Daring Myself to do this

chanie

note 3 I love aldi too. We normally alternate between aldi and lid. Our bill is around £70 too - I thought it would go down once we ditched the nappies, but it didn't.

This week, I'm trying to cut back and eat what we already have.

Kitten868

Right so maybe I need to address the way I'm trying to do this. Though we are one adult two babies.
Hm I've worked out I need to pay £4000 off in the next 4 pay days but should pay off £7000. So this works out about £1000 a month obviously. If I'm seriously strict I think we could do £900 a month. But I think this is rather unrealistic. But what I have been doing up to now has been unrealistic! Just wish I'd have chopped up all the cards (me & hubby) back in August. Would have done so much better. There's nothing i can look back and think I wouldn't have bought annoyingly. Just spend on food and nappies. And now I am desperate to dust them off as dd1 has gone up a size again. She's now in 3-4 and needs summer clothes. She's not fat. She's normal she's just incredibly tall so it feels like I'm forever buying new clothes for her.
Find myself worrying how much impact hubbys £3000 credit card balance and car on finance deal (the one with the balloon) would make to the mortgage offer.
Putting everything down to lessons learnt and attempting to just move on from it smarter.
Just wish that writing down the figures and working it all out over and over would get me closer to my goal. Haha

Rebecca01

Hi Kitten.
Have you tried playing around with mortgage calculators to see how the debt affects the amount you can borrow?

Try some of the banks intermediary websites with calculators on. They let you include debt and child benefit etc.

I keep setting myself unrealistic targets too. We have to live. Set a realistic one and any excess aim to pay off the debt. It may help motivate you.

Kitten868

Well I did the calculator. It wipes £30k off! He only owes £12k on the car. Seems a bit much. So that blows the mortgage out of the water and he doesn't actually owe it. Hmmm I'm not giving up yet. As its only 4 months of slog to get this bit done I think I'm going to go over ambitious and providing I get paid what I think I will I am going to go for it! Not having money makes me a lot more spend conscious so it could work completely to my benefit. And the step forward will really bolster me I think.

Rebecca01

Kitten868 wrote: »

Well I did the calculator. It wipes £30k off! He only owes £12k on the car. Seems a bit much. So that blows the mortgage out of the water and he doesn't actually owe it. Hmmm I'm not giving up yet. As its only 4 months of slog to get this bit done I think I'm going to go over ambitious and providing I get paid what I think I will I am going to go for it! Not having money makes me a lot more spend conscious so it could work completely to my benefit. And the step forward will really bolster me I think.

Ohhh noo!! Did you try different intermediary websites as some offer more. Barclays was different to Natwest, Halifax etc.


Don't give up. You will get a there x

Kitten868

I'm in a fixed rate deal so I don't want to go elsewhere because it'll cost me £4K and we'll lose our great rate. I realise it's a loan but it seems an overreaction. It's so tempting to ring up now but need to get myself cleared first. Plus we'll have had our mortgage with them for 3 years by then so I'm hoping that'll go in our favour too. Especially as we aren't looking to borrow much more!
A little bit of quidco came in today and I won a onepoll competition so I'm sat on £25 credit there - not long til that'll be up to £40 hopefully.
I'm too excited to give up now. Xx

chanie

Congratulations on the onepoll win. I've never entered any of the comps on there, but maybe I should.

Kitten868

It was a Facebook one chanie you guess what other pollsters said lol x

Kitten868

Today I'm thinking over whether I am improving my mindset enough to be free of this beast for good. I am aiming to be completely debt free for 40. No mortgage or anything. So I'm ready for my girls to fleece me for their mortgages lol. All of my friends were given deposits by their parents, there are weddings and grandchildren. I want my girls to have these things too. I wasn't given a deposit and I do understand why but I can see things getting worse so best to be prepared.
I still don't consider planned debt a bad thing. I will be more careful with borrowing and keen to pay it off. I am now against using credit to pay for 'nothing' but I would consider borrowing for a kitchen or a holiday.
Next year I plan to take my finances more serious - I want a birthday savings account, Christmas and safety net too. I want to overpay my mortgage by all that I can.
This is all planned for next year as I will have paid nearly everything off and can swap to a regular amount to pay things off.
I'm just worried about going back to actually spending money. I was always spoilt as a child then got my first job and would buy loads of lovely clothes. Then I went to university and was very frugal but spent a fair bit on nights out the first year and takeaways. Then after uni had the car from hell was still frugal except nights out every Friday night. I still feel like I'm fighting this 16 year old spending loads of money on clothes. When I don't buy anything anymore. I don't think I can live as frugally as I do now. It suits me now as I wouldn't be able to cope with the stress of not paying everything off! The 16 year old me was smarter than me now - no bills and never overspent and there were savings!
I think I will just keep one credit card open til the mortgage application. Then I could close it down. That could work for me.
I really want this lbm to be my awakening then be the envy of my friends and family as I have it all worked out. Rather than the idiot in the family x

chanie

I think its important to change your mindset, but I'm not sure that everyone as a LBM and for some people, its probably a gradual change.


I've had to change my habits and I've done this slowly. I worked my whole way through Uni and this meant I had a really comfortable lifestyle and could afford lots of treats. Since then, I've got a mortgage and children and I can't afford to spend like that anymore. I cut out magazines, work lunches and those types of 'nothing' treat, but I did it gradually once I realised, that it meant I had less money to spend in other areas.


I think the key is to set a small budget for personal treats and use that for guilt free spending - I think its unrealistic to totally stop spending, particularly with children. Since starting school, I have noticed life becoming more expensive - there are multiple non-uniform days, school cake sales, dressing up costumes. I try to do these things as cheaply as I can, you can't really avoid it.