£67,031.92 is a frightening number indeed....

motivated

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5575569


Have you read this TOPM very inspirational. I have read it at leat 20 times. I have subscribed to it too to read when I am feeling :eek:

It makes me realise that it is indeed possible
M

angelpye

:T Well done TPM for taking on the chin and acting immediately. Like you said if you earn more it means you can add to the budgets that are more flexible. Having the basics covered means less underlying stress and more headspace for your business.

Treadingonplaymobil

motivated wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5575569

Have you read this TOPM very inspirational. I have read it at leat 20 times. I have subscribed to it too to read when I am feeling :eek:

It makes me realise that it is indeed possible
M

Just read it. Somebody hand me my teaspoon.

angelpye wrote: »

:T Well done TPM for taking on the chin and acting immediately. Like you said if you earn more it means you can add to the budgets that are more flexible. Having the basics covered means less underlying stress and more headspace for your business.

I am embarrassingly proud of myself for adjusting the budget to fit the new numbers rather than blithely going "oh, I'll earn back the difference," and continuing (overspending) exactly as before, leading to an even bigger overspend. Have had enough of debt.

angelpye

You should be proud! You are holding onto the new way of life and its not always easy! I am on the same phase of the journey - having to readjust whilst new/forgotten things pop up and every time I don't use it as an excuse to overspend I can feel myself standing that little bit taller! Once the budget settles I am sure it will find its own momentum

Treadingonplaymobil

Can we just gloss over the raging debt s**tstorm that was today? No? OK, the short version:
1. My income just fell by £132 a month. Redid budget, recalculated DFD, general horror and trauma.
2. I discovered that the 0% deal on part of the MBNA card balance runs out in April this year, not September next year. More horror, with added hand wringing.
3. Then I discovered that I paid the Barclaycard minimum payment on the 1st before the statement actually came in on the 3rd (so it counted towards last month, not this month) so I have to pay another £93.55 off before the end of the month. However, I also had loads of flex in our food budget (£200 left until the end of the month thanks to renewed enthusiasm for budget food shopping), so I reduced that and paid the Barclaycard right away. We are stocked up until Tuesday morning and I still have £100 to get from next Tue until 1st March (just over a week). So, silver lining, it knocked a month off our new (very far away) DFD.

And to make up a little for all that trauma, I then got offered a bit of work for next week, so although our budget is now totally grim, that will help a little when the payment comes through (should be at least £150).

Progress today….

To do today:
1. Aldi top up shop to get us through until big food shop next Tuesday. Needs to be <£18.60. Fist pump - this came in at £14.09. I was smug.
2. Pay £8.74 (spare money from paying in cash yesterday) off the Barclaycard (which has the shortest 0% deal, and I'd like to get it cleared asap rather than have to hunt down another 0%, and for the psychological win of clearing one whole card). I paid this, then discovered that the card with the shortest 0% is actually the MBNA. Ho hum.
3. Get Child 1 to choose an audiobook to use up the last Audible.co.uk credit and then cancel membership for a couple of months - we have enough audiobooks between us to manage for a while, and that £7.99 can be used elsewhere for a while. Done!
4. Search for cheap meal ideas that use ingredients we have in the house, to start shaping next week's menu plan. Done! I have a very rough menu plan done, but now need to compare it to what’s in the cupboards and plug what’s required into MySupermarket.

B]To do this week:[/B]
1. Redo our budget to ensure that even if I only earn my minimum of £250 per month, that the shortfall is gone, whether it has to come from clothes, food, entertainment or whatever. It's lovely to try to earn extra to cover it every month, but I need to get us to a position where if I don't that we're not getting further into debt. Redone on Day 5 to reflect new lower guaranteed income.
2. We are away visiting family from Monday until Thursday, so no worries about food shopping until then (DH at home, but can make do with what's in the house, there is loads), but I'm going to challenge myself to make Thursday's top up shop to get us through until the following Tuesday (normal food shopping day) come in at under £30. Update: the £30 was reduced to £18.60 thanks to DH’s overspend, but I managed to achieve the bare essentials for only £14.09.
3. List child 3's old cot on eBay
4. Menu plan for next week and use MySupermarket to keep the cost down to <£60 for the week.
5. DH - water meter reading to make sure our direct debit is accurate. Done, and direct debit reduced by £9. Not much, but better than nothing. Need to double check if reduction applies from March or April.
6. DH - gas and electricity readings, to make sure direct debit is accurate. Done, and we are all of £3 in debit. That's fine, as it's the end of the coldest part of the year so our usage will drop, but I was hoping we'd be in credit. However, we were at zero in September, so we managed the coldest part of the year on the £104 combined DD, so hopefully in another month or two we'll see usage drop slightly and we can reduce DD a little and still accrue some credit ready for next winter. Not the big win I was hoping for but better than a huge bill. Will still try to make our usage more efficient though - a plan to make next week when the children are back at school.

Apologies for epic long post, it's been a bit of a day of it!

Bobarella

Oh what a pain on the work situation. I feel for you. I get cancellations sometimes and it's never nice.

