The 300k debt-free diary!!!

nickelodeon

Hi Pandapaws,

Just read through your diary, congratulations on the baby and your light bulb moments! you are doing really well, keep it up!
I think it's sensible to have a realistic budget and allow yourself treats otherwise there is the risk that you get fed up with the whole thing and decide to completely blow your budget and go on a spending spree with the credit cards! Just keep doing what your doing, stick to your budget and keep those nasty credit cards locked away!
A couple of things I would recommend are meal planning and a spending diary. I found planning the meals for a week really helped in cutting down the food bills as I worked out what we needed and only bought what was on the list, rather than buying a load of expensive food and then not knowing what to cook with it! It also means less unused food is thrown out and less impulse takeaways because there's nothing for dinner! I know you have already cut down your spending on food, but just thought it might be something you could try.
Also keep a spending diray so you can see where all your money is going, it's very interesting and a great way to keep track of where your money is going!

Good luck with your challenge, and I hope you have more luck with selling the house soon!

chevalier

pandapaws wrote: »

P.S. I'm very jealous of your 'just in time' shopping, you're obviously much more organised than me - the only thing that would end up in our cupboard would be a load more Chinese take-away boxes!:rotfl:

The above certainly takes practice!:rolleyes: But the other reason is that we are hoping to emigrate to new zealand soon, and you are not allowed to have foodstuffs in your container (well you can if you want to pay for the sniffer dogs when they sniff it out, and then the decontamination fees to make sure it is safe:eek: ), so am trying to keep stocks relatively low for that reason. Same with household products. I have found that a lot of say 'bathroom' cleaners work just as well in the kitchen! No why didn't I think of this before! How much money have I wasted on separate cleaning products DOH!

Ref the £500 spend. I think that when you start to really organise your finances and plan in advance, you won't be spending this much a month, even on going out, birthdays etc. For example, my horse mad niece has a birthday next month. I already have her present because I saw it in a sale. I keep a list in my head of who I am still buying presents for (as opposed to just giving money which I do to the older ones), and then get things in sales. That way I don't have a panic and buy the first random (usually expensive) thing.

You have to be comfortable with how you are dealing with your debt. On the other hand. If you snowball your debts and get a 2012 DFD, then you can look how much earlier it would be if you paid an extra £100 a month to your debts. There will be quite a difference, so might be a good reason for trimming some more money from your budget in a few months time.

The main thing is (an I guess I must be a long winded as you!:D ), that you are tackling the debt!
best of luck
chev

pandapaws

nickelodeon wrote: »

Hi Pandapaws,

Just read through your diary, congratulations on the baby and your light bulb moments! you are doing really well, keep it up!
I think it's sensible to have a realistic budget and allow yourself treats otherwise there is the risk that you get fed up with the whole thing and decide to completely blow your budget and go on a spending spree with the credit cards! Just keep doing what your doing, stick to your budget and keep those nasty credit cards locked away!
A couple of things I would recommend are meal planning and a spending diary. I found planning the meals for a week really helped in cutting down the food bills as I worked out what we needed and only bought what was on the list, rather than buying a load of expensive food and then not knowing what to cook with it! It also means less unused food is thrown out and less impulse takeaways because there's nothing for dinner! I know you have already cut down your spending on food, but just thought it might be something you could try.
Also keep a spending diray so you can see where all your money is going, it's very interesting and a great way to keep track of where your money is going!

Good luck with your challenge, and I hope you have more luck with selling the house soon!

Thanks Nickelodeon!
I have sort-of been keeping a spending diary by making myself post any shopping on here, but I must admit that I haven't put absolutely everything down - I was in bed shattered today (between nightshifts + pregnant = full days in bed!) and DH bought both lunch and dinner out, not a lot of £ for either but these all add up. I might try and get him to join me and keep a fully comp diary even if it is just for a week or two. But I know it will be full of unnecessary spends! Meal planning also a VERY good idea, I just need to get my act together - there's nowt to eat in the cupboards at the moment (but they're still full - how?!) so big shop tomorrow - will see how it goes.

pandapaws

chevalier wrote: »

You have to be comfortable with how you are dealing with your debt. On the other hand. If you snowball your debts and get a 2012 DFD, then you can look how much earlier it would be if you paid an extra £100 a month to your debts. There will be quite a difference, so might be a good reason for trimming some more money from your budget in a few months time.

Cheers Chev - good honest advice! Lucky you, planning to emigrate! I'd love to give up everything and go somewhere, but so bogged down in everyday life, finances, family stuff etc that I can't see it ever happening. Good luck!

