Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

AdventureWanted

Been awol for a few days as we have had a busy few days celebrating DC3’s 1st birthday. Our day out to the zoo on Sunday ended up not being as expensive as we first thought, which was brilliant news. Managed to get half price entry so saved £25.

Transferred my monthly payments to various savings accounts today and I am really pleased with how much I have got saved. Emergency fund currently sits at £410. Only another £190 to put aside to reach my first target of £600.

When I first started out on my debt free wannabe journey I often wondered why people saved money rather than paying it all off debt, but I can see it now. Not only will it stop me relying on finance in the future, but it makes me feel really good to have been able to save money. When I pay off the debt it is great, but as the figures are still large and the debt still there it is often hard to fully see how much of a difference daily/monthly payments are making. I like looking at my account balances and seeing money there.

Have paid a small pad today of £4 to CC1. (£501 to pay off by Jan).

AdventureWanted

Paid £6 to CC1 today.

Had a quiet day at home today as DC3 isn’t feeling well. On the plus side I managed to put a couple of loads of clean washing away that I’ve been meaning to do for a few days and put another load of washing on. Also spent time with DC1 & DC2 whilst they were doing their maths and phonics.

Having been reading quite a few other debt free wannabe diaries I’ve decided to set a goal of number of NSDs each month. Hoping I can achieve 11 NSDs by the end of November. Today was my 1st NSD!

AdventureWanted

AdventureWanted wrote: »

Pad today of £2.14 to CC1. Is nice having the balance at a rounded number again.

CC1
0% ends Jan - £1,000.00
0% ends Jul - £3,120.00

Hoping to have the top figure in the low 600s by the end of November.

Going to spend the weekend looking through old clothes, furniture we no longer need, etc and listing them on gumtree and eBay. Any extra money made can go straight to debt. Also it will be nice to reduce the amount of junk in the house. Need to stop procrastinating and actually list bits.

Have been having a read through my diary to see how far I’ve come in a relatively short time. I came across this post from towards the middle of last month that I wrote and I am so pleased to see that I have smashed my £600 target.

Paid £15 off CC1 today, so balance is now:
0% due Jan - £480.00
0% due Jul - £3,120.00

Hoping to have the top bit all paid before Christmas. Going to keep plodding away making all additional overpayments to this card until it’s gone, as it’s by far the smallest balance. I’ve upped all of the CC dd’s to fixed amounts so hopefully the other balance will start being less scary figures soon. Can not wait for CC3 & CC4 to be below £10k and CC2 under £5k. Could kick myself (& hubby) for being stupid and running up the debt, but i know it wouldn’t help. Instead I am using that frustration to motivate me to get rid of the debt in as short a time as possible.

Hubby has been trying to do a few days overtime each month, but annoyingly he has had a couple of days work cancelled this week and next month he’ll miss 4 days work whilst we’re on holiday (booked pre-LBM). Hoping that he can do a bit of overtime so we are at least where we should be with number of days worked.

AdventureWanted

Have made small pads yesterday and today to CC1 totalling a whopping £5.44.

Debt round up @ 11/11/17
CC1 - £3,594.56
CC2 - £7,403.00
CC3 - £11,060.00
CC4 - £13,000.00

Total debt - £35,057.56

On Monday the dd for CC2 comes out, which I am really looking forward to, as it means our debt will be in the £34,000’s. Still will be high, but definitely moving in the right direction.

AdventureWanted

Have been reviewing our accounts today and last week some of DH’s extra hours have been paid, so have paid £123 off CC2 today.

DH has managed to work a couple of extra days, so this month there has been an additional 1 day worked (he took 2 days off for DC3 birthday). He’s planning on working another day next week and then changing his working days in Dec to hopefully accommodate our holiday without losing any days work. Think I’ll sit down with DH and look at his work schedule for the rest of the year and figure out when he’ll be working now. That way if he wants to do additional days we can hopefully try and fit them in around family life. As we home educate DC1&2 DH working a weekend doesn’t matter to us, in fact it’s better as any days out in the week will be quieter.

Debt at 12/11
CC1 - £3,594.56
CC2 - £7,280.00
CC3 - £11,060.00
CC4 - £13,000.00

Total debt - £34,934.56 - hooray we are in the £34000s.

Now to work on getting into the £33000s.

charlies_tribe

You are doing well, You will soon be off on those adventures!

I must admit with us both working weekends we would be able to do so much more with DS if the girls weren't in school too. Days out are so much quieter and easier when it isn't so busy.

We have just made it under the 30k (we had a similar amount to you) and it's a fantastic feeling watching each 1000 disappear.

