On a Mission

wishingthemortgaheaway

Yay for emergency funds booo to having to raid it twice in a month.

Just keep on the treadmill. (And your debt has gone down by more than this last emergency fund raid)

You are winning at this (ok, slower than you'd like, but you are winning)

Mummy_bear

UPDATE

Well it's been months since my last update. A LOT has happened.

shortly after my last post I found out I was pregnant. Quite unplanned. I was sooooo ill. December was a write off.

In January we went for a scan and we received the SHOCK of our lives. We were having Twins!! :eek:
Due Friday the 13th of July no less :rotfl:

I cried so much. I still cry a bit now. It's scary especially financially.

So yeah our finances and debt have took a hit. I've had to concentrate on putting money away for Maternity Leave. We've took out an interest free money transfer in order to get a bigger car.

BUT I've not bought anything brand new for the babies...well except for reusable cloth nappies which in the long run will save money.

On a plus I've figured out I can probably pay off my student loan this year...that's £157 less a month coming out of my account by December.

Tomorrow I will do a full financial update on what is owed etc so that I know what we need to do. Ultimately our goal will be to get a bigger house. However, this will not be achievable for maybe another 3 years! So we need to get rid of as much debt as possible in that time.

ChasingSunshine

Congratulations!! Twins, wow you will be busy :eek::eek: Hope you are feeling better now though.

Mummy_bear

ChasingSunshine wrote: »

Congratulations!! Twins, wow you will be busy :eek::eek: Hope you are feeling better now though.

Thanks. I don't think busy quite sums up how reality will be!! Never thought I'd have 4 children.

The sickness has subsided and been replaced by pain when walking, heartburn, exhaustion and an ever expanding belly.

The future is looking hectic and financially tight.

Mummy_bear

Today is the 1st of April - yes April fools day - but I'm not joking about with these figures I'm about to post.

In my absence we have continued to chip away at the debt but we have added to it also....be that as it may the increase is less than I thought it was having worked things out. It's still not at the levels of last May when I had my LBM so that's good.


Totals as of 1st APRIL


Lloyds CC £5553.11 this has increase significantly. However, it is interest free until 2019. We did an interest free money transfer in order to purchase a second hand car that can fit the increasing brood :cool: It also paid of the insurance and tax for the car in one go. Thankfully the MOT had only just been done on the car so all that will be due next January.

MBNA CC £4239.84 This has also seen a small increase Again an interest free money transfer - This was actually to pay off the remaining work done to DH's old car (another tragic story)

Barclaycard CC £1517.64 This has gone down :j I'm concentrating on paying this off completely. Mainly due to one of the deals expiring in November 2018. The first to expire across all the credit cards.

Tesco Loan £8521.96 Another decrease - obviously

Santander Loan £5440.7 Same as above

TV -DH purchase £152.02 Almost paid off. Will be paid off end of May. No wiggle room to pay off early. But to be fair original end date was Dec 18 so we've still achieved


M&S Loan £6824.8 As above re. the loans. Another decrease

Bicycle finance £0 Woohoo - GONE!

Littlewoods £393.52 In January, whilst coming to terms with becoming a family of 6 our dryer died of death. It was old and probably not very economical at that. So we purchased a new one. The figure above includes interest ... interest that isn't payable until Jan 19 if we don't pay it all off beforehand. I'm awaiting the next statement due mid April to give me an actually figure on what is owed, therefore this figure will be halved in a few weeks as I won't include the interest.

Next £107.52 Being tall doesn't lend itself well to pregnancy. This is from getting maternity clothes that fit in length. May increase slightly as I need to source long length maternity tights.


Total debt as of 1st April £32751.11


Well there it is. The new figures. An increase in debt by £2147.29 since mid November. Like I said could've been worse.


In my absence I'd also slacked on the survey front. Given myself a kick up the butt and restarted doing VO surveys. This was so useful last year as I earned £50 between July and November to put towards Christmas.

PA was quiet over Christmas for me. Until I realized that my account had been 'locked' or something. Had to email them to reactivate it and I've been getting steady surveys since.
PA still funds the annual bills account.

They're still my main earners.

I need to get back to Ebaying again. We've found out we're having two girls so I've kept all my daughters clothes that I was going to sell/donate. That leaves me so my son's old clothes to get rid of.


On the Twin front I have done well money saving I think.

I was able to buy a twin pram for £70 off my friend. This particular one retails at £500+ at John Lewis.

