Our Journey from Debtdom to Freedom

hazeldreams

itcouldbeworse wrote: »

Hi Hazeldreams, just read your diary and wanted to wish you good luck with paying off your debt.


I hope you don't mind but I'm going to subscribe ad follow your journey.


Take care.x.

Hi there itcouldbeworse! Thanks for subscribing, although I hope I don't bore the pants of you with my mad ramblings! :rotfl:Do you have a diary I could hop over to?

itcouldbeworse

Morning hazel, you are certainly not boring!


Yes I have a diary, sorry I'm not sure how to do a linky, but think if you click on my name you can find it some how in the public bit and be warned I do ramble.

Igamogam

hazeldreams wrote: »

Thanks igamogam, but what's fr**gle?!:rotfl:

Its this

Digging_2

hazeldreams wrote: »

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me such fab advice! Love the idea of taking cash to the supermarket, that will definitely help as there is the need to tot everything up as you go round rather than know if you go over the debit card will cover it! I'll definitely do that! I've defrosted one freezer fully this weekend and the other freezer and most of our cupboards will be bare by next weekend as we've also been eating from the stocks for two weeks, so by Thursday/Friday this week they'll be some well wierd concoctions happening!

We always buy our meat from the butchers, it's a family tradition and I know it's the same or less than even A**i and L**l. Our weekly shop is always from A**i but I think the difference for us has been that we've stopped batch cooking and using the cheaper cuts of meat like mince, so I need to have a good think before the weekend and write a menu planner for the whole month thinking about batch cooking up as much as possible and which meat cuts we can use and bulk out with lentils as per your helpful suggestion to make it go further. My real weakness is fish - I love it so much but really don't like frozen fish from A**i so I've been buying fresh fillets from Mr S which cost a small fortune! I think I'll have to limit it to just 2 portions a week ..booo!

I've joined the August grocery challenge to target us getting through just £380 over the 5 week month - nowhere near your amazing budget Igamogam but for us right now I think that's as low as we can go, I'll work on shaving it down by £20 a month every month over the next few months and hopefully we won't even notice!

We've already made massive headway on the insurances, now just £199 pm (note to self really need to do new SOA) and other bits and pieces we've reduced so apart from Sky (which were tied into until January) there nothing more that I feel we can cut back on other than reducing gas/elec consumption (which I'm sure there's plenty we could do their too!)
Great tip re the wine btw, however we'd end up drinking it all and spending more if we bulk buy, best to stick to just Friday and Saturday bottle from A**i methinks!

So, need to crack on and get this list started....I'm sure I've missed something but at least this is a start...

1. Meal plan for month
2. Investigate purchase of second hand slow cooker
3. Try on all girls winter school uniforms to see if can squeeze them into them for another year
4. Have a scoot round house for ebay stuff to sell
5. Stop using tumble dryer
6. Dust off breadmaker and resolve to stop buying sm bread
7. Do a new SOA

Glad I've got this list started, feeling more in control already! Right off to menu plan using all Igamogams top tips! :T

Over and out!

Cash at a supermarket is great! Another thing I do is go onto mysupermarket online and put items in my basket for my chosen supermarket and print the list. I know my total and take that amount in cash with me. It also helps me pick up the right size items at the right price. I also find that I often have a re-jig in the basket online and end up taking items out that aren't needed that week. It makes me really think about what's needed week to week based on my cupboard/freezer stores.


Well done on joining the August grocery challenge. I have joined for the first time too. I normally spend about £250 a month for 2 adults. I've pledged £200 this time. This week however, I thought I would do a 'practice' run of £50 budget for the week before August starts. I got it to £26! :jThat was meal planning and checking what I already have in. I have downgraded a few brands to try too. The £26 includes plenty of fruit and veg and also treats like biscuits etc so not going without.


Great list:T. I need to start making one.

Igamogam

Another way of adding up the shopping as you go round is using the self zap as we call it! Hand held bar code reader to everybody else:)

hazeldreams

Really great tips Igamogam and digging! So grateful to you both for all your support!

I've managed to start planning for food for the whole of August but got waylaid last night so must resolve to finish tonight!

On a really positive note I've just been offered a lifeline! Opportunity to reduce outgoings by £300pm (complicated family arrangement renegotiated, very long story!) which would mean before any other savings from existing expenditure meaning we now have a total of £1700 per month to chuck at the debt, just £300pm to find to get to the magic £2000pm I really want to hit!

Not sure when it will start but really really positive news! I'm so pleased and relieved! :T

Shame we can't find that amount of savings everyday!:rotfl:

hazeldreams

Evening all!

A semi productive day today, registered for fr**gle (thanks igamogam!) not quite worked out how to use it yet though!

I've also completed 4 weeks out of the 5 this month of menu planners (found some free templates which I downloaded from Internet) just one more week to get through! I'm trying to stick to cheap cuts of meat, brisket beef, minced beef, side salmoln cut into loads of portions, tons of beans, pulses, lentils and soups, but I'm already starting to doubt I'll come under budget for the whole month especially with the kids off! Might be a suck it and see month! Just gotta remember it has to be less than last month!!

Just one more week to plan!!!! ........:T

PinkPoppies

Found you! Subscribed

Supermarkets often seem to have offers on for whole sides of salmon and I do exactly the same as you- chop them up and freeze them. Works out SO much cheaper than buying packaged fillets. We love salmon in this house!

It's definitely harder keeping shopping bills down in the holidays... my children are like locusts.

hazeldreams

Morning all!

Payday today, but we're off at lunchtime to stay with friends for the weekend so unlikely to be able to update YNAB and shift over the funds to the credit card before we set off - it'll probably be Monday before I get the chance now, so can't wait to throw the extra £300pm at the debt this month- should have one less CC by October now!:j

Depressingly though, having run the new overpayments through snowball calculator last night our new DFD is now predicted to be Jan 2019:eek: at a rate of £1700pm total debt payment. Gutted. I ran £2000pm through the calculator too and it still overshot my target date of Feb 2019 and came up with June 2019...not good! I will get a bonus every year which will reduce the term if I chuck the whole lot at it every time it gets paid but even so I'm a little fed up with the predictions.

Bottom line is we have to find an extra £300pm to chuck at the debts no matter what! To motivate myself I'm going to update my sig with a tally of how much we've chucked at the debt each month to help spur us along! We know we can definitely do £1700 so it's just £300 to find from grocery shopping savings, ebaying like mad and general cutting back in anyway we can. I'm sure that we can reduce the sky package somewhat before I cancel it in Jan so will add this to my list of jobs!

I've also decided that rather than focussing on the DFD for now I'll just draw on the successes of others on here and focus on the next milestone, getting sub 60k and debt starting with a 5 rather than a 6 :T

This debt won't beat us!

Golightly72

You're doing so well though Hazel, you did have a quite large starting figure so it's going to take a while to pay off!

You will get there, and you are paying off loads every month - maybe it would be better to not worry too much about the dfd if it means cutting back so much in the next few years that you are going to get fed up and not stick to it?

Great news about one cc down in October. :T

Good luck, I've subscribed.