"Looking forward to paying off all my debts and getting back to just being broke"

White-as-Snow

Well have managed to get £1.83 in Asda vouchers in the last couple of days. :j

Also had a surprise package from the postman- a PG Tips food bin. Can't remember asking for one but grateful none the less :beer:

Oooooh turns out the family member who's going througth IVF is pregant :T So happy for her. 5-6 weeks they think she just needs to go for a scan to check everything is ok in there.

White-as-Snow

I seriously contemplated making yet another username for yet another start as I am actually embarrassed that I keep starting a shiny new diary with the best of intentions and then I end up no closer to being debt free (possibly even further away). I obviously haven't had my actual lightbulb moment at the time of starting these threads.

I haven't started again on here as much as I feel like a failure I think it best that people see that it's not all plain sailing and people don't necessarily think that's it and they change things round and become debt free. It's hard. Maybe you have to do it in fits and starts but we'll all get there eventually.

I started back on my journey in the new year but have been putting this part off until I felt that I really was making progress this time. At the end of last year my debts hit £20,000 and felt awful. Since that time I have made sure that it has been coming down every month.
Dec £20,090.87
Jan £19,649.44
Feb £19,390.92
Mar £18,815.38
Apr £18,562.16
May £18,255.97

My OH isn't really on board and I know from reading the forums a lot of you are in the same situation. I am using and loving YNAB (OU student so it's free to use) so although I want to be more ruthless and get rid quicker I also need to do it as painless as possible for OH's sake lol.

Have got a budgeted amount for him to spend without me freaking out so that's helping. (His expensive (in my opinion) hobby of motorbikes sigh)

Right off to give blood for the first time now so will catch up with the rest of this later. Wish me luck xxx:o

White-as-Snow

I think that looking at such a big total debt all the time is making it harder for me to notice the small things that make a difference such as a few pence here or there.

I don't have a large amount of separate debts but the ones I do have are large ones so they don't really feel like they're going down if you see what I mean.

My first goal is to get my savings account up to £500 now I know I possibly shouldn't save while paying interest on debts but I don't have an emergency fund so I would like this to be there so that I have a fallback other than cards should anything happen. This will also be used for anything car related as I don't have a separate pot for that.

Currently with todays PAD my fund is £93.97/£500

This may fluctuate if any emergencies crop up but this will be my priority for the time being with min payments on the rest.

joeyjimbles

When people have larger debts that are spread across fewer creditors, some helpful suggestions are to divide it into smaller goals so dividing by 100 or even 1000 to help that feeling of achievement. Some people have 100 squares on a page and colour one off for each % they achieve. I did it with an overdraft and divided it by 100 - 100 x £3 seemed much more achievable than £300. It was also a perfect demotivator for all those little unnecessary purchases. I'm sure there are lots of other good suggestions around.

White-as-Snow

Hi joeyjimbles,
I've done that with my Uni work when I had a daunting word count for an essay but didn't really think of doing it for debt. You're right though it did help for that so having something visual I can mark off should be good. Will have a think and see what chunks would be best for me to chop them into!

White-as-Snow

Well my pad for today is £29.96 which brings my total to £123.93/£500
my normal pads after this month won't be so high unfortunately OH had a small bonus from work so am able to use quite a bit of that for the fund.

Unfortunately as we get some housing benefit I have had to send payslips to update them with the bonus so am waiting for them to recalculate and send us a bill for overpayment and a recalculated council tax bill. I know I could use the bonus to pay it straight away but as they will let me make interest free payments I feel that its best for me at the minute to wait for the bill and pay it weekly.

Donated a large bag of stuff to charity
Signed up for my next OU module (still waiting for my results of the last one)
Postman only brought a book of dreams (catalogue) no bills
Didn't manage to get any free Budweiser unfortuanately our local Tesco had sold out by 10am and not really cost effective going round everywhere else hunting for free beer :beer:
OH spent £10 of his monthly budget and we spent £3.85 of food budget

System

Welcome back....goo luck with your impending arrival - exciting times!

White-as-Snow

Well unfortunately I had been gone from this thread for so long my impending arrival is now heading for her 1st birthday in 2 weeks. Yup that's why I was so embarrassed to come back and start again really
but it's important I guess to keep trying and getting back up again.

I really will do it this time. My debts will not get higher than they did at the end of last year and they are and will carry on getting smaller every month come hell or high water!

White-as-Snow

Ok well currently emergency fund is up to £183.73/£500 as I am PADing to it as much as I can.

This week has managed to stay withing budget apart from £3 for a new beaker for DD2 so that I can get rid of bottles. Not so bad though as I just made my PAD money slightly lower.

Have nothing much planned for the weekend as OH working so hoping for a low spend/no spend weekend.

Have a good weekend to anyone reading xx

White-as-Snow

Passed my OU module yay! so now don't have to worry about a resit!
I now have 120 credits so have successfully completed my first full year! So happy!

Have been toying with losing the last of my baby weight so that I'm back to pre baby (still overweight but will look at that when we get there). Have been not dieting as such but trying to just cut back on what I'm eating while still eating my normal things really. Have some days when its great and I can do it but I've noticed that one of my triggers is if OH annoys me then I just grab food! Really need to find a new way to deal with being annoyed that eating.

Soooooo currently need to lose about half a stone to be back to normal but 1st step is just to get down out of the 11 stone something bracket. Will weight myself in the morning and see what damage I've done by not watching my food over the weekend.

Got the little munchkin weighed today and she's 24 lbs!! little fatty madam. She didnt have a good day today was very sensitive and wingey so hope she'll sleep well and be back to herself in the morning x

Money wise:
made a payment to Littlewoods so now that brings the balance down to only £71.08. Only 2 more payments and that will be cleared and never used again. (No interest so no rush to use my savings)
Still not heard back from my recalculated housing benefit so made a full rent payment so that I don't end up in arrears.
Only needed to top up my electricity with £10 for the week so the extra has gone into savings
Made a payment of £31.03 into my savings fund which brings it to £274.44/£500 Over half way!

Still in budget for everything else although I do need to do a food shop very soon.