Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

crunch_time

Morning diary!

We wrapped the tree presents last night so just stocking presents to go and presents for others to go but will get the children to help me with the latter today.

We have various tradesmen coming to fix snags today so one of us always has to be in. Will pop out later for the various last minute bits we need.

I got a bit carried away on Pinterest this morning searching storage solutions for the house but quickly came to when I remembered that we have to prioritise and save up for every purchase if we want to stay on track so very much came to my senses.

Have a lovely day every one xx

Seasidegal58

I hope you and your family have a lovely Christmas crunchy.

:xmassign:

crunch_time

Morning!

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!

Ours was quiet but wonderful. Children were pleased with their presents and the food was lovely!

After the children had opened them, husband and I looked around and decided it really didn't seem much for circa £500!! Because of the move and the dog and the quitting of the job I didn't manage to put any effort in to make it 'magical.' So lots of lessons learned for last year. Now we are moved and settled and debt is more stable we have agreed to save £600 over the year for Christmas and birthday presents. We aim to do this every year but this money always seems to disappear as an emergency fund. Not next year - we are determined. And husband has also decided that it is a good idea to make a list, set a budget and stock up on stocking presents over the year too. I'm also going to get on it for decorations for next year as I didn't quite make all the things I wanted to. Ok I didn't make ANY of the things I wanted to.

Its safe to say that I have stuffed my face so the diet officially started today. So far so good - I did 45 minutes of body balance before breakfast too!!

We have another family event on Saturday and then some dog walks with friends planned over the New Year weekend but other than that my plan is to get....... ORGANISED!!!!

I have been telling husband that my new life starts today and I am determined that it does so. So far I have written a categorized to do list which I will get on with at various points today and crack on with a vengeance tonight as husband is out with a friend. Lots of filing and sorting and getting systems set up.

So I'm now going to get on with hanging up washing and making our house a bit more presentable before some visitors arrive in a bit. My only other plan for today is to play with my children and go food shopping!

Have lovely days y'all!

Crunchy xx

Seasidegal58

Here’s to the “new life” crunchy! :beer:

crunch_time

Morning diary,

So operation ‘get organised’ has started. Last night (with a nice cup of winter tea) I sorted our bills out and started to file them. I panicked at the thought of all the changes of address I need to do. I also emptied the last box which was holding pictures we haven’t put up yet and used it to start collecting the Christmas decorations up. I also went round the house and made a list for each room of everything we have to buy or do so we can start project planning and prioritising.

I also starting feeling horrified and embarrassed at the amount of debt we have and then guilty that I’m not earning anything to make it right. So I considered keeping our savings at £3340 which is essentially one months salary for husband and using the amount we would save monthly £191 - to pay off some of this debt. With the minimum payments we could pay off £5000 in 2018. I also feel much better to pay off what we have and live with the house as it is more or less and get being debt free under our belts.it makes me feel anxious having lots of debt and I’m desperate to get to debt free status.

Husband said ‘see how we go.’ What do you guys think I should do?

Crunchy? X

Seasidegal58

It can work crunchy. Debt guru Dave Ramsey’s sliding scale of “baby step” debt repayment is to first get a small emergency fund in place for the unforeseen, then pay off your debt (smallest debt through to largest as he feels this psychological boost of the debts falling away more quickly keeps you on the straight and narrow) and then finish the emergency fund to total three to six months expenses.

You already have a good initial emergency fund/buffer in place if you keep the one month’s salary in the savings pot and can then concentrate on finally getting rid of the debt. Once that has gone you can build up the rest of the emergency fund.

Good luck!

enthusiasticsaver

You have a relatively decent emergency fund so I would throw everything at the debts and get rid of them hopefully within the next 18 months. Paying £5k off us a great target to aim for.

crunch_time

Thanks ladies! Sometimes I feel I just need someone to tell me what to do! There are so many things we could do. Being debt free sooner rather than later would be amazing!

I discussed it with husband last night and amongst his eye rolling and sighing that we were talking about it ‘again’ we have decided that £3450 is fine as our emergency fund and we are going to spend the year doing the few jobs we need to to the house and pay down the debt. So we are going to abandon saving in the meantime. Part from saving up for house jobs and decorating and our holiday. I promise I won’t over think our plans anymore!!

In other mse news....

- husband has got a 0% deal with mr s and transferred £2000 onto it. There are a few things left on his hsbc to pay off in January but all budgeted for.
- we have agreed that he is now only allowed to use his hsbc card to pay for fuel which we will then pay off in arrears and then keep in his wallet for a ‘being away from home with work and getting into an emergency.’
- I’m going to unlink the hsbc card from our amazon accounts.
- husband has agreed to use the food account card as a float for when he is out and about for beers with colleague and etc - everything he can’t charge to his company credit card. It’s also his football money.
- I’m still waiting for my 0% card.
- I managed to get lots of addresses changed yesterday and am planning to crack on with more today.
- husband has asked me to stop my charity contributions until I start earning again which is fair enough. They total £25 a month out of the joint account so we should make some savings there. I feel sad but it will spur me on to do the big thing for charity I’m always talking of but haven’t done yet.
- my home and pet insurance is due for renewal and after looking online last night I reckon we can save at least £20 a month. I’m going to make some phone calls and check it all out today.
- we are going to ring up about our maintenance contract for our sewerage treatment plant today - no idea how much this will cost.
- I still haven’t heard anything from our new energy provider regarding an account set up - must chase.
- pay day today for the husband and all is transferred where it should be with circa £500 for fuel for me, spending money, extra debt repayments and anything else we might need.
- the plan is to keep hold of it and towards the end of the month make additional payments off the credit cards where possible. This will be differ t for me as I have made extra payments at the beginning and then got into difficulty later in the month.

Food shopping and a dog walk with friends is on the agenda today! I think dog walks with friends will be the theme for socialising in the new year too!

Crunchy xx

Willowtree222

Dog walking also helps control spending.

Glad you’ve got a plan now. Do you feel better having it written down and something concrete to aim for? X

crunch_time

Nicnak wrote: »

Dog walking also helps control spending.

Glad you’ve got a plan now. Do you feel better having it written down and something concrete to aim for? X

Yes I do niknak although I have only written it down here and not anywhere else and I keep forgetting to scroll back and see what I have written previously so sorry if I keep jumping around. I don’t feel I have got myself organised yet at all this Christmas. I wanted to hit the ground running in January. I feel I need to get my head in the right place which is to stop worrying and start living my own life. Clearly I have some issues!!!

Crunchy xx