Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

Willowtree222

I'm going to get sorted when little one is back in school, and I am still off. Going to mark the mock papers, and then set out my diary and planning. x

crunch_time

Morning all!

After lots of plan chatting with the husband last night, we have decided our definite plan for 2018.

1) Savings: £3340 - stays as it is. The £100 a month I originally planned will be needed to pay for the bits we need for the house.
2) Monthly children's savings (£91) will be rounded up to £100 and will be paused for a year to pay off the furniture and curtains etc for the new house that is currently on my credit card.
3) Husbands credit card will stay on £100 minimum payment
4) We will continue to slush money into the holiday pot.

The plan to pay off the credit cards is as follows:

Totals How to pay back?
My credit card:
Holidays £1,086.00 My £70 min payment
Spending money £269.00
Furniture £1,010.00 Children's savings
Food £458.00
Fuel £240.00
Husbands credit card
New business £2,044.00 From new business earnings
Moving costs £652.00 After other carp paid off
Other carp £1,432.00 Minimum payment - Husbands
DIY £341.00 After other carp paid off

£7,532.00

I won't worry about the food and fuel and spending money overspends at the moment. They will be at 0% so don't need to think about it for a while. Husbands credit card will be paid off in about 2 years with his minimum payment. At that point, we will start overpaying the mortgage so it's good practice to get used to not having that extra £100.

It will take the year to pay off the furniture and then we can restart the children's savings again. Once I start earning I can speed up paying off the holidays and then the £70 a month can go towards paying off the other bits. That £70 could then go towards the mortgage as well.

So it will probably take us 2 years to clear it AND I AM OK ABOUT THIS!! This is the lovely scenic route. And I'm going to try and just post weekly with our progress so that I don't get too distracted with all the other things I want to do with this life.

Total debt as it stands today is...

£7532

So not far off my estimate!

Happy New Year everyone!

Crunchy xx

Seasidegal58

Here’s to your scenic route crunchy! That was my road to the end of debt as well. What ever gets you there and works for you.

Looking forward to your weekly postings and a happy new year to you and your family and a prosperous 2018!

mummytogirls

Happy New Year Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning all!

I would be at school right now but I am not - Hurrah! Instead, I have spent the morning working on a few blog posts. Already I feel miles less stressed and exhausted than I was.

DD's nursery bill came in £13 under budget so I have slushed that into the holiday fund. Which now stands at £34.22!!

I have also been struggling to find a place to store some of my (self-help type) books in my study until I can afford some shelves or a bookcase so I decided to see what they were worth on music magpie after previous successes and I'm looking at about £18! Husband is going to look through his books too but he wants the money to buy another book which is fair enough. The self-help books are from last year when I was doing a lot of soul-searching so I feel I am done with them and am ready to move onto the next stage of life.

We have invested in a chest freezer (now we have an outbuilding to put it in) and some more tupperware to help with batch cooking. It arrives today!!

I was feeling very stressed when I wrote about only posting once a week. Since focussing on the positives rather than the negatives and getting 2017 behind us, I feel so much better and am not even thinking about the debt we have in a negative way at all. So maybe I will feel able to post more than once a week! Taking things day by day will definitely help so I don't feel overwhelmed looking too far into the future.

It's the last day of the school holidays today so I am planning a lovely day with the kids. DS wants to make books and we shall do some baking too. I will need to pop to the post office and to get petrol too but otherwise will stay at home.

Onwards and upwards!!

Crunchy xx

Willowtree222

Happy New Year,
You write so much more upbeat x

crunch_time

Nicnak wrote: »

Happy New Year,
You write so much more upbeat x

I do feel so much more upbeat since I decided to stop worrying about it and embrace it! Perhaps that is the secret after all these years!

I have also made a secret payment of £50 into a savings account to start saving for a foreign adventure next year. If I can do this every month then it will keep me motivated to stay within our means and not get too ahead of ourselves. I feel the switch in me already.

Husband won't be cross but the more money he thinks we have the more money he will think we have to spend on home improvements. E.g. He wants to tile the bathroom floors for circa £600. We visited a friend a week or so ago who had lino in hers which looked lovely. I mentioned it and he said he would consider it. It's slow baby steps with him. Whoever suggested lino a few weeks back on here - thank you for sowing that seed.

He still desperately wants a soundbar. I'm going to tell him that he can if he saves up his £50 a month pocket money and doesn't spend it on carp when he is out and about!!

I've been working on changing all the addresses for our bills and it just so happens that our Home insurance and pet insurance are up for renewal this month. So I have managed to reduce the home insurance from £28 a month to £11. And then paying it annually (which we have never felt able to do before) saved me another £20. I reduced our pet insurance by about £4 per month and then saved another £26 for paying it annually. I used the £750 for oil and swimming lessons to pay for it and am planning to pay £20 in a month from the joint account to save up for next year but I will need to keep an eye on the pot and top it up in a few months time once the next oil and swimming lessons go out. £20 a month is fine for now and keeps things smaller. All charity direct debits (£25 a month) have now been cancelled for the time being until I am earning my own money again. Even with the £20 a month going out for bills I have managed to cut the monthly amount needed for bills to £1710 from £1760. I may need to change that again as I still don't know how much my water or electricity will cost per month as the new accounts haven't been set up yet. I shall chase tomorrow.

Husbands £2000 has been switched over to the 0% now and my paperwork has come through about my 0% so slowly we are getting there.

Must, must, must start putting the pile to sell on bay of e!!

Crunchy x

Seasidegal58

How lovely not to have to go into work! All your bills sound like they are falling into place very nicely as well.

The adventure trip money is a very good idea but don’t let OH know in case he wants the soundbar!:D

crunch_time

Morning diary!

Husband commented last night that he feels he is getting the old me back. Bless him.

It’s worth noting as well that both children were complaining of tummy aches last night and I didn’t go into immediate panic about juggling teaching and childcare.

All my course information has come through and it looks like it’s going to be a busy 6 months!! I’m very excited about the content and what learning about it is going to do for my career going forward.

Dd is at nursery this morning so I have a couple of hours to myself. I’m planning to walk the dog and then plough through the paperwork. Food shop this afternoon and then relax and play with the children.

That’s what this is all about.

Crunchy x

Willowtree222

crunch_time wrote: »

Morning diary!

Husband commented last night that he feels he is getting the old me back. Bless him.

It’s worth noting as well that both children were complaining of tummy aches last night and I didn’t go into immediate panic about juggling teaching and childcare.

All my course information has come through and it looks like it’s going to be a busy 6 months!! I’m very excited about the content and what learning about it is going to do for my career going forward.

Dd is at nursery this morning so I have a couple of hours to myself. I’m planning to walk the dog and then plough through the paperwork. Food shop this afternoon and then relax and play with the children.

That’s what this is all about.

Crunchy x

I'm so jealous! Childminder declared she was having a holiday at the end of October again, and I went into melt down mode again!