I bought a twin cosleeper for next to our bed for £65 - this retails brand new at £300

No more than £50 on newborn and 0-3 months baby bundles off Ebay. These are hardly worn as babies grow so quickly and I really don't see the point in buying an entire brand new wardrobe for babies. I'm also NOT matching them up with every outfit - except for Halloween and World Book Day in the future

Already own a baby sling so I can baby wear for the first couple of months.

I've bought a 3in1 Rocker for the living for £35 think they retail around £100 mark. Need t source another. Basically this is a bouncer chair with music, vibration etc and converts into a bassinet to allow for sleeping. This is for the living room in the day. Hopefully they will sleep in them!

I've decided to use reusable nappies this time round. My daughter won't be fully potty trained by the time the babies arrive and I dread the thought of buying 3 lots of nappies all the time.
Reusable nappies is a minefield, so many types and brands. I've found some lovely ones from America - which even with shipping is so much cheaper than those in the UK! The reusables are from birth to potty - they're adjustable so basically they should last years. I have purchased some disposables for the early weeks whilst we get used to the reusbables - plus the babies may be tiny so the reusables may not fit for a while.

I intend to breastfeed again - I'm stubborn - I WILL MAKE IT WORK!
Already have a breast pump.

Already have car seats

Need to get a couple of bath supports.



Been saving hard for Mat leave. Currently have £2400 tucked away. Hoping to get to at least £5000 by Oct 18. I get 18 weeks full pay and the remainder until 39 weeks at stat mat pay. I also intend to take 2 months no pay :undecided This is probably only achievable if I do some KIT days towards the end. Then I'll add on a lot of Annual Leave and accrued bank holidays to the end to try and stretch to a year off.

I've worked out budgets for whilst I'm on mat leave. In includes projected increases for 2019 in areas such as council tax etc. I don't not intend to decrease the amount to be put towards the CCs or Emergency Fund.

On that note - the Emergency Fund. At one point was looking so healthy and full. The DH's old car wiped it out and more :mad: DH old car has gone to heaven having took a lot of money from us Grrrrrrr.

Anyway the Emergency Fund - which at the moment will also be the MOT fund on the cars etc whilst on Mat leave - stands at £250.

We're also putting money away for Christmas £60 a month. So that currently stands at £180.

So, yeah, there's the update. Not set any targets/ goals yet. I'm having a think on this.

MB

Rachel24

Congrats on the news of the twins mummy bear, hope you're over your shock now. Hard when you were in the middle of reducing your debt. You've done amazing so far!

Mummy_bear

Rachel24 wrote: »

Congrats on the news of the twins mummy bear, hope you're over your shock now. Hard when you were in the middle of reducing your debt. You've done amazing so far!

Yeah timing was not great! Guess it's making me even more determined to get rid of the debt.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Congratulations mummy bear on your news:
Re cloth nappies: there is a website 'the nappy lady' I think that has a questionnaire about lifestyle and equipment available and then tells you a couple of potentially good brands, also worth checking if there is a nappy library in your area. We have one here.

Slings: great you've got one - I'm a massive Sling advocate, find you local Sling library and they can help you with 'tandam slinging' you can also hire if the Sling you've got isn't suitable for a tiny baby or two.

Well done on the savings and the mat leave calculations. I'm sure you will be fine,

Mummy_bear

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

Congratulations mummy bear on your news:
Re cloth nappies: there is a website 'the nappy lady' I think that has a questionnaire about lifestyle and equipment available and then tells you a couple of potentially good brands, also worth checking if there is a nappy library in your area. We have one here.

Slings: great you've got one - I'm a massive Sling advocate, find you local Sling library and they can help you with 'tandam slinging' you can also hire if the Sling you've got isn't suitable for a tiny baby or two.

Well done on the savings and the mat leave calculations. I'm sure you will be fine,

The nappy lady website has been amazing at expanding my knowledge. Who knew there were so many different types! I'm so excited to give them a go...and can totally see it becoming an expensive addiction. (Hopefully I'll resist) will look into a nappy library in my area.

I'm aware there is a sling library near me. In the meantime I've been you tubing how to tandem sling with my Moby wrap. Hoping it'll be as easy as they make it look.

wishingthemortgaheaway

A moby wrap is perfect for tandom wearing, and the Sling library will definitely help you out.

Slings & wraps are my expensive baby hobby. They are so pretty (and practical)