pickle me's diary

pickle_me

I had my lightbulb moment in October 2013 when I realised the extent to which my lovely husband has absolutely no money management skills. A 7k credit card debt (his) which I had helped him get onto a 0% deal and assumed he was paying off sensibly gradually ballooned to twice that amount with interest and PPI being charged on top :eek: He was barely making more than minimum payments and our finances were grinding to a halt.

I do take some responsibility for the mess - I should have kept a closer eye on our finances. And I should say that my husband is a wonderful guy, a great husband and a fabulous father; and he wasn't gambling, drinking or spending on other women. He just isn't very clever with money. The debt was all built up buying bits for the house, those cursed top-up shops to the local supermarket and the odd day out with the kids. Living just beyond our means, month after month, got us into this mess.

So I realised, finally - I should have realised this years ago but I guess that's why they call it a lightbulb moment - that I needed to take charge of the family finances, down to the last penny.

The debt is all back on 0% and we've paid off around 2.5k since the LBM. I've gone through the household budget slashing and burning - our grocery bill was totally out of control - and have saved around £500 a month in the process.

I was quite enjoying it at first but now it's January, the longest month, I'm skinter than I've ever been in my life and it's getting a bit tedious I think about the debt, and getting clear of it, every day but I can't talk to anyone in real life so this will give me somewhere to rant and ramble about it - and hopefully a bit of company along the way

I'm counting the weeks until our youngest qualifies for nursery funding, at which point my childcare bill will drop dramatically and we can increase our debt repayments from £500 to £800 per month. By my calculations we should be debt-free by May or June 2015. I can't wait

pickle_me

Wow, I see why people subscribe to diaries - the diary forum moves fast! I should get this one up and running with a few more entries ...

January has been HARD. I've always hated this month, I just want to hibernate! Having to count every penny hasn't helped - I can only look longingly at the online sale offers as I'm on a total spending embargo. Shopping (mostly for clothes) used to be my first choice of leisure activity and since having the kids I've gradually done less and less of it, as my income has dropped - going from full-time work to maternity leave, then to part-time work, then to maternity leave again, and then quitting work and falling back on my savings. When I discovered the extent of our debt I just stopped shopping completely. It's weird, I literally never go into shops unless I'm buying groceries, or occasionally a birthday present. I used to love browsing, now I don't even do that. I've bought precisely three items of clothing since October: 1 dress and 2 jumpers, all on Ebay so probably for around £35-40 all-in. But it's been good for me. I know once we're clear of the debt and have money to spend again I'm going to be much choosier about what I spend it on.

I've mostly been using Ebay to sell things for the last four months. I have sold a mountain of baby clothes plus a few bits from my own wardrobe. I think I'm down to the last few things now - what will I do when I have nothing left to Ebay!? I hate the business of listing things but love checking them to see watchers and (hopefully) bids - I'll miss it!

I was thinking today about the things I'll keep from my DFW journey - things like:

- making my own bread - my mum gave me her bread machine a few years ago, it went in a cupboard and never got used. Cutting our grocery budget was the impetus I needed to try and it, and it's been fantastic. We all love the bread it makes, and the homemade pizza even more. I will NEVER go back to buying bread again. I adore my bread machine

- paying for groceries in cash. I don't know why this makes a difference but somehow handing over actual cash, and seeing exactly what I'm spending each week, makes me much more conscious of the budget. I've never had a grocery budget before, now I'm ferocious about it.

And what will I ditch from being a DFW? I'm not sure there's anything, to be honest. I've never been 'bad' with money - when I was single I always lived within my means, only spent the money I had - but before now I wasn't really good with money, either. I didn't make it work for me, didn't pay that much attention to what I was spending it on. Now I think really hard about what I'm spending money on and I begrudge buying anything that isn't essential. I'm looking forward to being able to save, properly, regularly; and to knowing that when we buy something, we can do so knowing that we've budgeted for it and can afford it. That will be a very good feeling

madhatter90

Hey Pickle! I'm finding January terribly boring as well. It's so loooong, and coooold and I hate it. I think many of us are just kind of middling with money until we have an emergency or a drop in income etc that makes us realise the importance of having savings!

Well done on the hard work you've done so far xx

pickle_me

Ah, thanks madhatter The trouble is, January finally ends and then I remember that February is pretty grey and boring too! At least it's shorter, I suppose ...

pickle_me

It's been a long week, not helped by finances being so tight this month. I had a very anxious day on Tuesday - one of those days when your head feels full of different worries and you can't clear the decks long enough to concentrate on one at a time. None of the worries was terribly serious or insurmountable but I was feeling a bit low, not enjoying work and a lack of sunshine probably hasn't helped!

