Making The Changes and Sticking to it!

Stayathomemum36

Today I called next and reduced the limit on the account right down to £250.00 (It was £500). I haven't bought anything on it for 5 months so was in two minds whether to close it. I also asked them not to automatically increase the amount. Emergency fund has been topped up to £603.00 and I have bought the birthday gifts, dog food etc that we need for the rest of March. I used some money from the emergency fund to be able to pay the home insurance annually. Got a great cover and price via Aviva and Quidco. I put the money back into the emergency fund when OH got paid. Even now I feel that the emergency fund is getting there. :j

Just going over the spending from last month and we were spending more on food than I anticipated, not massively but this month I want to look at it even closer.

The next debt to be tackled is the RBS card with around £6500 balance. Aiming to pay a Direct Debit of £420 and add any payment a day that I can. If we could pay £500 a month to this it would be great. Paying off Next has been a boost. :T

Been busy doing things at home, turned my office into a playroom and moved my "office" to under the staircase in the lounge. It has cost us nothing other than time! Love Pintrest!

Onebrokelady

Well done on the Next debt and the emergency fund,mine is getting there slowly,Im still finding it weird to have savings as Ive never had any before
I also love Pinterest its so addictive though,I can waste hours looking at stuff on there

Stayathomemum36

Well what a month march was...my budgeting meant that our daughters birthday was all paid and budgeted for...thats where the good news stops.

My almost 2yr old iPhone broke and couldn't be fixed...I couldn't justify the cost for another iPhone so decided to go for something a lot cheaper at £17 a month but I had to pay £100 to come out of my contract Then we had another car repair..the motor went on the other rear window so that was £185.00, both kids needed new shoes that was £105...both require a certain brand due to feet issues so no room to save there. Finally our almost 11 year old dog was poorly and has needed more medication and tests. So we have halved our emergency fund but I guess the small positive is that we had the fund there to use.

Looking ahead our dog is being put to sleep on 13th April so there will be more costs there, we can claim some back on insurance eventually but need to pay upfront. We have a lot of family birthdays end april but I have bought all of the gifts.

Kids are into their second week of easter holidays and I'm doing ok cost wise..We've been swimming once which only cost £4 as they swim free in the holidays, we went to a free egg hunt and have been to the free gardening club at the garden centre today. Biggest cost was a trip to the cinema yest at £15 for the three of us. Takes my holiday activity spend to £19 so far...I imagine another swimming trip this week but thats ok and Im pleased that we've been able to use a lot of what we have here. Den building was great fun in the living room

Right now I could just run away but trying to start april with a renewed focus on YNAB, NSD and paying off more debt. We paid £992 to our debt in March which was really good. I just need to pick myself up and start again.

Drawingaline

So sorry to hear about your dog, that must be a hard thing to go through.

I hear you on the low cost holiday activities. I paid out for bowling and a trampoline place on Tuesday as that was my only day off outside of the bank holidays. I would go to the cinema, but we went twice in Feb half term so seen two of the film's as they are still showing and nothing serious is suitable. Annoying as we can go cheap as get tickets through hubby's work. We are only halfway through the first week of holiday too, but hubby is off next week so he can sort the kids out then.