Our Journey to a Debt Free 2016

PinkPoppies

:rotfl: It's not very exciting!

PinkPoppies

Wet and wild Tuesday morning!!! :eek:

Enjoyed a frugal mushroom stroganoff last night using up some past-it mushrooms, ancient brandy lurking in the cupboard, and sour cream left over from the weekend. Tasty and so cheap! Fish from the freezer tonight; going to bake some fillets with tomato and a bit of leftover chorizo.

Made some pumpkin soup yesterday evening to use for my lunches this week but I fear pumpkins these days seem to be grown for carving rather than flavour, the soup tasted of nothing!

Determined to spend as little as possible until payday! Not long now, only 11 days left of October!! How did that happen?!

Been onto online banking this morning and rejiggled some of our standing orders to make sure all our money is left in our main account keeping our OD low to avoid charges.

Finally got round to venturing onto the Mr Money Mustache blog yesterday- it is brilliant! Really thought provoking. Sat reading it in bed until my eyes felt too heavy to keep open. Inspiring stuff.

DebtFree2012

Morning

I've not heard of that blog before, sounds intruiging.

Mmm I love stroganoff - I think I'll add that to a coming Friday night for DH and I.

Well done on not wasting your pumkin! We have 2 huge ones which I may do something with.

I was just saying on another diary how quickly the time goes - it's scary!

Take Care.

PinkPoppies

The blog is here- http://www.mrmoneymustache.com

Well worth a read!

crunch_time

Thanks for the tip for the blog - It looks like the type of thing I like to read so will now make some lunch and settle down to it!!


Crunchy xx

PinkPoppies

Will definitely cook the fish we had last night again! They were uber cheap frozen Lidl fillets, I just chucked a tin of chopped tomatoes and some chopped chorizo over them and baked slowly. Surprisingly delicious/easy and even my non fish eating husband enjoyed it! :O A meal to add to future meal plans for sure!

Good old pasta on the menu for tonight. Have a tonne of eggs that need using up so might make some sort of carbonara type thing.

Not much else to report today. Could do with doing a cupboard/freezer inventory to try and attempt a proper 'using up' week next week.

Need to knuckle down and get some work done today, only 3 more days until half term begins!

I'm due to get paid about £60 for a bit of work tomorrow so looking forward to transferring that onto the CC.

PinkPoppies

Another £65 off the CC this morning! :j Might have another £60 coming in tomorrow which will see the £900 CC payment target hit- seeing as there is another week of October left to go I might target myself to raise another £100 before the month is out. Ebay, and some of my work bits might do it.

REALLY want to get under the £30k mark in November. To do that I need to pay £896 off the CC next month, a bit less if I can make any more inroads next week.

The plan next month is for me to continue to focus on overpaying the CC with any of my earnings, and to focus on keeping spending down to get down the OD. Would be good to have a seriously frugal month in the lead up to Christmas.

Think we might aim to have a mostly vegetarian week next week to save money. Risottos, chick pea curry, homemade pizza, that sort of stuff. Will dig out a nice veggie cookbook we have that has never really been used!

DebtFree2012

I'm with you there - we need a frugal month. Lots of pasta and rice based dishes and Aldi veg with other things for us, cottage pie and so on.

Huge congratulations on your payments, you're doing great. Is all of your debt in the one place? I have 2 loans and 2 cc's but the loans take the chunk each month and then I put any over payments to the CC. Very inspiring for me to watch your progress.

PinkPoppies

Ooooh cottage pie, there's an idea- bet I could make a yummy cottage pie with lentils and veg, proper autumn comfort food! I find it too easy to get into the mindset that we 'must' have an (expensive!) portion of meat every evening, when there are so many super cheap, healthy, and filling alternatives.

Our debt is spread between one credit card, and one loan. We do overpay the loan each month but like you, it's a set payment that comes out each month so it ticks along by itself. Getting rid of the CC is top priority as the 0% runs out next year so all spare cash gets thrown at that.

The original plan was to chuck everything at the loan after that (will hopefully have the CC paid off in the spring, probably April as DH usually gets a bit of a bonus then) but we also need to clear the negative equity in our old house in order to sell it so I think we might up the loan payments a bit and throw the rest into mortgage overpayments/saving and work on both issues at the same time. Whichever way we do it we will reach our ultimate goal (debt free and negative equity free) at roughly the same time so it kind of makes sense not to put all our eggs in one basket.... I think?! Still a bit undecided on what to do for the best once the CC is gone.

Sounds a bit silly but I am so excited about eventually starting a mortgage free wannabe diary :rotfl: DH and I have decided that even once everything is paid off we will aim to continue putting the money we currently put towards our debts aside- either in savings or by overpaying the mortgage.

DebtFree2012

My cottage pie is basic but gorgeous if I do say so myself. Standard is mince with peas & carrots with gravy and either mint of redcurrany jelly depending on what mince it is. I'm going to add winter veg this time and alternate the topping with different potatoes. Cheap and easy - my kind of tea.

I also used to think that we needed a "proper" portion of meat a day, however now, we have Sunday lunch with a roast and that lasts us Monday too then mince, sausages, tuna or other fish and chicken breast during the week. My shopping has halved.

Yes, I know what you mean about the loan, I'm not touching mine until the CC is clear as the 0% will come round too quickly otherwise. I'm paying circa 900 a month too those last month was just over and this month just under. Imagine having that to yourself!! The answers of what's best to do will present themselves.

Great news on wanting to be a MFW. Unfortunately once my debt is clear, I'll be taking on a massive mortgage and I can't wait! This sounds craxy but the idea is to buy somewhere we can run our own business from and the business will pay the difference of the old to new mortgage. That's what drives me to be DF as my current debt is from silly things and interest

Really enjoying your journey. Keep going!