Time to turn this around

FiscalPickle

Cherryfudge wrote: »

I agree with you about food prices going up. If you are able to 'stretch' meat etc a bit further with pulses/grains/veg/potatoes then perhaps you could cut costs that way. There are some lovely veggie recipes around though!

Thanks Cherry, that's a really good suggestion. I could put more kidney beans in the chilli, bulk out cottage pies with more veg and put cauliflower in curries. We also love chickpeas and butterbeans, always buy the value tins. Tonight is cottage pie, yum :-)

wishingthemortgaheaway

I made a lamb shepherds pie the other night with what can only be described as a megre handful of lamb mince, bulked out with veg, hubby still said it was delicious.

FiscalPickle

We had friends over for dinner this weekend, which came out of the shopping budget. It was a lot of fun, we really let our hair down. I had bellyache from laughter! It really shows that true enjoyment doesnt come from spending, if we had gone out for a meal I doubt the evening would have been half as good. It was great to do something like that, I feel like all Ive done is work work work recently.

@enthusiasticsaver, yes the plan once the debt is gone is to save a house deposit. Im planning to save £1,050 a month, 825 for the house and 100 to emergencies until there is 3 months salary cushion built up. The rest will go towards either an annual holiday or a couple of smaller trips.

FiscalPickle

We have a wedding reception to go to out of town on Saturday, I might offer to drive so Mr P can have a couple of drinks. That way he can buy my soft drinks and I'll save on Weight Watchers points as well as £.

Weight loss is coming down, although in minute increments. That's better than gaining I suppose, whilst still being able to have a life and some enjoyment.

I have 2 weeks leave from work coming up soon, no trip away planned so have been thinking of MSE friendly ways of relaxing whilst also achieving things at home:-
Declutter and sort some drawers/cupboards
Read library books
Netflix and DVDs
Walks if nice weather
Sort out garage
eBay any sellable clutter, tip or charity shop the rest
Salt some money away on payday for chalk paint, to finally upcycle 2 pieces of furniture

I am really looking forward to some time off, my last proper break from work was in August.
That lot should keep me busy and away from town and mindless spending.

FiscalPickle

According to my debt-busting spreadsheet, it will be 347 days until I've paid all CCs off, 497 days until the HSBC loan is cleared and 589 days until total Debt Freedom. That sounds quite depressing broken down that far, however if this year flies as quickly as last year did I'l be CC free before I know it.

I really don't want to sound like I'm wishing my life away, this debt free journey is turning into a painful yet valuable life-lesson, part of me just wants it over though. I was reading a lady's diary, she recently found out about her husband's monumental debt. It's really got me thinking about irresponsible lending, the financial industry doesn't seem to have learned its lesson since the credit crunch. The next balloon to go up will be numerous defaults on car PCPs, if that isn't happening already. Sometimes I worry for the world, it's frightening to see this (and many other) mistakes being repeated and lessons not being learned on a larger scale.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Can you break things down into shorter/smaller debts? Maybe how much you need to pay each day or something? I wouldn't cope with such big timescales.

Drawingaline

I feel I am constantly wishing my life away. Not just because of debt. Six more weeks until the next school holidays (my youngest hates school and it is an ongoing battle and I love the time off!) And the month is always one more week until the next lot of pay etc. But I think that is a little bit how we are as a society. Always wanting to be in the future, never in the moment. I am trying hard to be more present, hard when I am exhausted from work, thinking about finances constantly etc. But I think it is an important life lesson. This week my daughter asked to go to Brighton so she can do a more interesting photography project for school. It will be an extra tank of petrol, £60 less off debt etc, but actually it will be a lovely day out as a family and is a small price to pay for that kind of thing. (Obviously the weird boys request to holiday in the people's republic of Macedonia was squashed :rotfl: )

FiscalPickle

Drawingaline wrote: »

This week my daughter asked to go to Brighton so she can do a more interesting photography project for school. It will be an extra tank of petrol, £60 less off debt etc, but actually it will be a lovely day out as a family and is a small price to pay for that kind of thing. (Obviously the weird boys request to holiday in the people's republic of Macedonia was squashed :rotfl: )

That's a really good way of looking at things, there will be times when we have to do a trade-off, an experience like that vs a slightly longer time to pay the debt is worth it. Brighton is slightly more convenient than Macedonia :rotfl:

FiscalPickle

Pay day on Friday, which can't come soon enough. Unfortunately due to a couple of unexpected expenses cropping up I have gone into my overdraft. In good news, the other pots such as car insurance and maintenance, Christmas and birthday and October trip are starting to build up nicely. I'll rejig my expenses spreadsheet to cover the OD and the charges that it'll accrue, which is a pain but there it is.

Once in my overdraft, I felt my willpower slipping over the weekend, so I put my bank card away to a not easily accessible place. I saw a film where a shopaholic put her credit card in the freezer in a load of water, maybe I should do that. There was a scene where she wanted to buy something, so melted the block of ice with a hairdryer :rotfl:
My clothes spend for the year so far is £4.50, I needed a new work cardigan so used a £20 Monsoon reward voucher. The cardi was in the sale. This is so far unheard of for me.

I need to decide whether to set a little aside on payday either for chalk paint or walking boots. I'd like to do some hill walking whilst on leave, I think I'd get more out of hiking than fiddly furniture painting at the moment. I really hope weather improves, completely sick of cold, wind and rain. :mad:

Drawingaline

I want to do more walking. Especially as a family. No one else is keen :rotfl: