Crunchy's Final Debt Free Diary!

Honeysucklelou2

Totally understand. It's amazing how much thinking time extends beyond the working day when teaching. Enjoy that precious time with your children.

crunch_time

Last night I spent a good hour staring at my spreadsheet trying to find ways to pay back debt quickly whilst also having spare money to do up the house this year. Hmmmm I think I’m trying to have my cake and eat it!!

I also looked at line and husbands credit score for the first time in years. I wanted to see if I was still registered as having 3 credit cards but it only showed two which is good.

One of my new year money saving things is to stop buying psychologies magazine - it costs me £60 a year and I barely have time to read it anymore. I rip out the articles I’m interested in and then chuck it in recycling. Last night I got rid of all of the articles I knew I wouldn’t read it feels good not to have that as another to do!

Crunchy

hugglemonster

Congratualtions on the new job, I'm so pleased for you and I hope you enjoy the better work/life balance.

I'm in the same position as you r.e the debt and wanting to decorate the house, I can live with it for another 12 months if it means that all the debt has gone and we have the flexibility and cash to be able to save to do each job quicker and also save for a little holiday.

Making good progress on the hubby's credit card, keep going.

H x

crunch_time

Morning all!

Currently standing at rugby training for the boy - cost £47 for a kit and £25 to register for the rest of the season. Gah! But soooo important to play a team sport!

In other news I applied for a loan yesterday and got it! Its prob not very mse but it’s basically me taking on husbands car loan so I am essentially buying his car off him. Our second car is on the brink so we will need to buy a new one probably this year. It makes sense to do it now before my salary drops. We have also decided to keep this car for the next 4 years or so. It’s pointless selling it as it’s in negative equity. So my loan is £10k over 5 years costing £181 a month. Currently it costs £227 a month so the difference per month will go on the overdraft for the time being - around £50 a month.

One more week until husband gets paid! January is a long month!!

Going home for a roast soon! And the inevitable work - but not for much longer!!! 3 weeks to go!!

Crunch xx

crunch_time

Evening all

Checked all the balances today and it looks like there is an extra £50 in the joint account this month so I have just chucked it at the credit card reducing it to £1350! Yay! I love unexpected money. It feels like I want this gone as soon as possible. Still two days till pay day!! I have a weird situation as I have £70 on my Monzo card allocated to clothes yet don't seem to be desperate to spend it - can't figure out what I need so best keep it there fore now! Wouldn't have been like this last year!

Crunch xx

Sarahwithlove

Hiya, just had a read through your post from start. Well done on trying to find a life/debt balance. We only have one life so we need to make sure we live it too. I just wondered how you are finding it with monzo? How exactly does it work?

crunch_time

Sarahwithlove wrote: »

Hiya, just had a read through your post from start. Well done on trying to find a life/debt balance. We only have one life so we need to make sure we live it too. I just wondered how you are finding it with monzo? How exactly does it work?

Thank you! Sometimes it feels like we are wading through treacle and doesn't feel like we are getting anywhere at all, especially with that pesky credit card.

Monzo is awesome! It is making things soo much easier. Its just a pre paid card and an app. The great thing is husband and I can keep tabs on the food money and also have our own spending money separate from our accounts. We have a joint card for food and fuel and then separate cards for oursleves.

crunch_time

Morning all!

Husbands pay day today! Immediately on it this morning paying things off and moving things around.

A few highlights....

- Paid off the min payment for the overdraft and rounded up the council tax payment that we will miss this month to £200 so shaved £300 off the overdraft and it now stands at £1050. I want to round it to an even £1000 now - there should be some money in my account but going to give it a few weeks.

- I also paid off £500 off husbands credit card for holiday stuff from last year. We intended to do this in the autumn but didn't - I can't remember why but its likely to be becuase we weren't organised. His credit card is now £3868 - much improvement here!

- I checked my ISA balance yesterday and rounded it down to an even £1350. I pay £50 a month now into it this year whilst we tackle the debt. £17 was spare so I have rounded it up to £20 and paid it off my cat's vet bill on my HSBC credit card. I'm chipping away at this line on this part of the spreadsheet with extra money as an when it arises.

Total debt except car loan is now £18,712! Finally dipped below £19k!!

In other money saving news, Husband is getting on board with the food ordering from sains. He has planned our meals this coming week and we have agreed to no top up shops. We spent £127 this week. If we spend this every week we will massively reduce our food bill by about £50 a month -It was the top up shops that was killing it and he was the main culprit for this.

I'm starting to feel like we are on track now, especially now I have a new job and we know what money is coming up in the future and we can plan accordingly.

I'm going to take the dog for a walk now and then crack on with some more organsing of the house. We need to do things like put up the monthly calendar somewhere where Husband can see it, and the cleaning plan and the meal plan. Everything needs a place.

onwards and upwards!

Crunchy xx

Homegrown0

Progress, progress, progress! Looking great Crunch_time!

t2rry

Well done Crunchy! I just dipped under the same debt mark, so I'm with you!!!!