Working towards being debt free and a new house.

dipdap

Hello diary
Well it's been a busy month here.
I've changed jobs :j and I've finally passed my driver test on my first attempt :j
I have my own little brum brum as OH got himself a new car a couple of months back and I got to keep the car he was driving around in.
Means if it's chucking it down on the school run I have the choice not to walk anymore
I'm a seriously nervous driver though managing to get out one every few days for small journeys, although did do a fair few miles down a dual carrigeway a week back on a journey with OH (he did the motorway bit). Hoping I'll get better as time goes on
Have started to reasses my shopping habits, I'm trying to buy more stuff that's reduced so we can stock up on the likes of cereal, loo rolls and crisps (and beer!)
Just sitting waiting for my wage for my new job to be paid at the end of the month to see what the difference is in pay compared to my old job

Lucylocks

I'm a latecomer to your diary and just wanted to say how amazingly well you've done on the debt clearing - really inspirational for a newbie.

I can remember the fear of driving after passing my test - I passed at 7 months pregnant so I doubly worried I was likely to kill myself, baby and any poor pedestrians I encountered. Suffice to say I didn't but I can remember it so clearly even 15 years on. The best thing I did, or rather my dad did, was make me go on the motorway straight away (under his supervision). It stopped me building up a total phobia as I don't think I'd driven over 40 mph before. Even though for the first 6 months I would only drive in the inside lane and didn't have confidence to overtake anything. Take opportunities to drive everywhere with your OH, the more you do, the easier it gets, I promise!

abba1772

Congrats on passing your test :j:T:j:T

dipdap

Hello diary.
Well I haven't been around for a while, have had a few things to deal with.
Gonna be around a lot more as working much less now, need to overhaul our spending, not sure how to make the money stretch as far as we need it to
Will pop back soon

dipdap

Hello diary
I did mean to pop back but a quick cheap holiday got in the way
I'm currently sat with some sheets of paper, felt tips and pencils so I'm making up some money saving charts.
Hoping this kick starts the debt clearing (credit card bill shot up to nearly £800 while we were on holiday :eek: )
Must keep going with this debt busting, need to keep that ball rolling

abba1772

Hope you went somewhere nice xx

dipdap

Hello diary
Will do a quick debt calculation in a bit. I'm itching to get this horrible debt down so am dreading what the current figure is (I know we've been a bit naughty recently!)
Hi Abba :wave:
We went to a theme park for a few days. It wasn't too busy and the kids had a fab time. Whole thing cost us about £650 but that's the limit of our holiday for this year.
Seeing the smiles on my kids faces was worth it though as we didn't tell them we were going till the day we left
Need to do a bit more overtime, payday was dire as I haven't done much recently

dipdap

Outstanding debts for the end of July

CC1 £7,900
CC2 £1,019
CC3 £0
Car loan £6,270

Total debt £15,189

Really need to work on this was hoping to have it much lower than it is by now.
Would be lovely to go into 2018 under £10k but can't see that happening :mad:

dipdap

Hell diary
Well another week of the summer holidays is almost over.
I've tried to be good with money this week, have taken the kids to a couple of free events (we did swing by McDs after one though and that cost us £25 ) but have also taken them to the pound shop and let them loose with £1 each which has been well spent on giant chalks, pipe cleaners and colouring books.
Gave them a cheap bag of tube shaped pasta which we coloured with felt tips (along with said pipe cleaners I now have a nice array of pasta necklaces!)
Found a couple of old tablets which are worth £20 or so each for trade in at the game shop so they can grab some new computer games next week :j
Hoping weather isn't too bad next week as we have planned trips to the local museum, country park and I've got ideas for an afternoon of garden games if the weather holds out.
Still have a rainy day pot of about £50 if something worth paying for comes up
I'm hoping to have £500 of wages left over at the end of the month to put towards the credit card bill but that may be optimistic!
Night diary, bedtime for me!

dipdap

Morning diary
Well it's a new week and the kids are still off.
We're going to the library today and I promised them we could go to the pound shop to maybe get some more craft stuff (they found some dot to dot books last night and promptly did every one in the book!)
Not been offered any overtime this week so as much as I love spending extra time with the kids I'm worrying about money still