NSK; The April Power Shower.

strandedinaber

Hello all, I am back after a few months being not very good with money and therefore avoiding this place (I know, not my brightest move). However I have just made my last payment on my credit card and once it goes through, I will be debt free! But I can already see how very easy it could be to fall back into old habits so I am joining in this challenge to keep myself on the straight and narrow and help me prepare for incurring a very different kind of debt (mortgage). Aiming for £100 on the grocery budget and 20 SFDs.

Hope everyone is well! X

NinjaSavingKat

Good Morning and Happy April a Fools Day to you all!!

Let the games begins and may the odds be ever in your favour!!

(Stupid forum downtime at midnight prevented this being added bang on 00:00)..

NinjaSavingKat

Strandedinaber = AMAZING NEWS! Welcome back! Tell us then.. How did you get into debt, what was it at its highest and what's the next step for you?

mothernerd

Sorry, I really want to do this but at the moment I have nothing.

I can do budgets but they would be as mythical as unicorn horns,

Just absolutely paralysed with fear right now. Everything's very uncertain and I just feel like I'm waiting for disaster to strike - don't know what to say, don't want to go into too much detail (well yes, part of me wants to spill out all the crazy stuff going round in my head in the hope that it makes more sense on paper) and don't want to feel that I've 'wished' for it to happen.

Okay please let me join the challenge and thanks once again Kat for all the work you put into them.

1) 15 Spend Free days

BUDGETS
2) Food budget £110 for this house
3) Travel £30 - big increase
4) Renovations £200+ Need to buy a bathmat (only for viewings), bath panels, pay for labour cost of attic stairs and new light fitting for front room. If I can do all other jobs myself will probably need more cleaning materials, small diy purchases and floor treatment (unknown?).
5) Garden £100 for year. Have found this is one of my weaknesses and struggle weekly with temptation. This is a sort of carrot, I can spend but what if something more tempting comes along later and I don't have the money - so will help defer. May need more bark than I have and still not worked out what to do in the back garden.
6) The cc (paid off one) will be used for some/all of the above purchases. Income is uncertain - DS3 should be due his final grant installment, DS2's income is low for the next two weeks at least and his food and utility bills will also be paid (all to be repaid as soon as his income returns).

If things happen this card is also the disaster fund (limit £4000). This money would also be returned (weeks/months) but may need it.

How I got here
Looking after my children. Yes I should be tougher with them, yes they should do more. But I have been a grown up since I was 3 years old, looking after my two younger brother's, supporting my mother though an extremely bad marriage, never enough money (my father only gave a small proportion of his wage to my mother to pay for everything). I remember being 8 and having a hole in one of my shoes and hiding the fact for weeks (even dried my socks when they got wet because it was raining) as I knew my mother didn't have money for new shoes and it would only worry her.

So when I had children and times were hard I tried not to burden them with it (my mother used to tell me all her troubles as she had no one else to confide in and then she got a good night's sleep and l lay awake worrying). I always told them if something was important I would find the money for it and when i was really worried I only cried when they were all asleep. They weren't spoiled, we had a lot less than most of their friends but they didn't go without.

DS1 and DS2 had paper rounds and then went on to part-time jobs whilst studying. DS2 has had health problems since his first year at university and DS1 and his then gf were flooded out of their rented cottage (most of their clothing and textbooks were destroyed) soon after I moved to this house. I've ended up paying when they didn't have money for the rent (DS2 has had a few weeks each year when he has been too ill to work or study - thankfully this has finally been diagnosed and he has a regime that should sort it out in a few months) or food. I've also taken in a few waifs and strays over the years. I still find it hard to spend money on myself. My current wearable (outside the house) wardrobe is 3 skirts and a dress + one pair of jogging pants for exercise class.

My current plan is to sell this house and buy somewhere smaller that suits me and my mother. However I have realised that this alone is not a strategy and am trying to reduce debts and keep a tight rein on spending whilst doing the improvements the house needs.

