LullaBelle's long road to being debt free!

LullaBelle

Haha, I'll have to have a wee listen to that song!!

DH got paid today. I have kept enough in the bill account to cover all the bills this month and transferred the rest to the expense account. I got some interest and cashback on the bill account so transferred this into the baby fund. This now stands at £774.69. My auntie has very kindly offered to buy us our cot and chest of drawers/changing table for the babies room so some of this baby fund might be used at the end if there is any left over to clear the barclaycard. Only 5 more pays until baba arrives!!

I also paid another £11.50 off the barclaycard so this is now at £1226.24. If I come under budget on the shopping etc this month then I hope to pay more off this to take it below £1200 :j

kindofagilr

Well done Hun that's awesome.

Eek only three days now xx

LullaBelle

Kindofagilr, I've just realised I wrote 5 days until baby is due... that should have said 5 PAYS!! Thank God it wasn't 5 days, I'm no where near ready yet!! Fixed that now

Not much news here. Started to think of Christmas already. I really want to be organised this year and not leave it to December's pay to get everything in. I was in Sainsbury's at lunch time and they had their candle sets reduced to £1.88. So I bought 3 of those for my friends. I have also bought a tin of sweets for my auntie and a make up set for my sister. I'm never usually this organised but want to find some good bargains this year!

LullaBelle

So I have been working out what I am going to do with October's pay already. The debt costing me the most at the minute is the overdraft so I am going to pay it off in full next month. I will pay a bit less towards the barclaycard that month. This is on 0% until February so it makes sense to get rid of the overdraft first. I will be delighted to have 1 debt paid off. I am still planning to have the barclaycard paid off by the time baby arrives in February so I will only be left with the Halifax card and car loan. Paying these 2 off will make a big difference especially seeing as I am only on statutory maternity pay for a while! :j

I have been doing some ebay shopping for baba. I managed to pick up a groegg for £3.50 rather than £20 in the shops. Delighted with that purchase.

The next 2 weeks will be difficult... I am off work! That usually means spending a fortune. I have money set aside in the baby fund so will be shopping a bit for the baby then. As long as I don't touch the credit cards I will be happy. Let's see how I get on...

kindofagilr

Lol I was thinking you were rather calm about buba arriving in five days lol

Deffo think its a good idea to pay the overdraft off first

Look out for asda next baby event you can get some good deals there, even better deals when the event is on the last day don't stock up on too many nappies tho lol, we got loads of size one when my son was due and he ended up being 10lb 11oz and we couldn't use them all haha he had to go straight to a bigger size xx

LullaBelle

It's been a while since I have updated my diary. I was off work for 2 weeks so didn't get using the computer.

So today is payday.... and the best news of all is that the overdraft is no more! I have actually paid off 1 debt! :j:beer::j:beer:

so so delighted with that. The money I was putting towards the overdraft every month and the fees I was being charged for using it will now all go towards the barclaycard. The plan for next month is to have this card below £1k! I really feel like I am starting to get somewhere with this debt! :T

LullaBelle

I'm back here again! I had my beautiful baby girl in February and couldn't be happier. I am still struggling with my debt though. Although I am pleased it is still going down. I am only on SMP so take home approx £600 a month so I am £1100 down on what I usually get. I am proud of myself for not using my credit cards. I saved up a good bit before I finished work which has helped. All in I have paid off about £1k of debt since I started maternity leave in January! Not too bad!

So I'm now looking for any tips that could help me survive maternity leave on SMP? Any ideas? I really need to cut back as I'm running out of savings and don't want to use credit cards!

LullaBelle

Paid £22.91 off my barclaycard so it's now down to £300! Nearly gone!! £50 came off the Halifax card too so it now stands at £4645. I need to do a shop tonight so going to try and get as much as I can for £40 and that includes baby formula at £10. Will be tight but I'm going to meal plan now and stick to my shopping list.

LullaBelle

Really panicking about money now. I just seem to have expense after expense lately. Got my electric bill in yesterday and it's £80. I know that's not too bad for the quarter but I completely forgot to budget for it so I now have to find £80 from somewhere. I'm sending DH up to the attic tomorrow to bring down the summer clothes suit case. There's no chance I'll be using them anytime soon so thinking I'll sell them on eBay to make a few £. Started swagbucks again and have 400 points so far. Only another 400 to go before I get a £5 voucher. Every little helps. Anything else I can do to make some extra cash?

LullaBelle

Yay! I found loads of stuff for eBay today!! Mostly all summer stuff so it should hopefully sell well. I've listed 5 things already and will work my way through the pile this week. So by the end of the week I will have hopefully made a few £! Fingers crossed! I think I have enough stuff that should hopefully get me the £80 I need for the electric bill!