A cup of tea & a budget please...

beanielou

Your life insurance seems really high?

redofromstart

Hi, happy new diary!

I agree with Beanie, that life assurance seems very high. Does it include illness cover as well or something? Might be worth looking to see if you can get a better deal, or to think about if you actually need that much cover.

Love the sound of the van!

SeasideGirl

Hi redofromstart & thanks BeanieLou

Yes, it is ridiculously high, partly because I'm not a healthy weight (but working on that, 10lb down in 4 weeks!) but I do have illness cover as well. It was done through an independent financial adviser a couple of years ago, but worth a review I think.

Just been browsing south coast campsites, looking for somewhere to maybe go in October for a night, just to get back into the swing of it

UncannyScot

I do a lot of "wild camping" as I am very outdoorsie. Can't remember when I last actually paid to camp somewhere... quite a while ago and very possibly south o the wall...
One of the (many ) good things that Scotland has going for it is access to the outdoors.
If you ever feel like exploring up here let me know and I can give you a load of great locations

jwil

SeasideGirl wrote: »

Hi redofromstart & thanks BeanieLou

Yes, it is ridiculously high, partly because I'm not a healthy weight (but working on that, 10lb down in 4 weeks!) but I do have illness cover as well. It was done through an independent financial adviser a couple of years ago, but worth a review I think.

Just been browsing south coast campsites, looking for somewhere to maybe go in October for a night, just to get back into the swing of it

Well done on the weightloss :T :T

UncannyScot wrote: »

I do a lot of "wild camping" as I am very outdoorsie. Can't remember when I last actually paid to camp somewhere... quite a while ago and very possibly south o the wall...
One of the (many ) good things that Scotland has going for it is access to the outdoors.
If you ever feel like exploring up here let me know and I can give you a load of great locations

We went around Scotland in our camper van a few years ago. We did plenty of wild camping, it was brilliant

Seasidegal58

Apart from the life insurance, which you are going to look at, your SOA doesn't look that bad. You have a decent income and do not sound at all extravagant so you could kick the debt into touch within a reasonable amount of time. Good idea to get rid of that small sofa debt - it'll give you no end of pleasure to see it disappear from the debt list!:). Have you thought of using the snowball calculator to keep an eye on how the debt is decreasing?

SeasideGirl

Evening. And all of a sudden it was Monday night! A lovely Sunday including small nieces & nephew and it was an NSD as a bonus. Back to work today, so back to routine taking breakfast and lunch with me, and used some leftovers to make stirfry rice for dinner. That also makes it very mse.

Jwil I am surprising myself at the moment but finding it quite easy to keep on track. Probably because there is nobody in the house to sabotage me and I am just not buying the sweet junky stuff or white bread.

UncannyScot thank you, yes wild camping is something Scotland allows that England doesn’t (apart from Dartmoor or Exmoor I believe). I need to build up my confidence getting out & about on my own and build up to that 😊

SeasideGal58 I’m definitely not extravagant and from the weekend when my monthly budget starts in earnest I really think having cash for my own spending & groceries will make me think twice about what I do buy. Also need to meal plan so I don’t keep popping into supermarkets. I do need to use some of the ‘spare’ cash for the bathroom over the next few months too but can then start really using it to clear credit cards etc. I will have a look at the snowball too :money:

Seasidegal58

I used to love updating my snowball every month and watching it gain momentum with the extra cash I'd be able to put towards the debt. Used to stare at it for ages! How weird's that?!:rotfl:

jwil

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

I used to love updating my snowball every month and watching it gain momentum with the extra cash I'd be able to put towards the debt. Used to stare at it for ages! How weird's that?!:rotfl:

Not weird at all, I used to spend ages putting different figures in to see how it would affect it!

Seasidegal58

Yes jwil - I used to do that too!:rotfl: