As yet Untitled!

Tall_order

Hi all,
I'm Sarah, aka Tall_order. Aptly named as I am both tall and sorting both our money situation and our attitude to spending will be a tall order!

I have outlined our debts in my signature, but this does not include the lease on our car of £360 ish a month :eek:

I have listed them in order that I hope to clear them but obviously this may change as I learn more!

We move house in March which means I lose my wage. Hoping to get a new job ASAP but the near area is v rural and there are lots of people looking for work.
We also have 3 primary school age children so I would also have childcare costs to think of, and my eldest's school costs... (Long story )

In the next two months (alongside working, getting ready for the move, finding a new job and my degree :rotfl: ) I have the following plan of action:

£1 a day into savings for next Christmas. Minimum payment on interest free credit card (over a year left I think so not immediate priority) and have worked out how much I need to pay each month off my Very account to clear it before the interest free period ends.

I have joined the 'make £10 a day challenge' and this will all go to helping clear the overdrafts (one of which costs less than £2 a month so this will be last to clear in favour of making sure other things do not default)

I have signed up to the NST challenge. No spend days is a big thing for me. I was given a little diary for Christmas and am using this to write down every single thing we spend. Including direct debits so I can physically see where we are wasting money.

The Sky TV package will be going in Jan. We have catch up TV and Netflix. We're only on the lowest package but it's still £32 that I need elsewhere at the moment.

DH's phone contract ended so instead of upgrading we downgraded the contract, saving nearly £20 a month. My contract ends mid Feb, at which point I will do the same.

Amidst all this I am also following the KonMarie method to declutter our home, this will be even easier whilst packing. Our new house is much smaller so it will force us to really analyse what stuff we own and why

Oh I forgot, I'm also entering any competitions that I can, I don't have a lot of spare time but when I can't sleep I can go through some of the click to enter comps. You never know!

And by the end of 2016 I would like to be paying into a private pension scheme of some description. I turn 30 on the first of Jan and have no pension plan in place. I need to change this as soon as we are in a financially stable place to do so.
I also need to start paying back into my children's savings accounts. My eldest has a large sum in her 2 accounts, my middle an okay amount and my youngest only the £250 that the government scheme gave us. This is appalling and I must remedy this to make sure that when they turn 18 that they get equal amounts of money.

I think that's it for now. I'm rambling! I don't want to update this too often, it's mostly to keep me honest and to stop me cluttering up the challenge pages with unlrelated issues.

I hope this is the right place for this, and fingers crossed 2016 is the start of good things!

- Sarah

Tall_order

Page saved for progress

Christmas 2016
Money saved: £0
Vouchers earned: £0

Debts
Payments made:
Over payments made:

Tbc

LittleMissDetermined

Hello Sarah,

Didn't want to read and run

Sounds like you definitely have a tall order, saving, clearing debts, moving and job hunting all at the same time?

If you are de-cluttering can you try and make extra cash from selling the stuff you're getting rid of? Facebook sites/eBay/Gumtree/car boot sales etc? It will all add up and you can either stash the cash to savings or you can reduce one of your debts.

Lots of luck on the job-hunting front

LMD x

Tall_order

Thank you for your reply!
Within reason we will sell stuff but if it isn't gone in a reasonable time it will go to a charity shop as we don't have the space to store Anything at all at the new house.
Hoping to concentrate on some higher value items at we no longer need. Just need to pull my finger out, stop procrastinating and WORK!

Thanks again!

-Sarah

Tall_order

Update for now, made £474.91 selling things and banking money that I've been gifted rather than selling, have had 7 no spend days, which is poor but this hasn't been a normal month due to extra travelling (and it's my first time trying that challenge so I'm going to be gentle on myself!) have spent £243 on diesel and food so far (aiming for no more than £400 for the month)

And we have £31 in the ISA for the save £1 a day challenge (put it in monthly) £9 in 20ps and £13.17 in our 'sealed' pot.

Been working hard on survey sites and will update this properly at the end of the month

Tjh1412

Sounds like you're off to a great start you've inspired me to go dig through the loft for ebay stuff

Tall_order

Yes do! I've been really surprised by what we have to sell! Want our new house to only have thinks that we love or need in so being very ruthless!

LittleMissDetermined

Hi Tall Order

Popping in to catch up on your diary and to see how you are doing. Hopefully you're ready for the move and have managed to sell your unwanted items for cash to put towards your debts.

LMD x