Working Hard Debt Diary - Here goes

WorkingHardDFW

All sounds very positive. Its the saving £30 here and there that all add up. Go girl:rolleyes:

Thanks Hypno. I've just printed off the instructions to have yet another read through and I'm in the process of setting up yet another account to keep the MB funds seperate. Fingers crossed I have the ability to turn a profit before the end of the year :rotfl: . It will be a challenge and us DFW like a challenge:D

EagerLearner

Welldone WorkingHard you have come such a long way and it proves that you can get the debt busted if you put all money-saving technieuqes into practice! Just a few ideas for you:

Are you on the monthly grocery challenges?
Do you have my guide to clicking cashback links for free cash?
Have you joined Pigsback?
Do you get items from Freecycle rather than buy?
Do you have a top savings account like IceSave to make the most interest - or better still, an ISA?
Do you bulk cook and then freeze portions, so you are eating healthier and for less?

Keep up the good work! x

WorkingHardDFW

Wow thanks EagerLearner for your support all welcome :cool:

Ref your fantastic ideas

Are you on the monthly grocery challenges? - I've tried but it doesn't float my boat. I know what I've got to spend each month for food (family of 5 £300) and I try each month to stay within. I'm getting nearer each month. Believe me when I do I will post
Do you have my guide to clicking cashback links for free cash? - I do click but not daily and I do the surveys but not as methodically as I should so I'm not getting huge volumes of points etc in
Have you joined Pigsback? - yes and I've just got 1000 points not bad for 8 months of free clicks :rolleyes:
Do you get items from Freecycle rather than buy? - No although I give my unsaleable stuff away via freecycle. Things that I have needed I usally ask around and get hold of but its a fair point I should check it a bit more often.
Do you have a top savings account like IceSave to make the most interest - or better still, an ISA? - No all my pots of money are seperate and easily accessible. I know that ideally they should all be together but it works for me having them all over the place. Mind you our emergency fund should really be in an ISA - I'm onto it.
Do you bulk cook and then freeze portions, so you are eating healthier and for less? - yes and have done for years. My DD has a food intolerance so I was predisposed to cook from scratch and I do it without thinking

Always room for improvement :cool:

firesidemaid

it's amazing how much your debts have come down in less than a year.

just a thought about your mortgage. our fixed term comes to an end in feb, and as it's less than 6 months away i am already watching out for good deals as it takes 2-3 months to sort everything out. you can lock into a deal for up to 6 months as long as you pay arrangement fee (and there are some that are currently either £0 or £249).

i am watching the 'best buy' tables each week - currently looking at a hsbc with a rate of 5.69% (disc/tracker, not fixed). even that will be more than we pay now. i am hoping that they will come down a little in the next few months, so i am holding on with fingers crossed.

as long as you choose a mortgage which you can make overpayments on you can do half and half - decrease the term to what you are comfortable with, knowing you can overpay when you have more available.

WorkingHardDFW

Thats for that firesidemaid thats really useful to know. I guess I want to do both. You are right though that we should chose repayments which we are comfortable now and throw the 'spare' cash when we are debt free at the mortgage to reduce the term. Mortgage best buy tables here i come!!

My ebay things are going well with bids on 5 items, upto £37 at present, but all items with loads of watchers so I should break my £50 target easily.

I've got all the matched betting stuff to read through but not have the chance this weekend. Def a job for the week and to get a new bank account set up to keep the money seperate.

WorkingHardDFW

Positive morning so far I have:

• Opened a seperate bank account for my matched bettings funds
• Opened a Cash ISA for our emergency funds
• Checked my ebay stuff - currently at £63:rolleyes:
• Checked banking - OH got paid today just waiting for me tomorrow to see if I get any extra this month. I think I may get Aprils payrise backdated so if I do that will be going in the loan fund.
• Checked the loan fund £200 in it now:D . Feels strange leaving the money in there and not whacking it off the target CC but its got to be done.

Just need to enter the receipts from the last few days and I'm done!

Need to dig out more ebay stuff and get it listed. I want a constant stream of stuff on there rather than the big batches.

Onward:T

WorkingHardDFW

Its a good day since a load of my ebay stuff has sold bringing in a massive £66:D . I've still got 12 things listing, three of which are more than a £1 :rotfl: and one of which already has a bid of £20:D . Hopefully the next batch of stuff will bring in another £50.

I picked up two mystery shops for next week so that more cash in the coffers. One of the shops is for me to purchase something so thats good since I shop in the place anyway. There's over £290 is the loan clearing fund now which is great. It feels a little strange keeping the money in there rather than whacking it off the CC but its the right thing to do. At least its earning some interest.

Just started writing chqs out for the start of term money draining fest! DD starts secondary school tomorrow and DS is back on Thursday. So I don't doubt I will be broke by the end of the month.....:cool:

Question I had. We get Child benefit of £175 per month and thats the figure I use for our income but clearly CB is paid every 4 weeks which averages £190 per month. Should I adjust the income to show the real amount £190 or should I show what actually comes in most months the £175. What do people usually do - you can tell that I micro manage the budget now :rotfl:

Verbatim

As every 4 weeks equals 13 times in a year how about the 4 weekly amount x 13 divided by 12 to give the monthly amount?

hypno06

I would use the £175 figure - then on the odd occasion that you get 2 lots (I have two lots in Sept, one at the beginning, one at the end) the extra £175 is then a bonus!!

Good luck with back to school/new school!

WorkingHardDFW

Thanks for your comments. I think I'm going to go with the usual monthly amount of £175 and as Hypno says take the extra payment as a bonus but I must note when I get it so that it can be fired at the CC's.

I got paid today and got a small extra amount - backdated cost of living rise - so thats another £70 in the loan clearing fund!

Lots of parcels to wrap up this am and get to the Postoffice.