*sigh* this may take a while

mark55man

Well done on a brave year in which you still made good progress.

Looking forward to reading about next year’s achievements and I hope you make the same progress on health and weight next years as you have done in other ways this year. That’s my focus as well.

Yellow_mango

I’d say that sounds like a pretty positive year all in! Here’s to another year of positive changes :-)

crunch_time

Well done on looking back and seeing progress. I think you have a great balance between debt and life xx

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Happy New Year all! My youngest woke me up at 7am this morning, which isn't too bad, but a tad early after a boozy late night. Lots of caffeine required!

Looking forward to catching up on some daries and having a generally chilled day :-)

clearmydebts

Happy New Year. Hope the caffeine has hit and you are getting to chill!

savingholmes

Happy New Year. Look forward to reading about your progress moving forward - particularly with that monthly CC. DR claims people spend up to 30% more when flashing the plastic. If you could get to the point where you had a healthy emergency fund and were no longer adding to your debt each month - you could get really motoring.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

We haven't been adding to our debt, we've maintained £8.5K for nearly a year while doing house renovations on the side. Our biggest issue is running a household of 7 in an expensive part of the country doesn't leave us much spare and what is spare, goes on the house renovations.
Worst case, we should be debt free March 2021, but we'd love to bring that forward and there are definitely things we can improve on and need to work on.
I can well believe the extra spending when flashing the plastic, it doesn't feel like real money sometimes. When the entitled teen asks for something excessive, I'll say 'that's equivalent to me working x number of hours', maybe I should apply the same logic to OH and I!

savingholmes

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

When the entitled teen asks for something excessive, I'll say 'that's equivalent to me working x number of hours', maybe I should apply the same logic to OH and I!

Yes I am trying to do this at the moment. Not easy. However we have limited personal spends reasonably successfully for six months now so we are improving. I am still the worst of the two of us for unplanned spending but tend to blame it on also being the main shopper and organiser...

The wait 72 hours rule also helps - if you still want it after 72 hours potentially get it then rather than immediately - that can also help.

Drawingaline

It's hard. We are a family of six and we haven't added to the debt this year, cash flowed a holiday, done some house renovations and survived me being off work and on reduced hours after an accident (I am self employed). I am taking it as a win, but have plans to start overpaying every month, even if it is just £10!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Back to work and school today... in a way, I welcome the routine.

I feel less maternal guilt now my youngest is at school, the youngest 3 are only in childcare for 2.5 hours a day, 3 days a week. Doesn't feel as much of a trade off as when I was working only 2 days, but my littlest was in nursery for 10 hours for those 2 days... it's self imposed guilt as many do longer hours, I think it's just because my ideal would be zero hours in childcare, not really doable nowadays!

Took a peek at accounts and current account should be ok to payday and the dreaded CC should be holding at £1500 by the cut off, not too shabby post Christmas.

I'd love to commit the 2 months off of council tax to the CC, but 2 big payments due on school trips wipes the £450 out sadly!

OH should hear about his bonus within the next few months, fingers crossed for a good one...