Moving On Up In 2014

Cinny91

Hoping the title is a good luck charm for 2014!

Here's my old diary, in case anyone is that bored and/or interested

When I joined the forum in 2008 I kind of promised myself I'd be forever awesome with money. That I wouldn't get into debt and I'd build up good savings. But er, things didn't pan out that way. From moving out and facing the real work on a part time wage, car loans and new sofas, I'm just sick of always being on the bad end of debt.

So 2014 is going to be our year to just slay it, once an for all. We're earning more than enough to live comfortably right now, there's no reason for us to be in debt.

Other than that our situation is really no different to where we were last year. Still two people stumbling through life, wondering when someone will stop us and realise we aren't qualified to be adults. Still have one crackalackers puppy, and one slightly different but equally annoying car loan Onwards and upwards!

Cinny91

Goals:

Pay my Grandad £200+ a month - to have the debt repaid before the end of October.
Keep our food budget to £40 a week - will be cooking more meals from scratch, and be only a 5 minute walk from a supermarket once we move so I can combine Ryder's night walk with getting stickered deals to save

kansaskitty

Hi Cinny, glad to find a new diary from you. I have subscribed and will read with interest, and not be so shy about posting replies this year!

Cinny91

Would love to hear more from you Kitty! Obviously, if you have the time Happy New Year xx

And Happy New Year to my new diary! I'm back at work, so actually at a computer and ready to type! The two weeks off were great but getting up at 6am again when I've been snoozing in until 9am was a shock to the system.

Spent most of the days after New Years with not a lot to do so I was working on my budget for January which is sadly tight with zero wiggle room. After January things look a lot brighter and we'll have roughly £70 a week spare from my wages, but in the grand scheme of things going to America is totally not even realistic. We don't have anything left to sell, bar my Kindle which is going on ebay asap. It was free so I'm happy just getting £20 or so for it as it's fairly old in the world of technology! I had a slight (read:full blown) panic attack the day after we figured this out, but I've spoke to my Sister who says they're happy to pay for one of our flights. So if we can get about £700 together (I won't even lie, I'm fully relying on OH's wages for this) then we can go Otherwise, after October I'll have about £150 a week "spare" and zero debt so we can start saving and look to go in the low season. Phew, bit of a mouthful!

I can't update money wise properly just yet. As our credit card decided to take the payment out twice so I'm £700 down right now. How can they take money in two seconds but not be able to return it for 10 business days? At least it has the silver lining of me not wanting to spend on my debit card because it's all up in the air. But as soon as it's refunded, I can totally do an update!

Finally closed my old bank account and various savers over the holidays so that's £2 saved a month. Also put things into motion for moving bills etc to the new place as we have a moving date on February 1st :j:j We were given money from family members with strict instructions to buy house things and not put them towards bills (damn! ) so we got some things in the sale that I'm excited to finally use when we move!

Ordering the kitchen for the new house today, managed to trim a lot of the cost from the quote so it's down to £150 now. My Dad and Uncle own the house and have a standard amount of money they put into a refurb, so the £150 is just the difference between what they normally spend and what we picked out Once that's ordered and the money is refunded we have the biggest cost of buying the oven, hob and extractor fan :eek:

Cinny91

Well the extra payment has left the credit card, and is fluttering around somewhere out there in cyber space. Hoping it clears by tomorrow so I can have a real sort out of money Been extremely good and still haven't used my debit card since before New Years :beer:

I really am starting to worry about how I'll afford to run my car this year, and is the expense really worth what I use it for? I've been extremely lucky in recent years, my Parents have paid for my car insurance as they paid for my Brother and Sisters for so many years, and then I had last years as my Birthday/Christmas/Everything present. This year my luck is up! Going to send out for some insurance quotes tomorrow so I can make my mind up. Then I can possibly look into buying another card next year when we're in a better place money wise. Either way, he really needs to be cleaned today so that's on the to do list!

Been busy today at work, but managed to fit in a little coupon printing. Nothing amazing but I'm hoping we'll be able to just use them to stock up on cleaning supplies

We're on our last day of reduced sausage meals too, surprisingly I'm not sick of them. Might be another answer from OH! We got them for pennies reduced over the weekend so it's been interesting to say the least. The best meal was when I remembered toad in the hole existed yesterday, we had it with seasoned mash (is it weird I put Hendersons in our mash?) and steamed veggies. For the final night I've found a recipe for "creamy chilli and garlic pasta" which you chop them up in? OH doesn't seem convinced! I think he'll just be glad for it to be over

Off out with Ryder this afternoon (one reason no car would be an issue!) the house is fairly clean, I won't say spotless but nothing urgently needs doing so it's always good to get out for some fresh air Will need to put some petrol in my car, but other than that it's a free day! Just want it to be Friday already so I can make some change to the debt!

alioops78

Hi Cinny

Followed you over from your other diary. Plans although tight look like they'll work.

The saving for our trip over to Oz to see my sister next year begins now too so I completely understand. The bonus of going to see family is there's no need to pay for accommodation.

*subscribed*

kansaskitty

Hendersons in mash, I'll have to try that!

Birdie85

Happy new diary! :wave:

I'm too tired to follow all the money stuff, but I'm sure you'll make it all work out! At least you have a back up plan for LA in case you can't make it in June.

Sounds sensible to get rid of the car if you think you can do without. We've only got one between us and it works a treat even if people do look at us like freaks because we have to share!

starnac

Happy new diary.

We too only have one car and we make it work. Yes it does mean thinking things through a bit more but it's not too bad. X

Dinah93

We had one car for a long time. It wouldn't be doable now I have Grace, but when it was just the two of us it was fine. We live in walking distance of a train station which helps a lot though.

Cinny91

Oooh, it feels like home now that everyone is here!

I decided to go ahead and add up all our debt besides the car and it stands at... £3150.54 :eek: How do I always end up back here? Could it possibly be my lack of budgets and inability to save for things if I can find a "quick" way to get something? Ugh. I swear on everything this is the last time I wind back up here. I was debt free last year and this is ridiculous! Still waiting on my pennies to be refunded so I've made a very small dint of £65. But I'm going to aim to clear £750 off of it this month

I think as it stands I'm keeping little car. OH has given me £80 for 6 months road tax so that at least gets us until MOT and Insurance time. So we can figure it out all over again in the Summer!

Had a super busy weekend, OH was out on Saturday so I managed to get stuck in and move a fair bit of stuff to the new house. Both the spare bedrooms are now empty (bar laundry things in one room, and my dresser in the other) under the stairs is clear apart from the freezer and the only things in the coal shed are things we'll need to deep clean the house after we move out. Our kitchen gets fitted next Monday, suddenly it's all very very real!

I did find my old laptop, a nice Sony that I only had for about 18 months before I completely forgot my password and couldn't use it Anyways, I'm more of a "tech wiz" now and managed to bypass the password (I only use my powers for good!) so I popped all our old pictures on a usb to put on OH's laptop and restored it to factory settings. Was going to sell it but remembered my friend needed a new laptop so gave it to him instead. He's saving to go travelling so I'm hoping it's helped him out

Also, OH has agreed to FINALLY take me to Comic Con for my birthday. It lands on the weekend before the actual day, so technically my birthday weekend So excited, I'm also kind of wanting to Cosplay (who am I kidding "kind of" I have two whole outfits planned) but I'm keeping it very hushed until I have the tickets booked and OH can't say we're not going if I dress up :cool: