Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

jwil

Hope you had a nice weekend away, you are doing really well :T

AdventureWanted

Hi,

I've really been struggling recently with the whole debt/money situation. April was expensive - had house repairs that needed to be done and new bulbs for my car which were ridiculously expensive (the poor EF took a big hit ). Think it all got very stressful constantly thinking about the debts and my debt payment target I set myself. Anyway it's a new month now and I NEED to stop stressing about how high the debts are or how I'm not that far into my debt repayment target, and just concentrate on the things I can control like trying to keep the grocery bills to a more reasonable level.

DH needs to look for a new contract this summer, which will most probably involve him working away again. I've been lucky the last year that he's been home every night and earning good money. Hopefully it'll all work out for the best and he'll get a new offer for work quickly, as I don't like the stress of waiting. In the meantime it's quiet where he is working, so there's no work next week. I guess we're lucky that he'll only be losing 2 days pay and not a full week, but it'll mean having to make up extra days when the work picks up (which it hopefully will).

I have been contemplating giving up DC1 & DC2s swimming lessons, as they are pretty expensive and the last couple of weeks a few things have happened in the lesson which have raised my hackles a bit! I'm not 100% sure about stopping them though, as the DC do enjoy them (most of the time) and they do still need to improve their technique and stamina. They can both swim and are currently learning butterfly, which I'm not really that bothered about. I just want them to be strong swimmers. Neither of them have aspirations to swim for a club team, so at what point do you stop? Part of me wants to see them complete it all, but I'm not sure once they've done it that they'll ever do back-stroke lengths with tumble turns. As ever I am indecisive about what to do!

Anyway, back to the debt! I'll do the April round up below (once I've found out last months figures for comparison).

AdventureWanted

Total debt at 30/04/19
CC1 - £0
CC2 - £0
CC3- £1,338
CC4 - £10,660

Total debt - £11,998.
(Total debt at 31/3/19 - £12,783).

In May I'm due to pay £520 to CC3 and £130 to CC4. So I should pay CC3 in full by July, then I can up the amount being paid to other CCs.

DCs credit cards (for his course) currently stand at £10,189.60. The 0%s on this (made up of 3 cards) becomes due in March 2020, July 2020 and Sept 2020, all of which are before CC4 which ends in Oct 2020. I'll need to decide once CC3 has gone whether to start tackling CC4 or to tackle the 'business' debts.

Overall the debts are reducing and I should be content with that. If I don't manage to pay £15k off the debts this year like I had hoped, then in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, as long as I either finish paying the CCs before the 0%s end or balance transfer them. I think sometimes my desire (you could sometimes say obsession!) to clear the debts clouds my achievements and all I see is that the debts are still there. Something I definitely need to work on.

Starmummy

I think swimming is a really important skill. It's only when SC started lessons at 4 that I decided I wanted to learn properly too so I get lessons at the same pool, and as a hobby I really enjoy it.
SC is in the very last set at just 9 years old. She is a natural talent and wants to pursue this so joined the county team last year. If the children enjoy it I would encourage weekly family swims as it is good exercise. At the pool we do our lessons at you get unlimited public swims with the lessons DD. the twice a week we swim it's cheaper to pay the swimming DD than to pay per swim.

If the kids don't do lessons is there another hobby/sport they could try?

jwil

As long as the debt is going down each month then you are still making fab progress :T

Sorry April was tough, hope May is a little easier for you

AdventureWanted

Starmummy wrote: »

I think swimming is a really important skill. It's only when SC started lessons at 4 that I decided I wanted to learn properly too so I get lessons at the same pool, and as a hobby I really enjoy it.
SC is in the very last set at just 9 years old. She is a natural talent and wants to pursue this so joined the county team last year. If the children enjoy it I would encourage weekly family swims as it is good exercise. At the pool we do our lessons at you get unlimited public swims with the lessons DD. the twice a week we swim it's cheaper to pay the swimming DD than to pay per swim.

If the kids don't do lessons is there another hobby/sport they could try?

Hi Starmummy,
I'm not sure what levels Dc1&2 are currently at, as they are having private swimming lessons which just roll on. Think DC1 just needs to improve technique a bit, learn tumble turns whilst doing back stroke and improve stamina to get his 400m badge. DC2 has further to go, but won't progress to the next level as she won't try tumble turns. I don't blame her, I don't fancy doing them now as an adult and I definitely wouldn't have tried them at 6! She also needs to improve stamina to get her 300m and 400m badges and improve technique.

