I can't believe it's taken us this long....!!

Lizloz

Hi all, it's been a long while since I posted anything on here but reading back on some of my old posts makes me feel really cross with myself as by now, we should no longer be in debt....or we should have at least been able to manage our finances better...until now that is!


Back in May, I gave birth to our beautiful baby girl number 2 but it's only now...4 months down the line, that I am actually enjoying my time off and am not worrying or stressing about money, even though we're in loads of debt.


The thing I'm really cross with myself for is that it is only up until now that I have really sat down, gone through our finances with a fine tooth comb and have really (& I mean REALLY) learned how to set a realistic budget that we can stick to each week, and even now, when my maternity pay has suddenly dropped like a bomb, I am happier and feel more in control of our finances. I finally managed to get my husband to sit down and talk about it (as he is not one for wanting to talk about how much or how little money we have...he just likes to spend!) and bless him, he's been working his socks off at work and doing loads of overtime even though he is exhausted but it's paying off....finally....and I'm annoyed that it's taken us this long to get to this stage!


We now get our bit of spending cash each week, we pay our bills and we enjoy ourselves and I can't tell you how much happier I am - I was having sleepless nights and felt like everything was spiralling out of control, but I am happy to say that whereas before I just felt like I could just whip out my credit card as I felt like it was the only option to pay for certain things, I can honestly tell you that the last time I used my card was a month ago which I think is pretty good going and it feels so damn good....just wish we'd done this years ago!

rockm87

Hi and welcome!

try putting together a statement of affairs: http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

so you can really see everything you have coming in and out. Then people on here can advise you on where to make cuts and how to pay off your debt effectively.

I'd also keep a little notepad with you and write down everything you spend so that you can see in black and white what your are spending!

Rosie_D

Hi lizloz & welcome!

I know exactly where you are coming from with the CC spending, I used to just take the CC out whenever we spent anything and would wonder why it was such a big bill at the end of the month, but now I have envelopes that have certain budgeted items in, such as food, entertainment etc & I can't believe that this week we actually had some money left over, which hasn't happened before! I've just started my own diary too & I am really determined to get rid of this debt once & for all!

Good luck on your debt free journey x

the_mollusk

hello! i can totally relate to your opening paragraph!!

unfortunately that's where the similarities end as i haven't managed to work out a budget i can stick to yet, although i keep trying and tweaking it. just opened some new bank accounts so i can use the envelopes/piggy banks method - here's hoping that helps!

well done on your progress and good luck on your journey - certainly better late than never