pickle me's diary

pickle_me

Just a takeaway then :rotfl: Well, £20 is £20 and we haven't had a takeaway in months so I'm still celebrating :beer:

Going through my cupboards also turned up a pack of the large cotton wool pads I use for removing makeup (thought I'd run out so this saves me having to stock up for a few more weeks); and a clutch of cosmetics I'd thrown in a bag back when I was planning to go swimming regularly in the pool at work (I changed my hours and it didn't happen) - containing an almost brand-new mascara (I've been scraping the dregs of my old one for weeks), blusher (ditto) and eyelash curlers (my old ones broke months ago and I just couldn't spare the cash to replace them, though they're not expensive). And a new BB cream. Result!

And a pair of virtually new flip-flops I bought years ago which I never really liked .. but which will do just fine poolside. (And actually I don't dislike them the way I used to)

I love little saves like this. I got a pair of sandals for my elder daughter from Asda yesterday for £2 down from £6 as the only pair left in her size were slightly worn. I also discovered that Asda's smart price milk chocolate, at 30p for a 100g (?) bar, is perfectly tasty :money:

Such small things but they make me happy

pickle_me

Hello DFW folks! It's been so long since I posted and I must admit I've barely thought about debt-busting for the last few weeks. That doesn't sound good, does it? :rotfl: Well, I did spend a bit too much on bits for my holiday and inevitably the little holiday extras added up to more than they should have. However our debt total continues to decrease - I've updated my signature but here's July's preserved for posterity:

LBM October 2013: 3 credit cards £8306.60 / £3280.83 / £3605.69 Total £15193.12

July 2014: £2273.89 / £2915.54 / £3169.69 Total £8359.12

Only two payments left on the Barclaycard now! Whoopee :j And we've paid off 50% of our starting total.

My parents gave me a few thousand earlier on in the year (simply because they're generous, they don't know about the debt). I put it into my ISA as I was determined that we would clear our debt ourselves - and also because it was reassuring to know that in the event of a real emergency, we had a bit of money in reserve. And I've bailed my husband out before, and in the long term it doesn't help - that's why we're in this situation now. He and I both need to learn to manage our money without help from anyone else. So I was determined not to touch it. Well, I have now dipped into it, to help me cover expenses for September, when I have no income other than child benefit. I've made my peace with it - I feel much more relaxed about the debt now that it's 'only' £7.5k rather than £15k, and I know we're going to clear it on time.

I was worried that if I allowed myself to buy a few new clothes, it would open the floodgates and I'd find it hard to stop. I wasn't entirely wrong, unfortunately I haven't actually bought anything post-holiday but there's so much temptation out there - September is a difficult time to try and resist buying new clothes, with the new season starting and so many lovely things in the shops I'm trying to stick to Ebay and make myself sell things to make money before I buy anything.

I had a little mooch around the shops the other day and saw a pair of shoes in M&S I wanted (£45) and a top in Next (£30). I didn't buy them - didn't even consider buying them - but they are preying on my mind! I realised afterwards that pre-kids, or even pre-2nd-child, I would have bought them without thinking and would have considered it a satisfying day's shopping. I do have some restraint

mfmaybe

I think the debt reduction totals are great especially with a holiday in there. I am just back and I daren't add it up

Well done on the little finds and savings, and resisting the Next things. I'm not much of a shopper, but I always go out with a plan. For example I recently bought a new coat. I'd recycled my last winter coat after a dozen years or more years! Decided on various criteria (length, colour, hood, shape, fabric etc) and didn't buy one until I found something that suited all my requirements. This can be frustrating, but certainly helps keep my impulse buys to a very small number!

pickle_me

Thanks mfmaybe Funny you should mention coats as I've just spotted one on the Oasis website that I really like I haven't had a new winter coat in years and years. But it's not cold enough to justify buying it just now and I'm happy to wait.

I went clothes shopping a couple of days ago and came away having bought just a cardigan/jacket from H&M for £25, which I'm very happy with. Fortunately my need to buy lots of new clothes seems to have abated and I'm ready to get back to debt-busting properly.

Back to Lidl today for the first time in ages - I've been really lazy over the summer holidays - and that has helped firm up my resolve too. God the school holidays are so expensive! We've done plenty of picnics and trips to the park and I've kept costs down as much as possible but it still adds up. I'm looking forward to getting grocery spending back under control once we're all back to work/school/nursery. Also looking forward to starting to work from home and no more petrol costs, hurrah! I didn't even drive far for my old job but I really resented having to fill up the car several times a month.