Spoke to my sister about it and she suggested swapping to a different swim school. Do you and starchild go to a swim school or have private lessons? The kids do enjoy swimming, so I think if we cancelled it we'd try and get a swimming membership somewhere or just hire a private pool. The cost of their lessons is expensive (but not bad for one to one lessons). Think the last lesson has made me wobble about it all. When the DC want to go to swimming lessons they swim brilliantly, it's just when they don't quite fancy it or if they get things wrong the teacher can be quite negative and sometimes a bit too jack the laddish. I think I'll see how next week goes before making any big decisions.

Not sure what other sports they would do if they didn't do swimming, as they both have tennis lessons and climbing lessons each week. Think I need to look at our groups/schedules and work out (with the DCs assistance) what they want to do going forward.

AdventureWanted

jwil wrote: »

As long as the debt is going down each month then you are still making fab progress :T

Sorry April was tough, hope May is a little easier for you

Thanks Jwil .

AdventureWanted

Gosh it's been a funny old day today... one minute glorious sunshine, then a huge hailstorm. It's absolutely freezing here tonight, so I've gone to bed early.

Have spent time today catching up on the DF diaries i subscribe to, although it'll take a while to complete. Need to make sure I get back in to the swing of logging in daily, as it is motivating seeing how people are getting on and it does rein in the spending. Last month we fell back in to the habit of having a coffee and cake whenever we went out, which is a really rubbish habit to have. Firstly it's too easy to spend £10 here and there without really thinking about it and secondly we don't need that much cake or snacks in general. My weight has been creeping up recently, so curbing the coffee/cake habit should help financially and with the waistline.

I've transferred money over to various savings accounts today, which I always enjoy doing. It's satisfying to see the pots grow each month and knowing that I should have enough money for renewals when they come round. The EF has had a small top up, but it'll take a while for it to fully recover from last month.

I've paid £8 to CC3 today, which rounds the balance down and £30 has gone to DHs CC. I've decided to list when we make payments to his CCs, as although they're not on my signature they're still being paid by us. Also it'll help me keep an eye on the true repayment figure we make in a year. I've been checking the CC spreadsheet today and playing around with figures to see how soon we might be able to pay off the debt. It'll be lovely when we are DF as I won't spend so much time thinking about paying debt, messing around with spreadsheets or obsessing over the CC balances!

AdventureWanted

Evening,

I've had a pretty good day today. Spent the morning blitzing the upstairs of the house. Picked everything up off of DC1 and DC2s bedrooms floors, hoovered thoroughly and then they both put their toys away. Tonight DC1s floor is clear for the first time in months - usually I have to dodge a car race which is laid out twice around the room when I check on him. DC2s is better than usual, but she still left the clothes she wore today on the floor! I also picked up all the junk stored in our bedroom, dumped it on the bed and then gave the room a really good hoover. Spent ages sorting through all the stuff, but have still got a long way to go. Cannot wait to get rid of the stored stuff in our room, as it's so depressing having a cluttered room you go in everyday. In fact the whole house is quite depressingly cluttered. One of the main questions I have when decluttering is what to do with the DCs old clothes. To store or not to store that is the question! At the moment I don't imagine we'll have any more kids, although it makes me really sad to think that so who knows! I've managed to list a few bits on gumtree tonight and hope to get some more done this week. Really need to pull my finger out and start to actually declutter, as it's been in the house too long and really does affect my mood. I'm sure one day I'll have enough and just take the lot to the charity shop. DH doesn't seem too bothered by the clutter, although DH doesn't seem to see any mess of any kind.

This afternoon we went to a local fete. The DC each got a balloon model, shared some candy floss and had a go on a ring toss game, so they were absolutely thrilled. Spent £9.50 whilst there & £1.70 on parking, so didn't do too badly considering the amount of stalls there were. We even resisted buying coffees out. Popped to the shops after for some more fruit and veg. Hoping to get away without another food shop for the rest of the week. Need to get back in to the swing of meal planning, as last month I stopped doing it and I'm pretty sure it's the reason my food bill was higher. Going to do a freezer inventory this week and use up some of the leftovers we have in there.

Spending this weekend hasn't been too bad. Saturday was a NSD and yesterday I spent £7.20 on a times table subscription for DC1&2, which is paid for from the home Ed subscriptions savings pot. Going to try and list my spending more on here, so that hopefully it'll discourage me to stop at coffee shops as often. It really is a terrible habit we have got back in to - not good for the purse or waistline!

jwil

Good luck with the decluttering, as you know, my DH doesn't notice it either!