Crunchy's Final Debt Free Diary!

Seasidegal58

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Monzo and Starling are digital banking apps. I have never used them but I think you can preload a card and set up categories and see your current balance at any time. They are popular so I guess a lot of people to find them useful. We actually do the same as you and put supermarket and fuel spends on a cashback credit card then repay in full. As the card only has food and petrol on it we find it easy to see if we are spending over our limits.

I have an Amex cashback card and a Marks & Spencer loyalty cc. Apart from coffees and a couple of other bits, everything I buy during the month goes onto the Amex card or, if the retailer does not accept Amex, the spends will go on the M&S card (anything I buy in M&S also goes straight on here). I then pay everything off at the end of the month when I get paid. As I use YNAB, I can see exactly how much I'm spending and what on. The Amex pays out cashback annually and I receive M&S vouchers from that card - which I usually put towards underwear!

All going well Crunchy!

Willowtree222

All sounds good.

I still do tutoring. I have a website it goes through though so I pay tax on it, but I have done cash in hand in the past. x

crunch_time

Thanks Nicnak. I’m going to do cash in hand for now. I hadn’t even considered doing it until the mother asked me. I want to help out and it will be good professional development. If we stuck to the sessions we have confirmed I should have £200 at the end of the summer. I’m going to save the money for ‘future crunchy.’

One more day at school tomorrow. Ugh. I’m literally sleep walking through these days it’s so tiring. Feeling like a crap mum as im soooo tired and finding it hard to be fun at the moment. I just need to recharge my batteries for a few days and not think about teaching. Had a meeting with my new job share this week and we have got everything sorted pretty much for sept so I can take me foot off that pedal for now.

Currently having a nice relaxing rum and spritzer in the patio. It’s too hot to work out. I think a shower will wake me up a bit. I need to mark a set of books to go home tomorrow and wrap teacher presents and then I’m done. Just one more day to struggle through!

Hope everyone is ok!

Crunch xx

Honeysucklelou2

Nearly there! I like your description of sleep-walking the last few days. Plodding here as the children are so tired...end of term is close!

crunch_time

Phew! I’ve finally finished! Gosh that was a slog and in the heat too it seemed even worse!

Had an icecream in the paddling pool with the kids, about to take child 1 swimming and then going out for dinner with my colleagues - somewhere super cheap but a nice way to round up the academic year.

Yesterday, husbands min payment for his virgin card came out so that is now down to £8000. This also brings us sub £15k and makes the amount paid off so far this year over £3k - both of which are fab!! I can’t wait till we can start getting this down faster.

I’m going to write a summer bucket list with the children tomorrow- lots of cheap and free stuff so hopefully lots of NSDs .

Now I am off and the only going back 3 days a week in September with both my children in school I will have so much more time to really stay on top of things and get frugal - batch cooking, minutely planning Christmas - all things that have come to mind. Our petrol spends will reduce significantly as those 3 days a week I will only be driving about 2miles a day. A little bit more the other two days due to children’s activities.

Very much looking forward to husbands pay day on Friday!!

Crunch x

crunch_time

First no spend day (apart from a pint of milk). Did a bit of a sort out of one room.

Husbands pay day and the first one of the new pay ris. He got paid about £100 less than we thought but hey ho!!

The extra money this month is going to be spent on holiday bits and pieces. So there won’t be much change to the signature but at least everything is going in the right direction. I’m enjoying having the time to be frugal again. I’ve made a pile of clothes and shoes to eBay when we get back from hols.

On my to do list tonight is to start a financial audit and put a proper plan in place for certain things. We need to consolidate husbands pension but we need proper financial advice on this for example - finding out how much this would be and budgeting for it is an example of this.

Tutoring also went well today I actually enjoyed it!!

Might update later tonight with an update after my financial audit!

Crunchy x

enthusiasticsaver

Can you not consolidate your husbands (old deferred pension?) into his current occupational pension? The main thing is to find out the terms of his old and existing pension and determine the difference (if any). The pensions board are helpful as a first step.

crunch_time

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Can you not consolidate your husbands (old deferred pension?) into his current occupational pension? The main thing is to find out the terms of his old and existing pension and determine the difference (if any). The pensions board are helpful as a first step.

Yes that’s the plan!

crunch_time

So last nights financial audit ended up with an argument and me in tears.

I felt overwhelmed when I was trying to decide his credit card statement and was annoyed that he was sat next to me watching a film instead of on his laptop looking for currency and energy deals. I get emotive when we have conversations about money. After years of him being an idiot about it, I took control shortly before our first child was born and got us to where we are now. I tried to discuss our continued overspending in tip up shops for food and he sees Monzo as the answer but I was trying to get him to see that it’s our attitude that is the problem.

We discussed a few ways that we could actually manage our money. He is frustrated that he doesn’t have an amount that is just for him. Anyway, it ended well I think. We are going to put a plan together tonight for the future going forward.

The bit I’m most worried about it’s that he is a trained account and sees spreadsheets as just figures whereas there is a lot of narrative and emotion in mine. Sometimes he looks at me like I am going mad when I’m talking about my spreadsheet which irritates the hell out of me.

We shall see how tonight goes. He’s just said that we shall go through it all properly.

Crunch x

enthusiasticsaver

Can you not build some personal spends into your budget for both of you? Money to cover clothes, haircuts,hobbies, personal entertainment and gifts for each other etc. My husband would be the same as yours if he felt he had no personal spends and I like having some money just for me too. It certainly stopped the arguments between us about what I saw as his wasteful spending. Now I don't mind how he spends his allowance and he knows when it's gone he has to wait until the next payday.