Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

reality_check

Wow - amazing payments made in January! I am forever wishing my life away for each pay to day to arrive, I think the debt going down becomes addictive. Why couldn't this have happened to us years ago?!

I have stopped drinking wine for a week (sounds pathetic lol) and been 'clean eating' again and my body is really thanking me for it. Back at the gym and running again and think I might sign up for a marathon this year...still thinking about it!! Anyway, sorry to go on about me!

Lets see what Feb brings...xx

crunch_time

Good morning debt free wannabes!!

Kicking off February with a minimum payment of £275 bringing the loan down to £8500 and over 11% paid off so far!!

Crunchy xx

JoJoC

Hi Crunchy,

I've just spent the last hour enjoying a cuppa and reading through your diary - you have got all the motivation in the world and it's infectious!

Your dedication to getting this debt shifting is really inspiring, and I'm going to apply a couple of your tricks to my own debt-busting, more-debt-avoiding journey.

You had such an amazing debt-busting January! Well done!

A new month always brings a sense of opportunity over me and I wonder to myself what I can achieve this coming month, so hopefully you starting with reducing your loan balance to £8,500 will do the trick! Starting on a positive

crunch_time

JoJoC wrote: »

Hi Crunchy,

I've just spent the last hour enjoying a cuppa and reading through your diary - you have got all the motivation in the world and it's infectious!

Your dedication to getting this debt shifting is really inspiring, and I'm going to apply a couple of your tricks to my own debt-busting, more-debt-avoiding journey.

You had such an amazing debt-busting January! Well done!

A new month always brings a sense of opportunity over me and I wonder to myself what I can achieve this coming month, so hopefully you starting with reducing your loan balance to £8,500 will do the trick! Starting on a positive

Aw thanks JoJoC! Sometimes i feel like we don't do enough so thanks for giving me faith in myself. I'm so very fed up of being in debt and determined this is our last year. Did i mention that I'm 35 and always been in debt since i was 18? GRRRRRRR.

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Evening diary!

Childcare bill in. I don't take into account childcare vouchers when i put money aside for the bills so I nice £140 to chuck against debt. £100 against the loan and £40 towards the credit card.

Very happy with that!

Really want to get it down to £8k by the end of the month. Horns are well and truly pulled in!
crunchy xx

JoJoC

Yes, I can imagine 17 years in debt would drive you mad! Just be thankful you're tackling it now and not in 10 years time!

That's a good idea with the childcare bill, a nice bit if extra to throw at the debt. My childcare bill is £1300 per month (hence not having much spare!) but my eldest starts school after the summer so we are planning in using the £400ish spare per month to hammer the credit card. Just treat it like another bill!

Are you on target for your 8k in Feb?

crunch_time

Wow that's high! Do you get childcare vouchers?

Do you have a diary?

Crunchy x

crunch_time

Woken up feeling crappy. My job share colleague can be a right **** and was very rude to me last in our handover meeting. Insulting my organisation of the stuff we need to organise and the way I had taught something to the children. Felt like crying in the way home but I didn't. I'm no stranger to trouble at work. Been bullied before by my ta and head and ta put in a grievance against me which was thrown out. Husband reckons people feel threatened by my abilities and genuine nature. But can't help feeling very 'what's wrong with me!' Today.

I can't change them I can only change myself so going to think of what I can do to make it easier for me to cope.

It's started me thinking again about the pros and cons of part time vs full time. I maybe I should go full time when dd starts school in 2 more academic years time. Still thinking about my retraining option too but that can't happen until dd starts here free hours this time next year.
got to pay off this debt first!!!

Right - Jojoc - getting down to £8k by the end of the month depends on how much I'm prepared to go frugal for the rest of the month. I'm already thinking about a frugal half term with no expensive outings just walks and crafts at home where I can. Or invite people over. I get paid in the Friday in half term so two weeks to cope with.

Crunchy xx

JoJoC

Oh yes, it is high! It should be £1500 per month but my eldest gets the funding which we split over the year and we get a 10% discount on his because our youngest is also there. They are in full time so I can work so that's why it's so high. I do get childcare vouchers and am entitled to the full 243 so that helps a bit I'm sure (not that it's visible to me).

I'm August it should go down to £795 nursery fees for youngest and about £100-150 for after school for my eldest so a big saving!

There's so much that you can do to have a frugal half term but still make it fun. Around where I live, all the museums are free so last time we went, the boys spent hours running around the wildlife section and we'd taken a picnic which we ate in the car because it was raining but all good fun.

The feeling of reaching 8k will be awesome! I hope you manage to pull it off soon.

I do have a diary - it's linked in my signature but is also called something like ' need to get my shh together!'. Have a read if you fancy, I was only brave enough to start it last week!

crunch_time

JoJoC wrote: »

Oh yes, it is high! It should be £1500 per month but my eldest gets the funding which we split over the year and we get a 10% discount on his because our youngest is also there. They are in full time so I can work so that's why it's so high. I do get childcare vouchers and am entitled to the full 243 so that helps a bit I'm sure (not that it's visible to me).

I'm August it should go down to £795 nursery fees for youngest and about £100-150 for after school for my eldest so a big saving!

There's so much that you can do to have a frugal half term but still make it fun. Around where I live, all the museums are free so last time we went, the boys spent hours running around the wildlife section and we'd taken a picnic which we ate in the car because it was raining but all good fun.

The feeling of reaching 8k will be awesome! I hope you manage to pull it off soon.

I do have a diary - it's linked in my signature but is also called something like ' need to get my shh together!'. Have a read if you fancy, I was only brave enough to start it last week!

Will do!

xx