£29,303...Enough is enough!

WelshKitty85

Another wet and miserable day here. Fortunately, we've not got any flooding, and at least the garden doesn't need watering.

Got the weekly shop done this morning. It came to just under £75, which is higher than usual but included essentials such as loo roll and nappies for the next month plus loads of yellow sticker bargains for the freezer. We did a meal plan before shopping but must update it with the yellow sticker items and see how far we can stretch it.

In order to meet my target of paying off the debt by July 2022, I've set myself some interim targets:

January 2020 - £18,109.16
July 2020 - £14,487.33
January 2021 - £10,865.49
July 2021 - £7,243.66
January 2022 - £3,621.83
July 2022 - big fat ZERO

I've checked the barclaycard this morning as I was aware part of the 0% deal is due to expire in December. I've calculated that if I increase my DD to £301.50 then I'll pay off enough of the balance to avoid any interest from December, and this should also put me on track to meet my target for January 2020. I've updated my budget spreadsheet to the end of the year and this looks perfectly do-able.

mark55man

sounds like a great plan - as a motivation you should plot the line forward for a few years beyond 2022, to see how fast your mortgage overpayments/savings would work at £7K a year you might be surprised how quickly it will add up

Kassiopea

I've just read through your whole diary...you've done wonderfully well. I too have a husband who likes cars... I calculate he has spent over £250,000 in the 35 years we've been married so can totally sympathise with you on that score. Don't hate me for this but reading between the lines he doesn't seem so concerned about your situation as you do which must be tough. Good luck with your endeavour, you deserve it.

WelshKitty85

mark88man wrote: »

sounds like a great plan - as a motivation you should plot the line forward for a few years beyond 2022, to see how fast your mortgage overpayments/savings would work at £7K a year you might be surprised how quickly it will add up

Thanks for the suggestion. I've just had a really quick look at a mortgage calculator and it looks like once our unsecured debts are repaid we could quite possibly halve the remaining term on our mortgage and have that repaid within a further 10 years. That's definitely something to think about.

WelshKitty85

Kassiopea wrote: »

I've just read through your whole diary...you've done wonderfully well. I too have a husband who likes cars... I calculate he has spent over £250,000 in the 35 years we've been married so can totally sympathise with you on that score. Don't hate me for this but reading between the lines he doesn't seem so concerned about your situation as you do which must be tough. Good luck with your endeavour, you deserve it.

Thank you so much. I dread to think how much we have spent on cars over the years. Thankfully DH now seems to have found a car that he likes and plans to keep for the foreseeable future. To be fair to DH he has suffered with anxiety etc in the past so his attitude of not panicking until the worst happens is probably for the best in terms of his mental health, even if it does frustrate me at times.

savingholmes

Hi just wanted to wish you well on your journey... Great news re the car and getting DH's job back

WelshKitty85

I'm feeling annoyed with myself today and my lack of organisation. Now I know £3.50 won't break the bank but despite making sure DC3 had a packed lunch to take to the childminder, I didn't make my own lunch and had to resort to a meal deal. I need to get back into the habit of prepping lunches the night before.

DH keeps reminding me how awful my hair is at the moment. I've not had it cut for at least a year so he has a point. I've booked an appointment for next week but am struggling to justify the spend to myself. I have managed a few ebay sales which will leave me with about £25 after fees and I have £30 in my piggy bank. That should just about cover a cut and colour so maybe I shouldn't feel quite so guilty about spending the money on myself.

However, I do also need to plan for DHs birthday at the end of the month. I've managed to get an overnight babysitter - a rare occurrence since DC3 arrived - and it would be a shame not to make the most of it. I've seen a good deal on an overnight stay at a localish hotel - £129 including a spa treatment each, 3 course meal, and breakfast the next day. If I book through TCB I can get 10% back too. I just need to see if I can work it into the budget.

I must also get my thinking cap on and come up with some cheap activities to do with the children for the rest of the holidays. The weather isn't being kind to us - sunny when I'm in work and rain when I'm off - which makes it much more difficult.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Definitely treat yourself to haircut etc.... life gets very boring if every penny goes to the debt.
Hope you can figure out the budget to get a night away, sounds lovely

mark55man

Agreed, and enjoy it - don't sit there feeling guilty. One hair cut a year is NOT extravagant

WelshKitty85

I think you're both right. I've actually just made another sale, which means I've almost got enough in ebay sales alone to cover the cost of getting my hair done. I've managed to work a birthday treat for DH into my budget spreadsheet. So that means my piggy bank is untouched and can be used to treat the children. If I'm really careful with the grocery budget I might be able to pinch a few pounds from there too for an extra special treat before they go back to school.

DH and I had a chat tonight about the possibility of being both debt and mortgage free within 13 years. I think DH was pleasantly surprised and I'm hoping it will be the incentive we need to keep us on track with the debt busting. Having said that I don't want to be scrimping to such an extreme that we are missing out on making memories with the children whilst they are still young (DC1 will be mid/late 20s by the time we plan to have paid off the mortgage). So I have a renewed enthusiasm for spending wisely and being creative.

We're currently managing to put £200 a month into savings, plus anything extra from eBay sales etc. Whilst it's really important for me to build up a decent emergency fund, I also want to be able to go on days out, or think about a holiday. Of my current savings, £717.31 is in an easy access account, and £760 is locked away in long term savings accounts. So my thoughts are, keep paying £200 per month into the long term savings, which will only be accessed in case of absolute emergency. Then any sales, survey payouts etc will go into the easy access account which we will be able to use, but only for planned, worthwhile spends.