Working Hard Debt Diary - Here goes

hypno06

Wishing you a very happy christmas too - and looking forward to you becoming debt free in 2009!

lucielle

Merry Christmas
L

WorkingHardDFW

Hi all post Christmas update.

Spending has gone a little haywire the last couple of weeks....however I've just updated the spending diary (now 1 year old) and feel in control again.

We had a wonderful Christmas, frantic in the run up, hectic with a houseful for a couple of days, followed by a week or so of kicking back and chilling - lovely really lovely...

Now reality is back and I'm back on track with my mission to be DF next year .

We managed to overspend against the budget on Christmas by £300:eek: . The presents we were pretty good on but it was the food, wine and particularly the drink order which threw the budget out since I'd not included any of this in the budget. It was intended to come out of Decembers food budget. Anyway we are where we are and the drink will probably last us until next Xmas (it did this year) and I'm going to amend the budget up slightly!

However I've also done what I've never done before and I've managed to buy 9 presents already for next Xmas (all in the sales - Boots particularly but Next and Gap as well:T ). I've always bought my Xmas cards after Xmas but never presents.....

I also like the idea (which I saw on here) of carrying a list of B/day/Xmas pressies so if you see something you knowwho you've got to buy for.

We've also added a little more to our debt as well over the holidays. As I've mentioned before our dog ate (and I mean literally ate) one of the sofa's in our c/tory so its been unused for the best part of this year. Now he is settling down a bit we've finally taken the plunge and ordered two new sofa's so that we can have our chill out room back. We've done it the DF way and ordered via Quidco and in the sale and we've got a real bargain for the two sofa's. OH is also ordering a new sound system (boys and toys) for in there (the old one has been recycled to our DS1's room). Again this will increase our debt but this is it. I found it really difficult to spend the money....

So we've overspent at Christmas, and bought some expensive household bits . Looking forward I reckon we'll start 2009 with £25k of debt which isn't good but looking at what we started 2008 with its brilliant. Even with the two recent spends we're still on track to be DF by October 2009 (I could even start counting the months). The most important thing for us is to keep on budget next year. We've learnt so much during 2008 about finances and its will be so key for us to keep focused so that we do get DF in October or sooner if we can.

Plus I've got 2.5 stone to loose next year as well

lucielle

I find debt busting sooooooo much easier than weight busting.
L

hypno06

lucielle wrote: »

I find debt busting sooooooo much easier than weight busting.
L

ooh, me too lucielle!

I wouldn't worry about busting the budget for Christmas - one thing I have noticed that you are very good at is recognising when budgets need tweaking in order to make them more realistic, so this is no exception - next year you will be within budget, I am sure!

10 months to DFD - how cool does that sound :T

lucielle

hypno06 wrote: »

10 months to DFD - how cool does that sound :T

I am not jealous, I am not jealous
L

beanielou

^^ Me neither~much:rotfl:

WorkingHardDFW

I'm with all you guys on the debt busting being easier than weight busting:D . That has so got to be achieved next year:cool:

Thanks for the support - its always an up and down road we all travel but hopefully we will all get there one day soonish!

Definately got some work to do on analysing a year of our spending diary. OH has just shown me a trick with the excel spreadsheet for sub totoalling - I can't face the analysis for a day or two!!

Happy NEw Year to one and all.....:beer:

lucielle

Happy New Year to you as well.
L

WorkingHardDFW

Happy new year to one and all. The decs are down, the rich fattening food has all been eaten, the kids are back to school tomorrow and I am back at work on Wednesday. Life on the DFW is back to normal and a good time has been had by all.

OK the spending diary which is now fantastically a year old has proved its weight in gold. When i started it way back when I never thought I'd keep it going let alone spend time analysing it - yes I know its sad! However yet again its shown us where we are actually spending our money rather then where we think we are spending it - which can be very different. So I've analysed the budget to try to focus on what's we've overspent on (which ends up on o/d or CC) or what we've underspent on - there were a couple.

Whilst walking the mutt I've thought about how we deal with this issue since the more realistic we make the budget the less we have to throw at the debts. However cold hard reflection has shown that we got in our debt due to not facing up to what we are actually spending and we really don't want to be there again. So I've adjusted the budget to reflect what will be spening. That doesn't mean we'll be going mad (far from it prudence and thrift is the order of the day) but it does mean we'll have less to throw at the debts.

So as of now our CC debts stand at £24763:eek:
Each month we'll be able to reduce them in actuality by £1252 rising to £1480 by the end of the year as card are paid off
Fingers crossed OH will be a bonus in March of £3k

Unfortunately with means we are with a shortfall of £5kish which needs to be found. We've got no other big money coming in like last year (no clapped out cars to sell or shares to get rid off) so good old fashioned graft is what it will be about.

Again by my calculations to be DF in 12 months (Gosh that sounds so good) I need to find an extra £400 pm. Quite a task particularly as I won't be able to do many extra hours now as I've permanently increased my hours from now. However only a little more than the £10 per day challenge.

How I am going to do this:

• Ebay/Amazon/Green metropolis like there is no tomorrow - if its not used it will be sold!
• Mystery shop as much as possible - although this has never really brought me much in 1/2 per month I need to crank it up a gear
• Quidco/Cashback etc etc to either get money or vouchers to save on budgets
• Matched betting (:eek: ) I've really got no excuse but to go for this one. I've got the account all set up I just need to devote the time to this to generate a little income each month
• Switching between CC's to either reduce int rates (making a savings) or moving to a O% card (I keep pondering this but never actually do it)
• Stay in budget:D

Allowing for all of this will hopefully allow me to keep on track with the £400 per month target and for us to be DF by December 2009:j

Here goes.............