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

chevalier

Hi WAS. Well done on coming back and not giving up. Yes you have fallen off the wagon but you have got back on again, rather than given up. Keep going. It will get better.
And well done on the new 36 month 0% APR card, that must be a big relief.
chev

White-as-Snow

Well Christmas is over WITHOUT any extra debt! I no longer have any savings unfortunately so that's going to be the first thing to do in the New Year. I have so far managed NOT to go to any Boxing Day sales- in fact I haven't bought anything since Christmas Eve when I spent £3.

I am hoping on not spending anything now until January.

Thank you chevalier yes it does feel better not having the interest for a good long while!

I'm sure I posted on here about needing to lose some baby weight- well I don't think I can get away with that excuse any more. The baby in question is 18 months old! Just fat now haha. I do want to lose the weight but I suppose I'm just not motivated enough! Have decided I might just eat more fruit/veg this year rather than diet and hopefully the weight loss will come naturally.

I'm not one for New Year resolutions but am seeing this year as a continuation of what I have already started and want to build on that and go the next step.

Will update on my current debt at the end of the month when my CC payment goes out.

Hope you all had a great Christmas and don't get too drunk in the merriment of New Year! xx

White-as-Snow

Ok start of year update (I know it should have been done yesterday sorry)
Total Debt:
Dec 31st 2015: £20,090.87
Dec 31st 2016: £16,320.85

So paid off 3,770.02 in a year. So about £314 a month. Hmm while I'm happy- I'm also wanting this year to pay off more!

Have been KMing loads the last few months aswell and to start with did not see any change but now I am definately starting to see the difference in the house. Have even been able to move DD3 into DD1's room and have our bedroom back!! Her first night last night went quite well. Have still kept the cot with the bars up for now as I don't want her getting up and trashing her big sisters things (at the minute anyway) haha

Will be maintaining normal/min payments to all debts but savings will be my first step for the new year again so that nothing has to go back onto a C/C if anything goes wrong.

Savings currently at 0/£1000 (my target)

White-as-Snow

So car is sick ........:( Sounds like an expensive bill is heading my way.

I might have to use a credit card but I really don't want to ....... I don't have anything saved yet so aaaaaaarrrrrggggg.

I am going to see if I can squeeze it from the budget somehow. Food and petrol hopefully. But until I know what the bill is properly then I won't know if I can stretch that far

AAAAArrrrrrrr feeling frustrated :mad:

White-as-Snow

Well managed to not use the credit for the car bill. It does mean that our budget will be a little tighter this month and possibly next month but am sure we will be able to deal with it.
Been a busy week as I had to get my uni assignment in by this morning. That has been done and dusted yay and I hope it was done well enough.

Any money saved this month will now have to go to next months budget so that I can have next month without scrimping too much and today I managed to put £45 into next month.

DD who is 10 is currently loving eating lamb which is so expensive but didn't have takeout this weekend so have used that money to buy some for tomorrows tea!

Need to go to farmfoods tomorrow for their square skinless sausages things so that we can make home versions of a famous takeout muffin. They are so much better homemade and much much cheaper. Always manage to get 5p muffins from tesco YS so stock up the freezer with them.

White-as-Snow

No I didn't fall off the wagon. My PC died unfortunately in February and I was extremely lazy and didn't reset my password for MSE until today.

Have had an extremely unfortunate start to the year. My freezer has defrosted my food 3 times (power cut and being unplugged!) My fridge died (manage to get another donated to me for free) my washing machine died (new one as a gift from my mother) our trampoline got murdered by the winter and as I mentioned my PC died. HOWEVER my debt has NOT increased!!!

At the end of last year it stood at
Dec 31st 2016: £16,320.85
and today is £15022.41

:j:beer:

I have still been reading the forums on my phone but now I can post again yay.

Have rejoined the payment a day thread and will continue to pop in here as I can. xxx

According to the snowball calculator my DFD is Dec 2020 however I don't know if I will be able to bring that forward in the short term anyway as DH is to become jobless again at the end of the month......:(

Not going to get much done this week I suspect as it is half term and I have my OU exam next week so need to get my head down for that. I'm more worried about this one than last years so not looking forward to it....

White-as-Snow

DH last day in work today.
Housing benefit and tax credits have been notified.
JSA will be done tomorrow as that one has to be the first day of no work.
Why is it he thought of forms/phone calls is always worse than doing them. I think I build it them up thinking they will be such a hassle so put them off and they're never quite as bad.

YNAB done and a small PAD of 77p sent to cc.
I am concentrating on one of our cc at the moment which currently stands at about £4200 so a large one. It is on 0% at the minute but snowball calculator says that's the best one to overpay

Right off I go to feed the troops x

White-as-Snow

Well I realised today that I had a small amount of rent arrears :mad:
It's not much (less than £100) but it must have happened when my Housing Benefit kept getting recalculated and I didn't realise. Makes me sad actually as I thought I had a little credit

Am waiting for it to be recalculated again anyway now with the OH jobless. They have a 4-6 week backlog at the minute so they tell me so not sure when that will be sorted.

Todays PAD's went to the mobile and to the rent anyway.

White-as-Snow

Have been quietly plodding along making my small PAD's ( most days) and keeping tabs daily (sometimes more often lol) on all the goings on in the forum. My debt was :
End of May £15022.41 and is now down to: £14100.60

I'm making steady progress but my OH seems to put the stoppers on making bug dents as he doesn't seem to realise things such as spending a few quid every day in the caf! equals £80 a month that he spends there from the food budget!

He has managed to get some kind of job since I posted last. He is doing self employed however as its his family I feel like they are taking the p slightly. For the hours he does for then it works out as £4 an hour!! its irking me I have to say.....

At least he's bringing some money in I guess.

My PADs for the month to debts are stopping for the minute and I'm trying to make sure we have enough for next months budget as it's looking like we'll be a bit short. So PAD's will be going into next months budget instead.

White-as-Snow

Paid CC payment today so debts are under£14k!!! ( well until the interest hits for this month I guess hahaha)

Had a "use up all the veg that needs using before it rots" tea today and found a couple of cooked chicken breasts in the freezer so managed to make a quick roast dinner! Handy really so that's todays planned meal can go back onto the meal planner for another day! woo

I try to meal plan as best I can but try to have days where all the leftovers etc are used so that we get extra days of "free" meals I guess.

Don't "think" we've had takeaway at all this month so far ( am about 90% sure). There was a time when it was a weekly occurrence and to be honest I actually got quite bored of it. I now still let us have a takeaway but try and hold off as much as I can so it's a treat rather than a norm. And only if I've saved enough from the food budget for that week to pay for it.

We don't have all of next months bills money to hand yet so it's still in the red at the minute but I should be able to cut out certain things for the rest of the month to even it out I think.

Have about £100 saved to get DD a new school uniform as she's going to first year secondary. It won't be enough for everything but will be enough for 1 full set anyway. (Must be a certain one) DS's uniform will just be supermarket ones luckily.

Right well bedtime now after all this rambling. Night night x