Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

StressedSteph

Thank you Sweetpea.


The eb#yable items are getting abit thin on the ground now. Going to have to get abit more creative with my ideas.


xxx

mizmir

You know you can make things that sell Steph - can you do a bit more of that this month? I know the feeling about shortfall. Ours is currently running at about £1K! :eek: It is not as desperate as it sounds as we have that much in our long terms pots but I really didn't want to drawn on that reserve. So am working on getting as much as I can in other ways. Not going so well this month but hoping I am putting things in place that will bring in a good amount within a month or so - so at least if we do have to draw on these pots we are able to repay them.

YNAB is so good for letting you know what the real situation is!

Puzzcat

Hi SS,


I would have put the money to Next as well as these catalogues appear to be awful bu**ers compared to the high street lenders, I would definately make contact with them as the last thing you want is to find they are adding charges etc to your account after all the effort your putting in..


With regards to your ds's english, not sure what age/year he is in, but have you tried the bbc bitesize websites, not sure how good they are.. but free...:D


Now I know you won't reply as you are busy sewing at the moment.. arn't you.......


Puzz...

dawnybabes

I've downloaded a £1.99 app called something like Squeebles it's brilliant, you set the spellings and as they get them right they win things on the game. Really helped my ds.

debtfreewannabe321

Hey Steph, My ds2 is behind with reading (i'm not very concerned though, he's 4 and the second youngest in the year) and my DD is struggling a little with maths so i've done a bit of research and there are tonnes of websites that help kids with their homework. Things they can do online themselves if old enough or things you can download and print off to do with them. I'm going to be having a look at what to download for my two once I get 5 minutes. I remember my ds1 using these sites too and it really helped him come along in English

My shortfall is £400 next month, lovely of my spreadsheet to highlight this fact for me as now all i've done is panic must go re-read the secret and think more positively haha xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Hi Steph

Hope you're having a good week so far.

Just caught up from the last few days. First, EXCELLENT news about meeting your mini goal for March! :j Well done. It's the little goals that make all the difference, I think. Keep up the excellent work.

I hope you get sorted with Next. As others have said, writing to them seems the best plan of action at the moment, and certainly focus on that one just to get it out of the way. I agree with what you say about not letting them bully you into making more payments - but you don't need the extra stress of them harrassing you for money!

I hope you can sort out the shortfall. Sometimes I find it helps to go back to the drawing board - even if just on a piece of paper and jot down a new set of budget figures to see if shifting things around can make a difference.

Also, LOVE the idea of selling flowers! Like others have said, you have the resources, and they'll no doubt sell well as there's always a market, so it is a no brainer. Good luck with that and keep us posted!

xx

StressedSteph

Wow so many replies,thank you all. xx

mfmaybe wrote: »

Brilliant. As I was reading the bit about your concern of a shortfall, I was crafting a response in my head that said "but at least you know!". And when I read on I saw that you'd already got there. Knowledge is power. I'm the same at the moment, still getting caught out without savings pots but I know exactly where I am. This is progress. I think you are doing brilliantly!

Hi hun,


We must have cross posted yesterday.
You are so right about knowledge is power. Between putting things in my head into this diary and the YNAB budget, I am hopefully pre-empting any forth coming money issues as best as any of us ever can, without a crystal ball


I will keep plodding on

mizmir wrote: »

You know you can make things that sell Steph - can you do a bit more of that this month? I know the feeling about shortfall. Ours is currently running at about £1K! :eek: It is not as desperate as it sounds as we have that much in our long terms pots but I really didn't want to drawn on that reserve. So am working on getting as much as I can in other ways. Not going so well this month but hoping I am putting things in place that will bring in a good amount within a month or so - so at least if we do have to draw on these pots we are able to repay them.

YNAB is so good for letting you know what the real situation is!

Hi Miz,


I am like you, even though I only have a mediocre £400 in my combined savings pots, I am becoming quite protective over them and because savings up is such a new things to us, I really like the idea of their safety net. I really don't want to end up withdrawing ANY unless it is for the specific thing they were saved for. Will get making again.


Good luck with yours, we still have two weeks of March left to pull something out of the bag

Puzzcat wrote: »

Hi SS,


I would have put the money to Next as well as these catalogues appear to be awful bu**ers compared to the high street lenders, I would definately make contact with them as the last thing you want is to find they are adding charges etc to your account after all the effort your putting in..

With regards to your ds's english, not sure what age/year he is in, but have you tried the bbc bitesize websites, not sure how good they are.. but free...:D

Now I know you won't reply as you are busy sewing at the moment.. arn't you.......

Puzz...

Hi Puzzcat,


N#xt really annoyed me yesterday. I thought we had JUST got to the point where, I had spoken to everyone, all companies we on board, payment plans in place and then they go and throw me another curve ball. I really don't want to pay over £200 interest on that crummy £1600 debt. Extortionate.
I will send them a stalling letter and then focus on them next.
Hope all is good with you. xx

StressedSteph

dawnybabes wrote: »

I've downloaded a £1.99 app called something like Squeebles it's brilliant, you set the spellings and as they get them right they win things on the game. Really helped my ds.

