Time To Grow Up

TheRoders

Well as the old saying goes, it's time for me to really grow up so I suppose I'll grab a cuppa and settle down to get this all written down and then it's official!

It all started when I got my first job after doing my degree. We moved from a south Wales to Hampshire to start a new life. We had money in the bank and I started getting careless. A credit card here, car finance there, an expensive wedding... You know the story....

We bought our first home in 2004 with a 100% mortgage for £175,000 and then in 2005 we got married (funnily enough we saved for the wedding).

Fast forward a couple of years and a redundancy under my belt I had my son in 2008. Again, I saved hard to be able to pay my bills etc whilst on maternity (I had quite a few at this time) and managed to take 6 months off.

Then it all started to go wrong. I was the main earner so had to go back to work and child care started costing £1000 a month which I never factored in. We scraped by for a while and with 2 further redundancies I started my own business originally for extra security and pocket money in July 2010.

The business was a success within months and we were loving the extra income etc.. However, it was starting to take its toll on me. Working full time and the business requiring just as much commitment I was struggling to find any kind of family life. I started investing in machinery to make my job easier and found the new products I was able to offer started bringing in a lot of work. I took the decision in 2012 for health reasons more than anything to give up my career and become a stay at home mum to run the business full time. A dream come true!

It was one hell of a hit to the pocket though as I was earning 50k when I decided to give it up. Crazy I know but I don't ever regret my decision. I have loved having some more time with my son.

For the last 2 years the business has flown and we have been able to meet all of our financial commitments but 2015 hasn't been great at all and am really starting to scrape by which I am now panicking about!

So here I am in February 2015 with my very own LBM with debts looking like this:
Mortgage - £172,000 - £720 a month (interest only)
Lloyds Credit Card - £7000 - min payment £180
Lloyds Loan - £7500 -£320 a month
Black horse finance - £12,000 (caravan bought in jan 2015 :eek:) £147 a month
Stains buys loan - £4000 £97 a month (paid through the business)

We only have one option at this point, sell up and move back to Wales and use the equity in our house (£100,000) to pay some loans off and buy a bigger house back home!

So fast forward to now, we have sold the house for £265,000 and bought a house back home for £228,000 which we are hoping for a smooth sale.

We will pay off the credit card and the Lloyds loan and hopefully will be in a better position financially.

My plan is to pay £500 a month in overpayments to the CC right up until we complete on the house to reduce how much equity we have to use for loans whilst putting £200 a month into an emergency fund if my income drops any lower.

I want to see the end of the sleepless nights and the days I spend crying with worry....

So here we go. So sorry it has turned intoquite a long read

TheRoders

First things first, I have now set a budget of £100 a week for groceries and am doing it online to make sure I stick to it. I have set amounts for fuel etc and once it's gone it's gone.

Hubby gets paid weekly so the budget is done weekly and his pay has always done the groceries, savings etc whilst mine has fed the debts.

Hubby's pay is switching to monthly next month so have to budget 3 weeks worth on one weeks pay which is going to be a massive struggle but I have my spreadsheets and I'm not afraid to use them haha

killerpeaty

Hi Roders, sorry to hear you had to sell your house but it's a new beginning.

Have you thought about looking at lidl or aldi to replace some of your shopping? Lots of people find them really good for cutting costs.

I will be following your progress

TheRoders

I'm not sad to be selling... it was always on the cards to move back to family, I just wish I didn't have to give up so much equity to pay off the loans.

Well..... I have made a start by moving from Waitrose (opposite my house and so used to shop daily) to Tesco which is a good start..... I will start shaving this £100 down over the next few weeks and see where I can make savings at other shops.

We went to Legoland today. It's right on our doorstep and we have Merlin passes so no money to pay out.... Passes are valid until June so we still have a few months to make use of them.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary
Keep posting!

TheRoders

I vow to keep this diary up to date daily to make sure it keeps me focused...

Another 3am wake up for me this morning. I just can't sleep. It's been like this for months now. This time last year, I brought in £5000 for March, this month I have scraped together £1500 so it's SOOO worrying....

Usually, I am using these great months to save in order to cover the quieter months at the end of the year but with only just scraping together the income for bills NOW, how the hell are we going to manage over winter?

Had to get my son a new coat this morning. Went out but didn't find anything he liked so will have a hunt on Ebay and try and find a bargain on there.