I have been worrying about money, although I shouldn't be. We're on track to clear the debt before any of our three 0% cc deals run out - in fact probably a month or two before the last one runs out, so we have room to breathe and we're currently paying way over the minimum payments so could, if an emergency occurs, pay a little less one month if we needed to. I have a fee-free overdraft of £500 which is currently clear so I can dip into that if I have to; although things are tight now I will have a bit more 'disposable' income to play with in a few months time. But for my peace of mind I want to know that we are absolutely on the straight and narrow and sticking to our budget down to the last penny. I don't want to use my overdraft, dammit! But there have been a few unplanned expenses this month so I may have to loosen the purse-strings just a little.

I was hoping to make £100 via Ebay this month but it's very unlikely to happen as I have so few things left to sell! I've made £40 so far, with a couple of items due to finish on Sunday, and these have quite a few watchers (with some bids already) so I'm hoping I might make a further £20-25. I have a coat on sale at a local nearly-new designer clothes shop which if it sells will make me £30-35, although I'm not hopeful as it's been there since November. Ho hum. If it doesn't sell this winter I'll stick it on ebay next winter instead.

Fingers crossed for a couple of bidding wars over my things tomorrow night ...

pickle_me

£25 made on eBay tonight. Not bad I had a hunt through my wardrobe earlier hoping to find something else to sell but no luck. Must resist the temptation to start sneaking toys out of the children's playroom to sell

I've put all the figures in my signature - not pretty reading but it's good to remind myself that we're making progress, and as the months go on I will love looking at the diminishing total Seeing it in black and white helps to bring it into focus, too - god, it's an awful lot of money :eek:

The grocery budget has gone a bit pear-shaped since Christmas I was doing so well before Christmas, sticking to £60 per week, even less some weeks. We've been putting £300 cash in a tin at the start of the month, which I divide up into £60 per week; whatever is left over (and anything I save from the week's allowance) goes towards activities with the kids like swimming, cinema trips etc. For various reasons I used my debit card, rather than cash, this month and it's definitely made me feel less in control. We've been indulging in a few more top-up shops, too; and I've lost interest in meal planning. Not good!

Still, I worked out that the month before the LBM we spent £600 on various trips to the supermarket (horrific :eek: ) (and we don't even drink :rotfl: ) so anything is an improvement on that. Seriously, I am never shopping without a grocery budget again .....

pickle_me

For historical accuracy I should add that we had overdrafts amounting to about £1400 at LBM - these were the first things we paid off. So starting total was closer to £16.5k. Bloody hell :eek:

pickle_me

I'm counting the days until I get paid, although I don't know why - every penny is already accounted for, and then some :rotfl: My pay this month is £697.24, and my expenses are:

£614 nursery payment (second half of the spring term fees)
£100 petrol
£66 daughters' ballet lessons

So there you go, over budget already (all other bills, including debt repayments, and food are paid for out of my husband's salary). I also have birthday presents for younger daughter, nephew and sister to buy this month, but I have just under £140 in my Paypal account from Ebay sales which I've earmarked for those.

Nursery and ballet fees won't be due until the end of February so at least I won't have to dip into my overdraft for long, and March won't be anything like as tight as I'll have no nursery fees to pay :T

The other thing of course is that this allows me precisely £0 spending money of any sort in February. Which is possible, I suppose - all food paid for out of our family budget, and I get free lunches at work - but 28 straight NSDs? Now that would be something (I'd definitely win an MSE challenge doing that :rotfl:) So I'm just going to have to keep extra spending to an absolute minimum. Oh joy. Now, how many days until February pay day ....?

dottyanne

Hi Pickle, it does sometimes feel like we wish our lives away waiting for the next pay day doesn't it ? I have debts, but this year am concentrating on clearing my credit card debts - have 4 cards - 1 empty 2 0% and one is something like 30% but once this is paid off will close completely - I'm snowballing so hope to have the one with interest paid off in next 4 or 5 months.....will close this one then. I'm making extra money by ebaying etc to throw extra at the cards and also sticking to a budget. I've subscribed so will pop on and see how your doing

pickle_me

Ooh my first subscriber, thanks dotty anne :kisses3:

Good luck with your snowballing - it will feel good to get rid of that credit card, I bet. I don't want to give the credit card companies a penny more than I have to so it's reassuring to have all our debt on 0%.

Let me know if you have any major successes on Ebay, I'm fairly sure I've nothing left to flog but maybe I'm not being creative enough!

dottyanne

Hi pickle, it's surprising what sells on eBay, you never can tell....I'm just doing it in stages say 5 or 6 items on 3 day auctions just to keep the ball rolling so to speak.

I can't wait to be rid if the darn card that's collating interest !! I'm aiming to be rid in 4 or 5 months, then the rest is at 0% so not too bad BUT I am determined all cards will be clear by the end of 2014!