Debt free Lightbulb moment.

Blue_Monday_girl

Well I’ve had my lightbulb moment.....I need to sort our debt out and spending as a family and it starts today. I’ve pretty much spent most of my day on a calculator working everything out.

We managed to accrue £19500.00 worth of debt :eek: made up of mainly 0% credit cards. I don’t want to live like this any longer. I hate having the worry of debt over our heads. To be honest I didn’t realise it was this much - it needs to be sorted and 2019 is the year to start.

I think starting a diary is a way of keeping us on track. I will also start planning meals. I calculated we spent £140.00 on takeaways and eating out this month alone....this habit needs to stop . Generally this is down to poor meal planning.

I’ve already subscribed to frugal living to get hints and tips for batch cooking.

I feel really motivated - wish me luck

pidge04

Hello and welcome!

It is amazing how all the seemingly small spends add up to a lot, isn’t it?

Have you done a SOA?
That can be very helpful.

All best wishes!

mark55man

Hi there - Blue Monday is one of my favorite New Order tracks so got to subscribe and see how you do.

I agree with Pidge04 - its amazing how much money you leak on small insignificant things that you do every day. For a family of 6 all working or at school, I reckoned the 10 minutes I spent doing basic packed lunchs saved £15 a day or £3K per year. £15 in 10 minutes is £90 an hour - that's good money

enthusiasticsaver

Good luck and hopefully 2019 will see that £19500 start to come down.

I always give 3 pieces of advice for any newbie debt buster.

Do a spending diary so well done on initiating that yourself. Just the fact of writing your spends down tends to make people think twice about spending.

Do an soa of spends for last few months to see where your overspend categories are. Obviously you have already done this so you know takeaways is an overspend area and why - poor meal planning. Why not put it on here and you will get some useful comments?

Save an emergency fund and go cold turkey on using credit cards.

I agree with mark88 that doing packed lunches is an easy win.

Aaleigha

Blue Monday one of my favourite tracks as well

SOA will help

I have been making up frugal recipes for some of our meals once the freezer has made a lot of them I will only be buying meat and fish that is reduced in some way then use a recipe from a card index

Burgers from the the freezer tonight then to or row for two days will be pork ragout we have all the ingredients

Any recipes you find keep a record of so its handy

Blue_Monday_girl

Thank you everyone - I’m excited to start this journey.

I’ll post a SOA later today when I’ve worked everything out.

I hope everyone has a good day.

ikeby

Wishing you all the luck and I'm subscribing to your thread. I have a similar amount of debt on 0% credit cards and need to make some serious changes to pay these off on time. Your starting post rings so true to me.

Blue_Monday_girl

Just worked out I’ve been given £280.00 in vouchers (one4all, Sainsburys and m&s) from family and work for Christmas. Instead of frittering them away on stuff I don’t need which I’ve done on previous years, I’m going to transfer this amount to one of my credit card debt payments and use them for food shopping once I’ve completed my meal plans. Also 2 no spend days already this week. Instead of hitting the sales we went on a couple of countryside walks. Knackered the dogs and kids = win win!

pidge04

Blue_Monday_girl wrote: »

Just worked out I’ve been given £280.00 in vouchers (one4all, Sainsburys and m&s) from family and work for Christmas. Instead of frittering them away on stuff I don’t need which I’ve done on previous years, I’m going to transfer this amount to one of my credit card debt payments and use them for food shopping once I’ve completed my meal plans. Also 2 no spend days already this week. Instead of hitting the sales we went on a couple of countryside walks. Knackered the dogs and kids = win win!

Love this ... the countryside looks so beautiful at this time of year. Much better to spend time in the countryside than in the shops! You are doing so well...making changes and winning at this!

Blue_Monday_girl

Meals all planned for this week and next. Using a free app I’ve found which also works out the shopping list. I’ve tried to use as much food as we have in already but will need to pop to the farm shop to pick up some fresh veggies. I’ve budgeted £130.00 each week for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 kids aged 6 & 9) I’m not sure but I think I may have over budgeted as we tend to shop either in our local farm shop for veggies (prices generally the same as ASDA so I’m told) or Aldi but I suppose only time will tell.
I’ve also made a banana loaf from some ripe bananas I’d usually just throw away. Tonight’s dinner is paella. Just hope the kids eat it!
I’ve also transferred the £280.00 as a credit card payment. :T

Aaleigha

I mostly use MrI and I budget 300 a month for two of us but last month (used separate christmas money for christmas food) I had £50 left - going to put this straight into new house fund (I am worried if I dont save for what we will need - carpet for one room and curtains essential) then I will get a CC and I dont want one of those again - but rather a 0% if I can get it than an OD

I am really hoping I can cut our shopping down a bit more over the months to come

DH always has two large burgers when he has them didnt give him a choice this week gave him one and an egg - put the rest of them in the freezer