Everything is going wrong at the moment to.... our flush has broken on the toilet and have had to make up a makeshift in order to be able to flush it, we have a blocked sink in the kitchen and unable to get a plumber in so hubby is out there trying to fix it at the moment...

Am in limbo with the house move at the moment too.... We have only just put the full mortgage application in, so waiting to hear the news. Everything rides on this house move....

TheRoders

WOW! 3 days in a row! I must be dedicated :j

Another 3am wake up for me this morning. Money is the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing at night.

Hopefully an NSD for me today. The weekly meal planning and online shopping seems to be helping A LOT..... I used to find it so easy to just pop to the shops every day and get what I needed/fancied. I think I easily spent over £150 a week... This is fine, ofcourse, if you have £150 in your budget a week BUT I would run out of money half way through the week and then end up transferring money from savings into the account to spend more!! What was that all about? :mad:

Looks like I will have dh home with me from school today as he has a sore throat and a cold but he's good company on what is normally a very lonely day.

I need to start seriously thinking about work once we have moved. Do I go back to work or do I carry on with the business?

1. Going back to work will mean my mum doing the school drop off and pick up and not seeing my son through school holidays or going to any of his school activities. However, it will mean more money, less financial stress, my evenings and weekends back and down time will be just that (not worrying/stressing or checking/answering emails or catching up on admin)
2. Carrying on with the business means that I can carry on being a Stay At Home Mum, can do the school drop offs and pick ups, be there over the holidays and generally run my business around my other commitments. However, when the work is good, it's great but when it's not it's really bad so VERY stressful. My downtime/evenings is spent doing admin and catching up/checking emails. It means that I can't fully dedicate my time to my son. However, paying the debt off through the house move means we won't have so many financial commitments a month so this could relieve the stress slightly.

Oh, I'm waffling now..... Sorry this turned into such a long post. I hope to be reporting a nsd tomorrow

:beer:

TheRoders

Good morning all......

Yesterday didn't quite go according to plan and it wasn't the NSD I was hoping for

Hubby needed petrol so £10 gone....
Went to make Chicken Chilli Noodles for tea and realised the noodles and bean sprouts from my online shop had already gone off so had to pop across to Waitrose to buy more and ended up having to dip into our emergency fund to buy them :mad:

Will definitely be a NSD today though as I have left over noodles for lunch today and have gammon in the freezer which I MUST remember to take out this morning.

It does seem pay day is looming for my client base so have been getting a few more enquiries. That's certainly a positive thing. Oh, and I also heard from the buyers of our house yesterday to say that they have now instructed their solicitor so things can start moving forward. DS is back in school today so can focus on work fully again.

Hope everyone has a great day :beer:

in_need_of_direction

Hi. Hope you don't mind an observation. Given that you've been some distance from your mum, maybe getting her to do the school run will create some grandparent and son quality time. When he was well enough! my dad used to bring my two to school in the mornings. They all valued their time together without others.

TheRoders

Hi

Thanks for taking the time to read :beer:
You are absolutely right. This is one reason we are moving home. I hate the fact that my mum and dad can't be "proper" grandparents and haven't had the chance yet (he is nearly 7). I think it's me feeling guilty and possibly for some selfish reasons thrown in.

It's something that is taking a lot of my thoughts at the moment.

TheRoders

Good morning all

Well.... I can safely say we had a NSD yesterday YAY!!! Just today and tomorrow to go now until hubby gets paid. Planning on paying another £100 off the CC on Friday. I am cross though as I ended up having to put £400 on the CC last week to pay for the sellers pack with the solicitor for the house sale so am now paying off what I had paid off a couple of weeks before but I suppose it's a small price to pay at the moment to get this move DONE!

In other news, I had some AMAZING news yesterday. In 2012 I received a default (£61) and had NO recollection of it. I had paid off and closed the account in the months prior to receiving it so as far as I was concerned it was closed. In January when we were planning for our mortgage, I checked my credit file and was shocked to see this default. I phoned and paid it off immediately but it's had a huge impact on getting a mortgage.

Me being me, I just couldn't accept this and phoned them up and went through to speak to a manager. Last night I got a call back from them to say that because the default was caused through interest being added after the account was closed they are removing the default from my file within the next 7 days. I am OVER THE MOON!!

So Happy Happy me today.

Have a great day everyone.