Brighter Fairy light and a five year plan

chocolatebum

Oooh its been a couple of weeks, my plan is now to check in at least once a week, being back at uni 4 days out of 5 has now limited my time available as alongside classes workload has drastically increased this year. (2 years to go :j:j )

round up of where we are at, all bills up to date for this month, balance transfer of part of CC6 has went through and i am just waiting on an updated statement that is due today before utilising the balance transfer offer on that to transfer part of CC4 onto it.

I have been religiously tracking my daily spends this month and plan to do a round up on the 30th of where our spends are going and what we need to work on.

12 week plan is ticking along and we are just over 3 weeks into it

plans are

1. Lose 12lbs (have decided not to weigh in until end of 12 weeks)
2. Clear Simply Be account (work in progress, £200 paid off this already so if i can keep that rate up then it will be cleared before the 12 weeks are up)
3. Declutter living room, selling/recycling/tossing anything that isn't needed (work in progress, paperwork is my nemesis and i have piles of it everywhere, need to get it sorted)
4. Sort out youngest child's clothes (far too many and some could be sold) (haven't started this yet)
5. Sort out youngest child's toys (same as above) (again still to start)
6. try to do 2 car boot sales (weather hasn't been great here but still hopeful to get 2 indoor ones done)
7. Write a rough christmas list (list completed for extended family, still to make a start on kids lists)
[STRIKE]8. get organised for uni [/STRIKE] (all done and i am back)
9. stay up to date with uni work and stop procrastinating with it (bit hit and miss depending on subject but better than last year)
10. Decorate one room in house (haven't started this yet)

stressed.mum

Well done Chocolatebum, you are working through your list at a steady pace. I hope you get Simply B paid off soon so you can start on the next one!
Glad Uni seems to be going well, I’m sure it’s a lot of hard work, but hopefully building a better future for you all xxxxx

chocolatebum

stressed.mum wrote: »

Well done Chocolatebum, you are working through your list at a steady pace. I hope you get Simply B paid off soon so you can start on the next one!
Glad Uni seems to be going well, I’m sure it’s a lot of hard work, but hopefully building a better future for you all xxxxx

Thanks stressed mum, its good to be back in the routine of uni and having student finance once again is a bonus but i had forgotten how tiring it is. my course is quite intense and i'm in 9-5 four days a week. on the home straight now though with just 2 years left to go but it has been a long 4 years already. can't wait to be finished and back out earning some money.

my plan is definitely slow and steady wins the race. i do have dreams of that lottery win to clear it all off but i am realistic that it took me more than a year to build up this level of debt so its going to take a few to clear it.

chocolatebum

MONTH 1 ROUND UP

Well that is me finished my first month back on the debt busting wagon and its been interesting. Just over 1 wee percent cleared off my debt however with the juggling and balance transfers i have managed to take 6 months off my DFD so i am pleased about that. hopefully i will make at least another 2 percent cleared next month. hopefully getting below the 20,000 mark

my spending diary made for very interesting and disturbing reading. we wasted so much money on takeaways, lunches, breakfasts this month it was ridiculous so i need to rein that in. i'm great at making a lunch every day for uni but had a lets celebrate being bk at uni lunch this month which extended to 2 lunches that weren't cheap. also the ease of grabbing a roll from the burger van when at DS's early morning games was just too tempting. need to kick this into touch and get this drastically reduced. overall food shop wasn't too bad but i would like to reduce this also.

i did manage to put aside the amounts that i planned to for christmas, hair, clothes budget etc and i haven't touched these pots. we have finished the month in the black, however with mortgage/c tax and a few other things coming out tomorrow that will slip into the red. with pay day and student finance being paid in middle of month rather than end i need to get a balance built up so that i can hopefully stay in the black and have enough without dipping into overdraft even for a few days.

My 12 week plan is ticking along nicely but i need to get stuck into my house organisation and also want to get garden organised for winter this month so will need to try and allocate some time for that.

Onwards and upwards

chocolatebum

MONTH 2 ROUND UP

Well its been a challenging month, have been popping in to read some diaries but haven't posted on mine. spending diary went out the window halfway through the month as things were so hectic and i really noticed how i didn't think twice about buying things when i knew i wasn't writing them down. its been restarted for this month. quite an expensive month as we had unexpected vet bill for my poor wee doggy that we had to get put to sleep. we finished the month in the red which wasn't ideal so need to try and pull that back and get back into the black for this month.

debtwise we managed to pay off £310.96 pence after interest etc added on which equates to 1.52% of our debt giving a total of 2.64% paid off which i am happy about.

this month i am expecting it to be less that we pay off as we start to buy some christmas pressies, i do have our small pot that we started 2 months ago but i know it will cost more than this but trying to plan ahead and not leave to last minute and actually thinking about what to buy rather than just buying for the sake of it.

12 week plan is going ok, house and garden organisation not really going to plan as overrun by essays etc. hopefully will have these completed in november allowing december to be used for getting the house organised for christmas.

stressed.mum

Sorry to hear about your dog Chocolate. Well done on the debt busting, it’s so easy to take your foot off the pedal when something comes along to scupper your plans, but you kept on chipping away. Xxx

chocolatebum

well its been a couple of months and things really went downhill. disastrous couple of months with lots of health, kids issues, parent issues, house issues going on that took up all my time and energy. not really sure i have any left but need to get back on board with the debtbusting. debt has increased not really sure but how much but i imagine its a fair amount. new plan is to get everything in order to begin again on jan 1st. new 12 week plan will be in place for then too with 12 things on my list.

away to read some of the diaries that i subscribed to so may be a while as its been forever since i caught up on them

Aaleigha

I have been a long term browser but started a diary this week

you know you can do this as you have done so well in the past

get all your budget details sorted for 1st Jan then just plod on - its really all we can do
remember the small wins as well - save all your 20p for the 12 weeks see how much you get - its more off the debt even if you only get one a day in change - do the older children know the situation if so get them to chuck all their change in a pot once a week - most kids would be willing to help up - most people dont pay any attention to the small change - unless of course they have to like most of us on here

chocolatebum

Aaleigha wrote: »

I have been a long term browser but started a diary this week

you know you can do this as you have done so well in the past

get all your budget details sorted for 1st Jan then just plod on - its really all we can do
remember the small wins as well - save all your 20p for the 12 weeks see how much you get - its more off the debt even if you only get one a day in change - do the older children know the situation if so get them to chuck all their change in a pot once a week - most kids would be willing to help up - most people dont pay any attention to the small change - unless of course they have to like most of us on here

thanks aaleigha, updated my whats the cost and it didn't make for pretty viewing. worse than i thought but hey ho onwards and upwards. we usually save 2 pound coins and did do 20p savings a few years back so may start it again as it normally went quite well although i find that i don't get as many coins now as i either don't lift to spend anything or i just use my card so i don't squander the extra in my purse. as you say though every little bit helps.

Aaleigha

Please stop using your card as much as you can

take needed money eg groceries out of the bank and use the cash
tell yourself once its gone it is I cut my food bill for two of use buy 100 and I want it to go down more but small steps are easier than bigger ones - any left I put towards our soon to be moving costs

if you are making casserole or curries spag bol etc add in a couple of handfuls of red lentils of chana dahl (cheap from Mr As in their ethnic department)
that will bring the cost down as less meat is added so that will make a saving - I often do a soup and serve it before dinner so meaning smaller portions of the more expensive part of the meal - make crutons out of any stale bread even crusts I save ours in the freezer

cant think of anything else