I had spent each month on debt into a savings account until I have something like a good six months salary in there.


Re your budgeting, there seems to be a great deal on excitement lately on the DFW board with regard to the "You Need A Budget (YNAB) software. I had a look at it myself and it looks impressive though I'm doing ok with my own funny little spreadsheet at the moment. Might be worth a look.

Chrysalis1976

Well as feared we are not getting any money from in-laws, cross with them for mentioning it but hey ho we move on!

So slight change of plan again, going to save £1000 for emergency fund, this will still be more than we've ever had in savings so still positive. Then really attack the debt using all the tools we have.

I need to sit down when to have a proper plan for each aspect and how it will be paid, so we can have realistic time scales.

Stuck in a rut and only we can change it, no use waiting for miracles!

C x

Seasidegal58

Sorry to hear about your in laws failing to keep their promise but don't dwell on it too much - zoom ahead with your emergency fund.

Looking forward to hearing about your plans for tackling the debt.

Chrysalis1976

First thing to sort - £1000 emergency fund

Hubby getting bonus in this months wages yay :j £400
Child benefit £135
Second job £200

Total so far 735!

A good start and will budget to see if anymore can be put over the month.

Only 2 birthdays in June and nothing else happening hopefully.

Onwards and up or downward whichever way you want to look at it

C x

Seasidegal58

Well done! Great to see you are being so positive! The only way is up !

Chrysalis1976

Busy day today, work for both jobs in the same town but an hour to get there, will get mileage but as usual this months expenses still not authorised!

Wedding tomorrow, this must be the only wedding where every detail has been plastered on fb and am actually quite sick of it, 5 min countdown yesterday on finishing work :eek:

I am looking forward to the hog roast though snd my £25 outfit is ready to go. Only need a bit of cash for drinks, I'm driving so that will be cheap and taking some kids ones sneakily.

DH got his comp vouchers they're l2s ones so using £20 of them for wedding gift and the rest for food as very skint before pay day next week.

Lets see what the day brings hopefully not another add on assignment by college for my degree, yet more incompetence, and I work for the same organisation.

Have a good day C x