Mr and Mrs K's New Journey to a Debt Free Life.

7roland8

AlexLK wrote: »

My father is unfortunately not OK but we are hoping things will continue to improve albeit very slowly. As for Sunday, my mother is struggling to cope with things, I've no doubt some will be pleased to hear that.

I second what Maddie has said above Alex. It was nothing against your Mum so much as we were annoyed on your behalf of the way you were treated - we know you love your parents.

On a positive - not taking some salary means you are clearing the debt to the business - so therefore you are doing things this month.

Sometimes you will be standing still and sometimes even going backwards a little - the trick is to not go back too far or to give up - any step in the right direction is a positive move.

And for goodness sake don't start worrying about school fees. We got two sons through uni on benefits after husband injured at work - things can be done and life has a way of happening anyway.

Mara_uk7

Have you actually sit down and worked out how much you will need to get Mini-K started at his fee paying school ? And how many months you have to raise that money, bearing in mind that while he is being educated you can still be saving .. its not like you have to pay it all up front is it ?
Get those interest charging debts paid off first, otherwise you might as well be putting £20 notes on the fire.
Youre doing fine, Youve changed so much since you started here. Stop beating yourself up, Life will always find a way to throw obstacles at us , its up to us not to fall over them.

AlexLK

7roland8 wrote: »

I second what Maddie has said above Alex. It was nothing against your Mum so much as we were annoyed on your behalf of the way you were treated - we know you love your parents.

On a positive - not taking some salary means you are clearing the debt to the business - so therefore you are doing things this month.

Sometimes you will be standing still and sometimes even going backwards a little - the trick is to not go back too far or to give up - any step in the right direction is a positive move.

And for goodness sake don't start worrying about school fees. We got two sons through uni on benefits after husband injured at work - things can be done and life has a way of happening anyway.

Thank you for your post.

I am actually thinking of clearing the debt to the business in this way (not taking any salary), though not sure Mrs. K. would be happy with that as she's meant to be saving the majority of her wages.

Fortunately, I reckon I've come too far to simply give up, though things are difficult at the moment.

Mara_uk7 wrote: »

Have you actually sit down and worked out how much you will need to get Mini-K started at his fee paying school ? And how many months you have to raise that money, bearing in mind that while he is being educated you can still be saving .. its not like you have to pay it all up front is it ?
Get those interest charging debts paid off first, otherwise you might as well be putting £20 notes on the fire.
Youre doing fine, Youve changed so much since you started here. Stop beating yourself up, Life will always find a way to throw obstacles at us , its up to us not to fall over them.

Thank you, Mara.

I have worked out that we have two years and a term saved. Though we do not have to pay all up front, I want to have the peace of mind that we've got enough to not end up resorting to getting ourselves into debt again.

I'll get there with the interest charging debts and have a quiet (as far as I am aware) weekend to do something about them, hopefully.

AlexLK

Thursday 27th February, 2014.

Dear Diary,

I've realised that I have stopped spending money just for the hell of it, buying things I do not remotely need and in some cases don't even want just because there's money "burning a hole in my pocket" as the saying goes. Although in my case, it was often more like it was burning a hole in the bank's pocket. Starting to clear the house out has helped to alleviate my often frequent trips into the two nearby cities as I've found things I didn't know I had, leaving me without excuses to buy. Now if only Mrs. K. would follow my example, we might get somewhere.

Upon starting this diary, I thought everybody's story would be a similar one to mine and people wound up having to sell their houses because they had simply been stupidly spending money on anything they fancied for years upon years. Finding that was not the case left me in somewhat of a state of shock, yet at the same time made my realise just how fortunate I am. Therefore today, after the blip in confidence yesterday, I have strived to maintain a positive outlook.

Hoping to provide you with some debt busting news tomorrow.

Summary:
+£75.00 Music Teaching.
-£32.00 Groceries.

Yours Faithfully,
Alex.

7roland8

Wow Alex - what a positive self aware post - well done.

Yes its fun to 'shop at home first' - as often you have the thing you need under a pile of junk somewhere - or can do without it anyway.

Personally I love seeing my debt totals coming down - even if only very slightly - though things like oil or car repairs push it back up so often just standing still.
Yes I know I should budget for oil etc but we just cannot seem to.

Just a note about school fees - do you factor in oil the extra stuff that might be needed? I doubt the fees will be the only costs - what about school trips, sports equipment etc?

AlexLK

Roland: I am trying to get out of the mindset of doing nothing about my situation and into a "if you're getting knocked-back at least you're trying in the first place" kind of mindset. You never know something may come of the hard work but nothing will if no effort is made, eh?

It's very nice to see totals coming down. However, I know where you are coming from in not being able to budget for everything, we can't at the moment, either.

With regards to school fees I have not accounted for the cost of trips and ECs. Though I don't really remember doing that much apart from music in pre-prep, that is likely just my long term memory failing a little though.

AlexLK

A question to all: how do you cope with the weekends? Since we started this debt free journey, we've cut out a lot of our usual weekend activities, which usually meant spending money. It's not as if I've got nothing to do - there's plenty. However, all the jobs that end up happening at the weekend are not jobs I want to do and Mrs. K. would rather I did not do anything relating to work (which I am rather motivated with at the moment).

Recently, weekends in my world are blanketed in a fog of misery and a complete lack of productivity which in turn causes arguments between Mrs. K. and I. Funnily enough when we were spending money we didn't have on things we didn't need or in some cases even want, we had much better weekends.

7roland8

Yes its amazing how the weekends go when you go shopping!

Why not plan ahead and draw up a list of fun things to do as family and with son - some for wet weather like indoor play places to gardens or parks and picnics for when its nice.

Also factor in a nice home made meal and bottle of plonk with wife.

What does she want to do at weekends?

7roland8

Are there any places local where you can get a season ticket so you can pop there with son quite often?
We had a large farm and play place which I did that and it worked well.

AlexLK

What does she want to do? Erm, shopping followed by going out for a meal. Or the even more expensive option of car shopping. She doesn't really like going to indoor play centres or parks at all and takes our son swimming on Fridays. Currently, shes taken him to Nottingham shopping and left me home alone.