Pay off debts before Baby number 2!!

mum2one

hope the cat goes on ok.

Sounds like some really good organising bet meal planning still save some pennies.

Hope everything ok with all the family xx

crunch_time

Should probably have mentioned that other than looking sorry for himself for a few days the cat is fine. Thanks for your concern!!


Taking another opportunity for a quick update whilst both baby and toddler are sleeping although baby is stirring so will need to be quick!


Challenges:


Had payslip through today which was just £200 under what I thought it would be - rubbish!!


So there is only £221 left after my expenses are taken into account. Once I have paid off the vets fees and put a little bit extra aside for Christmas food and presents for my nieces and nephews (which I forgot to include until my sister reminded me at the weekend!! Ha ha) - it is all gone!



Positives

However, we had the mortgage offer through on Friday which states that if we move in December then we wont have to pay our £200 extra a month mortgage fee until 1st Jan. That clarifies that so I can lift the ban on paying off anymore debt until after we move and slush the extra £200 towards the overdraft this month. Yeah!!

This means that with husbands £100 payment when he gets paid next week, the overdraft will be reduced to £900! Fab news before the end of the year!! So pleased with us. Annoyed that I slightly miscalculated Christmas costs but cant beat myself up about it!!


If we just pay another £100 off and then £100 a month off between now and August pay day this means it will be clear by the time I go back to work so the money can go towards childcare. I shall toy with this idea for a few days. I know I should be focussing on paying off this debt as quickly as possible but once we move I want to focus on other things such as an emergency fund and getting furniture and stuff for our new house (frugally of course). The overdraft is preventing me from moving on with my life but now we are actually paying it off and the end is in sight, it makes a big difference!!


Other positives...


I have had a couple of bids on some of maternity clothes. They are due to end today. I'm going to leave the money in my paypal account for the time being until all of it is sold and fees and postage are taken into account. I cant wait to get hold of my toddlers old clothes and sell them on ebay. This is my new year project!! Or one of them...:rotfl:


I also worked out roughly with husbands payrise, new child benefit and broadband getting paid for by his work its an extra £200 a month! Woohoo!! :j


We should hopefully get some movement on the house move this week - according to my husband. I really hope so. I feel like I'm living in limbo at the moment.:mad:


Baby hasn't woken up yet....


Right ill get on with my massive to do list now and look forward to baby cuddles shortly.


Hope everyone is having a lovely day!


Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Hey diaryland


Sorry I haven't written for a while. Fingers crossed we will be moving before Christmas so I'm going to have a little break until the New Year and concentrate on that and Christmas.


Will come back again in the New Year hopefully in the new house with some new targets and NOT IN ANYMORE DEBT - accept an extra £20k on the mortgage and £3k to my parents of course:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:


A few :money:I have had recently.


- Reduced my mobile bill from £39 a month to £22 a month - FOR THE SAME PLAN and a new iPhone!!!


- bought my Christmas present (its sad I have to buy my own Christmas presents) online instead of in the shop and even with delivery saved £10!


- the new stamp duty rules should save us around £700!!!


- We have split the cost of searches for the new house with our new neighbours saving £150!!!!


Merry Christmas everyone and see you in the new year!


Crunchyxxx

mum2one

Merry Christmas, sounds all positive you all take care xxxxx

MrsSmith2013

Hi Crunchy!

I've just written a similar post! Feel like I'm being swept along with all this Christmas stuff and have neglected my debt busting!

Good luck with the house move and I hope you get in before Christmas, enjoy your first Christmas as a family of four, and your first Christmas in your new home.

Will definately catch up in the new year!

Mrs S x

Jonesy88

Merry Christmas Crunchy and your lovely family.

So much has happened since I last lurked on your diary - you've made so much progress, it really is something to be proud of.

I'm still loving your positivity and yay for stamp duty changes!

abba1772

Hope the move goes well and have a fab Xmas xx

crunch_time

Dear diaryland!
I had some time so thought I would stop by although I said I wouldn’t till the New Year!!
We are not moving before Christmas now it will hopefully be sometime in January.
I am disappointed as it would have been lovely to start the New Year off with our new life but has lots of benefits. – at least we know where we are now. We can put the tree up and make plans. We will also save a bit of money immediately as the new mortgage is a good £200 more so that can go towards debt.
Other positives

• Husband has had a letter confirming his new pay rise and that it will be backdated 2 months. This will be another £200 towards debt and will be at least another £100 a month going forward.
• The music magpie cheque for £16.58 finally arrived and was cleared. I rounded it up to £20 from the food account and paid off another £20 from the energy debt.
• All our bills went out from the joint account leaving about £19 left in it. Again I rounded it up to £20 using money from the food account and paid off another £20 from the energy debt.
• I sold a few maternity tops on ebay and was able to slush another £20 towards the energy debt. This now stands at £280!! It’s nice to be sub £300.
• We got our Christmas decorations from MIL’s house yesterday and I picked up all toddlers old boys clothes that I packed up ages ago. I picked out neutral stuff for baby and made piles for charity shop and ebay. The winter pile is massive! Even if everything goes for 99p that’s at least another £30!! I don’t want to have to take it all to the new house so I’m going to put it all on ebay as soon as possible so can post it the week after Christmas.
• So far we are sticking to the Christmas present budget and have just one more to get. The rest of the money then goes towards food for Christmas.
• I have made a list of everything we need to pay for in January so there are no surprises. The cat needs his annual jab etc.
• Now we know where we are I can send off the child benefit claim and slush the back dated pay towards debt too.

I’ve also started to pull together a plan for 2015 which I will share soon. Off to update budget spreadsheet and work out Christmas plans and food menu for the week.
Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Ok I'm not quite sure what has just come over me but I just had a @%*^ it moment and used our £1k emergency fund to pay off the overdraft!!!


I think it is because I'm sick to death of spending a significant amount of time each day around feeds and general 'housewifeness' strategizing how to pay it off so we can move on with our lives I just wanted an end to it all. Dave Ramsey would not be impressed.....


Feeling a bit edgy that we don't have anything to fall back on in case of an emergency. However we have only had the money in the bank a few months. If worse comes to worse we can always dip into the overdraft again. However, I'm pretty confident we will be able to save at least £500 on husbands pay day anyhow and therefore can rebuild it in a couple of months!! Just one £100 to go which will be paid next week when husband gets paid then that's it - NO MORE OVERDRAFT!!!! How great to stat the new year with no overdrafts!!!


I haven't told husband yet. He is either going to be really pleased or indifferent....


Pay day tomorrow. Hopefully I shall get more than I have budgeted for.....


Crunchy xx

mum2one

thats brilliant news, bet it feels good xx