LBM and determination in full force.

stinabean

I do now try and get own brand food wherever possible, I think regarding food our weakness is laziness. We'll have food in but we don't fancy that particular thing, or we cba to cook, so we order takeaway. That's food wastage and having to buy more sooner, and a further spend!

Pet food is going well so far, only the second day and trying to work out portions. Poor little pup looks hungry 24/7 so it's difficult to judge!

OH is fully behind me doing whatever needs to be done to make us comfortable while I'm on maternity, and also for our future. He's rubbish at money so I manage all of his, and if he wants to buy something he does ask me first and I check the accounts. I really want to get us in a good place with minimal/no debt so he can actually manage it himself... too many older people in my family had one person managing everything and when they sadly passed the other person was left not having a clue where or what anything was!

Today's plan is to make another PAD payment (started yesterday and love the idea, will hopefully pay down the Halifax debt a bit quicker), if it stays sunny to give the deck a bit of a clean and tidy at lunch time and also to write a list of all food items in the frdige/freezer and cook off anything I have as I want to start monitoring that and planning our dinners

stinabean

Also - collecting our new car today!!

stinabean

So to be a bit more organised I've had a play around with our bank accounts. We each had about 10 separate standing orders going from each of our wages account into our joint account where the bills come out and although it was nice to easily see how much we were paying for what, it was crazy separating it from actual spending the list was so long!

So I've added it all up, and done it as one Standing Order payment.

I've also changed my direct debits for both Halifax and Barclays to the minimum payment, and will be PADding on Halifax to get that down as best I can.

Feeling very can do!

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like progress is being made. Focusing on the Halifax is a good idea until your income drops as at least the interest will be minimal if the balance is lower. What i# the plan re child care when you return to work and how long do you plan to take off as maternity leave?

stinabean

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Sounds like progress is being made. Focusing on the Halifax is a good idea until your income drops as at least the interest will be minimal if the balance is lower. What i# the plan re child care when you return to work and how long do you plan to take off as maternity leave?

I've not yet had my official letter through listing the months/amounts, though I do have a rough guide. If I take the full paid time I won't be back till April/May but the payments are obviously less and less so strongly considering going back to work full time around Jan/Feb 2019. I know I won't want to though :rotfl:

Childcare is still in the works. Loose plan is for me to be FT working due to being the higher earner and working from home, OH to go part time should his employer allow. This would mean baby at childcare 5 mornings a week at the very most as also have a local friend who is very willing to help with the odd morning.

stinabean

Ok so I bank with Halifax purely because I haven't found another online banking that I like/get on with.

I have the below accounts:
Wages - self explanatory
Joint Account - all bills that both me and OH contribute to go from here via a Standing Order from our wages accounts.
Halifax Credit Card.
Sofa - this is where we both put a set amount of money every month, think it's £50 each, to pay off our sofa which is due to be paid Dec 2018. I keep this separate because I have to manually make the payment and it helps me to have it visible. Once paid, this can be utilised for something else or closed.
Emergency Fund - newly renamed from an old account

I don't want to go crazy with more accounts, but I do really like logging into my banking and seeing everything so easily and moving money between them easily.

Am considering going for some basic saver accounts to do piggy banking so I can keep groceries separate and have a place to put expected future expenses like MOT/car servicing etc.

blue_eyed_girl123

Don't know if you've said before, but where do you usually shop?

stinabean

I shop at Asd* as its closest and a decent size. I also use their home delivery service at times as I paid for FOC Tues-Thurs deliveries.

We have a *orrisons fairly local too but I usually can't get what I want!

Also there's an ald* which I'm usually pleased with but it's surprisingly small.

Mummy_bear

:hello:Hello

Just subscribed to your diary.

I'm also expecting in July....but with twins :eek: and they're not my first Most likely they'll be here end of June.

Just wanted to say good luck on your debt busting journey and look forward to following your progress x

stinabean

Oh wow congrats on the twins!! You'll have to share how everything goes !!!55357;!!!56833; do you know what you're having?

We collected our new car and the OH is giddy with excitement. Annoyingly I was expecting my £250 holding fee back today but the salesperson decided to go ahead and purchase my car tax with it for the year without checking with me :mad: so I only got £60 back. Makes sense to pay it all at once but now I have to manage the OHs money to help me out as we would've paid for that between us over time

Also did a spend at Asda as needed more essentials such as bread so small spend there. Need to figure out what £ I have to work with until OH gets paid and he takes over with his wages - really wish the plumber from Monday would invoice us already so I could pay up!