A family of five

lynneee

so went through all our finances last night, its not too pretty but at least my guess of £13,000 was about right (meaning that I am aware of our debt!) The actual figure is £13,342.62
This breaks down as:
£708 uni fees (0%)
£2776.26 n/w cc (18%)
£3578.36 b cc (0%)
£150 to SIL (0%)
£5400 to dad for car loan (0%)
£330 o/d (me) (20%)
£400 o/d DH (18%)
When DH gets paid in 3 weeks time his O/D should be down to £260, I have made one payment for my uni course (£236) so only 2 payments left (I have to pay this off as its course fees, rather than student loan) and we have paid £100 off each cc. Going to look at moving £500 off one credit card onto the 0% one so this should help. (£33 lost in interest last month!)
So with the payments made I am down to £12.766.62.
A bit better!

lynneee

Gosh what a busy week! Managed to get 4 hours work this week, not many but they all help! I work in my children's school if any teaching assistants are off sick.and hopefully when I complete my uni courses it will lead to a more permanent position. I have managed to sort out some paperwork and paid off some debt, and have spent very little money. I'm due some money back from my health care plan (about £60) which will go towards paying off my overdraft.
Still avoiding eating too much bread so it keeps me out of the shops, and the mountain of cereal and crackers have now almost been eaten instead of toast. Also started to use a teabag for two cups of tea instead of one and watering the milk down slightly to make it go just a little further! Not much but it will all help a little! The freezer is looking much emptier, but we should keep going a bit longer.
Done lots of studying this week so not had time for much else.
And nothing has sold on Facebook, although I have had a few queries, so hopefully today someone will commit to buying!
Haven't managed to be very good on my diet though, but I have hardly smoked all week (bad habit that I am going to kick, now smoking about a third of what I was so that's one New year's resolution that I am sticking to!) This has save me about 20 quid this week so pleased with this.

lynneee

Time to do some competitions I think this afternoon, see if I can win something nice for us!

lynneee

Another busy week, have finally got much more organised with my uni courses. Been using up the food in the cupboards and freezer so still haven't really spent any money on food apart from bread milk and fruit. Sadly we are at the end of the home grown potatoes now, but we still have a few carrots and beetroot.
We have had a few random meals to eat stuff up, but I'm trying to keep our meals healthy, especially for the kids.
Still not managed to sell anything on Facebook, everyone must be tight for cash!!
Might have a look to see if I have any more bits I can get rid of, maybe some books on green metropolis.
Not really spent any money this week, but not paid anything off either! Have been using up the money in the change jar so I can leave my account alone, I'm hoping this will help clear the overdraft.
Done another few hours at school again this week, not much but at least they still want me.

lynneee

So still not gone shopping properly yet, and down to the last few bits in the cupboard and freezer. So still under £100 for the month for the 5 of us to eat! So proud of this! Determined to get to Thursday before shopping, so I have the breadmaker on and going to make some jam tarts with the last of the jam, and some mince pies as I have a jar of mincemeat left from Christmas, so the children have something to take for snack time tomorrow. Also found some jelly in the cupboard so that will be pudding for tonight, or the fruit loaf I am making too. Mince and mash tonight (yellow sticker mince!) With carrots (last few from the garden) and frozen sweet corn. I have to say, growing our own veg last year saved us a fortune.
So we have saved about £150 - £200 on food this month, and I am so proud of that! It's amazing how far food can go when it has to! So the saved money will be used to pay dad a bit more towards the money I owe him.

lynneee

Still not managed to sell anything on fb, but will keep trying. There's a car boot coming up in a few weeks so will try my luck there.

anothermoneysaver522

Good luck Lynne. Have subscribed and am looking forward to reading more updates xx

lynneee

gosh, cant believe it has been so long since I last checked in! So I have been busy with uni assignments and have also managed to get a contract at school fort 10 hours a week which I am so pleased about!! I know 10 hours doesnt sound much, but at least it is a start!
So have paid off £590 so far this month towards the debt (signature is up to date!) and with no council tax to pay this month or next month I hope to clear a bit more off the credit card! Next month also sees the final payment for my uni course fees so then I can get rid of even more of the CC!!
Also just realised that hubby's CC has PPI on it! Had no idea and neither did he (yes we are a bit late noticing given all the info about it for the last few years!!) So cancelled the PPI as we dont really need it, and filled in a form for the ombudsman to see what happens. We have had the card for about 10 years!!
So things are looking quite positive at the moment!

Saved lots of money on food last month which helped, and still not smoking many cigs so its all good.
Managed to have a few outings to the beach with the kids, despite the cold so that has kept costs down, and they love going, and its great exercise running around on the sand!
Just need to keep plodding with the uni work, then end is now in sight finally, only one more month of my NVQ3 Teaching assistant, and June 3rd is the final day of my degree. 6 years hard slog are coming to an end! trying to adjust to working and studying and keeping up with 3 kids is proving hard work though, so still trying to sort out a routine for us all.

f0nz

Hi :hello:

Our kiddly winks are pretty much the same age, my teeny will be 4 in a couple of weeks *sniff sniff* time flies!

I took 3 years off to be a mummy and went back to work almost 2 years ago. Still don't really know what I want to be when I grow up but hoping I get some divine inspiration soon!

Good luck with the debt busting, have subscribed to see how your journey goes

lynneee

Hi, thanks to all who have joined me on my debt free journey. Hoping it will be a smooth and successful one