Ok, here goes nothing!

LauraB89

So this week has been good so far. Went to dinner on Monday- which was £20 and I had to put it on the CC. But getting paid tomorrow so I should be able to pay an extra 20 to cover it.

Because I paid the broker this month I am not putting all of my bonus into my debts but a bit of a boost to my usual payments. This will mean I can keep my emergency buffer and if I need to pay out anything else I can do so.

November month is looking great and I am hoping for a really big bonus to help finish off a few of my debts. If it all works to plan I should be pretty much debt free by March. But then with the house and stuff I'm not sure exactly how much everything will cost and what expenses we will incur in moving.

We should get our deposit back from the flat which will help!

Hope everyone's week is going well. Got a meeting next week about a different role and already had a phone call which was very positive.

Xxx

LauraB89

Ok so this week I think I have overspent on my Christmas presents, but the OH has to pay me for some of them so it should be ok in the end!

I have made my payments, but I am a little annoyed that I am not able to pay off as much as I wanted to because I will need to pay out £350 to the solicitor. As my parents are giving us a deposit, we will need to use the equivalent of the HTB isa to pay for the fees etc, but as I don't yet have the deposit I am paying for it all out of my wages which is a total nightmare.

Fingers crossed we should find out about the mortgage tomorrow, I am very nervous and trying to be positive. I haven't really seriously considered what will happen if we get declined - I will be very upset and disappointed. On the other hand, if we get approved I will be over the moon!

For the first time in a long time, my debts are under £2000! November is looking like a brilliant month, so fingers crossed I should earn a great bonus and in Jan I hope to be able to pay off the barclaycard in full and some more off of the loan.

My experian credit score has bounced up again - it's knocking on good now which is always pleasing.

My aims for 2017 are as follows;

- Pay off all debts (end of Q1)
- Pay for wedding without using credit (end of Q2)
- Get house (end of Q1)
- Have baby (well this you can't plan so easily!)

I still have a lot of wedding stuff to sort out;

- Invites
- Favours
- Bridesmaid dresses
- Flowers
- Hen party

I went to see my new house yesterday, it's so lovely I just can't wait to move in. Just got to keep going with the debt busting!

Next month, the debts should look like the following (depending on bonus payments!);

- Barclaycard - £0
- Lloyds Loan - £300
- Halifax CC - £900

Hopefully by the end of Jan I should have the deposit so no more house-related spends should come up. So by Feb we should be looking like the following (again, bonus dependant);

- Lloyds Loan - £0
- Halifax CC - £600

Which means I should be able to be debt free by end of March and ready to save, save, save for the wedding!

I hope everyone else's weekend is going well, and that you are all starting to get that lovely festive feeling!

xxx

HEROWHENZERO

Hey Laura,

I remember you mentioning using YNAB, are you still doing that? I also get paid on the 15th and after a few months of trying to budget by calendar month, I found a much easier way. Just budget for the pay cycle, and when it gets to the end of the calendar month, the remaining in the budget categories carry over to the next month. I've been using it now for 6 months, and I don't think I would have been able to control spending and organise finances to pay off just over £6K of my debt without it.

Good luck with the House, wedding, babies, all fantastic milestones in life. I've got 3 of the little mites, although one is 18 now, the other 2 are under 3.

Hero

LauraB89

Hi Hero! I just COULD NOT get it to work for me because I have a separate account for the shared household bills that works from 1st to 1st. So I have a spreadsheet set up and I know which payments come out and when and then I use a spending tracker to make sure that my spending (food/life/etc) stays to £100 a week- it's working for me at the moment.

I had some exciting news today, I phoned the broker and he said that the mortgage had been agreed and so we just have to wait for the paperwork! I'm so happy and excited!

Today is also the anniversary of our engagement and the flatmates are all away so we are having steak and celebrating at home!

Feeling good the debts are under £2,000 and I am feeling confident that by the wedding we should be both debt free and house owning! Ahh!!!

How is it going for everyone else? Xxx

poddle911

Wow! What a day �� Was hoping you got good news about the mortgage. That's the first hurdle over, but remember it's a marathon not a sprint! It can be super frustrating when so many factors are out of your control, but it sounds like you've got the rest of your life sorted. Good luck and happy anniversary!

LauraB89

JUST GOT THE TEXT FROM SANTANDER WE GOT THE MORTGAGE APPROVED!!!!!

AHHH!!

So... today I also paid for the solicitor - £350 *wince* but it's all good!

I am brassic now until Jan payday, but it's Christmas and I have bought all my presents and I DON'T CARE BECAUSE I GOT THE MORTGAGE APPROVED!

I also applied for a couple of jobs today in the area - one is selling tractors, which sounds really fun

Fingers crossed I can get a new job in the area and then life will be sweet.

WE ARE GETTING THE HOUSE I AM SO HAPPY AND EXCITED!!!

xxx

poddle911

:T:j:T:j:T:j

Bobarella

Fantastic Laura!!!

HEROWHENZERO

Great news Laura :-)

ab_saver

Congratulations! What amazing news at Christmas!