Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

Pauper1

You're doing so well! I think it helps to focus on what you've paid off, not what's left to go

AdventureWanted

Thanks Pauper1. I think half my problem is that I'm really impatient! I want the debt gone now!! Obviously this is not going to happen, so concentrating on targets is what I should be doing.

The dd for CC3 has come out today (£120) and I've paid £8 to CC2 (wanted to have a nice round figure!).

Had a migraine coming on last night and still feel a bit woozy today (well, maybe not woozy, but not quite right). Need to increase the amount of water I am drinking and reduce the amount of coffee. I don't drink loads of coffee, only 2-3 cups, but at the moment I don't think it's helping my body. Have also decided that from april im going to try and go sugar free. The amount of chocolate & sweets I seem to be craving and then consuming at the moment is ridiculous. It isn't good for our budget and definitely not for my waistline. So from 1 April I will be trying hard to cut out all sugary snacks. I'm really hoping it will help my mood and make my jeans that little bit less snug!

One-step-at-a-time

You're doing really well!

I know what you mean, though - I swing between 'we've totally got this' and a gaping chasm of doom when I actually think about the numbers, and get hugely impatient if more than a couple of days go by when I can't make a payment towards the debt. I just have to think about how far we've come, from increasing the debt at a rate of thousands per year to doing a compete U-turn. I am determined that it will be paid off a lot faster than it was accumulated.

jwil

I'm impatient too, it's so frustrating seeing them come down so slowly. You are doing really well though!

AdventureWanted

Thank you all for your kind words. I'm having a very quiet day at home today. Got a dull headache which doesn't seem to want to go, so am going to put a film on in a bit for the kids and sit down with a large glass of water.

I've been reviewing ynab today and preparing my budget for April. I've worked out how much we should be able to pay off the CC's next month, but that is dependent on not overspending on things. I won't have a backup of additional hours worked by DH next month, as he'll be on his course. I need to start selling a few bits and bobs. I've had a pile of school uniform to sell for well over a year, as well as slimming world books I haven't looked at in years. Hopefully they should sell fairly easily on Facebook or gumtree. I'm going to make extra effort to use part of DHs day off next week to sort through some of the junk pile upstairs and take photos of items to sell as I go along. I really need to either sell it, chuck it or charity shop it. Will be nice to have an uncluttered hallway for once.

jwil

Hope you are feeling better x

Storm89

AW I'm the same . One step at a time explains exactly that mixture of emotions haha one day you are excited it's going down then the next you realise the actual figure. This usually happens once I've paid that months £500 off the debt then I'm gutted I have to wait a whole month to do it again.
We're all in the same boat thankfully!

AdventureWanted

I am feeling better now thanks Jwil. Definitely think too much caffeine causes my headaches. DC3 has been sleeping a lot better the last couple of nights, which has been amazing.

DH bought the decking for the garden yesterday and we have paid to have our living room carpet replaced. I have no idea why we thought a really light beige would be a good colour. It is so stained and no matter how much I scrub it, it never looks good! Really looking forward to having it replaced, although it means clearing the whole room before Saturday morning! We went £100 over our budgeted figure, so have used DHs additional pay to top it up. Really need to make sure we build up a home improvement fund for the odd diy purchase we seem to make. Fed up with borrowing money from one category to pay for another or relying on DH doing extra hours.

Today I've paid £45 to CC2. Need to sit down and work out the budget for April. I think money is going to be tight next month.

Pay day tomorrow!! Looking forward to my month end summary.

Things to do:
1. Budget for April
2. Home insurance quotes (due for renewal 16/4)
3. Business accounts work
4. Start to box up books/toys ready for carpet to be laid Saturday morning.

AdventureWanted

Storm89 wrote: »

AW I'm the same . One step at a time explains exactly that mixture of emotions haha one day you are excited it's going down then the next you realise the actual figure. This usually happens once I've paid that months £500 off the debt then I'm gutted I have to wait a whole month to do it again.
We're all in the same boat thankfully!

Thanks Storm, it's good to know we're all in the same boat and I'm not on my own

AdventureWanted

Pay day today - hooray!! I paid my regular £325 to CC2 and then on checking the balances have paid an extra £20 to take me to 35% of my debt repayment goal being paid. Also paid £200 to the EF.

Debt as at 29/3/18
CC1 - £0
CC2 - £3,495
CC3 - £10,460
CC4 - £12,350

Total debt at 29/3/18 - £26,305
Total debt at 27/2/18 = £27,920

Have paid £4,375.60 so far this year towards my £12,500 debt repayment target (35%).

Emergency Fund at 29/3/18 - £1,031.50 :j Really pleased this is over £1k. I think I will keep going with the £200 a month for the time being and go for my next target of £2.5k. If money gets too tight one month I can always reduce the months payment figure down a bit.