Crunchy's Final Debt Free Diary!

onedaysomeday

That's a big chunk coming off well done x

crunch_time

Morning all!

We had great news yesterday, two-fold. Firstly I have a tax rebate of £445!! And then a few hours later husband's boss confirmed his pay rise - 12%!! Husband worked this out to be about £300 extra a month. We feel so lucky. This is will in end of July pay packet.

I am going to put my tax rebate into a savings account as an emergency fund.

We are going to use the extra money to up and create budgets that are a little small/ non-existent. Then we are undecided on what to tackle next. In February husband needs to be able to take out a loan to pay off the balance of the PCP for our car. It's about £12k. Currently, we are paying £350 a month but with the loan that will go done to £220 a month. Our plan is to pay off all the credit cards and then overpay the loan. So ideally the overdraft needs to be gone and the credit card significantly reduced. The overdraft currently costs us £10 a month but the credit card costs £20 a month.

We also have Christmas to pay for which we should start saving for soon.

With regards to my earnings, I'm hoping to be able to charge £20 an hour for my work and have the capacity to work 30 hours a week. But of course, this isn't guaranteed.

Once I am earning I will take over paying off my HSBC cc which is £75 a month and keep it at that for the time being as it is the only one at 0%

I'm also very aware that we need to build up some savings at some point so it becomes a regular habit.

The debt that is annoying me the most is husbands Sains credit card. It currently looks like this in terms of categories...

Carp from the summer of 2016 - £1504
New house furniture, turf and garden stuff - £2117
Interest - £75.87
Husband work expenses - £73
Spending money - £157
Total - £3926

The carp from the summer of 2016 is the most annoying part as that was the bit that we didn't pay off from last year. So this is clearly where the extra pay rise money should go for the time being. It would be great to get it below £3k by the end of the summer.

In other news, I have got my credit card statement through and currently in the process of going through it with a fine tooth comb.

Right better make the most of this weather and get some washing on the line!

Crunch xx

crunch_time

Hi all

Quick update.

Dog ill yesterdqy which meant quick emergency trip to the vet. He!!!8217;s eaten something that doesn!!!8217;t agree with him which has really upset both ends poor boy. Much better now but £140 in fees on the cc.

Husband and I have decided to end the reliance on ccs once and for all and going to save a small proper emergency buffer of £500 with the pay rise money for starters. This will be July and aug pay and then decide what to tackle next.

So operation NO MORE CREDIT CARDS will start this week!!

Crunchy xx

Seasidegal58

Aha! Have found you and subscribed! Happy new diary!

Well done on setting up your work web. Exciting times! And congrats on your rebate and hubby's pay rise!

You've well thought out plans in place and good luck on the no CCs rule. Getting the emergency fund filled is one of the best things to do to ensure zero reliance on the CCs.

SSG x

Homegrown0

Great news on the pay rise and rebate Crunchy! I think your decision to get a small emergency fund behind you first is a good one. The horrid cycle of having to put things on the CC is so demotivating and it's always easier to con yourself into thinking your bank account looks healthier than it is.

Plans look good!

crunch_time

Homegrown0 wrote: »

Great news on the pay rise and rebate Crunchy! I think your decision to get a small emergency fund behind you first is a good one. The horrid cycle of having to put things on the CC is so demotivating and it's always easier to con yourself into thinking your bank account looks healthier than it is.

Plans look good!

It certainly is demotivating. I really want a nice healthy looking bank account for sure! I'm so ready to turn around this tanker.

Husband is very behind us being savers rather than spenders and having money in the bank. I'm not sure whether he has arrived yet in terms of planning for purchases. While I wait for that LBM I hereby pledge to not use my CC in June. I won't cut it up but I shall tidy it away somewhere. I was using it for fuel in arrears but that shall now stop and we shall plan properly for this. It means we won't be able to pay off as much as we thought initially.

