Kicking the debt

4greenbottles

Been lurking for a while and have reduced our debt slowly over the last few months. My motivation for starting a diary is that we've just had our offer on a buy to let accepted. We've used every penny of our savings for the deposit. My hubby works full time and im a sahm to our two little ones. Hubby has a heavily subsidised house from his employer and we own our own home mortgage free in another town. We currently rent it out and the plan is to rent the second as soon as it completes.

our debt is mostly 0% although we still have a zopa loan at 5.5%

my purpose of the diary is keep a track of our progress and to keep focussed instead of slipping off the wagon. I have every good intention but lose focus too easily. Prime example is that I've been over paying the zopa loan and saving to completely clear it. We've had a tough year and decided we needed a family break. looking at things tonight and the realisation that we could have paid the zopa off for less than the holiday cost!

Any way that's in the past and we need to move forward. My hubby is due a large bonus at the end of the month so the plan is to clear as much as we can and pay the final solicitors Bill and stamp duty for the new house
. I need to look at the figures and put a plan into action!

4greenbottles

It's been a few days since I first joined and I've been very busy with our money matters. So far I've :

-1- sorted out our soa and will post in a couple of days when I've got all the o/s debts updated
made myself a lovely all singing all dancing budget / soa sheet in excel. Have set it up starting in September after pay day. :j
-2- looked at ways to reduce outgoings and it seems we on the best deal for everything. I'm naturally quite tight so already use quidco and insurance comparisons for best deals.

-3- Still looking at ways to increase our income. Seems selling stuff is the easiest option at the mo due to childcare.

-4- Sold £7 of garden pots on a FB local page

-5- Sold a KitchenAid cook I had free and never used not sure how much i'll make as need to post yet but it's £13-57 before postage.

-6- Set a £10 a day budget for rest of month so we can scrap through to pay day. Will save the non spend in a little pot for rainy days and emgerency chocolate :-)

Have spent £8-90 on tampax (grrr should be free!) a couple of bits of shopping for tea inc a pizza for kids as a treat instead of takeway and a 50p pot of rabbit food at our local farm shop. Had a lovely morning out with huge picnic so £8-90 for the day is great by our normal standards, would have been £10 in the caf! and the children enjoyed it more!

I'm feeling quite nervous about the whole money saving thing, but know it's for a reason. I'm fed up not saving any money and only chipping away at our debts. We have good money coming into the house, but it disappears along with all the odd socks! My head buzzing with ideas at the minute and I could waffle on forever, but am off to make a huge pot of soup for my tea so I'm not tempted with the cheapie frozen pizza!

4greenbottles

took a trip to the post office and sent the book. It was easy heavy and cost £5-60! Still it's £7-97 for something I didn't want. Not sure how quick the money is paid out but will add to todays total.

Have definately got the selling bug thanks to a selling group on Facebook! Listed a couple of the kids old toys and coats and sold £12, £6, £5 and £3 :-) can't believe how easy it was snapping, uploading and then wait for people to come and collect. Think I've been lucky, but everyone has collected tonight so the money is in my sweaty little hand.

With the Amazon sale and the bits I've sold on Facebook my total total is £40-97! I've put the £33 from local sales in a savings jar and will hopefully keep adding to it! When the Amazon pays Will add it in. Not sure what I'll do with it but am thinking I should use it to pay off my 0% credit card which is due to be cleared by December's rate hike.

myskinnylife

Good luck and well done for taking control. Will subscribe x

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary
Looking forward to seeing your SOA.

4greenbottles

Thanks for popping by beanie & myskinny. well done skinny on your journey so far, that's amazing!

Right am sticking to the £10 a day challenge, but didn't know how to plan a shop. Have decided to take £50 which is to cover us until Sunday night. I didn't need much shopping, but the usual milk, fruit and veg. Am going to raid the freezer and finish my meal planning until then and hopefully scrap through without anymore spending.

