A new identity and a new diary

tori.k

With a bit of tweaking your soon be sorted,your story feel's very similar to my own I've hit the last 3k of our loan this bit has turned into a right old slog.
I know I'm preaching to the converted but the key was finding the perfect SOA balance that fit us then everything fell into place, this took us six months to achieve, so it's well worth the effort. Once what was on paper equalled what was in purse we've managed to avoid any need of the credit cards. For shopping online I did have a cashback credit card that was paid in full each month,the cashback actually paid for my car tax this year so something like that maybe an option for you.
Anyway good luck we are all rooting for you.

Super_Kate

Thank you tori! I agree 0 i really do believe we are on the cusp of greatness. If we spend back from our categories, by the end of the summer term (end of July) the fuel, clothes, birthdays and car expenses lines on the credit card will be paid off and replaced with savings pots. I'm also hoping to have cleared the holidays by then. The furniture will have gone down to £520 just from minimum payments.
Food and spending money are more difficult to be sure about as it depends how much is left out of these categories. DH is fully on board and agrees that a lot of things crept up too quickly and we just have to deal with them. With this in mind the debt should be down to the following:

Spending Money £216.90
Food £197.00
Work expenses £533.00
Furniture £520
Total £1466.90

We can then tackle the work expenses as the furniture is on 0%. Once the holidays are paid for and spending money has been saved up so by the end of August I can start chucking my salary at the other sainsburys card currently at £2205 and get that done and dusted in a couple of months.

I'm very excited to be on the last leg of this adventure so we can move onto other things.

I started my list of financial things to do last night and I got so carried away that I forgot to make myself dinner.....

- re set up DH's direct debit for his ISA at £100 a month
- Find a good long term savings product for me
- Even out DDs ISA so it has the same amount in it as DS.
- Decide what we are going to do about pocket money for the children.
- cancel TV licence
- cancel TV off BT
- sell big pram on gumtree - money goes towards paying off furniture.
- sell stroller on gumtree - money goes towards paying off furniture
- sell backpack - money goes towards paying off furniture
- clean and sell highchair on gumtree - money goes towards paying off furniture
- clean and sell outdoor chest on gumtree - money goes towards paying off furniture.
- sell travel high chair on gumtree/ebay - money goes towards spending money pay off
- sell lead rein on gumtree/ebay - money goes towards spending money pay off.
- set up basic joint account or consider making food account a joint one and putting an 'overdraft' in it.
- talk to a financial advisor about DH's pension.
- set up a category for home improvements in our budget.

Phew! That should keep us busy!

Right, I have lots of cleaning and sorting to do ready for our BBQ not to mention getting things on gumtree!! Not to mention enjoying the sunshine and precious time with family.


Super Kate

enthusiasticsaver

Is it a cash isa your DH has and what is the interest rate? Most savings rates on ISAs are awful and the only decent return is stocks and shares isas which really you should not consider until the debt is gone and you have a decent emergency fund.

High interest current accounts/regular savers are the way to go. Nationwide flex direct is a good one as is Tesco current account.

Super_Kate

Thanks for the info enthusiastic saver - I shall look into this.

BBQ yesterday was lovely! Our friends brought lots of food and beer round so the costs were very low in the end. I also managed to spring clean and rearrange my children's bedrooms which I've been wanting to do for ages. Everywhere is now clean which means I can do some work today without getting distracted. DH is taking the children out with a friend so I can do some report writing.

We haven't yet got any plans for tomorrow but I'm thinking a nice family walk somewhere would be awesome!

Super kate

PurpleFairy26

Hi Kate well done for coming back and for clearing so much to date. I think budgeting is an evolution, I did my first in 2007 and only recently have I really hit the sweet spot (with a few pauses on the way) just review it each month and plan for what's coming up and review your annual payments and make amends as you need to.

One think that sticks out for me - are both your sainsburys cards on 0% - if so, can you transfer the HSBC to it? Or if not, can you apply for a 0% card and transfer interest paying cards to it. With your income, you really shouldn't be paying interest in debt and then at least every penny you pay off will reduce the debt.

Will subscribe to follow your journey.

Super_Kate

Yes both cards are at 0%. I could transfer the HSBC one into mine but it will literally be paid back in 2 months time. That might allow for subconscious overspending. I will have a think and talk to DH.

I had a productive day yesterday and sorted out lots of bits and bobs. The whole house has now been spring cleaned, all bills have been filed away and a pile made of ones that we need to sort out. I have gathered together all the bits that we need to sell and put them all in the outdoor chest so they don't clog up the office.

Next big sorting job is the loft which I'm planning to do on Thursday or Friday with DH. Hopefully we will find some more bits to sell or get rid of.

The plan for today is for husband to do a tip run with stuff i unearthed yesterday. We are also going to go swimming as a family and maybe weed the front garden. Nice and easy for a bank holiday weekend!

Super_Kate

Super_Kate

Morning diary,

Sold the stroller today for £50 and a travel high chair for £5!!!!! So that's money to come off the work expenses. I did originally say I would use the money to pay off the furniture but the furniture has a category and most of it is at 0% whereas the work expenses do not.

I'm now spurred on to get the rest shifted!!

Super_Kate

Super_Kate

Got my tv/broadband/phone package down by £10 to £46 a month for 12 months. This gives us a whole year to save up for signal boosters and explore new broadband packages as well as encourage my mother to use Skype!!!

Super_Kate

Super_Kate

I did my second shop at aldi today - £64 including a few little extras like gerkins and antipastibin jars as I had DH with me. Combined with a trip to the butchers for meat for the week including some BBQ meat which we enjoyed tonight that's £84 for a weekly shop. This is significantly less than my mr s weekly shop for about the same!!

If i stick to the food budget then I'll soon be paying off the food overspends!!

In other budget related news my daughters nursery bill came in today and was much less than I thought so I've paid off £25 off the holidays from the HSBC more expensive credit card. I know wvery little will help.

I'm also sitting on my patio in the evening sunshine drinking a glass of chilled white that was free from the parents and reading a library book. You don't get more money saving expert than that!!

DH and I have a date night coming up soon and I have been racking my brains as to what to do that is cheap/free! He originally wanted to go to the cinema (££££££££!!!!!!!!) but I have managed to get him interested in a long walk and a bottle of wine at the end of it. We used to go in lots of long walks which we can't really do at the moment as the kids haven't built up a lot of stamina.

I'm looking forward to it already.

super kate

Super_Kate

Morning! Its raining here and a bit chilly but we need the rain so I'm not complaining!

I have had a busy few days and a few things to report back on.

1 - it turns out we can't transfer the balance of the HSBC expensive card onto one of the others. The only way to get it to 0% is to apply for another card and we don't want to do that! So the category budgets we have set up will go to pay corresponding items on that credit card first and should be clear in 2 months.
2. I have got the work expenses down from £533 to £323 as DH got paid some expenses and from the sale of the stroller.
3. I have also got the furniture down from £720 to £630 from finding money in the budget and the minimum payment going out.
4. I think i forgot to say we have £200 in an account as the beginnings of a proper emergency fund that isn't long term retirement savings. The idea is that we chip into this like an overdraft if we need to before the end of the month. I will then round it down to the nearest £25 as I like rounded numbers using the money to chuck at the credit card expenses category and then we will add £200 a month to it. The target is £500.

Super Kate