PeppaCoin's bid for financial freedom

PeppaCoin

I’ve done it …. I’ve had my lightbulb moment and I need to do something URGENTLY with my family finances before I explode with worry.

Situation: Married couple, me (30) and spendy husband (36), plus our little boy (3), living in our mortgaged home. My husband works full time and I work part-time (4 days a week) but am unfortunately facing redundancy sometime in the next 4 months, which has given me the wake up call I need to try and get our finances ship-shape asap. Trying to survive on one income is absolutely unthinkable.

Our current situation is that we have debts of £14,482
Car Loan from my parents - £3,625
Loan from partners nan - £380
Credit card: MBNA - £1415
Credit card: Tesco - £2411
Credit card: Santander - £2636
Credit card: Virgin - £3232
CSL Sofa Loan - £783
Everything is currently at 0% but this will alter next year.

Even just writing that out makes me feel a little (lot!) sick, but that’s what a LBM is out hey?!

How have we built it up? A combination of things – a wedding and honeymoon a few months ago that we couldn’t really afford, gastronomical childcare bills every month, buying a house that stretched us financially four years ago and just generally living beyond our means with very little to show for it. I know it’s not big, its not clever and has sadly left us in a situation where we are existing rather than living, paying minimums on the credit cards, setting up a permanent camp in our overdraft and limping from one paltry payday to the next.

I intend to put together a SOA although I would struggle because of inconsistency in some area eg clothes, I can go a month or 2 without spending anything, then will buy a few things at once and its hard to average out since I don’t really know when my boots will split or my trousers turn bobbly. I also don’t know how to account for other things that come up ad hoc - school photos, nursery trips, invites to random places. I guess with those I need to find the balance between starting to turn things down and still spending fun times with my little boy.

Another real problem I have is my partner’s spending. Whereas I at least try to be careful he has no concept of shopping cleverly, saving or cutting back at all. He is obsessed with our local shop, visiting it daily to buy food, cigarettes and other odds and ends. It’s not unusual for us to spend around £600/£700 a month on food which is shocking and has to change immediately. I plan on texting him every day with our bank balance so he’s aware of what’s happening and can see the balance dropping down. I really really need him to be on board if we are get through this tough period together.

Our incomes are ok-ish. Husband has recently changed jobs so is on £17.5k but with a quarterly bonus (amount unknown as yet). In his last (similar) job he tended to earn £22k ish including bonus so we’re hoping for the same in this role. Reason for the change of job was to stop his £2,000/year travel bill before. We have just one car which I use, so he was getting a train daily. I earn £22k for working 4 days a week but as I mentionned I am facing redundancy so am on the job hunt and am looking for role of £24k plus.

We both salary sacrifice £243 a month towards childcare then top up the fees with an additional £60, to £546 per month. This should improve from January 2016 when we get our free 15hours a week childcare. Its hard to estimate exactly how it is worked out but the plan is for me to still sacrifice the same and husband to sacrifice £160 and that should hopefully cover our childcare with no top-ups. Of course that is dependent on me getting a job that allows me to work 4 days a week so that we only need 3 days a week of childcare. If I have to work full time (booo!) I would need 4 days of childcare and our bill would remain the same as it is now so no savings at all.

There are some good bits…. Since we stretched ourselves financially we have an ok-sized house that we can grow into and extend if possible, rather than moving. Our car is also not ancient (new in 2011) and doesn’t have too many miles on it so will hopefully not cause too many problems in the short term. I’ve also just recently changed energy supplier (cut from £112 to £90 per month) and also got a better deal on home insurance (cut from £11 to £7 per month) so am starting to make some positive steps.

So what do I actually want? Not a lot. Just to pay off the debts or at least get them down to a more manageable level, be able to afford a second child, live comfortably each month with the occasional take away, build up some savings, be able to go on holiday, not panic at Christmas and birthdays, and have maybe £500 set back in an emergency account for when the washing machine or car turn against us. Easy, yes??

