A Year to make a Difference

Thrice

Afternoon all,

Well after lurking for years, being an active user under a different name for years, to this new account due to too much personal info on the last one. I have finally set up my first MSE diary!

A short bit about me. I live in central Scotland with Mr Thrice and our two dogs. We have a home that needs a lot of work, and it's a huge drain on our finances. We have over the last 8 years spent a lot of money decorating etc, then we found proper issues with the house. Spent and spent trying to repair and repair, but it's really got to the point now where we need to replace part of the roof, which means more money which I just don't have right now.

I'm going to set this up and then I can update tonight with my totals and lists for 2019. I'm not one for new years resolutions, I generally think they are made to be broken. So, I'm starting before Christmas, that way they can be a new way to live, rather than something I can give up on mid January!

I'm hoping to use this to stay accountable to myself, and to get advice/encouragement/told off by you lot I have 'manageable' debt, but I need to get my head down and clear as much as I can over 2019, so hopefully, come 2020, I can maybe take maternity leave from work. My god, I feel a bit funny writing that down!

Right, I'm away before I say anything else I haven't said before :rotfl:

Thrice

So I currently have 3 credit cards -

CC1 - £271.03 - PAID 28.1.19!!
CC2 - £2544.84
CC3 - £9095.25 (0% til early 2020, used this to purchase my car, it was the best option I had at the time)

CC1 I have been overpaying for the last nearly 2 months, bringing it down from nearly £800. I'm planning to have this cleared by the end of February. Then I will move on to CC2, but I'll need to do my annual budget to work out how much extra I will have to throw at it.

I also have a loan which is currently at £13,734.83. This is another thing that I try to over pay each month, even if it's only a few pounds. I generally pay it down to a round figure, like I'm going to lay £34.83 extra tomorrow to bring it to £13,700. It's not a huge amount, but it's something. Loan is a mix of old credit card debt, DH's debt and a new bathroom. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but this is a big part of what could be my savings per month.

And just to add the final figure, the mortgage. Currently £72,947.38. Just remortgaged 3 months ago with a set rate for 3 years.

Right, I'm off to bed! Good night all and thanks for the welcomes xx

Chrystal

Looking forward to encouraging/ nagging you!

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary

Thrice

Good morning diary :-)

List for today -

Print off all bank statements etc
Make a start on the Annual Budget
Make a start on stock check of all food/toiletries/cleaning products in the house
Write a list of all birthday's for 2019
Write a list for Christmas 2019

I need to get these budgets and stock checks done as this is my basis for my 2019 adventure!!

Lydia42

Happy new diary. What a fab idea to start now. I'm hoping to take a leaf out of your book and pick up a new diary this week so i can update all important dates etc over the xmas hols whilst i am off work with the kids.
Good luck.

Thrice

Thanks Lydia42!

I bought a 2019 diary from Poundstretchers, it's A5 sized with sections for dates, addresses, to do lists and notes, so I'm going to use it as much as I can.

I've already marked a lot of the birthdays into it, and it's got a wee calendar running along the bottom of each page, so I've marked a dot on that so I can see at a glance that I've got a birthday that month/week.

Little things to keep me in check!

Thrice

I've been awol for a few weeks now, Christmas has passed in a blur of family, food and wrapping paper!

I'm 50% done with my stock check, i just have the store cupboard plus the toiletries upstairs as well. I've added in a stock check of all my make up and beauty products. Managed to clear loads of food so far that's out of date and unusable, or that's been opened too long to still be useable. I've also admitted defeat with some things that I've had for years and never cooked, those are now binned as well. Bleached the cupboards inside and out and used some old craft paper to line some of the shelves to help me clean in future.

MrThrice is going to help me with the budget, we've had a death in the family that's put us back from where we planned to be, I thought the budget would be done by now. But, there is time later for that, I've sorted out the grocery budgets til,the end of January and we are planning to use up as much as we can, we will get the full budget sorted hopefully in the next week or so,

Signing off, it's late and there's lots to do tomorrow X

pidge04

Really proactive of you to look at the year ahead for upcoming spends. That will help a lot with budgeting and being prepared/organised.

Samwise_the_Frugal

Subscribed! I'm in a similar boat (hoping for kids in 2020, so trying to have a very productive and enjoyable 'last hurrah' in 2019!) so I'm looking forward to seeing you smash your debts and get the house in order.

Good luck!

Thrice

Afternoon all, I'm just popping on while having a break from gutting this house!

That's all the Christmas decorations down ready to be put back into storage, will probably do that tomorrow when MrT isn't working. We've got other stuff to go as well, I've cleared a few bin bags of clothes from upstairs (summer clothes etc), I'll clear some shoes and jackets as well to make a bit more room. I've realised after clearing the kitchen cupboards out that I can actually see the food that's there, rather than having it stuffed with things I don't need or want. I've always been a hoarder, always scared of not having enough or running out. Its been quite cathartic the last few days to actually clear out.

Had a few spends today, butcher meat to make stew for tomorrow for MrT, a few bits in Superdrug sale. Splashed out on 2 x £3 scratch cards and I've won £45 :-) will cash it in and pay £20 off my credit card, the other 25 cancels out my spends today including the £6 I spent to buy the cards lol x