Working Hard Debt Diary - Here goes

WorkingHardDFW

Love all the same though but they drive you to distraction at times!!

beanielou

Mine is getting rather too big for his boots at the mo!!

WorkingHardDFW

Oh dear that sounds like hard work B!

Got to get the food budget under control this month. Our budget is £400 for a family of 5 however we always seem to have to be buying food. One of the kids has a food intolerance which means I cook from scratch a lot so I can't really see where the money is going. My target for next month is to keep the food bill under £400. Not quite sure how i will achieve this but I many have to post up running totals to help me keep on track.

Off to do shoes now.................................:eek:

beanielou

Hope shoes goes well.
Rather you than me!
i just order cons from the net

WorkingHardDFW

As predicted 2 out of 3 required shoes so thats £60 down :eek:. Lets hope nothing is required between now and the end of next month! I need to let it go - LOL

Happytogetdebtfree

where did you buy them from, i dont have kids its so expensive so il hold off a few more years besides i want to be practically rid of all credit card debt !! i was so mad at myself today i was driving and martin came on the radio and i just though god if i had found this when i was at uni some of my debt would be non existent :-( ahh i feel like i need to make a spreadsheet what of i do not know

WorkingHardDFW

I get them from Clarkes which is expensive I know but I'm quite old fashioned and I like them to be in decent shoes given that they wear them 5 days a week, 39 weeks per year - not that they last that long too often.

My DS1 who didn't need new shoes has always been exceptionally hard on shoes and I've tried the cheap shoe options with him for school shoes however its a false economy. Given that if I am very lucky with him i'll get a term from his shoes before they are worn through with cheap s/m shoes I didn't even get a half term....

...what makes it hard is that I can't remember when OH or I last bought shoes for ourselves. However thats our fault since we ran up this damn debt not the kids

I feel like you ref knowing about managing money earlier. I so wish that we'd had our LBM sooner but regrets hey....:o we are where we are and on control of the finances with the debt reducing . Looking very much forward to being DF later in the year:D:D

Compingirl

Hi WH, i'm back from sunny Egypt, we had a fantastic time, did loads of stuff and thoroughly enjoyed it. I would recommend it as a place to go its great!

Anyway, enough about that yes we overspent lol! Not by too much, £250 which I don't think is too bad, but I made a major goof whilst away, I have paid £750 off the wrong card:eek: It should have gone towards my new dining suite and ive paid it off a 0% card by mistake:rolleyes: Can't do anything about it now - at least my debt has come down lol! but it will take me a few months to sort that little mistake out.

Once again you have inspired me to do some MS/ebaying Im losing the will on ebay but have loads of stuff to sell and im trying to lose some weight so the food MS aren't as appealing at the mo! Im waiting till payday then its school shoe shopping for me too, oh joy of joys, its clarks for us too I hope theyve got some left! I ordered the rest of the uniform through Quidco so at least there's a little cash to come back.

your totals are looking fantastic! DF in 2009 woo hoo! You do right tho' don't relax too soon, its like a diet you have to get to target and then maintain! Its really great though, I love watching the totals come down, its very addictive!

Anyway, bye for now, hope your e-bay items get lots of bids! cgx

WorkingHardDFW

Good to have you back CG. Sounds like you have had a fantastic time away and you 'sound' quite chilled! What a break does to us all. The overspend wasn't too bad either so pat yourself on the back for that :T. Our overspend was a combination of over spending and under budgetting . Anyway so glad you had a fab time - not that I'm green at all !!

I've let the shoes go now, I knew it was coming its just a tough at one go. Still growing healthy kids so I'm not really complaining . Mine are back at school next week so today was really my last chance since I'm working for the rest of the week.

I had a bit of a splurge on ebay although I've not seen the rewards yet. Lots of stuff has watchers and 3 have sold already so I'm hopeful. Mind you OH bid on some fishing stuff for DS1 (resulting from the camping weekend we did with friends). I nearly fell over when he told me how much it all was but then he said it was coming from DS1's account so I relaxed slightly.

You made me smile with the wrong payment. I did that last month as well but only for £133. However unfortunately for us its dissapeeared into the either at Next so no doubt it will be weeks before i can knock it back off the totals.


We are certainly motoring towards being DF however I do feel that the pace has slowed a little. I've just made the CC payments for this month and the new debt total is £8184. Which I know is great but I don't think we're lopping as much off pm as we were perhaps doing at the start of the year. Why...

Well I think we are in a different phase of getting DF now. We've a comfortable surplus each month and this is paid off the debt. However we now use one of the spare CC to buy bits and pieces and this gets paid from the respective budget pots or from the debt surplus if its something we've not budgetting for (like concert tickets :o). This means for example £171 of the debt fund was diverted to the B/card to pay off various bits this month. Also we've upped a few budgets a little to make them a fraction more comfortable. Essentially we need to start living and spending as we would normally and not the ultra ultra frugal existence we've had for the past 18 months. This will hopefully mean that we are DF by the end of the year (hopefully although this will be pushing it but a challenge is what we all like) we can continue living within our means and not suddenly going mad. Gosh I've rambled on -sorry you know what I was trying to say.

Anyway signature update on its way and MBing to check

Oh and I'm with you on the weight loss front too

Spongebob_Nopants

Just a quick one, as a newbie, to say that you've done a great job and your progress is an inspiration to someone like me just starting out! Good stuff, well done.