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

Verbatim

Congrats on the debt reduction. I'll be cheering you on in 2018.

PositiveBalance

Well done ToPM - that's money gone from your debt forever and your budget going in the right direction, not accruing any more of it!

:j Here's to 2018 and further debt-busting activities! :j

armchairexpert

Hey, for someone who just wanted to balance the books in the first year, $3K is a goodly sum! And remember, too, that these are your dog days: very young kids, you're still paying out for child care for DC3, you're time poor. As your business efforts this year pay off and your income grows, so too will your free hours as the kids all end up in school. It'll get easier. This was the hard bit.

System

Well done on debt reduction for the year . Here is to 2018 being even better .

Treadingonplaymobil

Week 46: Day 6

Thanks for all your kind comments yesterday. To be honest I’m just relieved it’s gone down at all, as with that terrible third quarter of earnings from me and then the costs of Christmas, I was worried we might have undone all our hard work!

STILL no news on the remortgage, am going to email our broker today - the converyancing has been going on for weeks now, although I appreciate things will have come to a full stop over Christmas. January will be another month on the SVR (so another £80 down the pan on a higher interest rate, plus not making the £325 saving per month, grrr). On the bright side, our Tesco loan will be so much lower that when the extra money comes through to pay it off that we will have a few hundred pounds to put towards boosting our savings accounts, so will be able to improve our constant borrowing from Peter to pay Paul situation with the annual savings pots.

Working again today, then off to my mum’s for the weekend. Pleased to report that even before invoicing for my contract work for December I have managed to cover January’s business expenses and salary, and have a whopping £50 towards February’s. This is always a good time of year for me - I need to try to remember that and try to stay ‘ahead’ while I can, rather than getting excited and spending the extra I earn and getting stuck later on in the year. See, I’m learning .

to do today
1. Seeing clients.
2. More ironing
3. Wrap presents for the weekend.
4. make florentines

To do this week
1. Make candles. Done, made loads.
2. Make florentine biscuits.
3. Wrap presents for the relatives we will see on the weekend.

To do in December
1. finish Christmas shopping! Done!
2. buy DH's birthday present while I'm doing the Christmas shopping. Done - on sale yesterday!
3. make some more candles. Done.
4. don't try to do too much! I already have a few client bookings and lots of work I want to do, alongside the Christmas stuff. I need to make sure I don't get overwhelmed again. Yeah, this is going abysmally, as always.
5. update debt totals at the end of the month, to ensure we know where we are as we start 2018. Done.

Chrystal

armchairexpert wrote: »

Hey, for someone who just wanted to balance the books in the first year, $3K is a goodly sum! And remember, too, that these are your dog days: very young kids, you're still paying out for child care for DC3, you're time poor. As your business efforts this year pay off and your income grows, so too will your free hours as the kids all end up in school. It'll get easier. This was the hard bit.

I totally agree with what AE has said, and it's lovely to hear you sounding so positive, even being able to turn the dark cloud of having to pay the higher mortgage for a while longer into a silver lining with regards to the Tesco loan.
I'm really hoping that 2018 turns things around for you in all the best ways. X

mjs0510

I’ve read this diary from the beginning but never commented.

I just wanted to say you should be extremely proud of your efforts. Not only have you lived within your means you have reduced your debt not added to it.

This is a great achievement whilst maintaining a sense of normality for your kids. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you will get there :T:

poddle911

I agree with the above, you’re pretty bloomin impressive! Even if you’ve *only* paid off £3k... but as you said yourself, your previous over spend was £200-£1000 a month, so you’ve actually saved another £12k on top of that. Amazing!

Wishing you all good things for 2018

Suffolk_lass

poddle911 wrote: »

I agree with the above, you’re pretty bloomin impressive! Even if you’ve *only* paid off £3k... but as you said yourself, your previous over spend was £200-£1000 a month, so you’ve actually saved another £12k on top of that. Amazing!

Wishing you all good things for 2018

What an excellent, positive way to explain your progress TOPM - please reflect on this when you are having one of those "is it all worth it?" moments!

I also wish you a great 2018 with some more impressive debt-busting and deliberate (considered) spending

warby68

Much to be proud of ToPM, not just the numbers but the learnings.

You still have another month to go for your full first year and it looks like that timing of your remortgage will fit in with that so you can draw a line under Y1 and Y2 will have a 'clean' start with your new level of commitments and, hopefully a few hundred in the savings pots so you can start the new year ahead of the game instead of playing catch up which got you very frustrated. I think that will be great for morale.

Also, I always find January a relatively cheap month - tends to be quiet on the social front and the house is well stocked from pre-Christmas. Maybe there will be some of that for you so you can end on a 'good' month.

I understand the occasional pangs of envy - my sons have attended schools with lots of SAHMs and ladies who lunch. At times our flat out hardworking lifestyle has felt a bit of a slog. Especially when OH, admittedly not often and at his peril, attempts to compare my 'performance' in some area with another wife/mother who is loaded and doesn't work!