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Puddleduck's Adventures

Well hello there.

Little background to my story.

We have not been in debt for about 10 years. We saved and had a nice life.
We decided to sell our home and buy an older house in a more rural area, this is where the problems started!

All our savings and now our massive debt has all been to renovate this house. SO much more than anticipated!! In fact if we had known there was so much work here we probably wouldn't have bought this house.
The house is finished and it's lovely, everything is new ( house was gutted and inside rebuilt). So we don't have to worry about anymore building work for (hopefully) a long time. I will go into the amount of debt in the next post later on. This house is a lot bigger and we can't really justify buying nice things whilst the debt is so big. So it still doesn't feel like a welcoming family home.

So just to end, this renovation has crippled us and we are both in the mind set to sort it out quickly as we both in our 40s. I'm here to keep strong and to be influenced by you lovely people.

More to follow later on this evening.

Puddle
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Comments

  • beanielou
    beanielou Posts: 94,049 Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Academoney Grad Mortgage-free Glee!
    Happy shiny new diary :)
    I am a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on Mortgage Free Wannabe & Local Money Saving Scotland & Disability Money Matters. If you need any help on those boards, do let me know.Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any post you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button , or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own & not the official line of Money Saving Expert.

    Lou~ Debt free Wanabe No 55 DF 03/14.**Credit card debt free 30/06/10~** MFW. Finally mortgage free O2/ 2021****
    "A large income is the best recipe for happiness I ever heard of" Jane Austen in Mansfield Park.

    ***Fall down seven times,stand up eight*** ~~Japanese proverb.
    ***Keep plodding*** Out of debt, out of danger. ***Be the difference.***
    One debt remaining. Home improvement loan.
  • puddle_duck1
    puddle_duck1 Posts: 37 Forumite
    edited 27 August 2018 am31 7:36AM
    Beanie Thank you xx

    OK so debt is as follows:-

    (£21,150 3% tesco bank (£335 a month) THIS IS AN EXTENSION OF THE MORTGAGE SO WILL GO ON THE MORTGAGE DEBT.

    £7,192 3% Zopa (£133 a month)
    £4,800 parent loan (£200 a month)
    £1,350 overdraft
    We have no credit cards
    Total = £10,642

    Wow that's huge!!

    So that's £718 a month on debt. Forgot to say we also go into our overdraft last month it was £1,350 .
    Will add to the total now.

    Income into house on a typical month is £3,666
    All direct debits come to £1941 that's all loans, gas, electricity, BT, mortgage etc
    Petrol £200ish (2 cars)
    Groceries £300 (is this high for adults and 1 child?)
    The rest is ?? Started to write down everything we spend on day to day.

    I take lunch to work (I'm too lazy to wait in the queue to buy something, I only get 30 mins)
    Little one has school dinners £11 a week
    DH tries to take lunch but fails sometimes.

    Sorry if I'm rambling and this is a little all over the place. I'm typing as I remember things.

    I have just looked at the overdraft and we knocked £300 off it this month. We also had lots of annual bills in January (my car tax, carinsurance, professional 6 month money) all that came to £400! So that would have been £700 off the overdraft if we didn't pay those!

    We also need furniture, pictures, nice things to make this house look and feel like a home.

    Gosh I'm tired now......
  • Hello, happy new diary!

    I would recommend that alongside paying off your debts you start an emergency fund aiming for around £1,000 as soon as possible. This should help in case of unexpected emergencies and stop you from getting deeper into debt. Mine isn't anywhere near £1,000 but has already proved itself to be useful when I needed new tyres.
    Are your parents willing to pause debt repayments while you get everything else a little more manageable? That overdraft wants paying ASAP.

    Definitely, write down everything you spend over the next month or so and highlight it as an essential or non-essential spend (I find that this helps me to stop spending as I don't want to admit to myself I keep buying non-essentials!). Once you have a clearer picture of all your spending, create an SOA (http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php) from which I'm sure lots of lovely people here will help you to find ways to cut back.

    Keep up the debt-busting :)
    LBM: October 2016: £20,130 / Current: May 2019: £12,576 37.53%
    DFD: [STRIKE]February 2024[/STRIKE] April 2022?
  • Happy new diary puddle duck, I know what you mean about the house thing. I always describe ours as 'fur coat, no knickers' as it looks lovely from the outside but inside has a long way to go.
  • Thank you guys for your replies.
    Yes we need an emergency fund which we will concentrate on once the overdraft has gone. It should be gone in the next 2/3 months. Myself and DH have sat down and we are both totally on board with this. We have already taken £700 off the overdraft.
    I have told myself to only buy small things for the house to make it homely until we have a little more leway. So I bought a potted plant for £3.50.

    Have been catching up on general cleaning and tidying the last couple of days. I have a couple of days off work and enjoying the time to regroup.

    Just looked at our tesco loan and it's actually £20,373 so I'm pleased with that.

    I have been doing well on prolific surveys and waiting to do a few more to get me to £100 then that can go on the Zopa loan I think. Been putting money in my piggy bank since new year and now have £26ish in there. Trying to save that for Xmas. Little steps!

    I need to update more often it really does me good.
  • Still doing well. I have had a few days off work and caught up with lots of things.

    Ironing up to date
    house tidy
    house clean
    organised finances

    Elec/gas company owe us £100 as we have been in credit so that is now on its way to our bank. £100 from prolific (since Xmas, had a few big ones) on its way also.

    Lovely day today I need to get out. I need washing (clothes) liquid as the one I'm using at the moment is awful. Not cleaning the clothes properly.....not really MSE as they have to go back in the wash.

    Head is organised and bring it on!
  • £65 on its way from quid Co, from a car insurance 6 months ago.

    Used a gift card today that has been in my purse since Feb last year for a wellknown Pizza place £20.

    Rock and roll!
  • Morning Diary.

    Looks like a damp day today so a little bit of tidying up then dinner up the inlaws.
    Nice to get out have spent too long indoors this week, I'm not used to it and feel lazy!
    It takes 50 min to get to in laws and the drive is really pretty so looking forward to it.

    Better go and get dressed, having a lazy morning, nice not to do school run.

    Buy for now
    Puddle
  • welcome like the name!

    first thing is write a budget before you spend the money, tell your money where to go and you will feel like you got a rise
    paid off £27,527.47 debt free journey began Nov 2017 DEBT FREE 13.09.2019!! EF £3500/£5000
  • puddle_duck1
    puddle_duck1 Posts: 37 Forumite
    edited 13 February 2018 pm28 4:25PM
    Thank you Meena I will need to sort out some form of spreadsheet type thing.

    Nothing much to report. I have a cold. It''s not that bad just making me feel tired.

    Got rid of some clutter the last few days. Bought some Daffs (probably shouldn't have) £2 for 2 bunches.
    I've put 2 items on eBay - I keep getting messages to sell one item as buy it now but will wait the auction out I think.

    Just got home from work, finished my cup of tea.
    Wash load in and thinking of what to do for food.

    Will be back on here later once little ones in bed.

    Take care

    Puddle duck
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