You're certainly right about every little that we can pay to debt helping, and any extra that we can get hold of will go towards something. I haven't put all the data into the snowball calculator again to see the exact difference £100 makes, but when I did it first time, I tried it with £1,000 extra (how much we hope to better off when we sell the house and move) and it brought it forward by 2 years, so I suppose that a tenth of that would only bring it forward by a couple of months. I'll try and keep spending to a minimum, but I'm going to stick to my guns and keep my extravagant £500 for food/spends, as I'm more likely to be able to stick to £500/month for 5 yrs than £400/month for 4yrs10mths!!! If we only we could get that flippin house sold!

On nightshift tonight and brought about 100 :eek: items to work to try and put in my Ebay shop. Might give in to temptation and go to sleep for a few hours instead though, got to look after myself after all!

chocaholic110

pandapaws wrote: »

Hi!

Congratulations - what's your due date?

Just had the scan and been dated at 8 wks 4 days, giving a due date of 14 March. Was a really clear scan and could see arms, legs and most importantly the heartbeat! :j Now actually accepting the fact that I'm definitely pregnant, and so will start proper on the baby preparations! Will take a look therough the families board when I'm at work later, hadn't realised there was a specific pregnancy one - there's so much on this bloomin site! - thanks!

Congratulations on your great scan!

I'm due 27th January, so I'm, err, nearly 16 weeks pregnant. Got a midwife appointment next week so I'm hoping to hear the heartbeat. Haven't had a scan since nine weeks which seems like ages away!

Don't forget to join the Boots parenting club if you're not already a member - they have lots of god freebies / BOGOFs etc

pandapaws

Hi Chocahoic!

Best of luck with the midwife - it's great to hear the heartbeat. Last time, my baby always seemed to have hiccups when I went to the midwife - quite amusing! I'm not allowed to see anyone yet - apparently they were booking in people as soon as they found out they were pregnant, and so many then miscarried that they decided it wasn't economical. They won't take me until 15 weeks - sign of the times?! Is this your first?

Great resut with your debt, BTW, bet you feel so much better bringing a little one into the world with £5k than £21k!

Not sure if I'm still in the Boots club from last time - will check! If you haven't seen already, nappies in Tesco have a third off. I bought a load of their own brand for £1.04/pack 24 newborn, and £2.49/pack 45 (I think!) for size 2 - total bargain, and there's not that much difference from Pampers!
xx

chocaholic110

15 weeks, wow, that's a long time. I can sort of understand the logic but till quite a while to wait. Our local health authority does the booking appointment at 8 weeks then sees you every 4 weeks or so for a midwife appointment or scan - if you're normal that is! I had an early scan because of previous miscarriages so didn't get a 12 scan.

No, not my first, it's my third though it feels like the first time as DS is 13 and DD will be 9 by the time the baby is born and it all feels like so long ago.

i haven't even got round to thinking about nappies or anything. Sort of hoping that by the time I have the baby everything I need will have miraculously just appeared!

pandapaws

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

chocaholic110 wrote: »

i haven't even got round to thinking about nappies or anything. Sort of hoping that by the time I have the baby everything I need will have miraculously just appeared!

:rotfl:

Maybe our other halves will sort it all out for us to save us the stress and hassle?!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I don't envy you having to start all over again - what a shock! Although at least your other 2 are maybe old enough to help (or is that :rotfl: as well?!). Mine is still in nappies at night, so I've sort of still got a baby! He'll be 3-and-a-quarter when No2 is born, so a fully grown child by then!

pandapaws

Just discovered that we have gone £11 over our overdraft limit (£1000) on our Natwest account. So annoyed!!!

It was nearly at its limit, and we paid £400 on payday (16th), and decided that would be our car expenses account. Expected to spend 2-300 on petrol over the month, and if we continued to do this, we'd gradually pay off the overdraft while always having a bit available for any other motor expenses.

So how on earth have we managed to spend over £500 on petrol this month? Not impressed.

Will rush to the bank in the morning to see if we can pay in and avoid a charge for going over. And look at where we have been this month to see if we can cut down on fuel - sadly I think not, as apart from a 600-mile trip to see my parents we've only really been to work and back for the most part.

I NEED TO MOVE HOUSE!!!

chocaholic110

pandapaws wrote: »

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

:rotfl:

Maybe our other halves will sort it all out for us to save us the stress and hassle?!

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Lol, there aren't enough of these :rotfl: in the world to go with that comment. Baby will be sleeping in a drawer and wearing nappies made from cut up towels if I leave everything to OH.

I think DD will be a good help. She's starting to get intersted in the whole thing though it has lead to awkward questionning that I wasn't quite ready for. We went shopping yesterday and she spent the whole time looking at pretty baby dresses and suggesting girl's names.

DS's only comments so far have been "As long as it doen't keep me awake" (Fat chance of that!!) and "Well, if it's another girl you could always put it on ebay!"

Have you told your little one about your baby yet?