For the next few months, we shall just stop spending on them and just pay the minimum building up a buffer behind us after setting all our other spends to a minimum.

Just muddling through the last few days of June before payday on Friday!

Here is our budget for July.

Income - £3424

Outgoings -
£1810 - Mortgage and bills
£450 - Food/pet food (dog and cat)/toiletries and cleaning products.
£350 - Car payment
£50 swimming lessons
£65 - haircuts
£100 - spending money
£200 fuel
£105 clothes - to pay min payment of my sains cc
£15 itunes sub
£45 nursery

Debts
£95 - Husbands Sains CC - about £20 of this is interest
£80 - my HSBC card - 0%
£20 - Husbands HSBC card
£10 - overdraft

This leaves £39 to start a buffer with. I'm going to add it to the £445 tax rebate and create a nice little incentive - If we keep building it up and not touching it - it will be a nice little holiday deposit for next year.

So areas to work on and to make savings from:

Fuel (£200) - This is a big budget to avoid having lots of fuel on our ccs - anything left over will be saved.

Food etc (£450) We HAVE to look at ways to cut this down to £400. A nice little summer project.

Spending money (£100) spontaneous beers at the weekend are NOT the way forward if we want to do some serious traveling in the future. Not to mention be fit and healthy.

Right - that's a start. Of to start getting hold of my tax rebate on line!!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning all

So this is the first day of 'sort ourselves out once and for all.'

- I have 200 miles of diesel in the car to last till Friday which is good.

- We have food in the cupboards - it will make some random meals until food shopping on Friday but we will live.

- I have taken my CC out of my purse and into my desk for safe keeping. Need to confiscate husbands when he gets home from his business trip.

- I have to pop into town after lunch to take some photos for my course but determined not to spend any money. An hour's parking is free.

Money saving things I'm going to do today and for the next few days -

- An audit of all our toiletries and cleaning products to see what we need to buy for July.
- start a list of cheap meals that we like so we can start to be more frugal with our food shop.
- start to make a plan for how the hell we are going to get through the summer holidays without spending loads of money on days out to save my sanity!

I think that is enough for now!

Roll on pay day!

Crunchy

crunch_time

Evening diaryland!!

Couple of things going on financially,

Swimming - We have been saving £50 a month for this but then had to dip into this for extra money. The swimming school does a DD payment now. I am going to sign up for it because it means what is left of this pot can be combined with the oil pop which makes £238! I have worked out how much swimming will be a month for the autumn term and put in a worse case scenario in our budget spreadsheet for the next few months. It means we won't be able to save as much towards an EF but we won't have to put oil on credit cards! Always a bonus. On Friday we can add another £80 to this put so will be able to half fill the tank.

Credit card interest - this month it is about £55 which makes me think we must be able to get it all to 0% somehow. I shall investigate.

Anyway - must go as I'm way behind on my work.

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning!

Applied online for my tax rebate last night so hopefully will see that in my account in a few days!!

My HSBC 0% card only has £900 left on it before it hits limit so can!!!8217;t transfer the £2000 that is currently earning interest. I think I will leave it until the end of the summer and then see if husband can get a 0% card again.

Last day until pay day tomorrow. We have just about enough food to last us. I am going to make a cheap tuna pasta for dinner tonight and we shall just eat out of the cupboards and fridge for lunch.

I have made a list of toiletries and cleaning products we will need for July too. I also found my eco balls so shall use them in place of washing powder as often as possible!

Crunchy x

crunch_time

Morning all

Pay day is finally here! £20 extra for some reason! More towards the EF.

Three out of four credit cards have been paid - min amounts. Just need to pay the 4th one, take the cash out for the pots and then save the excess into a savings account.

Food shop done £71.
Toiletries, cleaning products and pet food done £58
Diesel bought - £50 - aiming for this to last the week. It really should do.

We have a quiet weekend planned of weeding, car washing, BBQ, paddling pool etc.

Next thing I am working on - frugal meals!

Crunchy xx