Other Aims
7) Get the house up for sale - postponed due to being bed-bound (doctor's orders) for the last 2 weeks
8) Return to fitness - have noticed some improvement and did a bit of painting this afternoon but am really not fit. Have to go back to the doctors if not recovered by next week but need to start walking/ stretching without pushing things.
9) De-clutter - also put on hold by my inability to get further than the garden gate. Allowed myself a generous travel allowance as things must leave the house and if I have to buy a one week ticket and bus hop back and forth to do this, so be it.
10) Creative use ups - did join the stash buster challenge but got overwhelmed. Too much diy to do and no where clean enough for sewing but I have thought of a couple of 'crafty things to do to use some of the bits. Will also apply this to cooking - try a few new recipes.
11) Have fun. Will think up some crafty Easter things to do with 4 year old - more use ups (rabbit finger puppets/ woven paper baskets). May spend a day riding round on buses or go on a day trip (with a packed lunch and travel budget).
12) Don't worry Be Happy - will have to find it on Utube and keep it going in the background, calm the stomach gremlins. (Or maybe Singing in the Rain - to fit with the theme for the month).

strandedinaber

Thanks NSK! My debt at its highest was £4000 and most of it came from an unexpected holiday last year. I got the opportunity to go out to the US for work and decided on a whim to take advantage of the free flights by traveling around the US for another two weeks, including a lot of flights etc. I actually don't regret a penny spent on that trip. What I DO regret was how easy it was to come back and think 'well I have an interest free credit card... What's a few more £ on it?'. And as you all know, a few more £ turns into a few hundred very, very quickly! But I have never been good with money. I have had money on credit cards before (no more than £1000) and paid it off with gifts etc. It's weird to say, but I am grateful I have had this experience. I'm still just at the beginning but I think differently about money now and I won't ever let myself get into debt again. What I also need to do is make sure I don't fall into the trap of withdrawing from my savings. I feel so bad for the gifts and savings that I have squandered over the years but I can't do anything about that now. All I can do is be better.

Next steps for me are buying a house! I have just had a four year contract signed at work and I have a deposit. So I just need to keep visiting here and keep saving! Permanent contracts are hard to find in my line of work so I need to make sure I can pay the mortgage no matter what. Goal is £5,000 in savings at least by February 2018.

Mountaingirl

So, have slept on the challenge and here's me!

How did I get here.
Bad budgeting and profligacy, really. Got used to a high income and plenty of spare cash during the boom years and so never really thought about money or being frugal We then moved to a new country, which is very expensive, bought a house and renovated, had to pay school fees etc. We still have a high income but relative to outgoings it is nowhere near as comfortable and we also have big debts. Hitting middle age has really panicked me about paying down debts, saving for retirement and also putting 3 kids through university - in fact just writing it down makes my stomach 'flip'.

Objectives.
Longer term:
to simplify and declutter (makes everything seem less overwhelming).
To continue to learn how to do things more frugally and learn what is essential and what isn't.
to get everything ready so we can move in a couple of years if we want to.
This month:
Keep the food bill down.
Don't go mad on holiday (we are coming to England and it's tempting to spend, spend, spend).
Get the vegetable garden planted up!
Post at least 10 items for sale on the facebook site I use and use any money made to buy food - no transferring money into the current account.
Keep better track of spending by using my new app on the phone!

Goal at end of month:
To not have dipped into savings
To have got the kids summer clothes (in the UK where massively cheaper)
To have emptied the cupboards before going away - meal planning.

BY the end of the year:
I want to have a big chunk of cash in the mortgage account so we can renegotiate and reduce one of the mortgages. So far we are ahead of the game, we just have to keep there!

Budgets:
Food: 300 euro for the weeks we are here - on holiday we'll be staying with friends.
travel: 40 for tram tickets and petrol
Car: 400 to replace two tyres and put summer tyres back on
presents: Perfume for my SIL in duty free. get the families presents in the UK so I can save on postage.

I will have to try and put some finer figures in here, but I will post what I spend to keep track.
First job -list all the stuff in the drawers and cupboards so I can make some meal plans.

mooomin

mooomin wrote: »

Budgets:

• [STRIKE]All direct debits: £650[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Travel (bus): £40[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Food: £150[/STRIKE]
• Petrol: £100 (normally much less but we might be visiting family)
• [STRIKE]Misc spends: £160[/STRIKE]

Total: £1100

All the money has been moved about to balance my budgets this morning. There's £10 of change in my bus fare jar so I'll withdraw another £30 today. The only one I haven't done is my petrol money but I'd rather leave it in the savings account until I need it. I need to take the car to the garage shortly but I'm hoping that there's enough money in my car repairs account to cover whatever's wrong with it.

