2018 New year, new focus and new mission

Choccygirl123

Had a lovely weekend but paying the price today. Dosed up on tramadol and morphine. Both the children were away busy on Saturday night, so hubby and I met friends for an hour. We nipped to our local and had a kebab on the way home. We spent £22 and I felt like I had a life again!

Had some amazing news from about my pip claim. They've adwarded me the higher rate mobility and lower care. I should receive a letter in the next couple of days, but there's a back payment of £2700 will be paid tomorrow, then next payment 6th June and will be every 4 weeks.

After months of financial worry and stress I feel like a weight has been lifted. I'm trying to focus on the fact it's been a wake up call and it's made me get a grip on our finances.

I'm going to have a look at our budget, pots before deciding what to do. Both cars are due for a service mine at dealers and hubby's at local independent garage. Think will put this cash to one side. My youngest daughter is desperate for a chest of drawers for bedroom. She's currently has her small in baskets on a bookcase which isn't ideal. I think I'm going to buy a new one for her, but won't buy a flat pack type as fed up with them not lasting two minutes.

The rest of the cash I'm going to put towards clearing the credit card. I'm not sure if I should pay it off straight away or put it in our EF until the 0% deal finishes. Will speak to hubby and see what he thinks. If I used some of my EF we could clear it all, but I think that's a bad idea.

teafor2

Oh Wow CG, that's amazing news, I'm so happy for you. :j

What with the tramadol, morphine and the good news you must be on a definite high today :rotfl:

I would definitely buy the set of drawers for your DD. And I may also slip in a small treat for the DC's and hubby - it's obvious they've all been amazing over the past few months

I'd maybe hang onto the EF, at least until the 0% interest has finished, just in case something crops up. By then you may have more in the EF and feel paying off what's owed is the better option. On the other hand I know first hand what finally getting rid of a credit card feels like.

Doing a little internal jig here on your behalf. It's fantastic. xx

Choccygirl123

Ahhh thanks tea, I'm still in shock. As you know it's been a bumpy few months for us. I know you're right about EF as amazing as it would be to clear it all now, we need the EF.

I rang hubby and he said pay a huge chunk off the CC and get the drawers for little one. We've been putting it off for months as the ones that match the He said don't worry about car servicing as we've budgeted that out of his pay.

Choccygirl123

Ahhhh stupid fat fingers*^ pressend it abd it posted and cant edit!

We've been putting off buying her drawers for months as never had the cash 'spare' I'd like to get the matching ones to her bed, beside drawers and desk. They're not cheap at £350 but I know they'll last her and she can take them when she leaves home. Going to call the Cotswold Company today to see if I can get the price down a little.

Choccygirl123

I think I'm still in shock after the phone call this. I've spent the day in bed with the pain and a monster headache. I'm going to call the furniture company later and see if there's any way they can discount the drawers.

Going to have a cheaper leftover dinner - cold bbq sausages with pasta/pesto and the Greek salad. Normally we'd eat sausages as snacks but need to focus on making the most out of food. Hoping it'll help me lose weight and keep food cost down. Going to look on the forum for cheapie meal ideas.

I've checked my credit score and it remins the same, so all good. Checking our mortgage accounts was a fab surprise too.

Our house - £39,991
BTL - £99,605

Great to see both down into the next bracket. They get paid and we don't really think about them. Both on long fixed deals. My long term plan is to smash the cc, then loans and eventually onto clearing the mortgages.

Choccygirl123

After a chat last night hubby and I decided to send £2k off our credit card....which I've done this morning. I ordered DD2 chest of drawers (£350) which are really expensive as no money off codes. They match her exsisting furniture that we bought 3 years ago and they'll last for ever as solid wood.

The pip back payment has been a miracle, but I want to ensure that we keep budgeting, meal planning and saving into our pots. It's been really a stressful time but it's given me the wake up call to get rid of our debts once and for all. As soon as credit card is paid off I'm going to focus on the smaller zopa loan and will use my rounded up min pay from CC and more to tackle that.

Zopa 1 - £7900.13 (£197.50 per month)
Zopa 2 - £3292.48 (£99.80 per month)
0% CC - £700 (rounded up min payment £100due 28th)
Total debt £11892.61 :j looking forward to seeing this under 10j

Savings
EF - £1520.03

teafor2

Morning CG £2k is a great amount to pay off the CC :T Shame about there being no discount code for the furniture, but if the drawers are something you and DD are going to be really happy with it's money well spent.

Staying motivated and on track with budgeting is hard but those figures are looking really good and if you give yourself £500 or £1k debt busting targets that might keep it interesting. No doubt there will be a few blips along the way, but that's just life isn't it. You've done really well so far and I can only see it getting better when you return to work.

Hope you're feeling a bit better today. Have a nice day. xx

Choccygirl123

Thanks tea, it's a huge amount to pay off in one chunk and I'm still in shock. I must have checked the online bank and Cc accounts to see if it's paid yet.

The drawers are something we've been hoping to buy for the last 3years. DD2 hasn't complained, but I know it'll give her some much more storage and bit of extra space.

Setting mini debt busting targets is a great idea. I keep thinking having no cleaner is going to save me £700 over 50 weeks! Reason not to find a new one!

I've been watching batch lady last day or so got done new easy (and quick) meal planning and food prep. It's a great idea, but think I'll have to invest in more food bags and storage containers before getting 5kgs chicken from the butchers.

Choccygirl123

Hubby missed the butchers last night, so it's going to nip tonight. I made a huge list and £115 later in Aldi had a huge trolley full. I'm going to try and use the batch lady technique to prep and freeze meals all in one day. It'll make 14 x 4 portions of meals at least, which will see you to the end of the month. It means we'll have spent the full £145 this week. Giving it a go to see how it works out as I think it'll save money in the long run.

I've got down to one load of washing in my basket, which I'll stick on when I brave going downstairs. The pile of mountain is crazy, so I made a start yesterday. Will hopefully manage to blitz this over the next few days.

Choccygirl123

Productive day spent 3 hours tidying up the freezer. After watching a gmtv thing I've removed all the random things out of the bags and boxes. All now neatly labelled, frozen flat and air removed. It's amazing how much space a bag of onion rings can take up!

I made huge batch of tomato base sauce for chilli, lasagne and spag bol. Found loads of random things like 1/2 bag kidney beans etc which have now all been bagged together in true batch lady style.

Hubby spent £50 in the butchers (ouch) and has to go back to collect stewing beef today. He did buy a bbq pack as a treat for weekend, 5kgs chicken breast, 2kgs extra lean mince.

I made 8 portions chicken breast with spinach and ricotta wrapped in Parma ham. It was amazing with some new spuds and carrots last night. 4 breast in the freezer, but all agreed chicken breasts too big and 2 breasts with stack of veg enough!

Bagged up 8 portions creamy garlic chicken, 10 portions beef stroganoff, 6 portions chilli, 6 portions spag bol, 8 portions bride's chicken, 6 medium pizza Tom Sauce, 12 portions Tom sauce base. I've frozen the rest of the chicken breasts carefully so they don't stick together.

I've completed a full inventory and planned meals with the other fish and meat. With only a little shopping to bulk out (potatoes and more veg) there's over 100 meals. I finally feel in control of my meal planning. The budget has been blown this week £165 (instead of £150 for fortnight) but we're prepped and organised with about 6hours research on batch lady website and bagging up/cooking.

My plan is use the freezer supplies for rest of the month and we'll only need odd veg to bulk out meals, fruit and sandwich bits. My DD is away for few days on a residential trip, so that'll save me a few £.