not so secret debt busting diary of GG

gruffalosgirl

Hi,
Been a lurker on mse for a few years, in that time I've gained debt and paid off some debt but now I've decided to come properly out of lurkdom and start a diary of my own!!

This is attempt two as I started one previously but a family bereavement shortly after starting put money saving very much on the back burner. But now I'm ready to tackle our debts!!

We have done not too bad so far this year in doing some debt busting, we've just paid off a loan, which we were due to pay for next 3 years, off early, using some savings that we had. There was about 8,000 still to pay on it in Jan this year so that felt good to pay it off and get rid of the monthyl payment!

So to the debts that we still have......we owe my dad about £6,000 for essential house repairs that we needed done urgently. That's interest free and should it ever arise that we can't pay it then we can adjust payments accordingly (he'd rather we feed and clothe his grandchildren than pay the debt). However I find the monthly payment a grind and would rather get that out of the way, especially as we have another 3 1/2 years left!!

I also have a credit card which is currently about £1,200 and an overdraft for £300. I have always been dreadful with money and my husband has bailed me out more times than I can count, if he finds out about my c/c debt then he will not be happy (and I wouldn't blame him!!) So I need to pay that off as much as can as quick as I can!!

Anyway that's just quick over view to get me started. Will be back later to detail my plans!!

beanielou

Wishing you well on your DF journey.
Anything you can car boot, ebay ect to help you on your way with the CC?
Keep posting

gruffalosgirl

Thanks Beanielou, i'm planning a major declutter of the house over next few weeks so can hopefully find plenty toys to sell off, especially with Christmas coming up.

I have such bad money habits and I really need to try to get them under control. We aren't in a lot of debt and have never missed payments etc for anything but god do we waste money!! I have a really bad habit of spending freely without thinking bout what I am buying or how much I am spending, which probably explains why I always have credit card debt and no money in the bank!! I need to find a way of making our money work for us so that we can become debt free, have savings and money in the bank!!

I signed up for money planner on TSB website and it showed that on average we spend about £534 a month on groceries and last month we withdrew £681 from cash machines!! eeeek!!! So first plan of attack is our spending habits especially the food bill!! Need to get in the habit of meal planning, writing a shopping list, sticking to said list lol!! We already try to go to Aldi as much as we can but it's not always possible.

Going to take some time today while kids are at school to plan our meals and trying to use food we already have in the cupboards!!

gruffalosgirl

Had hoped for a no spend day today, but had nothing in for kids snack so spent £1.28 at shop buying crisps, then £1.20 for dd's school lunch. Then Ds announced he had no pencils left to do his homework so had to get my hubby to go to the shops for them and a few other things

On the positive side tho I had been tempted earlier to go to shops for dinner stuff but instead i raided the cupboards and freezer and mm managed to rustle up a dinner, had leftovers for lunch too so they didn't get thrown out like they normally would so it's been an ok day money wise in the end lol!!!

I've sorted the children's dinner money for the rest of the week too, trying to encourage dd to go school dinners as come January she gets them for free :T

Anyway best go get kids to bed then chill with a lovely cuppa!!!!

gg x

gruffalosgirl

Oops, not being doing very good on the debt busting or the diary keeping so far must try harder had a few birthdays this week and dd has her birthday at the end of the month too so been trying to buy wee cheap presents.

Just discovered the Mr money mustache website, so have been reading that yesterday and today, quite an interesting read so far!!! Has made me think about what I'm spending my money on.

Kids are now off school for a week so it'll be a week of ”I'm hungry" and "I'm bored" :eek: been looking up some free/cheap activities to do with them, cinema does tickets for £2.50 on holiday mornings (we take sweeties in with us), going to invite their friends over to play too, that keeps them amused without spending money. Also planning to take them to a couple of museums (one of which has free activities on) and we will take a picnic so we will only need to pay parking. We also have a wind farm near us which has excellent free activities on all thru the holidays.

Today the children have friends over, then tonight we have planned a DVD night, picked up Ice Age 4 dvd for £2.99 yesterday and a big bag haribos for 50p so kids can share them while we snuggle under the duvet to watch it. Can't wait!!!