Debt busting into 2015, but not beyond!

PiggyBankShaker

I haven't posted this month, but I have been keeping on top of the finances.

I made a budgeting spreadsheet, and I have no idea why I haven't done this before.

So, at a glance, I know that we have spent:

£196.10 on groceries UNDER
£78.58 on diesel UNDER
£54.70 on 'luxuries' OVER
£82.80 on train travel UNDER
£33.98 on Kids activities and 'stuff'

We've also had a good month in other ways. We have made an extra £468 of income from selling on ebay, mystery shopping, swagbucks, etc This has all gone on the mortgage as overpayments. Got something ending on ebay tonight and the interest to add too, so will update final total on Feb 1st.

We also had a really productive and useful meeting with a independent financial advisor. I think I'll write about this in a separate post though.

PiggyBankShaker

So the final total of 'extra money made' for January was £502.43. Delighted with that, especially as whilst we did work on it most weekends, we didn't go over the top or let it dominate our lives. We'll see if we can sustain a similar level in February. If we think it is indeed sustainable going forward we can revise our mortgage overpayment ambition for 2015.

I have £119 left until pay day on the 25th Feb. I have £27 committed and will also need money for the train to work. I should just have enough without having to dip into my overdraft.

It's DS birthday at the end of the month. So far I've got him a Lego set with Amazon vouchers from Amazon Trade-in.

I have £5 voucher to spend in Tesco and we need a few bits like bread and fruit so I'll pop out and get them this afternoon.

Here's to fabulously frugal February!

Dobbibill

PiggyBankShaker wrote: »

I made a budgeting spreadsheet, and I have no idea why I haven't done this before.

So, at a glance, I know that we have spent:

£196.10 on groceries UNDER
£78.58 on diesel UNDER
£54.70 on 'luxuries' OVER
£82.80 on train travel UNDER
£33.98 on Kids activities and 'stuff'

I love this, as said so many times on here, I am a massive fan of spreadsheets :T

Well done on coming under on 75% of your budget. That is awesome!!! :j

DB

PiggyBankShaker

Dobbibill wrote: »

I love this, as said so many times on here, I am a massive fan of spreadsheets :T

Well done on coming under on 75% of your budget. That is awesome!!! :j

DB

Thanks DB!. I have no idea why we didn't do this sooner. But we are now and I guess that's the important thing.

PiggyBankShaker

Not a lot to report, been trying to keep on the straight and narrow, money-wise.

However, the £119 that I had last week has gone

£21 in diesel
£23 on train fares
£10 to DS savings account
£5 on a mystery shop (not refunded yet)
£27 on regular DD's
£40 on counselling

Total £126

I need to pay £30 again today for counselling and that will put me into my overdraft

I think will need DH to give me some money when he gets paid this week.

In other, more positive news, as of next month DH will be saving £30 a month on his mobile phone bill Finding him a new tariff has been on the 'to do' list for a while and I got him to do it today.

We are working with the Independent Financial Advisor to overhaul our pensions. I'm pleased about this as it has been LONG overdue. Apart from two very small company pensions, DH does not currently have one so the IFA will be setting that up for him. It will mean putting away about another £250 a month, but now we have a better grasp of where our money is actually going each month, it shouldn't be too difficult to put this away and not miss it.

PiggyBankShaker

The rest of February was absolutely crazy with work. Four weekend conferences back to back as well as a big in-house event that I was responsible for organising.

I didn't have much time for the diary, but the good news is that I also didn't have time to spend any money either! We paid off the kitchen loan (£6720) in full and also managed to overpay the mortgage by £887 too.

It was DS 4th birthday and he had a lovely time. We had a party at the house with some of his friends and he was delighted as he got some Lego.

Then DH and I both had our birthdays too. We don't really do presents, so they were a non-events.

We have started planning our summer holiday and booking some of the parts of it. I'm really excited about it already.

I made quite a big break through with my counsellor last week, but it has had some emotional fall out, and as a result I have been off work most of the week.

DH has been very good looking after me and the kids spoiled me today for Mother's Day, however, to top off a crap week I have managed to fall out with my own Mother today

PiggyBankShaker

Looking ahead to the rest of March... I get paid in just under two weeks. I would like to overpay the mortgage by £1000 and also put a little bit into savings.

As far as the other debts go we are just repaying the minimum required as they are both currently 0%. We need to try and save up the remaining balance to repay in one go at the end of the 0% period. That is a bit behind schedule, but not too much.

The plan that we are working to is a sound one. We just have to steer the course and not be tempted into buying anything that is not essential (like horses and VW Transporter/camper vans!) and we should be debt free by the end of the year.

lcc86

Congrats on clearing so much of your debt this month, a real inspiration!! I have been lurking on your diary for a while :-)

PiggyBankShaker

lcc86 wrote: »

Congrats on clearing so much of your debt this month, a real inspiration!! I have been lurking on your diary for a while :-)

Thanks and welcome lcc - it's not the most scintillating read I'm afraid, but new friends are always welcome.

I had saved up for six months to pay the debt off in one go, so it's not quite as exciting as it looks. At least I will have earned * a little* interest in the process :rotfl:

PiggyBankShaker

DAILY HORSE / CAMPERVAN BUYING UPDATE: Have not bought a horse or a camper van. 10/10.

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DH got paid yesterday and did the money hokeycokey. He's transferred enough money to cover all the April bills so that means I can put across £1000 overpayment to the mortgage when I get paid next week. I *should* be able to put something into savings too, but I'll have to work that out closer to payday. I shouldn't have any big expenditure between now and then, just got to keep my eye on the ball. DO NOT SPEND £60 ON AMAZON!

In other 'news', I have been off work for over a week now with my anxiety. Technically, I've only had three 'sick days', but I haven't been into the office on the other days either. This is one of the main reasons that I want to pay off the mortgage as quickly as possible, there is always the possibility that one day I might be too ill to work, and so the responsibility to provide for all of us will fall to DH. If I have at least paid the mortgage off and got that level of security for everyone then if I do get ill I won't feel so guilty and worry about it so much.

I'm hoping that I'll be better in the next few days. But the fear is always there, that I'll get really ill again, and if I do I can have made the best financial plans in the world and they won't count for squat.

I am going to aim to clean the bathroom today and do a little tidy up in the backyard ready for spring. Oh, and NOT SPEND ANY MONEY!