Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

jwil

Happy Birthday to DC1 :bdaycake:

AdventureWanted

Thanks Jwil.

DC1 had a brilliant birthday yesterday. We bought him a secondhand remote control car, which he absolutely loves. It brings back so many memories from my childhood of us all taking turns racing a remote control car and making jumps for it to go over. Hopefully it'll bring him many years of joy. Went to the zoo yesterday, which was a good day out. Nipped to the supermarket first to buy bits for a picnic and smoothies for the kids to drink. The smoothies were a good buy, as a pack of 4 cost the same as a single smoothie carton at the zoo!

Today I've paid £201 to CC3, which takes the balance to £999!! It feels pretty good to get the balance under £1k.

AdventureWanted

Morning,

The bank accounts have all been checked and ynab updated. Have rounded down my account and sent £8 to CC3 and 20p to debt savings.

We've got forest school today - am looking forward to the relaxation that comes with being in the woods.

Hope everyone has a good day.

jwil

Well done on being under £1k on that card :T :T

abba1772

Woo hoo to the card being under £1k xx

brizzlegirl

Just popping in to say well done

AdventureWanted

Thanks Jwil, Abba and Brizzle .

It's been a busy few days getting ready for DC1s birthday party yesterday, as well as ferrying the kids to groups and parties. DC1s party was a success. Was a fairly cheap affair, with a few friends and their parents coming over for some cake and a play. Weather was glorious and the kids all played lovely, so was fairly relaxing for me! Before the party we bought a fairly cheap pop up gazebo for the garden to provide some shade for the kids. Was on sale in Argos, which I'm pleased about as have been looking at getting one for a while. The gazebo will be useful this summer (as long as the weather is nice!) and will allow the DC to do more arts/crafts, projects outside in the shade rather than up the table.

I paid £14 off CC3 a couple of days ago and today have paid £27 off CC3. Balance is now £950 - so excited that it's getting closer to being closed. Really hoping to clear it next month. Had the statement through yesterday and the amount of credit available is pretty shocking! Theyve been gradually increasing the credit limit, which for CC3 is now at £16,000 :eek:. When I last checked our credit report the available credit was about £60k, which is a really disgusting figure! No wonder people manage to get themselves in a pickle when so much money is easily available.

We've had some good news about DHs work - he's been given work for the next couple of weeks when he originally had been told there wasn't any, which means he shouldn't be down any days in June. It's a real relief as we had been looking at trying to find temporary work to cover 12 days.

abba1772

That's great news about hubby's work xx

jwil

Great news about the work x

AdventureWanted

Morning :wave:

My usual bank checking and ynab updating has just been completed. Have rounded down the bank account quite a bit and sent £37 to CC3 and 24p to debt savings.

Spent ages yesterday going through my credit card spreadsheet and savings spreadsheet. Showed DH it, as he rarely gets involved in the finances (other than spending!!). I'm really pleased with our monthly savings. These are savings for insurances, home Ed subscriptions, etc rather than actual 'real' savings. We are definitely in a much better place financially than before we started this diary. It's amazing how much my mindset has changed, and whilst I do still have to rein myself in at times and talk myself out of just splurging on stuff, I do have a real desire to save more. At the moment I've been so fixed on getting rid of CC3, that all spare cash has gone there, which means I still haven't replenished my EF back to where it was. I'm really not sure whether to slow down the debt repayment very slightly and increase the EF or just carry on. The EF is currently £1,334 so there is money available if needed, but ideally I'd have it at a minimum of £2,500. Well eventually I'd want a months wage for myself and DH in savings just in case. Might have another look at the spreadsheet and see how reducing the payments slightly would change the DFD.

Our mortgage is due for renewal this October, so I need to be aware of debt levels and try and reduce them to make our finances look better. I'd quite like to get rid of the small variable rate part of our mortgage at some point too. I'm not sure why it bothers me so much, maybe because it's not neatly included in the large mortgage figure or maybe it's that it's interest rate is higher. Anyway I may try and divert some money at some point to pay off more of this. The balance is £2,655.42 so in theory if I tried hard to get rid of it (paying this and going to much lower figures on the CCs) I could get rid of it fairly quickly. Just not sure if I'm worrying about things unnecessarily. I think there are so many things that I want to do that I often get confused what to do first and don't really have enough cash to do it all! Once DF it'll be lovely to see the savings grow, just wish we had more of a safety net now.

Sorry that was a HUGE ramble! We've got a quiet day at home today, which I'm really looking forward to. It's really rare to not have groups to go to. Weather is pretty grim, but the rain sounds lovely battering the windows.

Hope everyone has a good day.