A New Year Newbies Diary

Squirrelly

I wanted to do a proper entry this evening as I have been busy the last couple of days. Youngest has picked up a little bug, nothing major at all, just a temperature and a bit of a disturbed night last night. This means I haven't got as far on the decluttering but I am more than happy to pause this plan for lots of cuddles
Looks like hubby is going to Portugal but his work are going to reimburse him for the passport, hurrah.

Right a said I would do a list of positives so here we go

- we live in our forever home - the house needs quite a bit of work, but it's the right size for us and we have a relatively small mortgage thanks to being lucky with our timing. There is no pressure on us to get into a bigger house or onto the housing ladder (I really feel for people doing it now its a different world to when we first did it)

- Our family is complete - we have two beautiful healthy children and again there is no pressure to beat the debts in order to be able to have more children.

- My hubby has almost got the degree he has always wanted and been capable of - and we have done this ourselves, we are in the last 6 months and he is on course for a first. I am terrifically proud of him.

- We both have jobs - and we enjoy them most of the time and we are not badly paid. So once we get these stupid debts sorted we should have a good lifestyle.

- My best friend is also on a debt journey and is a great source of support and is happy for me to moan at her, even if I do sound like a stuck record.

- We are happy - for the most part money is the one thing that gets us down, and we are now doing something about it :T:T

OrangeFairy

Awwww Squirrelly I absolutely love your list of positives! What a great thing to do. I am incredibly envious of you having your forever home...this is the one big thing we are missing.

I hope your little one is feeling better now

OF x

Box_of_Fluffies

I hope your DD has recovered from her bug.

What a great list and one to reflect on while travelling down this debt busting road.

Great news that your husband will be reimbursed the cost of his passport. :j

themarsbargirl

*waves* just wanted to say hello and ask if i could join in?

Squirrelly

hello again everybody,
I am glad the list of positives were good, I was a bit worried they would come across as a bit smug, which was not the intention. I need a reminder about how lucky I am especially when I am feeling low. Problems with money can feel so all consuming as they impact on so many other areas that I think it is easy to forget your blessings.

We all seem to have recovered from the lurgy which of course did the rounds through the whole family. The eldest came out of school looking as white as a sheet on Friday and was fast asleep by 4pm, this from a child who usually tries to stay up as late as possible . He is much brighter now so after I have finished this diary entry I am going to badger him to do his homework.

For this diary entry I am going to list the negatives, the things that get me down and make me feel low. I think these would be important for balance and also to remind myself when I am starting to fall into low mood 'traps'.

- Our forever home needs a LOT of work, I think we need at a minimum the electrics looking at (the lights in the bedroom and upstairs bathroom have not worked for months and I cant afford to get an electrician out to look at them), new fences (it's amazing the survived the recent weather, but most are falling down/rotting) and new double glazing/doors (most don't fit properly making the house very draughty and affecting our high fuel bills), in the next few years I suspect we are going to need a new kitchen and downstairs bathroom and that before you start on the more decorative things we would LIKE to do. I struggle with the fact that that we live in a house where it feels like nothing works! I also feel anxious that this will impact the kids view of their childhoods.

- We do very little as a family, because money has been so very tight there is nothing left for doing anything nice with the kids, we don't go to the cinema, bowling, youngest has never even been in a swimming pool! In the last 4-5 months we have not taken them out anywhere to eat or even been able afford the petrol to take them to 'free' events such as museums, parks etc. I can feel very depressed and guilty about this.

- There is nothing in reserve, I need to get an emergency fund. I hate the feeling of panic every time an unexpected (or even an expected one off) bill come in and I have to spend time and worry figuring out how we are going to pay it, or we are going to not pay in order to pay it.

So there we have it the traps, a fairly toxic mixture of feeling out of control and maternal guilt! I am determined that 2014 will be the last year where these feelings are able to get to me I will do better, work harder and get back in control.

Thanks for taking the time to read and have a great MSE week xx

Box_of_Fluffies

Thanks for sharing your negative thoughts as well as the positives. I totally understand you on the house situation. We live in an older house (by NZ standards) and it too needs new fencing, new bathroom and new kitchen. We need new carpets throughout the whole house too - they are threadbare in some places. Everything is so expensive in NZ that I worry we'll never get around to it.

Once you get your income/expenditure under control you can start building some pots for things like an emergency fund and/or household maintenance. I have several of these. My emergency fund is very small and I still get freaked out when something unexpected happens (like my trip back to the UK in Sept for my grandma's funeral) but having a budget certainly helps. At least I know what we have leftover at the end of the month so I can make extra payments to reduce the credit card debt (this is how I paid for trip) more quickly. So far I have managed to have enough money going through the account not to incur any interest charges.

Squirrelly

Helloooo again sorry for the long delay in entries, I hadn't forgotten you it's just been a very busy couple of weeks.

Quite a bit has been going on and with the children so busy, the weeks just fly by. This is not necessarily a bad thing as it means these tough months should pass quickly and we can move from being a debt minimising wannabe to a proper debt free wannabe.

Thanks for the replies box of fluffies and OF I have been keeping up with you via my emails. So even if I haven't been on I have still been thinking of you and keeping up to date with your journeys.

So bad stuff and good stuff in the last couple of weeks (there has been too much to go into vast details I would send you all to sleep!!)

Bad things - additional buying that a I didn't really need, two new bath mats for the bathroom (paid for on the credit card v.v.naughty) and £5 spend in costa for a latte and muffin whilst I was waiting around after a days training. Daft spend so am naming and shaming myself!:o

Good things - minimum payments made on everything, managed to budget enough to pay the big nursery fee £459 from our bank account instead of having to put on the CC, Hubby got a £1000 cost of living payrise from 1st Jan so extra money is now coming in, meal plan is working fantastically well and saving loads of time and money £165 for 5 weeks at good old A!di (although I have budgeted for £10 a week for fresh bits top up). Hubby and I now having weekly financial meetings to check in and see where we are up to. And car passed it's MOT and only cost £111 *phew* so not as traumatic as I thought.

Hubby is off to Portugal on Tuesday so I will try and check in again next weekend. Have a great week everyone and keep going

mizmir

Thanks for the update Squirrelly - sounds like on the whole things are going pretty well! Don't beat yourself up over the odd blip - we all need the odd treat occasionally. And you have recognised things that are unnecessary spending which is the critical thing.

Your meal planning and shopping sounds excellent though - £215 for 5 weeks is pretty good going. Well done on that. And :T for cars passing MOTs! We like that. Have a great week.

Box_of_Fluffies

Well done Squirrelly. Your new budget seems to be holding up and well done on paying that big nursery bill from your bank account. :T

My husband is away at the moment, just for 3 days. It seems to make life just that little bit harder. Hopefully your time without OH around will go smoothly. Keep up the good work.

OrangeFairy

Hi Squirrelly,

I've been a bit MIA too. I hope you are okay.

Sounds like you are doing really well. I love the financial meeting idea! Ill have to try that one with hubby!

OF x