Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

AdventureWanted

Doodles152 wrote: »

Have just read through your diary.


Well done on your debt payments, keep going you are doing amazing.


Have subscribed to keep cheering you on

Hi :wave:

Thanks for reading and subscribing to my thread . It's nice having people on the debt journey with me.

AdventureWanted

Thanks Jwil and charliedavis. I'm going to try hard to get to the £15k target I set myself.

This evening a piece of furniture we had sold was finally collected, so that's another £20 added to the pot. Should have someone collecting some books tomorrow, which will be another small amount of money (£4).

DH put the Christmas tree up this evening, so the house is looking pretty. I think the house is lacking in decorations, so might make some paper chains with the kids this weekend. I bought some stocking fillers and gifts earlier today, but think I may need to return some of the stocking fillers as it ended up being a lot more expensive than I had thought it would be. I really struggle with stocking fillers and end up spending lots to fill the stocking. When we were growing up we used to have a much smaller stocking (my dad's football sock!) than the ones you buy now, so you never used to get loads in it. We were never disappointed with the orange, magic tree and few toys in there. Think I need to rethink the stocking and what I actually want/need to include. I don't even include an orange in my DCs!

jwil

In our stockings we put an orange, choc coins, a couple of small toys, novelty bubble bath (or similar) and a new toothbrush. They don't have huge stockings and get the rest of their presents downstairs. They still like them!

AdventureWanted

I think mine would be happy with that too. I think I'm the one with the problem!! I really struggle to rein myself in at times and not go nuts. This year I think I've been lots better with present buying, but then have slipped with stocking fillers. I need to write a list of what has been bought and see whether anything needs to be held back for birthdays, as I really don't want to over indulge them all. Also we really don't need loads more stuff in the house. Not sure why I always feel that they need lots to open. It's a habit I need to get out of. Maybe I'll count how many gifts this year, as well as amount of money spent and try and reduce it next year by £20. I don't want them to grow up expecting lots and not being appreciative of gifts. I am from a large family and we always had lots of gifts so it seems the norm to have lots, which isn't great. I remember last year DH was mortified by the amount of stuff under the tree, whereas for me it seemed normal. It's definitely an area that I need to work on and be a lot more mse in.

AdventureWanted

Just paid £25 off CC3. I'm inching closer to the £5k mark on that card. Will be nice to start 2019 with this balance being under £5k.

Have been thinking about my goals for next year. Need to finalise them this month, but at the moment I'm thinking:

1. Pay £15,000 off debt.
2. Increase EF to £5,000.

Dont want to over stretch myself too much, so am contemplating splitting them into quarterly targets or mini goals. It definitely Spurs me on to have something to aim for, but need to remember not to throw everything at it leaving us short.

AdventureWanted

Morning,

The dd for CC4 came out today, so that's £130 less debt we have today than yesterday .

DC1&2s climbing club payments are due today, so need to remember to fill in the termly insurance forms and send them off. I need to amend the amount saved each month for climbing going forward, as DC1 is moving up to a different group, which is more expensive :eek:. Will be able to borrow the additional needed from their subscriptions pot, but going forward will need to add a bit more in. It's not a huge problem, but will mean having to either reduce the debt payments slightly (£30ish) or trying to save it elsewhere.

jwil

Well done on the repayment. It's frustrating when things just go up in price

enthusiasticsaver

In our family we have never gone for loads under the tree even when our kids were small and thankfully our DD who has 2 small children is the same. It is better to have a few well thought out gifts which will get a lot of use than quite frankly loads of tat. Similarly giving large expensive gifts at Xmas was never our thing. Some of their friends were getting TVs etc but beyond getting the, bikes when they were younger (bought on a budget and saved for) and laptops when they were older everything large was bought by them sometimes with us giving some money towards it. I even know someone who bought their daughter a car for Xmas. I don't know when it became a thing to have mountains of presents for kids even if you could afford it. I am with your DH on feeling it is just a bit over the top.

AdventureWanted

I think I'm going to have another look through the presents and double check amounts spent for each DC. I'm 99% sure I'm within budget, although maybe I should have a number of presents limit as well as price. Most of the gifts they've got were bought on sale, so they've had more presents for the same cost. I definitely need to reduce the amount of things they get each year, as I don't want them to end up with too much stuff when they're older and have families of their own.

Today I've paid £25 to cc3. Next year I'm planning on slowing down the debt repayments slightly in the first part of the year so that I can build up the EF and business EF.

AdventureWanted

Morning,

I've been repaid £30 for some gifts I'd bought for someone else, so have transferred that to CC3.

Next week I should hopefully receive the £26 refund for climbing lessons which were cancelled this term. Not 100% it'll happen before Christmas, but it'll be good if it does. Have added it to ynab, so that I don't forget to chase it up if it doesn't arrive!

Today DC1&2 have got climbing and swimming lessons, so we'll be out and about for a lot of the day. Although not sure if Dc2 will participate, as she wasn't feeling great yesterday.

I'm going to search online later for some nice vegetarian/keto recipes. Getting a bit fed up with our usual dinners and really want to eat better than we currently do. (Not that we eat badly, but we do need to all up our fruit and veg consumption). I've put on about half a stone in the last month and I really want to shift it. Hoping that finding some nicer things to have for lunch (not sandwiches!) and more vegetable based dinners will help.

I need to continue having a search in our house for a missing Christmas present. I'm so annoyed that I can't find something I've bought for my cousins child. It has vanished and I just can't think where it could be. Need to find it, as its clothes and if I don't give them then they'll be useless, as the baby will have outgrown them before their birthday and I don't have any other babies to gift it to.

Anyway, best get on. Hope everyone has a good day.