Fox's Debt Free Diary

FoxFace

Well what a wonderful weekend

I have spent the entire weekend nursing three separate cash budgets, with an aim to keeping on track... and I did it!

~ Pot 1: Grocery budget £60. Spent £54, gave the rest to eldest child to top up his lunch account.

~ Pot 2: Birthday budget £50. 5 birthdays coming up in the next week or so. Managed presents, cards and wrapping/bags for all of them, with pence to spare, which I potted.

~ Pot 3: Personal money £83. £60 went into the new current account. Went away with a friend on Saturday with £23, bought lunch, a new little purse to keep my cash separate and still have some left over

Very pleased with myself, it feels really good to have been presented with challenges of a day out and birthday present shopping and to have stuck to my guns instead of getting carried away

Incidentally, I have noticed how much stuff I picked up and put back... it's been a bit eye opening to be honest as I could swear I didn't really ever spend much

Hiddenidenity

That's some good going!

Glad you had a lovely weekend

FoxFace

Hiddenidenity wrote: »

That's some good going!

Glad you had a lovely weekend

Thanks for the support

Just having a little look at finances (as I do every morning right now) and it looks like I will be able to reduce the overdraft by £1000 by October :j

Also added a couple of extras to the forecast, like Father's Day... probably a few more birthdays to throw on there too, but we have plenty of wiggle room so I'm not too worried

The main worry right now is school holidays, we already discussed as a family and agree that this year we will not be going away anywhere. We had a huge, expensive holiday to Paris last year and we are still paying that off, so it's not really appropriate for us to eat into money that would be paying that.

We are looking at going to a lot of free places, fortunately the children love museums and castles and such. And we also live right next door to the Lake District, so plenty of hill walking to do when the weather is nice

jackieblack

FoxFace wrote: »

Thanks for the support

Just having a little look at finances (as I do every morning right now) and it looks like I will be able to reduce the overdraft by £1000 by October :j

Also added a couple of extras to the forecast, like Father's Day... probably a few more birthdays to throw on there too, but we have plenty of wiggle room so I'm not too worried

The main worry right now is school holidays, we already discussed as a family and agree that this year we will not be going away anywhere. We had a huge, expensive holiday to Paris last year and we are still paying that off, so it's not really appropriate for us to eat into money that would be paying that.

We are looking at going to a lot of free places, fortunately the children love museums and castles and such. And we also live right next door to the Lake District, so plenty of hill walking to do when the weather is nice

Well done with the budgeting and, even more importantly, keeping to it! I think it makes you a more discriminating shopper, balancing price and value rather than just buying the first thing you pick up.
It'll be a great help if your family are on board with the debt busting.

Mummy_bear

Hi, just read through your diary. I'm now subscribing. ��

I'm new to all this and I've started my diary yesterday to document paying off our debts.

I just love reading how everyone gets on and getting inspiration and ideas.

Wysiwyg49

FoxFace wrote: »

Okay so up bright and early, new finance forecast done. I have some wonderful home finance software that I bought many, many years ago, which really helps keep track and get a good forecast of where you will be down the line.

Sounds like you have a great plan! What's the software called? I've been using YNAB for the 2nd time, for 3 months, not sure yet whether it is helping! Or whether my budgeting is just too optimistic...

FoxFace

Wysiwyg49 wrote: »

Sounds like you have a great plan! What's the software called? I've been using YNAB for the 2nd time, for 3 months, not sure yet whether it is helping! Or whether my budgeting is just too optimistic...

It was a bit of software I bought from Tesco possibly more than 10 years ago now... it was called Tesco Personal Finance and cost me about £10 at the time, but I have used it ever since and have never found anything that works as well for me. It doesn't look like is it on sale anymore unfortunately

FoxFace

All a bit quiet here right now. Had my official closure statement from my old CC, so that's good. I will have one more interest payment apparently, so that will get paid as soon as the bill comes in

Speaking of interest payments, I just checked my online banking for the 2nd transferred card and the final interest payment for that card was £12.25p, so I have paid that straight away. It doesn't bring my sig amount down, but it does mean that I can now officially close the account :j

Edit: Also I haven't actually spent any more of my personal money and found my purse with £5 still in there that I didn't realise I had... funny how just separating that budget is making me think about what I buy and appreciate my hard earned cash

Hiddenidenity

You're doing amazing. You should be proud.

There's usually a lot of free things on for school holidays too, our local paper usually has a section just for free things on. It includes things like craft days etc and things you can attend even if the weather isn't nice.

FoxFace

Hiddenidenity wrote: »

You're doing amazing. You should be proud.

There's usually a lot of free things on for school holidays too, our local paper usually has a section just for free things on. It includes things like craft days etc and things you can attend even if the weather isn't nice.

Thank you, I am suitably happy with my progress so far

I had promised to write a list of free stuff for the hols, thanks for reminding me I don't get a paper and used to pick up a lot of events from FB, but I'm not on there now. Will need to get searching the web, methinks