*sigh* this may take a while 20 December 2018 at 11:56PM edited 30 November -1 at 1:00AM in Debt Free Diaries 722 replies 65.6K views

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thank you, really helpful insights and advice.

I'll definitely look at a spending diary, I'd imagine it'll make for interesting (depressing?) reading. We definitely have a constant drip...drip pattern out of our account. Today, I had to get some medicine for kids' various ailments, batteries and a couple of bulbs.... £22! And asda did stupid subs so I had to pop to the shops to replace, another £8. Those things all add up.

I agree with a large family little treats end up costing too, I only had 3 of them with me today and usually I'd get them a hot chocolate each and wouldn't get change from a tenner. I managed to avoid it today by pointing out how much chocolate we already have in the house.

My job is very secure, I work for the NHS as a healthcare professional, I undertook extra postgrad training a few years back and it qualified me for a very sought after role. My colleague recently decided to locum and now earns £40 an hour, I wouldn't want to locum through choice, but I would if I had to.
My husband's role is arguably less secure, but he has a 6 month notice period and he could find another job relatively easily, albeit for potentially a slightly lower salary.
I definitely agree our lack of savings is a cause for concern and once our debts are clear, we need to build up a pot.
Before the building work, our debts were £3k, so most of it stems from the build.. We made the decision to 'only' borrow £100k for the work, which was a bit daft as we knew it would be more.... it ended up being £135k. The other £4k debt was because we paid for my dad's funeral, my mum wasn't in the financial position to afford it and my siblings both refused to help :-(

Buffythedebtslayer

I don't know if I am ok to suggest this, but I am trying to save as well as pay off debt? So that for example next time I have to pay for the car insurance I don't have to use the CC. I have tried this a few times and it doesn't always work out! but it has at times (and saved me quite often) and also building up an emergency fund/saving for Christmas. I am in debt cos I borrowed money to do up the house and then just lost the plot a bit. I did have a plan at one point but I kinda lost it

Any how I am going try this... Good luck XX

blue_eyed_girl123

Maybe try and include the children in the money saving things, and explain to them that you are saving pennies for other things. Explaining budgets for shopping etc and getting them to help will certainly do them no harm and might help in the long run . Also, with sweet treats, maybe get them to make their own flapjack on a budget or cornflake crispy buns .

Good luck on your journey.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I've got 3 (empty) savings accounts... in my SOA, I've allocated £200 to presents, £150 to holidays and £100 to an emergency fund, so I thought I'd use the 3 accounts for these....
I like the idea of including the children in the budgeting, especially the older two who can be a little *cough* entitled.

Today was a NSD, mainly because we sat around doing !!!!!! all! I've volunteered to do an extra shift at work tomorrow, it'll be £150 after deductions and as hubby is at home, no childcare costs! It'll man a 6am start though, yuck

crunch_time

Subscribed!! Debt is debt whether you owe £500 or £50,000 or whether you earn £1000 a month or £5000 plus a month. It's all relative.

Good luck with your debt busting!

Crunchy xx

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Agreed, it’s definitely all relative.

Did an extra shift today, added bonus was that as I was at work, I didn’t spend any money!!

I currently have 3 sources of income;
1) is my profession which I earn the most for hourly, but don’t really enjoy (£1000 a month for 15 hours a week)
2) a retail job that pays very little, but I have no childcare costs and I don’t pay NI. Together with perks (discount) this means I take home the same a day as job 1) and earns me £300 per month for 8 hours a week
3) my own business that doesn’t pay much, but I can do it around the children (the other £370 a month for 10 hours a week)

All my childcare costs £300 are incurred through doing job 1).

I constantly waver and tweak the balance between the 3 roles and the current above scenario seems to earn the most relevant to the hours worked.

I dislike job 1) enough that I don’t really ever want to do more 15 hours a week in it, so when my little one starts school I may have to look for a different job. That’s a while off though :-)

crunch_time

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

Agreed, it’s definitely all relative.

Did an extra shift today, added bonus was that as I was at work, I didn’t spend any money!!

I currently have 3 sources of income;
1) is my profession which I earn the most for hourly, but don’t really enjoy (£1000 a month for 15 hours a week)
2) a retail job that pays very little, but I have no childcare costs and I don’t pay NI. Together with perks (discount) this means I take home the same a day as job 1) and earns me £300 per month for 8 hours a week
3) my own business that doesn’t pay much, but I can do it around the children (the other £370 a month for 10 hours a week)

All my childcare costs £300 are incurred through doing job 1).

I constantly waver and tweak the balance between the 3 roles and the current above scenario seems to earn the most relevant to the hours worked.

I dislike job 1) enough that I don’t really ever want to do more 15 hours a week in it, so when my little one starts school I may have to look for a different job. That’s a while off though :-)

Sounds like a good mix of work! xx

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I've decided to set some targets for the first 3 months of 2019;

Financial:
- pay at least £1k over and above minimums off debts
- keep a spending diary so I can update the SOA at the end of March
- take lunch into work (saving £10 a week)

Health:
- 3 alchohol free nights a week (saving £5 a week)
- lose 14lbs (1lb a week on average)
- exercise 3 times a week
- try and reach 10000 steps a day

I'm looking forward to the fresh start and trying to achieve these targets... if I do, I should be feeling lighter, healthier and less skint in 3 months

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Happy New Year!

My year started early at 6.30am thanks to my 3 year old!

Got on the scales and I've put on 5lb over the last month and 14lb since the start of 2018 (this is the 14lb I've targeted to lose in the first 3 months of this year)… I'll see how I go, but I've put on 20lb in total since I had my 15 year old. I wouldn't mind getting back to that.... healthy eating starts today.

Money wise, we decided to stay home last night, saved ourselves at least £150 in babysitting, taxis and drinks. Instead, we ate leftover Christmas treats and our eldest 3 stayed up to watch films and play games. A NSD on New Years Eve, that's a first! Another NSD today; down come the Christmas decs and then an afternoon of board games planned :-)

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Not a great start to the year, I managed to dislocate my kneecap yesterday, ouch. So I won't be doing the exercise part of my targets for a couple of weeks!

On the plus side, I've had two NSD in a row and I haven't eaten much as I've been in quite a lot of pain. Small silver linings! Luckily, my husband had already taken this week off as annual leave. The hospital has signed me off work for 2 weeks for recovery, in a very lazy way I'm quite pleased, especially as I get a week's annual leave back because of it :cool:

The children are all back to school/ preschool tomorrow which they're not looking forward to. It's been a lovely break (except for my knee!), so I'm quite sad it's over