AdventureWanted

Yesterday the dd for CC2 came out and I paid £1.56 off CC1 to round the balance down.

Sunday 12th - NSD (2nd of the month - aiming for 11)
Monday 13th - met my sister for lunch after DC3’s swimming lessons, so definitely wasn’t a no spend day. I seem to have spent quite a bit so far this month on lunch’s out or coffees, so need to keep an eye on this so I don’t go over our budgeted figures.

Currently don’t have any plans today, so hoping to have a NSD. I need to get fuel soon, but hoping I can last until tomorrow/Thurs, but will depend on if we head out today.

No off to check bank accounts to see if I can make a another small pad.

AdventureWanted

Just checked bank account and updated ynab. Have made a Pad of £3 to CC1.

Debt at 14/11/17
CC1 - £3,590.00
CC2 - £7,150.00
CC3 - £11,060.00
CC4 - £13,000.00

Total debt - £34,800.00 (Paid £363 so far this month)

AdventureWanted

14th Nov - NSD. Went to see my mum today, which was really lovely, although not overly relaxing, as DC3 is walking/climbing now and mums house is not overly child friendly. But still it was nice to see her and the kids loved spending time with her and playing outside with her 2 dogs.

DC1 has started his second phonics book in the kipper time chronicles series. I am so relieved about this. He has hated reading for so long & gets really anxious about it, so it’s been a long road to get him to a place where he actually asked if I could listen to him read a couple of pages. Fingers crossed his confidence will grow with each book we complete.

Today we are not leaving the house, so will be a NSD (4th this month). Yesterday wasn’t a great day for me. It can get overwhelming every now and then having 3 kids at home all the time, trying to keep our house remotely clean, getting DC1&2 to do their learning, trying to find time to finish the tax return I need to do for DH and generally keeping the kids happy all whilst being sleep deprived! Anyway, today I’ve woken up with renewed energy and although the house is still messier than I’d like it doesn’t irritate me quite so much today. Only job I need to do today house wise is cleaning the kitchen, as we’ve got the boiler people coming out tomorrow and i need the worktops clear so they can get to it easily (and so we don’t look like slobs!)

I’ve paid £5 to CC1 today, so the balance is reducing nicely. Only £465 left to pay on the 0% element due in jan.

AdventureWanted

Today has been the 5th NSD this month! :j I managed to resist the cafe after the kids swimming lessons, which with two kids pestering was a miracle. DH had the day off today, which has been brilliant. He stayed at home doing diy whilst I took the kids to their climbing and swimming lessons. Whilst we were out he managed to do lots of work in the garden, as well as fitting the kick boards in our kitchen, which I’m really pleased about. Not only does it looks loads better, but we won’t be constantly losing bits under our middle island.

When we arrived home DH looked after the DC so I could finally finish the tax return I’ve been wanting to finish for ages. The tax figure so far is less than I anticipated, so I’m hoping that once I get confirmation of the balance to pay in January that I’ll be able to use some of the money I’ve got set aside from CC4s money transfer (for tax payment) to pay off CC2. Obviously it won’t pay off CC2, but any reduction will be a bonus.

In financial news our mortgage payment has increased by just over £5 this month. Not huge sums, but is irritating as we haven’t had any letters saying the amount will be increasing. A small part of our mortgage is on a variable rate (c.£3.5k), so we were expecting an increase, but thought we’d have a warning. We’ve also changed our mortgage fixed rate, but that isn’t due to kick in until December, so presume the increase is down to the increase in interest rates.

I rounded down my bank account this evening and paid 57p off CC1. It hardly seems worth it in one respect, although it is nice seeing the figure reducing.

Tomorrow will not be a NSD as we need to get fuel and a few groceries. I’ve got a 10p a litre off fuel coupon to use, but will still be expensive to fill the tank up. Have got £78 left in my fuel budget for the month, so I’m really hoping DH won’t need to top his car up in the next couple of weeks, as I imagine I’ll use all of that tomorrow.
Groceries this month seems to be high. Only have £41 left in my £300 budget, but I had hoped to be able to keep at £280 this month. I haven’t been meal planning for the last couple of weeks, so need to get back to this to stop overspending next month.

DH and I have been discussing our Christmas meal. I was contemplating buying the £45 musclefoods christmas turkey pack, which we bought last year, but after talking to my mum I’ve decided to just buy a chicken like I would for a roast dinner. Not sure why I feel the need to buy such an extravagant meal when the DC would be happy with a roast dinner and there is only 5 of us eating it. So I’ll make a normal roast chicken dinner, but will buy sausages and bacon for sausages in blankets, and might try any find a good recipe for stuffing. Hoping that this change will mean the grocery budget for December won’t be ridiculously high.