Our Journey to a Debt Free 2016

PinkPoppies

Good to see you back DF! :j

PinkPoppies

Just checked our main current account and somehow it is looking healthier than I expected, not sure how we have managed that but all the bills seem to have gone out as they should have so all is well! Skimmed off £80 towards the CC.

Quiet day here getting the house organised before the children go back to school tomorrow. Stir fry on the menu this evening using up left over chicken from our roast dinner yesterday. We always used to buy packs of stir fry veg but chop our own now- a julienne peeler is great for making stir fry veg from pretty much anything kicking about!

crunch_time

I agree re stir fry veg - trying to convince the husband is hard though!!
Well done on the bank balance - mines looking worse than I thought:mad:

DebtFree2012

That's great re bank! Mine never does lol x

PinkPoppies

Morning all!

Down to £27,599 this morning (always have to pay off an extra pound when I hit a round figure, makes it look less :rotfl:).

£440 paid off the CC so far this month, but DH and I seem to have gone into super-frugal mode so now aiming to get at least another £600 paid off this month to bring our debt total under £27k before February. Should be doable if we spend no more than £150 per week (on groceries and all other ad-hoc spending). Our weekly shop is usually about £60 plus say £20 worth of top up shops so that leaves us with £35 each per week which sounds like plenty to play with, in theory!

Nice to have DH feeling focused too... not that he has NOT been on board with everything since August, but he is well and truly committed at the moment. We both want to really hammer down the CC over the next 4 months to get rid of it once and for all- there is about £5.5k left on it. Hoping to get it cleared before the end of April- May at the latest (assuming no more tenant rent issues).

Off to get my head down and do some work now- have a great day everyone!

PinkPoppies

CC minimum payment went out today so added to my totals.

Been hard at work this morning, just grabbing some lunch before blitzing the house and heading off on the school run.

Good old cheap and cheerful pasta tonight!

DebtFree2012

I love cheap and cheerful pasta mmmm. We have been doing Aldi's 29p ride too and alternating with pasta and it's yummy.

I am in awe at how well you are doing. You are blitzing it big time.

DebtFree2012

I've just noticed, our DFD's are the same now if your sig is right

PinkPoppies

Yes, our last loan payment is due to go out in December 2016

Once the CC is paid off we plan to put the money we would have put towards the CC into an offset savings account so we should hopefully have savings equal to our remaining debt in April 2016 ish- if all goes to plan!

PinkPoppies

I have randomly just sat and read my entire diary so far. The five months seem to have flown by in a flash!

The one thing that struck me reading back is that our lives have honestly been no worse since we started our journey, overall we have had a great five months despite cutting spending down drastically. Not much has changed really... no important things anyway. Life goes on and the debt comes down.

I truly don't miss expensive supermarkets and food, we all enjoy being creative with cheap ingredients and making pricier things like meat stretch further. I don't miss expensive clothes (any new clothes for that matter), or nights out, or buying things to improve our home.

I have to admit, there is part of me that actually really enjoys the whole DF journey... there is something so basic and satisfying about it? I get such a buzz paying bits off here and there and updating my spreadsheet and signature on here.

Our children didn't have expensive Christmas presents this year, we spent about £40 each on them and DH and I didn't buy each other anything. We had a wonderful Christmas and the children loved it. We spent a lovely evening with friends at the weekend and the conversation was brought round to 'what did you get for Christmas'. Our friends must have spent £1200 on presents for each other and their two children... as my turn came around to say what we had I suddenly wondered fleetingly if I should feel somehow embarrassed by our £80 spend compared with theirs?! Strangely I didn't feel at all awkward though... more relieved, and very comfortable with (almost proud of!) our different choices. I don't think our friends thought any less of us either.

Said friends are fairly wealthy on the face of it so can probably afford to splash out at Christmas, but even still... I genuinely don't think any of us in this family would have had a better Christmas had we spent a fortune. Our children were thrilled with their gifts and it was the time with extended family that was the best bit- fun and laughter! Precious memories that money can't buy.

We are lucky to have the choice to be frugal, rather than be forced by horrendous debt interest rates and crippling minimum payments (which is a different kettle of fish, have been there in the past), but I really do think the DFW journey is not so terrible- for us anyway

Anyway, enough rambling for one Wednesday evening.