Crunchy's Final Debt Free Diary!

enthusiasticsaver

Good luck with getting rid of the holiday debt plus the credit card/overdraft.

Are you tackling it Dave Ramsey style by repaying smallest to biggest or most expensive first (MSE)?

crunch_time

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Good luck with getting rid of the holiday debt plus the credit card/overdraft.

Are you tackling it Dave Ramsey style by repaying smallest to biggest or most expensive first (MSE)?

We are tackling the 2 credit cards we are being charged interest on first, then the overdraft then the remaining 3 credit cards. Of the reminding 3 credit cards we are tackling my largest first then we are going to reassess where we are and make a new plan.

I spent £128 on food so larger than I thought but not loads. Also, husband and I agreed that only shampoo, conditioner and shower creek will come out of the food budget from now on. Any other toiletries will come out of our own spending money. This is a new level of organisation that really affected my choices today!! I spent £15 and made sure it was only stuff I actually needed and wasn’t too expensive.

Now tackling the huge ironing pile.

Crunch x

crunch_time

Morning all

Jet lag has hit the household. My son was up until the early hours and then didn’t wake up until 10am. Husband and I feel headache, sick and have dodgy stomachs. I can’t see myself getting much done today other than is necessary. Which is a shame as the house is a tip!!!

We went to the dentist yesterday and for some reason I miscalculated how much it would be. We go private and it was £118 each (children free) rather than in total. I had only budgeted £120 so I paid on my cc and immediately paid off £118 with the money budgeted. Husband will pay for his when he gets paid next week. Will have to remember that for next time.

In other news husband revived a letter from HMRC saying he owed about £300 in tax. He is going to query it and check it but that will stall the debt pay off slightly as it will have to come out of that money next month.

In my jet lagged state I have started to look around the house for stuff to sell to move things along a bit. Before our holiday I had made a pile of children’s shoes and a couple of coats of mine that I bought before I was ever pregnant and now my hips are too wide and I can’t do them up. I have found a few books as well. I shall get onto this when the decks are cleared from the holiday.

Tomorrow I need to go and buy school shoes and a wedding present - all budgeted for.

I weighed myself today and I only managed to put on 4 pounds during an all inclusive holiday!! Very pleased with that!!

Crunchy x

crunch_time

Homegrown0 wrote: »

The positivity is oozing out of you -exciting times! Your holiday sounds amazing

You're going to knock this debt into touch before you know it. You've got a great monthly payment capability so you'll be knocking loads off it every month.

We're still in between paying off debt and house doing-up, some we have control over when and others were essential (recent new bathroom due to a massive leak). We will all get there, but the positive vibes are what will keep us going.

Ive written you a reply twice now and then the session has timed out when I go to post it - annoying!

Thanks for your support! Glad someone is in the same boat as me - trying to do DIY at the same time as significant debt payment.

Ive found your diary now and am looking forward to a good read.

Crunchy x

crunch_time

Morning all

Went to bed at 3am thanks to my sons jetlag poor boy. I feel like I have a hangover after 5 hours sleep. My plan tonight is to go to bed really early so I get as much sleep as I can before midnight. Sigh.

In the very early hours this morning i was scanning a few of my books onto music magpie to see if I could make any money. The total for about 5 books was about £10 - all ones that would prove to be useful if I took my business forward. I would have to read and make notes from them before I sold them.

Speaking of my 'business' here are my current thoughts. Ive been blogging for a few months once a week supported by an instagram account but it dropped off once I was working full time and i just didnt have the time to do it regularly. The idea behind doing it was to start something new and improve my writing and build a personal brand and eventually earn money from it somehow. I knew it would be a slow burn but it was costing me £17 a month and I wasnt yet seeing anything for my efforts.

During the holiday I brainstormed a product idea which is basically the area i am blogging about which I could develop over the autumn term and beyond whilst building a following on social media and then market and sell towards the end of the academic year ready for the new academic year. Its something I feel excited about doing but also nervous - why would anyone want to buy my ideas? The product is something that would help me and therefore help others like me and my succefful use of it is the product story that people will buy into. Some very brief googling has shown that there is nothing out there that is similar and I have nothing to lose in giving it a go. If anything it heps me out then that is something. If I am not looking until next year to launch it then i wont need any set up costs until then and even then they will be minimal - a couple of hundred pounds i reckon at this stage - so this will give me time to develop my idea and trial it in my own life.

So Ive decied to cancel my blogging costs for now and save the money for debt payment for the time being. Wow it feels so good getting this thought out into the open!!

Crunch x

crunch_time

Just paid off my first £50!!! Minimum payment for my Virgin card. It now stands at an even £3000.

This time around I am going to count up what we have paid off rather than count down what we have paid off. I'm hoping it will be more motivating.

Crunch x

Willowtree222

Good idea. Hopefully it is motivating for you. xx

Willowtree222

Your new product idea sounds exciting. If it helps you, and you can see a market for it, then there is no harm in working towards making it a reality. Hopefully it will be as successful as you want it to be. x

crunch_time

Nicnak wrote: »

Your new product idea sounds exciting. If it helps you, and you can see a market for it, then there is no harm in working towards making it a reality. Hopefully it will be as successful as you want it to be. x

Thank you Niknak!!

crunch_time

Morning all

Part of the new budget is husband and I getting £100 each for clothes each month. It sounds a lot but we always found it wasn’t enough for the whole family and a lot of our debt is clothes, shoes etc for the whole family. We don’t actuall own a lot of clothes but like well fitting ones which will last which often cost a bit more money. I did a little audit of my clothes yesterday and made a list of everything I would need this autumn. It’s actually not as much as I thought so I’ve decided to chuck my September £100 at the debt. £400 between now and Christmas is more than enough so I might chuck some more at it every month. We shall see.

In other news we are officially ready for school in this house!! All uniform bought, washed ironed and labelled.

Crunch x