*sigh* this may take a while 20 December 2018 at 11:56PM edited 19 September at 9:55PM in Debt Free Diaries 862 replies 79K views

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

ohdearhowdidthathappen

I'm going to work out a DFD with snowballing later, I'm a bit nervous as to what it'll come out as!
Will do myself a signature too and then update it on the first of every month.
It is going to be a slow few days resting my knee, so I'm going to do my tax return for self employed job. I haven't put anything aside to pay the tax, so I'm hoping the figure isn't too high