Baby steps …. better get started then! :T

PeppaCoin

Oops minor set back. I needed wet wipes. I should have just bought a packet or two to last till payday but there was "an offer" on which meant I bought 5 packets before work this morning (only saved something like 20p I noted on my receipt). I also bought 3 kit kats. Agh. Must avoid asda!

PeppaCoin

I think my problem is that the £5 or £6 shopping trips to Asda soon add up and I'm so in the habit of calling into Asda before work or the local shop once I'm home on an evening. The truth is that if I had to walk I wouldn't make the effort, but because I'm in the car its so easy to do. Got to give my head a wobble...

PeppaCoin

Other than that there should hopefully be no spends today. Husband is away on a work day but transport has been paid for and fingers crossed he took lunch with him this morning (I was still asleep when he left) so no food spends either. I am trying to get him onboard with celebrating NSDs!

Baldybear

Good afternoon

Many thanks for dropping by my diary, thought would come along and be nosey! Have subscribed.

I think you do need to beat your OH to stop is spendy ways, my ex was ridiculous, unfortunately one of the issues that caused us to split, but sounds like you are in a much better position.

Do you meal plan, or use slow cooker/bath cook, so you and your partner know your dinner is ready at home for you, so you dont need the excuse to pop into Asda or the like on the way home for essentials. Know it works for me. Hopefully you can figure out a way that works for you.

As you have seen from mine been here a looong time and its still a work in progress and still adjusting each time but am on the right track so dont beat yourself up if you have a bad few days.

Would a visual chart or something help the mindset too, something to show how the hard work is knocking down the figures. Or maybe something you want to save it all up for??

PeppaCoin

Hi Baldy, thanks for dropping by.


OH will learn, whatever it takes. He is desperate for another baby, so everytime I drop the B word, he gets better with cash for a few days. Really the best way is confiscating his card, which I do quite often, apart from when he's working away from home.


We've started to meal plan in the last few weeks, and we're alternating cooking each night whilst the other one puts our little boy to bed, which is so much better as I *hate* cooking with a passion. (Also trying to use the dishwasher and tumbler dryer less now we've switched energy providers, so save a bit more cash.


I have a 'dead' half hour from 830 to 9am each day after I've dropped my son off and before I can start work, so Asda has been my little refuge, but no more! No more spending!


Interesting what you said re a visual chart. I'm a bit addicted to spreadsheets so have quite a snazzy little one set up, with some nice projections, charts and graphs It does make things easier to view in that way.


Also some good news, I have a job interview set up for Friday morning.

Baldybear

Good luck for your interview

Keeping_Motivated

Good luck with the job interview.

Can you take a book to read in your 'dead' half an hour?

Have you thought about putting an SOA on here so people can give you some guidance re where you can cut back and start to have a budget for everything going forward?

I am just looking into an app called YNAB so I've not used it yet but some people swear by it on here so may be worth you investigating to help you both keep track of those everyday needless spends.

Good luck

PeppaCoin

Thanks Baldy


Thanks Keeping Motivated. I've just tried to download YNAB but it says I need to also download onto a desktop so I think I'll have to take a look at that tonight when I'm home from work.


I will do an SOA tonight and see where it takes me!

PeppaCoin

Still need to post my SOA .. must get around to it tonight.

Today was a NSD which is good news.

Tomorrow, little boy is in nursery, I have an interview, house viewing for my parents and a doctors appointment - all of which cost me nothing. Little boy has been invited to 2 birthday parties this weekend, so I will need to buy a couple of low-cost (maybe a fiver each) presents suitable for little girls obsessed with frozen! So tomorrow's spend should be only £10 ish.

I did get a letter from MBNA advising they think they may have mis-sold me PPI from 2009. Have filled in my forms and posted them back so fingers crossed for a windfall!

Also applied speculatively to another 15 or so companies this morning and chased up some applications from the last couple of weeks. Just really want to get somewhere on the job front soon.

AspiringButAnxious

Sounds like you're making great progress :T Good luck on the job front

Surveys are great for earning odd vouchers to buy things like kids' birthday presents — even spending a few minutes a day adds up pretty quickly. Something to consider for future birthday parties!