Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

AdventureWanted

Just had an email saying DH's latest Noddle report is available, but the info for the MBNA credit card (CC2) hasn't been updated since June :sad:. Was really looking forward to seeing a healthier credit score (not that it's bad by any stretch - is currently 'fair'). No idea when they update the cards. Some have been updated in July, but not others. Not sure if they're updated quarterly or every other month... Really determined to reduce our debt as much as possible. I've listed a few more bits over the last couple of days, but so far no interest.

jwil

They seem to update so randomly, it's quite frustrating!

AdventureWanted

Visited my mum yesterday, which we all enjoyed. My parents live in the countryside with field views and DC3 thought it was brilliant yesterday watching the hay bales being collected by the tractors. The DC spent ages playing with the dogs, which used up a lot of their unused energy. I would love to get a dog in the future, but at the moment my parents dogs work as a very good substitute! Was discussing my parents retirement plans with my mum & it really has made me determined to be more financially secure ready for retirement (I know I have years to worry about this!). It's quite worrying speaking to my mum about their finances, as they are currently on a self managed DMP and my dad (who still works 4 days a week & manages the finances) spends money like it's water (he suffers with lots of pain post radiotherapy and depression and spends to improve his mood). I wish we were in a better financial position to be able to help them, but at the moment we can't. All I can do is be a sounding board for my mum, but it's hard to hear especially when you can't solve the problems. Not really sure there's an answer, but it's nice to offload it.

Anyway, yesterday I paid £8 to CC3 and 87p to debt savings. Today's pad is £42 to CC3, which takes the balance to £8,700. DH should get paid extra this month, so I'm hoping we might be able to get this balance under £8k by the end of the month. Still have the dd and my monthly SO on payday to be paid to it, so hoping it's doable.

jwil

It's good that you can talk to your Mum, support is as important as anything.

AdventureWanted

Thanks Jwil.

Yesterday I had a busy day. DC1&2 had swimming lessons and then a friend & her kids came over in the afternoon. Was really lovely to have adult company! With DH working away so much at the moment I spend 99% of the time just with children! Had a good chat with my friend and feel better for it. Yesterday I paid £3 to CC3.

Today the kids have got tennis lessons and at the moment the weather looks pretty good for it. DH has been paid for his extra hours, so we've managed to pay £175 to CC3 today. Total debt is now £20,222. Sooo close to the £19k's now .

abba1772

Go you nearly into the £19k well done xx

Rachel24

That is fantastic. Soon be into the teens!!

jwil

You'll be there in no time :T

AdventureWanted

Thanks Abba, Rachel24 & Jwil. Today I've managed to sell a baby carrier on gumtree for £25. Really pleased as we've had it for years (were given it for free!) but only used it a couple of times with DC1. Went to our nearest city today and bought DC1&2 the bears from build a bear that I'd promised them last month when the pay your age day fiasco happened. Only cost £1.50 more than it would have done on that day, as we had a £12 off voucher for each child. Luckily the money made today covers the bears, parking, library fines I had to pay (whoops!) and still a bit of cash spare .

Have paid £2 to CC3 so that it is back to a nice round figure. I've updated my credit card spreadsheet and am pretty optimistic about how things are going. The spreadsheet includes DHs business course CCs and whilst the figures all in are high (£32k :eek:) they aren't too dissimilar to where we started our debt journey with personal debt only. It's all seeming pretty doable, although I know it's still realistically going to take a couple of years to clear it.

After looking at the spreadsheet, I've been reviewing my goals for the year and have decided to amend my debt goal from being under £18k to being under £17k. (This doesn't include DHs business debt).

Revised 2018 Goals
1) Get EF to £3,800.
2) Get debt to Under £17,000 by the end of the year.

The EF I'm not sure about. It'll depend on the car expenses. At the moment my car is booked in Thursday to be repaired, but for the last few days the warning message has disappeared. I need to call the garage up Monday (actually I'm going to get DH to do this!) and hopefully cancel the repair work. Hoping it was a faulty connection, but not really too sure if Volvo cleared the message and the problem still needs fixing (boo!), or if the problem has been delayed temporarily. If it needs repairing the EF will be down by £600ish (down to £2200), so not sure it'd be possible to get EF to £3800 and reduce the debt level to where I want to be. Either way I'll give it a good go and DH has agreed to try and do a few extra days work a month to help with costs.

AdventureWanted

Sold a dress on eBay yesterday for £4 + postage and should be having someone collect some unused rolls of wallpaper I'm selling on gumtree tomorrow (if they turn up!). If it sells tomorrow that means I've sold £42 worth of unused stuff in the last week . Need to continue this and reduce the amount of junk in the house & garage!

Had a family bbq today, which was brilliant and tiring all at once! The DC spent the day playing with their cousins so they were very happy. Really love family days. Unfortunately DH has gone back to work again tonight, so we won't see him until Friday. Hopefully there is only 2 more weeks of him working away. Will be so lovely having him home every night.

Money wise I've sent £4 to CC3 today. Have looked at ynab and I've got a random figure in one of the categories. No idea why it's the amount it is or what it relates to. I'm hoping that it may be extra money that I put in the category to spend all the available funds. Is all very intriguing! If only I didn't have a brain like a sieve at times and I could remember doing it!