Chasing Freedom!!

mumstheword***

Only since beginning of April! I was on maternity leave until September and we decided this was the year that we got straight! Having said that we are off on holiday at half term to France - got the holiday spends saved up just kennels to sort out now!
Some of our minimums on the credit cards don't even cover the interest amount which is pretty scary!!!

chasingfreedom

PinkPoppies wrote: »

We were stood as you are with a similar amount of debt last August.

You know what though.... time will fly by and you'll be amazed at what you can achieve.

Very best of luck! Will subscribe and cheer you on!

Wow, pinkpoppies I was just re-reading and realised from your signature that you have cleared 18k of debt since last April?? That is amazing. You must feel great? Well done you

chasingfreedom

Sorry mums I think we posted at the same time yesterday so I missed your reply until just now. Maternity leave is massively hard financially, I feel your pain there. It's a good time to get straight though afterward. A holiday in France sounds lovely, whereabouts are you going?


We're off to Cornwall in August for a week in a lovely caravan with the kids. Even though we're debt busting its really important to us that we also have a life, which for us means having a holiday with the kids and the odd meal out.


We both work so hard and are both a bit prone to getting stressed/depressed and it gives us something to look forward to and it feels like we are having a life still and enjoying some of the fruits of our labour. I know the sensible thing to do would be to not have a holiday and to put the money towards paying a debt but we'd both rather have debt for another few months than have the kids missing out and us both fed up. Historically we've always gone abroad every year and spent about 5k (2 adults 3 kids 2 weeks all inclusive) Interestingly we've always paid cash for our holidays, its one of the few things we've never got into debt for which is odd!! Before I had my daughter and our debt wasn't so bad actually we usually had 2 holidays a year. One by ourselves and one with the 2 stepdaughters. So we've compromised and decided on a UK holiday this year which will be a quarter of the cost compared to normal. I really hope the weather is kind to us otherwise it could be the crappiest holiday ever, lol. My plan is to take a lot of things (food wise) with us and have lots of beach days and picnics so not spend to much while we are there.


Calling Sky today to get our package reduced right down to the bare minimum (can't cancel totally as in a contract still and also need the phone line/internet for work) That is today's debt busting seeing as there is nothing left in the pot for me to pay any other bills off. 2 weeks today till I get paid and can pay some more.


Hurrryyyyy upppppp payday!!!!

mumstheword***

We are off to a cottage in Brittany we went once when eldest was 2. I don't think I would relax too well on a pool holiday with a 15 month old! Part of me thinks I should have just thrown everything at the debt but we get so little family together time coz we both work and husband is often out evenings pricing and every other weekend we have his 3 kids too, that holidays are really important.
Luckily I was paid 8 days maternity holiday entitlement that they didn't want me taking before april or carrying over - so that effectively paid for most of it.
I seriously cannot wait - 2 weeks today I will be literally itching to get out of work ready to drive to the ferry port!!!

chasingfreedom

Ooohh exciting, I love the feeling just being going on holidays. We're already doing countdowns with the kids and ours is months away, haha.


It's important aswell especially if you have kids to have some time out (for you I mean) although I know with kids in tow its not always exactly relaxing!! So you have 2 kids and 3 step kids? I thought my 1 kid and 2 step kids was hard enough!! It's hard work eh? You must have a people carrier, lol x

PinkPoppies

chasingfreedom wrote: »

Wow, pinkpoppies I was just re-reading and realised from your signature that you have cleared 18k of debt since last April?? That is amazing. You must feel great? Well done you

Thanks CF. Yeah, we are lucky that all of our debt is on either 0% or very low interest now, which makes the world of difference!

You mentioned grocery shopping earlier- I think that is where we have saved the most money to chuck at the debt and it's amazing to see the £ difference between months where we are very careful and organised with it, and others where we lose focus! We used to pop into Waitrose and buy whatever we fancied for tea that day (!) and were probably spending more on two days worth of food than we spend in a whole week doing a big shop at Lidl with a meal plan and shopping list!

I'm another one who obsessively checks online accounts and spreadsheets... staring at them as though the figures will magically come down :rotfl: That said, I have definitely noticed when I am constantly checking them and visiting diaries on here daily I am much better at staying focused, so I embrace it!

We have a cheap and cheerful UK holiday booked for later in the year too. Our kids are quite young and just as happy holidaying over here I'm sure. We had a few great camping trips last year which were dirt cheap- they LOVED them!

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

chasingfreedom

Glad I'm not the only spreadsheet nut I don't know what I think will happen if I look at them everyday. I agree it focuses you though. I keep trying to think of magical ways to juggle them and free up some more monthly income to pay other things but I guess I need to be patient (pouty sulk face, lol)


We are thinking about camping aswell, my step daughters are 15 and 12 and my daughter is 6 so I think we'd have a laugh. I'm an Aldi shopper nowadays aswell wherever possible. I find I can probably get the same stuff for half the price of the other supermarkets. If I am organised and only buy what we need I can come in around 20 quid some weeks. I try and do one 'big shop' around payday and just top up with fresh stuff then. All I need to do now is make my husband hate beer and we'd save a fortune!!! lol although even that has been debt busted. No more nipping to the local co-op and buying 4 cans. We buy a big box now to last the week. I'd love it if he never drank at all but he works hard and its the one thing he won't budge on, ha!


Have a nice weekend everyone

PinkPoppies

Haha! We bought some home brew sets ages ago (beer for him, vino for me!)... still haven't got around to actually using them though A friend of ours makes some fantastic beer... we really should dig ours out and get it on the go!

chasingfreedom

haha sounds like my house Pink!! My hubby and his dad went through a homebrew stage but they both used to get so hammered because it was so strong that the mother in law banned them from having any more, lol


Had a reasonably spend free weekend this weekend. Saturday was just a housework and cleaning day really as hubby was working and then we popped over to the mother in laws for a few hours visit followed by chippy tea (that was my only spend though ) Sunday I went over to my mums with my daughter to scatter my nan's ashes. We used to go walking with my nanna quite a lot as kids and spend the whole day tramping about the woods/fields and climbing trees with a packed lunch in our bags and it was the best times of my life really looking back. We took her to a place we used to go as kids and had lots of happy memories and scattered her ashes and left some flowers. It was lovely really, not sad and infact ended up being quite comical as the area was overgrown with nettles (which nobody knew) and we all got stung to death, followed by my uncle getting nanna all over his shoes!! She would have laughed her head off Anyway, an end to another chapter I suppose.


Emotionally I'm a bottler upper and keep things in side so I have a habit of not thinking about things and just filing them away in my brain so I don't get upset. Not very healthy I know and obviously has consequences for my finances (and my weight actually, I eat stress!!)


So anyway, other than petrol Sunday was another spend free day which is good. Only 11 days to pay day (paid early because of the bank holiday) so I'm looking forward to paying some more bills and reducing my total. Hubby's new bank card arrived and I have changed the pin number so we can now start transferring his 'pocket money' each week and I have his other bank card now


Hope you all have a lovely day (as much as you can on a Monday!)


Game of Thrones tonight, woo!!

mumstheword***

sounds like a good weekend!