New Diary - New Hope 17 October 2018 at 2:45PM edited 26 April 2020 at 9:45AM in Debt free diaries 113 replies 9.3K views

Chrystal

Wishing you the very best of Luck for 2020. X

Treadingwater02

Thank you Chrystal!

As expected this month is going to be super tight until payday but determined to do it, I’ve already done the shopping and put fuel in the car for this week so aiming to have as many NSD as possible.

Purplemumof2

Happy New Year.

Well done on not adding to the debt last year.

The 20 in 2020 sounds great.

Pmo2
xx

Treadingwater02

Thanks Pmo2!

Not up to much this weekend, doing a general tidy up after Christmas. Going to start healthy eating on Monday as will be back to normal with dd at school and I will be back at work.

I checked my Christmas savings pot and I have £25 saved for next Christmas already which I’m determined not to break into, I want to try to build my emergency fund back up as currently at zero, I also need to check my overall budget and re-adjust totals, I really want to try to stick to this as I want to build my pots up. I’ve decided I’m not going to spend anymore money on the house for the moment as it is liveable and we haven’t sorted what’s happening with the house since we separated. I would love to buy ex out and take the mortgage on but my credit rating is still very poor so not sure what’s going to happen yet but I suppose this will get sorted eventually.

Have good weekend everyone!

Treadingwater02

So I’ve been MIA for a little while, no reason really other than just getting on with life and paying debts down.

Update:
Debt total: £29,068.23
Xmas saving pot: £179
Emergency fund: £59.60
So the fantastic news is my debt total now begins with a 2 not a 3, so glad to have dropped in to the next bracket! Would love to get it under 20k by the end of this year but I think it might just be out of reach but good to have an aspirational target.
Xmas saving pot going well, emergency fund not so well but had to use it for to replace/fix stuff around the house so hoping to build this back up to at least £500.
Next thing I want to work on is food budget, I really struggle with this and go over my budget every month, going to see if I can stick to it this month.

Take care everyone & stay safe.
x

Treadingwater02

I’ve put on more than a few pounds during lockdown so decided to take control and do something about it! Started back on SlimmingWorld last week and managed to lose 4lbs so chuffed with that 😁.

I’ve checked through my budget and seem to be on track for this month which is good.

 Emergency fund £88.03/£500

Treadingwater02

Frustrated with my emergency fund!! Every time I try to build it up something happens, my poor dog injured herself at the weekend and needed to go to the vets and that was the emergency fund wiped out!

I suppose in some ways it was good that I put that money away otherwise I would have had to borrow from my parents.

In good news she seems a little better which is fabulous news as I was worried that I was going to need a specialist referral, so fingers crossed 🤞 

In other good news I’ve lost 7lb, which is great.

Emergency fund £4.94/£500
Weight loss: 7lb/26lb

Honeysucklelou2

I do sympathise re the emergency fund. I seem to get to the £200 mark and then something happens to wipe it out! As you say better to have some there in event of emergency.

Treadingwater02

Little update:
Weight loss: 8lb/26lb
Emergency fund: £100/£500
Overall debt: £28515.55/£47000

All going in the right direction albeit not being as quickly as I’d like but I’m hoping slow and steady wins the race!

x

Treadingwater02

I’m going to start looking at my debts in a different way to keep me encouraged and motivated. My debt is made up of a dmp with step change and debts owed to family. My plan is to eventually self-manage my dmp so that I have better control but for the last few years StepChange have helped me learn how to manage and control my finances better which has been a life lesson for me. Long term goal is to get my ex off the mortgage (which means getting a mortgage just in my name) and save the money to pay off the equity he is entitled to but I cannot do any of this with debt hanging over my head so I’m going to double my efforts and attempt to drop a year off my debt free date.

This month I have paid up 2 small debts, so I had 15 debts but now have 13, looking forward to getting this below 10!

Debts paid up: 2/15
Weight loss: 11lb/26lb
Emergency fund: £112/£500
Overall debt total: £27607/£47000