Time to wake up and smell the free work provided coffee...

Verbatim

Sorry to hear that.

Ianise

Just had a quote of £675.00 so not as expensive as I thought, but still....!!

Primula

HEllo
Just had a read of your diary, my only advice would be to come on this site every single day if you can, there is so much inspiration and good advice on here. Also, regularly post on your own diary to try to keep you motivated, even on the bad days, there will be bad days, none of us are perfect. I also find that using my bank card is bad, so I tend to work out the cash for the month and withdraw it out and then divide it up into little envelopes so when I go shopping I know I have £70 or whatever to spend and so I have to plan and count up if you know what I mean. Good luck on your journey though, you CAN do it!
P

kissjenn

Hi,

One bit of advice I got years ago but found very hard to swallow was to think of kids savings as "Family" money not theirs in times like this.

How long have you saved up for them at £150pm? What is sitting in accounts they will have no real need for for another 12 or 13 years?

If it's a substantial sum look to diverting it towards the roof or the costlier CCs. They benefit more from you being debt free and less stressed than you no having two ha'pennys to rub together and feeling miserable. Once your debt free then simply sey up a new savings account for each girl and they'll still have a nice little nest egg when they need it.

As I say, advice I found very hard to take as I thought I was "stealing" but the older I get the more sensible it becomes.

KJ

Ianise

Thanks both.

I am trying to visit everyday and I am making a conscious effort to offer others advise as I have been offered.

funnily enough the kids savings are where I have offered the most advice, saying exactly what you have Kissjenn.

Unfortunately the money for the kids is in one of those government incentive accounts where we cannot get at it, otherwise I would be using it.

I have stopped the DD now, well I can't stop it completely there is a minimum amount that we need to pay in, £25, so that means we have an extra £100 per month to throw at the debt.

Ianise

Primula wrote: »

HEllo
Just had a read of your diary, my only advice would be to come on this site every single day if you can, there is so much inspiration and good advice on here. Also, regularly post on your own diary to try to keep you motivated, even on the bad days, there will be bad days, none of us are perfect. I also find that using my bank card is bad, so I tend to work out the cash for the month and withdraw it out and then divide it up into little envelopes so when I go shopping I know I have £70 or whatever to spend and so I have to plan and count up if you know what I mean. Good luck on your journey though, you CAN do it!
P

I am trying to persuade the good lady wife that we need to have the food budget in cash for that exact reason Primula, however she doesn't like the idea of having cash lying around the house....

So as a compromise we are only doing click and collect shops, saves on the delivery charge, and that way we don't have to go in to the store, just the collection point.

asparagus1968

oh, that's clever, click and collect, no temptation with offers then! do all the supermarkets do that? never heard of it before. you could do a "virtual envelope" system instead of having the actual cash lying around. just put the weekly amounts into a different account, and withdraw weekly?

I bought a dry wipe pen and use the fridge door for menu planning and to-do lists:)

will your buildings insurance not pay for the roof?

Ianise

Hi Asparagus,

I did toy with the idea of a dry wipe pen for the fridge door, I guess it would work..... does it leave any staining at all?

My local Asda and Tesco do it Tesco have done for a while, Asda seem to have taken it on in the last 6 months.

asparagus1968

thanks for that info.

dry wipe pen doesn't stain at all, though it does need an occaisional wash down rather than just a "dry wipe" !!

addicted2shopping

Hi, I am just starting out myself and I am not sure if this would help but I have started doing the NSD challenge and I set myself a target of 3 days a week. It doesn't sound much but is harder than you think. The reason I suggest it is because it really does make you think about how often you spend money as well. It well and truely shocked me last month. If you and your wife both try to do it you could turn it into a competition to see who racks up the most at the end of the month?

Just a suggestion, its helping me.

Other suggestions that have helped me are only going food shopping once a week even if you run out, it excourages you to be more creative with what you have left and also to try and make things last. I know personally I overspend regularly in supermarkets.

Not sure if these may help, but good luck!