September's finances are bound to be a bit of a mess with all the after-school activities to pay for, bits and pieces of uniform, nursery payment .... aaagh. And of course I didn't get paid this month. But I'll muddle through somehow and once we're through this month I can get things straight again. I'm already making a note of bargains to buy for Christmas - I'm determined to be a) very organised and b) very thrifty this year!

In a few days we'll make the penultimate payment on CC1. I'm so excited about paying it off! By Christmas our debt will be just over £5k which will feel so good. The light at the end of the debtor's tunnel is getting bigger and brighter

pickle_me

I suspect I'm not going to post much until September is over and I get paid again - I'm haemorrhaging money with all the back-to-school expenses and I'd rather not look too closely at the current financial state of affairs :eek:

I've relaxed about money since starting this diary, too - we will without question pay off our debt before the 0% period runs out but now that we've paid off over half, the total amount of debt isn't as scary as it was and I don't feel quite as driven as I did.

I will be posting with lots of :j in October however as we pay off CC1, and then with November's payments our debt will be under £5k, which feels like a milestone worth celebrating too. I still regularly look at the figures just before I go to sleep at night - I like to remind myself how far we've come and how close we are to getting rid of it all

pickle_me

When I say I'm haemorrhaging money, this is the state of my bank account this month:

Current balance: £152.85 overdrawn

Income due to be paid in this month: £445
(child benefit, money my parents owe me, refund from something I bought and returned, share dividend cheque)

Outgoings still to pay for: £635
(ballet & swimming lessons, groceries, nursery payment)

It's not pretty, is it? That's what happens when you don't get paid the month before the new school year starts. Admittedly I could have tried a bit harder to save up to cover the shortfall but I haven't had much in the way of spare income this year! I'll take it out of my ISA and will put the rest of the year's child benefit payments towards topping it up again. I've written September off as a complete washout to be honest

in_need_of_direction

Yes but your debt is less than half what it was. Just take stock and move on. You'll know what to do in the future.

NHS_worker_bee

Everyone has a bad month sometimes, I'm sure October will be much better for you! I'm really impressed with your decreasing debt totals, I need to work harder to catch up with you. Keep up the good work

pickle_me

Thank you INOD and Bee for your kind and encouraging words. I'm not entirely sure I deserve them as I've kind of given up this month but I'll be back to it next month. For now it's just a case of damage limitation ...

But! Today the Barclaycard (CC1) statement came through the door, showing that we now owe just £757 (and 89p!). With it came the annual statement showing how much we have paid off in the last year. Wow. It's amazing to see it in black and white.

So before I update my signature, here's August:

LBM October 2013: 3 credit cards £8306.60 / £3280.83 / £3605.69 Total £15193.12

August 2014: £1515.89 / £2865.54 / £3119.69 Total £7501.12

Roll on October :j

pickle_me

I finally got paid (first pay of the new job). On my birthday, in fact, and I wasn't expecting to be paid until next week so it was a very pleasant surprise So nice to have money coming in when it feels as though it's been one-way traffic in the opposite direction for most of this month.

I'm loving the job I like the work, I like the clients, my boss is great and I'm really enjoying working from home. It's such an improvement on my last job.

Last week our second car broke down. The fault was one that's occurred before and would need £500+ to fix, and it may have engine problems as well. Add to that the window that no longer opens (the mechanism broke several winters ago and we could never afford/was never a priority to fix it), and the fact that it's 11-12 years old - so we've decided to get rid of it. Fortunately now that I work from home we no longer need a second car and I am very pleased with the thought of all the money we'll save on tax, insurance and other car-related expenses, so it's no bad thing. It's the end of an era as this was our first car, the car which brought our newborns home from the hospital, but it's too expensive to get sentimental about it.

So! We've already saved up enough money to pay tax and MOTs for two cars, so now have a surplus, not to mention the fact that we can now pay car tax monthly :money:

The next saving coming our way is our mortgage payment. Our current fixed deal runs out in January so I contacted a broker this week to find out what our options are. Our new deal is a 5-year fix that will cut our payment by £100 a month :T

We're about to pay off CC1 forever :j

Talking to the mortgage broker was very satisfying. Partly because when he asked if we had any credit cards, I could tell him that we had just under £6k on cards. This time last year it would have been £15k :eek: But also because of all the questions I had to answer - about our monthly costs, groceries, petrol, utilities. A year ago I'd have been making wild guesses, but now I can answer with confidence because I actually have control over our finances now.

A year ago I had no idea of our debt situation (I found out mid-October). We've come such a long way in a year. I'm looking ahead to how we're going to spend - and SAVE - our money once the debt is gone, and doing lots of calculations in the big notebook which has been my financial bible over the last twelve months (I've never been a fan of spreadsheets - I prefer to stick to pen and paper). It feels very good to make plans based on the money we do have, rather than trying to work around the money we don't