Wedding and honeymoon debt

Storm89

oh my god I totally jinxed myself didn't I. Dropped my phone down the toilet this afternoon before the school run. Paying to get it fixed wasn't in the plan and apparently my insurance doesn't cover water damage so ... here I am using OHs samsung s3 mini with my sim card in and paying £45 a month for the privilege . I currently pay £29 a month for my phone and £18.50 for husbands which he doesn't use and is kept in a box under the bed anyway. My contract isn't up until March 2018 but as soon as it is , I cannot wait to get a better deal !

Storm89

£24.50 I pay for mine actually but still.. too much to be paying to not actually have a phone.

Storm89

Have just done a proper budget for the month of April and we are £46 short for everything we want to do. But that's budgeting for spending £75 a week on food which I've been well under lately so no worries there - just make a saving of £12 a week on something & we're sorted. I don't account for any survey income or things sold on ebay/gumtree either because that changes monthly so this should bring us a bit of money in.
Of the list of things we want to do I've already put £100 into the Christmas account so that feels good

Storm89

I'm using this diary just to talk to myself now , it's really therapeutic and helps me to see how we're doing. We've paid £240 off the Post Office Card .We've closed down the Santander account now that's been cleared with one of the balance transfers (it was also costing £3 a month in fees so glad to be rid of it). Next job is to close down the Virgin Atlantic account because that has an annual fee of £140- due in November. We'll possibly join again as a new customer in 12 months or so because we've been saving up airmiles & they often have deals on where you get bonus airmiles for spending so much in the first 90 days (obviously this will be something we can afford at the time to pay straight off!). We got £43 back from an overpayment to the MBNA because it should have been £95 but interest had been added on but only need £3 to make the £46 shortfall for the month now.
There is £193.62 due to be paid onto the Sainsbury's credit card and £51 has already gone onto Barclaycard. I'll manually pay off £16 of the barclaycard just so we've paid off at least £500.
So everything is looking good for the month of April so far. The big thing I'm feeling positive about this month is having some savings- yes it might only be £100 but it feels like the start. Christmas WILL NOT creep up on us this year .

Storm89

Just found out tax credits has now changed to £9.88 a week instead of £14.93 or whatever it was last week so losing about £20 a month there. It feels amazing to have all debts on just 3 cards now Getting ready to enjoy this glorious weekend. My son is going to a craft morning that costs 50p at a methodist church , then we have a walk planned for this afternoon after lunch , then back for tea and watch a film. Tomorrow we're going to a man made beach near us for a little paddle as it's given out 19 degrees and sunny.
Even though we're not going on any big days out or holidays this year - I'm keeping my target in mind of having the debt down to £14k by Christmas. At that point we'll need to start looking at any new deals to get it back to 0% by March (for the post office) and June (for the barclaycard). Luckily the sainsburys has 0% until November 2018 so will probably leave that as it is and try and shift the other 2 somewhere .
Ordering the shopping today - I got a coupon for Sainsbury's for £10 off next online shop if I spend £50 or more so will be doing that. Been using my nectar card for petrol all the time so it's starting to get us some rewards.

Storm89

Gosh I haven't been on here in so long but thought I'd reignite it. Debt is currently £16,027.43 so haven't really made that much headway to be honest. We are on it this year though and want to be down to £10k debt by December and also have £3k in savings.
Feeling so much more positive about it all though as we've got a definite plan. We've ended up adding a bit to the debt with transferring balances to other 0% cards which incurred a balance transfer fee here and there. It will look a little different with whats on what card by the end of the month. I currently have 0 balance on one but will be adding some from another card as they've offered us 0% for 12 months and the 0% on the other card ends in April.
I feel so focused and I know it isn't just a New Year thing. We have a little more income now but tax credits have now gone. Hubby has a little promotion temporarily for 12 months as someone has gone on maternity so that gives us around £100 extra a month until December.
I have a variety of savings accounts now and this is what will be saved into each one (starting february , January we are still playing catch up from Christmas but at least will break even)
Christmas and Birthdays - £100
Clothes - £40 (this is for the kids)
Very- £100 (with having no savings I had to buy things on Very Buy Now Pay Later this year, hoover, washing machine etc. It's interest free for 12 months from purchase and everything will be paid off before that so all good.)
General Savings- £250
£500 will also go towards the debt. Will have to keep switching to 0% deals as and when others run out.
I've booked us a little holiday for October half term in Center Parcs. It wasn't cheap at £900 but I've paid the £300 deposit (NOT on credit by the way) and will be paying £100 a month until we go. It will be paid off by August and still allow us to then save an extra £300 for when we go which will be used as spending money.
I've bought the savvy shoppers cookbook and did my entire shop at aldi yesterday for £61 (spent an extra £10 though on some boxes for the kids toy storage as we're over-run after Christmas). My weekly shop has crept up to over £100 a week lately so was very pleased with that.
I am so determined to be debt free by the end of next year . That means we can start our 30s debt free (aside from mortgage obviously).