Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

Storm89

Hi you're doing really well . Food is so hard to budget for , especially when you've had half term and snow days when the kids eat you out of house and home. Regarding the course you'll just have to pay it off over the 6 months using the money you would have put towards saving for it. We've had none stop snow today it's so annoying now.

AdventureWanted

Tennis lessons for DC1&2 were cancelled on Friday (thank goodness!), so we should be getting a refund for this at some point. On Friday we walked to our local shop, which the DC loved. DH took DC1&2 in the sledge and I pushed DC3 in the pushchair. Was a really lovely walk - very pretty with all the snow and was a relief having the DC in the sledge rather than walking, as they cannot help themselves but skip or run!

Yesterday was the first NSD of the month (1/15). We had fresh snow Friday night, so the DC & I managed to finish building our snowman. We couldn't get any stones to stick, so the kids painted a face and scarf on using food colouring.
Yesterday I rounded down the bank account sending £2 to CC2. Have transferred money to the savings accounts as well. Have got my car service and mot this month, so I'm really hoping I have enough money saved for this in my car account.

Emergency fund is up to £826.29.

jwil

Well done on the emergency fund!

savingholmes

Sounds like you are doing well to me. Jealous of all your snow. We had some but not enough for DD to have time off school.

I appreciate the career loan debt is frustrating when you are trying to repay debt but if it genuinely will help him earn more later it is an asset. I would differentiate it in your head from fritter spend... and not see it quite as negatively.

I spent £700 on a course once that gave me an £8K payrise - and then managed to reclaim the £700 as well when I got promoted.

shreya

AdventureWanted wrote: »

I’ve ummed and aahed about starting a diary on here for a couple of months, but have decided that it is a good way for me to keep track of how our debt reduction is going and hopefully on those dark days when it feels like we’re getting nowhere I can remind myself of how things have improved.

Anywho, I’ll give a brief overview of our life/debt.

I’m a Mum to 3 Kids. Hubby is self employed and I Home educate the older 2 Kids. In August I finally had enough of our debts and decided to do something about it. After reading lots of diaries I downloaded ynab and took control of our budget. Our debts are due to a car loan, house repairs and mostly a lack of control over finances so monthly spending got out of control and we didn’t really have much to show for it.

As at 1 August (LBM) our debts were:-
CC1 - £5,185
CC2 - £13,470
Cc3 - £11,400

All of the credit cards are 0% and will be balance transferred to new 0% cards if we haven’t paid them off at the end of the 0% deal.

The future -
We would love to travel. Firstly we’d love to visit every county in the uk and then travel further afield to the likes of Canada and Australia. Hubby and I regret not taking the opportunities to see the world pre children, but are now very keen to share these adventures with our kids.

We’d love to move to our forever family home, although we have no idea where in the country this would end up being in!

And more than those above we’d love to have savings for our children’s futures and not waste the extortionate amount of money we do each month on debt repayments.

I’ll post my current debt situation post LBM in the next post.x

I felt the same way a few years back. Drowning in debt i was almost reaching an inevitable end. I thought i was at rock bottom. I though I might as well try investing because i have nothing left to lose. Gradually i got a few profitable shares here and there and now finally i am debt free. Today my bank balance is finally on the positive side!

AdventureWanted

Managed another NSD on 4th (2/15). The snow melted within a day at ours, which was really surprising. In the morning our road looked awful - covered in ice and our garden was still full of snow. By lunchtime half of it had gone and then it started raining which cleared the lot. Must admit I am pretty pleased it has gone. Was starting to get cabin fever!!

Yesterday we went to DC3s swimming lesson, which was brilliant. Then popped to our local garden centre for a coffee and scone, before heading to toys r us to see if there were any bargains to be had now they are closing. It's such a shame it's closing as I remember going there as a child and spending birthday money and my DC loved having a look round too. We were looking for new bikes for DC1&2 as they have both outgrown their bikes, but they were still more than we wanted to spend (25% off, so would have been around £80-90). Think we'll keep an eye out for a secondhand one or see if they have any left when the prices are reduced more.

I've been updating ynab today and have rounded down my bank account sending £3 to CC2.

Since DH has agreed to go on the course I've been feeling a bit 'meh!' about the debt busting. Not in terms of spending loads, it just feels like it's never ending and that I'll never get to the end of the pile of debt! I guess I should just continue working on my £12,500 debt payment target for the year and not worry too much about the additional expenses, but it's so hard.
Course starts the first week in April. I think I'm apprehensive about how it will affect us. DH will be doing the course Monday to Friday and then going into work after the school day has ended, so for me and the DC it may feel like a LONG month, where we only see him at weekends. I know for most this is normal, but DH has always worked shifts, so although he works long days (12hrs) and DC3 doesn't see him, he usually has 3-4 days off depending on how many extra days he works.

Today we are off to my parents house for lunch, which we are all really looking forward to. Hope everyone has a good day.

AdventureWanted

Yesterday was a NSD. Me & the DC met my parents for a walk at the woods, before going round theirs for lunch. Was lovely spending the day with them. The DC adore spending time with them. My dad hasn't been overly well for the past few years, so I love being able to spend as much time with them whilst I can. (I know that sounds really morbid!)

Was talking with my dad about pensions today (he can claim his this year) and it really has made me think that I need to get rid of the debt as soon as possible and be better saving, etc. I'm only mid 30s, but looking at my dad delaying retiring as they would have a shortfall at the moment is worrying. Luckily DH and I do put something in a pension and hopefully in the future when we are debt free we can look into it more. Just wish we were financially better off now so could help my parents out. Their finances are pretty dire after their business struggled during the recession and finally had to be closed leaving them with lots of debt. That being said they most probably wouldn't accept help anyway...

Today we are off out with friends, so need to be organised this morning. Definitely need to get dinner in the slow cooker before we leave, as that will save loads of time later.

AdventureWanted

Have just checked my bank account and sent £27 to CC2 and £1.08 to the EF.

Debts at 7/3/18-
CC1 - £0
CC2 - £4,800
CC3 - £10,580
CC4 - £12,480

Total debt - £27,860

EF - £827.42

jwil

Glad you had a nice day yesterday. Good thinking to focus on your debt target for this year and not worry about the overall total. If you can pay off £12.5k in a year, that's a massive result :T

savingholmes

Commiserations about the long hours without OH but hopefully it is an investment and will work out.

As you said - just focus on what you are doing to reduce debt. £12.5K reduction in a year will be an amazing amount - you should be proud.