Hi Dawnybabes,


I will look that app up. Thanks
My children already do an online programme called Mathletics.
But nothing for English which is where my son is struggling.

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Hey Steph, My ds2 is behind with reading (i'm not very concerned though, he's 4 and the second youngest in the year) and my DD is struggling a little with maths so i've done a bit of research and there are tonnes of websites that help kids with their homework. Things they can do online themselves if old enough or things you can download and print off to do with them. I'm going to be having a look at what to download for my two once I get 5 minutes. I remember my ds1 using these sites too and it really helped him come along in English

My shortfall is £400 next month, lovely of my spreadsheet to highlight this fact for me as now all i've done is panic must go re-read the secret and think more positively haha xx

Hi DFW,


My son is 9 and my daughter is 7. I want to help him catch up as best as possible because he is currently in year 4. But there seems to be a big step up in workload etc once they go to year 5. His main trouble is he has switched off to trying . He feels he is rubbish at it, so doesn't want to try. He has a terrible attitude towards extra work. Hopefully the meeting with his teacher will give me some work to do with him at home that links in with what the school are currently doing.


I have no idea how to change his attitude around.
I have made a little Homework Plan for both my children.
Every night they have 5 different homework categories.


Reading
Any school homework
Spelling
Times tables
Mathletics


Each category next 10 minutes spent on it to earn a sticker.
Each sticker is worth 10p.


So at the end of the week they can earn up to £3.50 each in pocket money.


This is my only idea as a way to incentivise him to do the work knowing that he is actually earning money, much like what dad does every day.


Will see if it works.

FinanciallyUnsavvy wrote: »

Hi Steph

Hope you're having a good week so far.

Just caught up from the last few days. First, EXCELLENT news about meeting your mini goal for March! :j Well done. It's the little goals that make all the difference, I think. Keep up the excellent work.

I hope you get sorted with Next. As others have said, writing to them seems the best plan of action at the moment, and certainly focus on that one just to get it out of the way. I agree with what you say about not letting them bully you into making more payments - but you don't need the extra stress of them harrassing you for money!

I hope you can sort out the shortfall. Sometimes I find it helps to go back to the drawing board - even if just on a piece of paper and jot down a new set of budget figures to see if shifting things around can make a difference.

Also, LOVE the idea of selling flowers! Like others have said, you have the resources, and they'll no doubt sell well as there's always a market, so it is a no brainer. Good luck with that and keep us posted!

xx

Yes really glad to meet my March Mini Goal although in my haste to try to kill off my Barclayc#rd I think I have accidentally made myself short somehow to pay my last two debts their minimum payment this month. Grrrrrr


Now have to find that from somewhere.


I do need to look again at my expenses. I know I can save on my house insurance but it doesn't need renewing until October and assume I will lose too much if I try to cancel and move elsewhere.

StressedSteph

Morning all.


Abit stressed about our entertainment budget this week.

Hubby plays skittles once a week. He gets £30 per week FUN money. He spends £20 at skittles which leaves him with £10 to save up for anything else he wants.

Well for some reason he has skittles 2 times this week and a monthly village golf game on Sunday. (*£30)

Also a few months ago I booked for us to go to the local pub this Saturday for a comedy night
£20 entry
£20 babysitter
£20 probably for a drink
£60 :eek:

I didn't overly save for this as I thought we could combine our FUN money during March to pay for it. But it looks like hubby will already have over spent with his skittles and Golf events.


Hubby has annoyed me this morning, because he thinks we should just take something out of the savings :mad:.
I explained to him that that is a slippery slope and I don't want us to think that the savings are just there to dip into whenever we want to.

Grrrr will just have to re-look at YNAB and see if there are any left overs in other pots that I can combine to afford it all.

I do find hubbys constant hobby obsession really irritating. I guess its just bad luck that he has extra skittles and a golf session on the same week as I booked this Comedy night. I suppose I shouldn't have assumed that there would be spare FUN money and I should have put it aside when we had spare cash.

Typical my first real hurdle turns up in the month that I already have a shortfall.

I do get so annoyed when life gets in the way of debt repayment


Hubby FUN Money £30
My FUN money £20
= £50


Skittles £20
Golf £30
Comedy Night £60
= £110


£110 - FUN £50 = £60 short :0

mfmaybe

Life has an annoying way of doing that. But back to what I said before...you've worked out in advance that this is an issue and are figuring out ways to deal with it. That's all you can do. I know my husband is only supportive up to a point but gets a bit bored when it impacts his fun. For us what works is only merging finances for true joint spends (mortgage, gas, food shopping) but his hobbies come out of his wages, and same for mine. It's what works for us but that's possible as we both work FT on similar salaries. I appreciate it's not a solution for everyone. Ask him to sew up a few bits of bunting to fill the gap