Crunchy's Final Debt Free Diary!

crunch_time

Just booked tickets to the zoo and they were only £71 after all so just transferred the extra £29 onto my HSBC credit card. The balance is now £4281. I think unexpected money is the way forward.

I also paid off £10 off the mattress thats on there as I budget £10 a month from the joint account to pay for that.

Every little helps!

Crunch

crunch_time

Morning all!

Just been doing the banking so here's a little update.

The house painter has had an accident and broke his foot so can't paint the house next week as we wanted. He is coming in the Spring instead and will honour the quote of £500. We decided we can wait until then. I have used the money I put aside to pay £100 off the overdraft to round it down to £1500, pay off the remainder of the my Sains card and order a new blind for the study which we wanted to do this month but couldnt because of the potential house painting.

I have actually now paid off my Sains cc as I moved the holiday costs over to husbands HSBC cc on my spreadsheet. I will wait until the next statement before I close it down as there might be some interest to pay but hey, that's a small win right!!?

The bad news is husbands HSBC has gone up to £2213 and I have no idea why. He has some things linked to it but I think he is still in the habit of using it rather than his monzo card. I will have a chat with him tonight but in the meantime find his pin for his Virgin card which he can have for emergencies when he is away from the home. Then we can hide the HSBC card in the house so he cant freely use it. I'm inclined to pay off the overdraft rather than this now anyway. He didnt want to do this but perhaps I should for 'punishment' ha ha!!

Back to good news, we still have food in the cupboards from last weeks shop. The only extra thing I have bought is a bag of pasta. I have plans today to write a list for Saturday morning shopping this week.

I'm feeling a bit more organised and settled into a new job share routine at work. I still have a lot of work to do on my days off but have accepted that now as part and parcel of life being a teacher.

A lot of clothes of mine need replacing this year so some expenses coming up. I need a new short winter coat that I can wear for dog walking and out and about. I also need some new wellies that are wide enough for my feet and some fleecy boots. Lots of expenses coming up but I'm going to work on shopping around now so I don't panic buy and get the wrong things.

Right, better get on with cleaning and tidying and some school work before the school run again!

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning all

Husband has gone to London today and was up early to get the train so I’ve been lying in bed all this time enjoying the peace and quiet and contemplating life!!

Husband and I spoke about the credit card and it had been noted.

Pay day is next Friday for me and I’m looking forward to swiping a chuck off the holiday debt and another £100 off my own debt.

Ive started thinking about Christmas now. There. Is £150 from my monthly salary that I am going to use for the next 3 months to pay for Christmas. We are keeping it minimal this year. I’m fed up of the amount of tat we end up with. I can’t believe its come around again though!

Husband and I have decided to buy bikes for our birthdays and use our savings to do so. These are investment purchases so looking at about £200-300 each. We have worked out a plan for how to do it and it feels good to not be using credit cards or the money allocated to debt/doing the house!

Hope everyone is good!

Crunch xx

enthusiasticsaver

Good that the Sainsbury's card has gone and the overdraft reduced. Pleased to hear you not intending to go mad at Xmas.

crunch_time

Evening all!

Just checking in with our money to see where we are since its my pay day tomorrow!

We have bought a new blind and a lampshade for the house with the money that would have gone to the house painter, if he hadn't broekn his leg! The blind was £107 and the lampshade was £35 but with £15 delivery. Its from a local maker so its handmade and very beautiful. I pondered over both purchases for a few days before going back to buy. This felt so much better than just buying willynilly on credit cards and then paying back when I got paid. Making sure we have the money first makes the purchase feel more pure.

There was £9 left in my account today which I haven't told husband about and quietly slushed towards my own credit card taking the balance down to £4272. Tomorrow I can pay £61 off for holidays and £110 off the minimum payment and then I am going to over pay £1 so it ends with a nice even £4100. In November it will get below £4k which will be amazing!

We have filled up with fuel which should hopefully last the half term week but there is always that emergency money I kept just in case we need it.

Food money should be fine as long as we are careful. Since its half term I should be able to batch cook and eat from stores as much as we can.

I'm going to hold some money back from the £600 holiday money to pay for a few little outings over half term to keep them entertained. Just the cinema and swimming and parking for a few national trust situations.

Im off clothes shopping on Saturday. Usually I would be buying loads onmy credit card to avoid the shops and then send most of it back, but I've done an audit of my wardrobe and I know exactly what I'm lookng for and determined to stick to my budget.

Got my credit card statement for the sains one - £11.45 so I'll be ringing them up and closing that down tomorrow!! Hurrah!!

So we are good all in all. The debt is mostly going down. Its hard when you are trying to furnish and decorate a house but we are plodding in the right direction.

Crunchy x

crunch_time

Woohoo!

- Sains card is now gone!
- Holiday debt had £488 chucked at it so is now £1177
- HSBC cc is now £4100 - a nice rounded number!

Cant wait for the virgin one to go down to £2900 later on next week. My personal debt will then stand at an awful but lovely and rounded £7000. Its going to take some time but I can crack this!

Our combined debt excluding the overdraft is now at £16,863 so we have finally gone below £17k after hovering there for a while.

Husband wants to pay off his credit card next so this is the next challenge for us now. It will be difficult with Christmas looming and us itching to get going on house decorating. I would prefer to get rid of the overdraft next since its smaller but hey ho!! Got to keep him happy!

Food shopping later and auditing cleaning products.

Crunchy xx

Willowtree222

You are really paying stuff out. I like it when it reaches a rounded number, and also when it drops below the next section.

I seem to hover for ages too, and then it might make a massive drop. I am hoping this is what happens before the new year x

crunch_time

Hey diaryland,

Paid the £50 off the Virgin card so it's now £2900. Total credit card debt now stands at £16,813.

Living on the edge until husbands pay day on Friday. We have £50 emergency fund but things dont see to be adding up on Monzo. Husband is looking at it tonight.

Crunch x

Seasidegal58

Hi crunchy! You're doing so well with your debt busting. Really organised - I'm so impressed.

A few posts back, you wrote about how you work out your children's pocket money and what they are expected to do with it - I think this is a great method and will set them up for good budgeting values going forward. I'm going to suggest it to my DSis whose little boy is 6.

Great tip!:T

crunch_time

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

Hi crunchy! You're doing so well with your debt busting. Really organised - I'm so impressed.

A few posts back, you wrote about how you work out your children's pocket money and what they are expected to do with it - I think this is a great method and will set them up for good budgeting values going forward. I'm going to suggest it to my DSis whose little boy is 6.

Great tip!:T

Thank you seaside. It really doesn’t feel like it though - a painfully slow process at the moment!

But I’m pleased with our efforts and I guess that is what counts.