Moving the money around this morning has made me realise how much I need to be working. Not having to get up for work is nice for a while but days soon turn to weeks - once I'm back from the garage it's off to the internet to look for jobs to apply for. If I can get my CV up to speed this morning I'll head to town and start looking at agency work to keep the money coming in for the meantime. Think happy thoughts for me!

NinjaSavingKat

Well - now that I am settled at work I can post the comments that have really stood out for me. I can see everyone here is wanting to change their life for the better and it's amazing and just lovely to have you all share so openly the struggles you have dealt with, the path you are on now and the journey you wish to undertake..

With that in mind - and the fact we are few in number this month - I want you all to use this thread as a sounding board. If there is something driving you mad (MotherNerd) and you need to get it off your chest for no other reason than to write it down you can do it here...

If you are spending your days studying to change your life and fighting the urge to go out (Speakingofart) tell us and we will tell you to get back inside and keep studying...

If you are going traveling in November (sounds familiar) and need a break from work (OldestGnome) and need us to remind you every time you spend at home is one less ice-cream on the road... then tell us! We will tell you leave you wallet at home.

This is the place to scream and shout then settle on the proverbial sofa with us for a proper chat.....

£ashcow - thank you for being so honest about your journey. I can't begin to think what it's like to deal with the shock of a little one being gravely ill never mind then realizing everything is ok. That's a heartfelt post and I truly admire the journey you have had to deal with!

Stewby - did you decide not to buy the house or did you actually lose it as in have it repossessed?

Lotti and LuckyStarr - you both said you were spending to either have a lifestyles you couldn't afford or to keep up with the Jones'... do you think this was technically "in your head" so to speak that you had to be seen a certain way or was someone putting pressure on you to look a certain way or buy the most expensive things or to keep buying...?

SiannieLaz - WOW! What a post! Thank you very much for being so honest with us. This is what makes you all seem so real and telling us this much about yourself makes your debt journey so much more special. You are creating a new life for yourself and things will fall into place for you. I am impressed!

AppleMuncher - remember you make up the rules this month. In march I whittled my budgets down to the last penny with nothing to spare. I knew it was going to be hard and it was. I ran out of cat food / litter in the first week, didn't budget for the stupid buses I have to get each morning, had to book my flight back home to Ireland in May and a few other "bits" that added up to £400 on my CC. You MUST have a budget and if that means a little more than normal I think you are okay with that.

Right.. I gotta do a few things here at work then I will be back to post my goals for the month! :T:T:T

traveller

Morning all. Thanks Kat for another great challenge :T Well done to our latest member Strandedinaber, to go debt free :j

I'm still off with the little one. He should be ok to go back to school tomorrow and me back to work. Still doing the de-cluttering and have not spent a bean on line, apart from the monthly shop due tomorrow. I will need to tweak it. Due to last months bill, which will come on the credit card this month, I'm going to have no fall back this month financially, so I may well steal your frozen credit card trick Mrs GSR-I simply cannot spend a bean to stay on target!

Well good luck everyone and enjoy the beginning of a new month! Just a thought, I remember when the party faithful, were counting down the days to the new year-now where not far off half way through It just goes to show how far we can get if we're diligent with this :T

dolly84

Morning all. Very interesting reading everyones stories of how they came to be here.

My story - in 1997 me and DH got our first credit card to use on a trip to London, then another card which I was totally responsible for running up the debt on spending on clothes, haircuts, shoes, makeup etc. I paid this off (it was about £2000) and didn't have any debt for a long time. In 2003 we had our first child and I left full time work, we managed fine even though interest rates were much higher so we had a bigger mortgage. Another child in 2006 then sometime around then we got a Tesco clubcard credit card to use for grocery shopping for the extra points, and that is where it all went wrong. We didn't pay off the grocery shop each month and kept spending on more things, we spent way more than we could afford, anything we wanted we didn't wait for it it went on the cards.

Aims for April:

1. 16 SFD, lower than usual targets due to half term and being on holiday for 5 days.
2. Stick to strict budget for half term and holiday away.
3. Meal plan for our holiday (we have a caravan so can do our own food).
4. 17 exercise sessions.
5. Lose 5lb, am hoping for 7 but again half term may get in the way a bit.
6. List 3 large items on ebay/gumtree to free up some cash so we can buy a bike carrier for the car.

That's all I can think of for now. Good Luck everyone.