This Duo's debt free journey

Tea&Kittens

I know what you mean! Certainly doesn't feel like they're built to last! Somewhere like CEX may have a reasonable handset that's not too expensive?

DebtFreeDuo

When I was a teenager phones were really built to last, you could throw them against a wall and they wouldn't break, now they break all on their own! I'm going to hold out until at least after new year and then come back to it.

Payment for my loan came out yesterday which means.. Under £5k!! Woohoo!

DebtFreeDuo

My budgets aren't going too bad so far although I may have a couple of problems. Firstly I wanted to buy a few frames for school photos as additional presents (no budget remaining). I really wanted to use the smaller photos you get in the packs to frame and get DS to put hand prints next to them for grandparents. Need to see how cheap I can find some frames for this, I could potentially use the amazon voucher I just claimed which I was going to use for birthdays/Christmas next year.

Secondly I set aside £110 for the car (fuel and MOT) but now I'm thinking that it really needs a service, I didn't factor this into my budget so this might have to wait until January so that I can keep this months budget on track.

Remaining December budget

Food - £150
Car - £110
Christmas - £0
Other - £60

To do tomorrow

MT assignment
Book MOT
Tidy house

Willowtree222

Using your vouchers will save you some money, which is great.

Putting the service back to January will help with the tight budget too. x

Good luck sticking to it. x

Pauper1

DH and I have both had good experiences with trade in places - the local indy one more than the big name one in the town, but that's purely down to customer service. The actual phones they have in are always decent, and CEX do a 12 month warranty which is reassuring.

Are there car boots still on near you? They can be a really cheap place to find frames but ours are slowing down a bit now.

HairyHandofDartmoor

You sound like you needed the coat and got a bargain, so don't feel guilty about that.

A second hand phone can be worth having. I always have my mum's old phone when she upgrades because she's on a contract, so my phones are always two years old by the time I get them and they seem to work fine.

The frames with the photo and hand print sound like lovely presents . You can get dirt cheap and often excellent quality frames in charity shops for a fraction of the price of new ones.

DebtFreeDuo

I don't think my regular car boot is on anymore, will definitely give the charity shops a try though, there are a few I can try near me.

I will see where I am on the phone front in January, Jan - April will be equally as tight as the last few months so I may have to stretch it a little further than January.

DebtFreeDuo

Well our house has been hit with a sickness bug, just what I need! Feeling very sorry for myself. I have managed to book my car in for a service and MOT, its booked in at £149 but I think it is going to end up costing more than this as it hasn't had a service for almost 2 years! This amount will likely end up on a CC and then I will pay this off in full in January. I need to take another look at finances between January and April just to make sure we are still headed in the right direction. DS has asked me for a new bed so I'm hoping that for his birthday in April I can do his bedroom for him.

This week

MT assignment
[STRIKE]Book MOT[/STRIKE]
Tidy house - half done this
Write up notes for all modules

Pauper1

Oh no! Sorry to hear you're poorly I'm a bit obsessed with looking at nurseries/kids rooms on Pinterest, even though we can't really decorate, and also the DIY on a Budget FB page is good for cheap ideas.

ladymay

Get well soon DFD!