Hubby's away time to save save save!

Forceswife

hello! I am an old lurker with a new username. My hubby has been sent away this week overseas so instead of crawling under the duvet and hiding fir 4 months I've decided to focus my attention on saving money and getting the blasted credit cards paid off, it's the second time this year that he's been away and the last time I managed to save £900 this time I'm hoping to bust that total and have a goal of £1500! Eeeeek!

So that's my plan, 4 months £1500 while keeping 2 strong willed highly spirited children and a dog entertained

I know that everyone's super supportive here so hopefully I can get some money saving pals along the way (expect post in the silly hours when I have trouble sleeping:o)

I have just under £5000 on credit cards so hopefully I can get rid of some of that but I'll stop waffling for now so thanks for reading

EssexHebridean

Hello! Sounds like a great plan - you may as well make the most of the time constructively hey? Rough that you've had him posted twice in the space of a year, although I suspect next year there will be a lot in that position, won't there.

Subscribing and look forward to seeing how you get on!

chanie

Good luck.

Whats your plan for paying it off?

Forceswife

Thank you for your replies and for reading in the first place so plan is (I think) to move every penny I have into a savings account until the end of the four months where I can then pay it straight on the credit cards, this amount would pay off two out of four of them.
Planning obviously to still pay minimum payments on each every month
I have a few ideas to save cash
1. I have £50 sitting in our topcashback account this is from July and it's still not payable says it takes 26 weeks which is mad!
2. Sell some baby clothes/toys although I've not had much success selling baby stuff I'm going to keep trying as someone must want them
3. Cut back on shopping, the Hubby likes his food and spends far too much on it including fast food so that's going to stop
4. The big thing will be petrol, I don't drive so the car won't be used that instantly saves us £70 a month
Will have to think of a few more, I have to save about £350 ish a month eeeek!

EssexHebridean

I take it that the cards are currently all on 0%? If not then you need to sort them into interest rate order to work out which to target. Assuming they are on 0% though, the plan seems pretty sound to me!

chanie

Wow, that sound amazing if you can do it. You've done it once before, so you should be able to do it again

How prepared are you for Christmas?

Forceswife

EH that's a very good point I've just been away for a look and only one out of the four is not on 0% but there's only £500 on it the interest is only £5 a month so tempted just to leave it? All the others are interest free.
Chaniethink I'm al set for Christmas both children are sorted with only stockings to do and then it's just a couple of family members the only person I really had to buy for is the hubby but seeing as he's away I'm just going to get bits over the four months and then we are planning a mini Christmas Day in April

Well it was payday yesterday so I've popped £50 into the savings account until I can sit down and work out what I can move over and then it'll be the fun job of finishing off Christmas presents as cheaply as I can got the in laws popping thru Sunday so going to try and get all theirs done and then I will save at least £10 on posting it all.
Going to go start a little tally in my sig if I've saved £50 out of the £1500 do i put it 50/1500 or 1500/50? What's the usual way to do it?

EssexHebridean

Personally, with anything charging interest, I'd take the view that the £5 a month is WAY better off in my pocket than the bank's, so I'd look to kill that one off as soon as possible if it were me. That'll be an additional £5 a month you're saving towards one of the others then, too!

Archer0710

Ha the logic of forces wives! Don't we all do the same its either weight / money or both. My oh is away for a similar amount of time but back over Christmas for 2 weeks so a bit different in that we still have to do all the usual stuff with family

I always move everything above DH's "normal pay" to savings on payday as that's the amount we usually have them anything extra at the end of the month is also put into another account. I've not seen his payslip in months but just check the deposit in the account and know his basic take home. We've just opened a Help to Buy Isa so hoping to fill the allowance on that this month.

Forceswife

Archer0710 haha its funny how we need to keep ourselves as distracted as possible! I am also tracking my weight in the hopes to lose at least half a stone but I doubt the lovely folk of mse want to hear about that haha
Well sorry I've been AWOL for a few days the iPad went in the blink and I haven't heard from the hubby in two days so trying to get my mind back on the money instead of staring at my phone in the hope it'll ring (as that's not worked so far)
Managed to move another £20 into savings so it's now at £70 need to wait for tomorrow for some transactions to clear and then I can see where we are, took the girls to a Christmas fayre today and luckily the had their own money to spend so that's a no spend weekend woop!
Need to order the last of the Christmas presents tomorrow and hopefully that will be me done

EssexHebridean

Hopefully you've now heard from your hubby - where is he posted to if you don't mind me asking? (understand if you'd rather not say)

A no-spend weekend at this time of year is fantastic - well done you! :T