I did forget bread so will have to bread a loaf tomorrow. Rather than piling all my cleaning stuff, conditioner and some toiletries into my basket I popped to the the 99p (and a couple of pots of sweets for the kids.... not not list but for a reason)

Total spent : £35-59 / £50-00
Sainsburys shop : £22-27
99p Shop : £7-92
Cinema tickets : £5-40 (old film and cheapest tickets)

I did book the cinema tickets on-line for the savings. I've got an unlimited card so cost £5-40 for all 4 of us with sweets and juice bought in the sainsburys shop :-) Have realised it's just changing the way you think about things.

For the rest of the weekend we've got a lot of outdoor free activities planned and a game of free bowling I won. I'll take drinks and food to alley so not spending whilst we're there.

Thursday - Cinema trip, hm soup lunch and casserole tea
Friday - dog walk with children's best friend & picnic lunch (food from sainsburys today) Rest of Casserole
Saturday - free bowling and freezer surprise tea
Sunday - Housework morning, family bike ride and small port joint out freezer

Seems easy on paper, but lets see how we get on! Will do my soa later xxx

myskinnylife

Well done.. rest of the week sounds lovely! Enjoy x

4greenbottles

Here it is warts and all. Am loading using a tablet so may take a bit if time to get done so formatted properly.still waiting for sale to go through so put two figures one with house and current details.

2 adults, 2 kids
1 car
2 houses and living in hubbys employers house (subsidized so perk)

Incomes
Hubby wages £2132.69
Hubby job (2) £189.05
Rent (1) £749.00
(Rent (2) £705.00 when house completes and rented)
Child benefit £134.80

Total : now £3205.54 (house £3910.54)

Outgoings
(Mortgage £535.00) when 2nd completes
Council tac £102.60
Car loan £300
Loan £113.92
Credit card min £25.00
Gas / electric £140.00
Phone tv internet £70.00
Mobiles x2 £72.00
Pet insurance £14.44
House insurance £50 (with house £62)
Life insurance £11.05
Life insurance £6.06
Kids savings £40.00
Charity £13.02
Hubby sports membership £15.99
Food £300.00
Diesel £100.00
Savings car tax, service, tv licence etc £100.00

Total : now £1474.08 (house £2021.08)

Balance £1731.46 (with house rented £1889.46)

4greenbottles

Wow that's an eye opener^^^^ I wouldn't say we're bad with money, but nit strict. Will post the debts we have outstanding in a minute. We do have a decent chunk of savings but nearly every penny going to the house deposit. Hubby has news of his bonus which will be £2500 which we'll use for the legal fees and stamp duty.

Car o/s £9060 cleAred March 2015 0%
Loan o/s £2962 cleAred May 2015 5.5%
Credit card £1674.00 needs clearing Dec 13 when 0% ends

Have nothing on our other cards or overdrafts and trying to keep in.the black to start fresh next month.

My plan
- complete house asap
- need to buy white goods for house £600 est
- do couple of jobs in house £400 Sat
- let house asap
- surplus money pay towards credit card
- MUST clear credit card by Dec when interest hikes
- keep selling the clutter and save towards Christmas £40-97 to date
- check online banking daily

So that's the figures, the debts and the plan. Just need to stick to it!

cazmanian_minx

Happy new diary

4greenbottles wrote: »

Have spent £8-90 on tampax (grrr should be free!)

Switch to a Mooncup? http://www.mooncup.co.uk/ £21.99 in Boots and they last 5 years. Fantastic little things

4greenbottles

Thanks for the reply cazmanian, my friend has one and one and loves it and tried talking me round.

I'm such a weak stomach person lol and the thought makes me gip. You are talking to the mum that passed out for my daughter's nose bleed :rotfl:

I should have been a boy lol! I'd rather bin the tv package than have to save on my hygiene items :-)

Ps a lovely email from quidco saving I've got my 30 car insurance cash back on the way! Should hit the account in a couple of days so it's a bit more to help scrap through into the black. I need to move all the money together as we currently have money in 3 accounts. Will do the online banking in a bit and pool it all together. X