My LB moment

missty25

Hi one and all,

I have decided to start a debt free diary as its time I take control of the finances and stop getting into a bigger and deeper hole.

A little about me I'm mum of a 5 yo and a 4 month old and currently on maternity leave until mid November. I'm receiving maternity allowance at present and due to working overtime last year it means we are better off to about the tune of £55 per week but this extra money is never left at the end of the month. From here on in though I'm going to be putting the extra aside as we need to get used to managing on what my wages are for when I go back to work. My OH is a spender but usually only £20 a week but I know he is fed up of having so little to spend. I haven't been spending recently. Managed to stop buying trashy celebrity/real life magazines. Also stopped smoking for over a year, just as well as I don't know where I would get the money to spend on cigs lol.

Our debts are as follows

Lloyds tsb credit card £869.99
Barclay card 2792.20 with interest for the life of the balance but can't remember what the deal was, the interest is about £11 a month
Lloyds tsb loan 7045.16 biggest cost at @£252 a month
Next 210.43
Graduate overdraft 15000% until 01/08/14
Current account overdraft 250 @ 0% interest
Making a grand total of 15760.40

My mission is to overpay all credit cards instead of just making the minimums and ideally would love to get the loan away sooner rather than later as it is a lot of money to be forking out each month.

I really need to cut down on food shopping as this month we have spent about £400 for the 4 of us, 1 cat and 1 dog, this is everything though, nappies, formula toiletries and household items. I love cooking but really need to get my head around budgeting and meal planning. If I could half this shopping it would give an extra £200 a month towards these debts.

OH is working quite a bit of overtime almost every Saturday and Sunday and when I go back to work I'm hoping that I will get some overtime as due to my job I can take home about £220 for working 18 hours over a weekend.

Sorry for my ramblings, hope it makes sense :rotfl::rotfl:

I'm going to keep a log of running total in my signature to help keep me motivated and will decide in the near future a time scale of how long I'd like it to take to pay all the debt off and also really need to start building an emergency fund as well.

Julie67

Hi Misty,

Just wanted to wish you well. I'm sure you can do it. I had a terrible magazine habit but someone pointed out that you can often pick up magazines in charity shops for 25p:eek:
They are often in date sometimes that month. This has saved me a fortune and I still get my magazine fix.
Good luck on your journey

Julie67

Sorry forgot to say, come on over to the old style board, some great ideas for cooking from scratch and cheaper cleaning products.:D

missty25

Thanks julie67, I'm definaely going to be going between here and old style board.

Going to be using up stuff from the cupboards and knuckling down and meal planning. My DD doesn't want milk at school when she goes back so saving £28 a year and also she is on,y going to have school dinners on a Monday @ £1.80 instead of 4 days of the week like before the holidays. Now baby is in a bit of a routine I'm hoping things get easier all round for being more organised and batch cooking etc.

My OH is good and makes his own pack lunch everyday and has stopped buying a daily newspaper and browses the news onliine instead at his breaks.

Small changes and all that, every little helps

missty25

Back again, I've been through our month of July bank statement and have discovered I'm way off in saying £400 for shopping as the total figure is actually £ 525.72, yikes. I would still like to get this down to £200 for 4 weeks but I guess I'm going to have to work hard at it.

Also checked how much money in cash was taken out and it came to £325 of which mines was £175 and OH was £150 again yikes. I had a meal and night out and this is where the majority of my £175 went but it was my first gift out after having baby, so only one night out in 4 months so not a typical cash coming out month iykwim. I'm way off as well saying OH only takes about 20 a week when in actual fact it's almost double this. As I said he is already fed up thinking he is only spending £20 a month never mind the fact it's almost double this.

I think I'm going to convince him that he should only take out £20 a week for the next 4 weeks to save some from this and I will do the same.

missty25

So, I've decided my aim for this week is £25 on shopping not including formula for baby. The rest I'm going to try for no spend days for me but very much doubt I will convince OH to only take out £10 spending money rather than £20.

I had a panic yesterday as we got a random payment of £6 odd from CTC when we normally get about £38, but I've checked today which is the normal day that we get it paid in and it is £49 odd, if this is correct that's an increase of £10 per week. Not counting my chickens yet but if its correct then we'll have an extra £40 a month to help towards stuff for the kids.

I also cancelled my lovefilm subscription so saving £4.99 a month, keeping my Netflix though as I usually watch something in the evenings from it. On 7th August I'm going to change my mobile tariff as my phone is on blink but cannot get a new one until January. So hopefully I'll make a saving there too.

Going to get in the habit of making soup for lunch as when baby starts getting weaned this will be handy for him to get lots if veggies etc.

Feeling more organised. Going to check in everyday so I keep up with my plans for reducing.

One last thing, I would like to build up and emergency fund but obviously getting the debts down is priority, so I'm not sure how much I should out aside to this. Was thinking whatever money left at the end of each week on Wednesday before pay day on Thursdays perhaps I should use half towards debts and then half to emergency fund. If any of you have done this how did you go about it? TIA

missty25

Today is pay day and after the mortgage, tv licence we are left with the sum total of £29 pounds with another £60 of direct debits coming off on the 6th which is Tuesday and my maternity pay doesn't go in until the Wednesday and payday on the Thursday for OH.

I have luckily put aside money for the car repayment and my emergency fund has exactly £60 in so guess ill be using it for the other DD.

In my other account I've got £20 so this will be spent on any emergency shopping needed and we will be living out of the cupboards and freezer. Luckily we have a lot in.

missty25

Was hoping today would be a nsd but I had to get milk and bread at the local shop although this is only £2, £1 for a loaf and £1 for 4 pints. Cheaper than going into to town and wasting petrol I suppose. DD asked for a sweet couldn't resist and she got a packet of milky buttons @65p, yikes when did sweets get so expensive. Bless her though she ain't greedy and only asked for half the packet in a bowl.

So £2.65 in total for today.

I have also got the sum total of £6 exactly in my purse.

Using up stuff in cupboards for tea so having paprika pork chops and Ainsley asparagus and leek risotto with some broccoli and cauliflower.

missty25

Told OH that there is £29 in bank and think he gets it that he can't take any cash out, hopefully...

Been a bit sneaky in that he doesn't know that I have the extra money aside for the DD's coming out on 6th but hopefully this means he won't touch this money and we will be left with an extra £10 for some veg and fruit.

missty25

Well today I have managed to transfer £3000 from my lloyds credit card to virgin card at 0% interest until August 2014. So the remaining balance on my lloyds tsb card is the one I'm aiming to pay off as quickly as possible. Hopefully paying £200 to £250 a month so hoping to get it paid off within 4 to 5 months. Wish me luck.

Today will hopefully be a nsd as not planning on going near the shops but I think I will have to go tomorrow to get some essentials.

OH is working both Saturday and Sunday so should get and extra £150 next weeks wages.

Got a wedding coming up and need to get a present for this as well as an overnight stay and being at the venue all day. Luckily I don't drink much so won't be spending to much on the actual day and OH is going to take his hip flask. If we didn't have all of this to fork out for I reckon we would be saving about £200 this month.

missty25

Yesterday wasn't a nsd as I'd hoped, spent £2.15 at the local shop.

Today I'm going to the supermarket and still aiming to spend £20, I have miscalculated how much cash is left lover and we actually have £40, still aiming for £20 spend though.