Crunchy pays it down....£20k...the final chapter

crunch_time

Morning diary!!

Can't believe there is just £171 standing in the way of us getting down into the £11,xxx!!

We are off to a farm attraction today. Just the kids and me as the husband is in London for work. It's about an hour away and will cost about £10 for the boy and me to get in as dd will be free as she is under 2. It will be nice to get out of the house. We have been at home for the last few days and starting to go a bit stir crazy. Will take a lovely picnic too to keep costs down.

Happy hump day everyone!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning diary

We had a lovely day yesterday at the farm attraction! I didn't get around to making a picnic to treated us to lunch whilst we were there in the restaurant. It cost £23 for 2 of us which was a child's meal and an adult meal and DD shared bits of it. I did enjoy it though so I'm not going to beat myself up about it. It was then £10 for the farm which was a lot of fun and there was loads to do.

I have a friend and her kids coming around today to play and for lunch. Hopefully I will have enough time after that to do a quick food shop.

Must get on and clean up the kitchen and do a meal plan for the week before they come around.

Feeling shattered today though so lots of coffee needed.

Have a lovely day everyone

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning all

We had a child free day yesterday so I managed to get a few nits crossed off my to do list. Instead of going to the pub for dinner and drinks we had a nice healthy stir fry for dinner and went for a lovely hour long walk.

We decided a few things:

- that we are going to be social/occasional drinkers and end the Friday night bottle of wine and then some habit. Should save a nice little packet and reduce our waistlines!
- that we over doing it with trying to set targets to overpay the loan. There is a lot we need to do/buy and we are worried we will become frustrated that we cant and then just starting putting things on credit card again. We will still overpay but just with no targets, perhaps rounding things down to the nearest £50 for at least a year until I have a job again and things are a bit more stable. I checked the balance online this am and rounded it down to £12,150. So we paid off £170 extra this month which is an awesome achievement! On September 1st it will drop to £11,875 so we will aim to add another £25 to it so its £11,850 and then if we have an extra £50 at the end of the month reduce it further. But if we haven't got it we haven't got it.

- husband also wants some pocket money every month to save up for gadgets which I have agreed to as I know the alternative is he will get frustrated and spend it on credit card.

Right! All sorted. Minds changed again. Slow and steady road here we come. BBQ with friends today. We are hosting. Run out of gas on our hand me down BBQ. We are going to invest in a cauldron one next year anyway but a bottle of gas is £40. We don't want to fill it up and then have it sitting around for years wasted so, although I despise them, husband is going to buy a disposable BBQ today. Sent him off with a list to the shops.

Looking forward to a lovely sunny and fun filled day!!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning diary,

Nice chilled day planned today with no money spending. I started my workout and no sugar way of life this morning. I woke up when husband left to go to the airport (5.30am) got straight into my workout gear and made a lemon an ginger tea before DD woke up. I fixed both the kids their breakfast and then did my HIIT. It was hard but I felt good afterwards. I then had poached eggs on rye toast with grilled tomatoes for breakfast.

Just checked bank accounts and they look fine for now. Got a picnic in the park planned with friends tomorrow and an outing with another friend on Friday and then we are at a wedding on Saturday. I think I might drive now to keep costs down and stick to my healthy way of life and I cant bear the thought of a hangover these days. Plenty of those in the past and that's where they can stay.

I bought a book about quitting sugar and its really inspired me so going to have a good look at my store cupboard and make a list for Thursdays food shopping.

Right, off to put a load on and do the washing up.

xx

louby40

Hello

I've been reading your diary over the weekend and you have done so well.

I'm a teacher and have worked full time (apart from 2 maternity leaves) in education for 20 yrs. my boys are now 16 & 13 and I sometimes wonder how I did it during the toddler years! I also split and divorced their dad in 2007 so that added to the stress!

Anyway, I don't blame you for being a SAHM and taking time to be with your kids. Good luck with your continued debt busting.

I'm just starting my journey!

Louby

crunch_time

Hi louby40 thanks for stopping by my diary!

I still can't believe we paid off £8.5k of debt in a year. Husband and I keep saying to ourselves 'think of the holidays we could have with that sort of money.'

I'm really enjoying being with my children. Although I would have August off anyway I would always have prep for the sept in the back of my head but I'm quite enjoying not having to do that and really enjoying being with them. this is the last time I will get to enjoy time off as once I am back at work that will be it.

No money spent at all yesterday. We didn't even make it out of the house!!! After a busy weekend the children were tired and kept needing naps!!

Picnic today with friends. Just need to pay for parking for a couple of hours.

Really need to get on and finish my dress for this weekends wedding. Will crack on with that tonight. Also need to make the clutch bag.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning diary!

Ugh! I'm having one of those moments now where I just want to be debt free sooooooo badly! I still feel incredibly guilty about it even though what is left is 'good' debt. I keep thinking how great it would be to have that extra £275 a month to ourselves and sooner rather than later. I'm finding it hard to switch my mind set to one that husband wants me to have of taking the brakes off and relaxing a bit. I just want that debt to go.

I need to find some compromise, patience and stamina from somewhere.

Once the summer holidays are over and it is the build up to Christmas maybe I can look at things again to see if I can achieve my dream of getting to sub £10k by the end of the year. It is 3 out of 4 of our birthdays leading up to Christmas and then we are going away too so in theory and expensive time but I'm determined to keep it low cost and frugal.

Just 3 and a half weeks to go!!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning diary,

A lot of soul searching was done here yesterday afternoon and then I found this quote...

'when you try and control everything, you enjoy nothing. Relax, breathe, let go and just live.'

It really resonated with me. I have been plotting to pay off debt since 2010. I've learned a lot and paid back a lot but now I have to learn how to stop beating myself up and just live. That loan is not affecting us doing anything so I'm going to just let it run.

In order to stop obsessing over it so much I'm going to have a break from the forum and spend some time living and not feeling guilty. I may come back I may not.

Thank you for all your support everyone! And best of luck with your journeys!

Crunchy xx

abba1772

Wishing you all the luck in your new approach to your life xx will miss your updates xx

crunch_time

Thanks abba! I'm actually thinking about starting a new diary with new goals. Watch this space xx