Drawingaline

Sounds like your week has been as good as mine :rotfl:

But well done with the 'rolling with the punches' as YNAB likes to say :beer:

Treadingonplaymobil

Drawingaline wrote: »

Sounds like your week has been as good as mine :rotfl:

But well done with the 'rolling with the punches' as YNAB likes to say :beer:

I feel like the punches have me rolling on the floor at the moment! But at least I'm doing what's necessary.

Treadingonplaymobil

Day 6

Wow, nearly a whole week into this repaying lark and it's already been a total roller coaster!

Yesterday was a day of ups and downs (I'm choosing to remember the ups!) and I'm hoping for just a normal, boring, frugal day today.

It was lovely to get back home yesterday and be back in our space (and hand the children over to DH for a few hours!). I love our home so much, I am so thrilled we took the plunge and bought. Our mortgage is £300 less per month than our previous rent was (another contributory factor to the debt! Three years ago we were paying even more; £1,200 rent, compared to our current mortgage of £698).

Oh, forgot to mention that lovely relatives sent us home with a load of garden produce (kale, frozen berries from the summer, last of the late apples) and enough leftovers for DH and I to have for dinner tomorrow. Yay for free food!

And other positive news - I checked our debt balance last night after extra Barclaycard payment and MBNA DD going out and am pleased to report that the debt is down by £216.86 since I started this diary less than a week ago. That's a whopping 0.32% people! I know part of that was a perfectly normal DD, but over half was overpayment, and it's the first time I have spent spare money on reducing debt rather than, say, new cashmere, in a loooonnnng time.

Back to reality...

To do today:
1. Make biscuits AND wraps within the next 3 hours (I am fairly domestic, this is not a huge ask) as we have arranged to meet friends at a local forest and would usually get cafe food and I don't have anything terribly appealing for a packed lunch. Wraps will be more happily received than cheese sarnies! And everyone loves biscuits.
2. Limit spends to a carton of juice per child and a coffee for me at nice forest cafe. Do not give in to gorgeous but ruinously expensive cake!
3. Spend half an hour comparing menu plan to cupboard contents and update plan/shopping list.
4. Talk through new budget with DH - so much of this week's changes happened while I was away and have been communicated by text, but we haven't had a proper chat through of it all.
5. Check with organised uber-mum friend to see whether the school is doing dressing up for World Book Day - need to plan frugal costumes rather than relying on usual last minute online shopping plus extortionate delivery charge.
6. Plan weekend work time to include time to list cot on eBay (and some batch cooking if possible).

To do this week:
1. Redo our budget to ensure that even if I only earn my minimum of £250 per month, that the shortfall is gone, whether it has to come from clothes, food, entertainment or whatever. It's lovely to try to earn extra to cover it every month, but I need to get us to a position where if I don't that we're not getting further into debt. Redone on Day 5 to reflect new lower guaranteed income.
2. We are away visiting family from Monday until Thursday, so no worries about food shopping until then (DH at home, but can make do with what's in the house, there is loads), but I'm going to challenge myself to make Thursday's top up shop to get us through until the following Tuesday (normal food shopping day) come in at under £30. Well the £30 got reduced to £18.60 thanks to DH's random extra food shop for himself, but we did it for only £14.09 in the end. Yay!
3. List child 3's old cot on eBay
4. Menu plan for next week and use MySupermarket to keep the cost down to <£60 for the week.
5. DH - water meter reading to make sure our direct debit is accurate. Done, and direct debit reduced by £9. Not much, but better than nothing.
6. DH - gas and electricity readings, to make sure direct debit is accurate. Done, and we are all of £3 in debit. That's fine, as it's the end of the coldest part of the year so our usage will drop, but I was hoping we'd be in credit. However, we were at zero in September, so we managed the coldest part of the year on the £104 combined DD, so hopefully in another month or two we'll see usage drop slightly and we can reduce DD a little and still accrue some credit ready for next winter. Not the big win I was hoping for but better than a huge bill. Will still try to make our usage more efficient though - a plan to make next week when the children are back at school.

Happy Friday, everyone!

117pauline

All I can say is wow! Such a lot has happened in your week and you have immediately dealt with it rather than thinking, I'll do it later.

Just a couple of suggestions from me

- could you put an extra couple of staple items aside each week for your holiday. Even two tins of tomatoes would be a start so you have a little leaway in your entertainment budget whilst you are away

- are you a member of your local library? Mine does 200+ magazines online plus books so would the magazine you cancelled be available?

- this is going to be a marathon not a Sprint. So if you build in some treats along the way for all of you, it will make it more sustainable. Yes that includes YOU. Even if it is only one piece of cake a month.

- keep a record of where you have come from and how that debt is reducing each month so you can remind yourself when you get down.

Both of you are responsible for the debt and both of you are dealing with it. Perhaps a post it note around your OH's debit or credit card will remind him about being careful with those thoughtless purchases made when he is tired or stressed.

I hope you have a great day
Pauline