AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

Week 26s payday was a bit of a mixed bag. I paid off a chunk, taking £50 off my balance, then found out that the water arrears were higher than I was aware of - only by about £60 but it still means that the balance has gone up this week

In good news, hubby paid his loan off and has reduced his payment as planned....it could take up to 2 weeks to kick in, but that will give him £60-£120 to start his account off with so that's no bad thing. I am looking forward to being £200 month better off with zero effort! :rotfl: It is going to make a massive difference to my debt-busting and I hope it will be the push we need to make it over the hump of this last stretch.

aimeemum

Haven't done one of these in ages......

Opening Balance in RED, Current Balance in BLUE

Hubby's Aqua CC - £650 - £87

My CC Vanquis - £952 - £700

CCJ (28/1/2016) - £580 - £265

Council Tax (including Arrears) 2018-19 - £1300 - £0

OVO Energy (Arrears) £1336 - £1100

Yorkshire Water (Arrears) - £220 - £150

aimeemum

Just called YW to re-set my payments (meant to do it yesterday while on the phone but ended up setting up an engineer to look into a potential leak instead!) and they've re-set my structure, put me onto monthly DD again, which I was not expecting, and that means that I no longer have a 'debt' with them. I can therefore take the weekly payments I was making and put them across to my monthly bills payments instead. Much happier now I've done that. I will still over-pay to get rid of the arrears but no longer going to have debt letters from YW! Oh, and the DD is coming out 28th, the day after my UC payment goes in so should NEVER bounce!!:j:j That has cheered me up no end and while I know I can't take it off my list, it's no longer a priority so I can shift my attention to the 3 remaining ones which is brilliant! :T

aimeemum

Happy Monday! We had a fab weekend - took the kids to see Dumbo and then for a KFC for lunch afterwards. Cost £40 total (Well, £36) but I think it was worth it. Everyone enjoyed themselves and we visited some friends afterwards which was nice to see them - haven't for ages!

I really need to crack on with some housework and make some phone calls this morning, then I'm allowing myself a long lunch to watch the last episode of Gentleman Jack. After that I need to do some work for me. I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend writing over the holidays but I think if I lower my expectations I'll be a lot happier....maybe just stick to the blog, shelve the WIP for now and just do some reading and research as I can do that in short bursts. Maybe then I'll have some enthusiasm when the kids go back to school.

Money front....all fine. Bit of an expensive week but I kind of expected it so it's not a worry. Next week I have some bills coming out but hoping to make a nice payment too as I've told hubby I need to be nice and frugal the next 2 weeks to be able to afford our trip down south nice and comfortably...he has a shopping list while we're down there so need to budget carefully. Still looking forward to it....it's been a while since we've been away without having to take the tent etc so it's a bit of a novelty to just pack a suitcase and go!

aimeemum

Small payment made this week, tyres changed on the car (cost a bit more than anticipated but still managed it!), expensive shopping trip to buy presents for teachers and new school jumpers completed. Also paid for a 1 hour guitar lesson as hubby hadn't been for a month....expensive week! Groceries arriving this evening, car full of fuel, I'll be genuinely glad to get to next thursday. At least hubby is working through which in a roundabout way makes things cheaper. He is a bad influence and tends to make me spend! With him at work we can't go anywhere, do anything or spend money.

In fact I can probably spend some time this weekend and put some things onto FB/Ebay that I have sorted out. Youngest also learned to ride a bike without stabilisers this week so has been upgraded leaving the small bike surplus (going on FB) and eldest without a bike. Have priced one up in Argos for £100 that will be perfect - he needs 24inch frame which is more or less adult! lol - so need to save up for that, and an electric hedge trimmer that again I've priced up in B&Q for £38. I also priced up the uniform we need...going to cost about £120 to kit everyone out ready for September so going to start getting the bits I can get in dribs and drabs...already ordered eldest a new lunchbox. Still to get:

Water Bottles for all 3 (got 2)

Eldest
4/5 x polo shirts (got 2)
winter coat (may wait until October but will see)
shoes
PE track suit
Indoor PE Kit (got shorts)

Middle
2/3Trousers
2 x polos (have lots of hand-me-downs)
Shoes
PE tracksuit
Trainers
Lunchbox
Backpack
Spare jumper

Youngest
2 x Polos (again, hand-me-downs)
Shoes

Thankfully I have a lot of stuff that I have kept to kit out the younger two with some stuff but the middle DS is moving up to juniors so needs all new kit for that. I'm really not looking forward to senior school in a couple of years as I've heard horror stories about the expense!

In debt news - I have £2,191 left to pay overall, with £1,495 left to go off my first target. I was thinking about it and because strictly we have £1,800 limit on hubby's card, and we have about £80 in savings, we are about £300 off being 'neutral' in terms of debt! I'm really pleased about that, and it's helping me to see that every £1 I pay now will be to making us 'positive' in terms of money. Once we get below £1800 on that overall amount I'll know we're into a black zone! Aim is to get it to just to Vanquis left, then I'll start on Dave Ramsey's BS3....saving!! :beer:

Oh, and my Totally Money has gone up by 3 whole points!! Woohoo!!

Anyway, back to work for me. I've got an hour or so before everyone comes home and I really need to crack on.

aimeemum

Elec/Gas bill for the month is through - less than £70! :j

Means that my total to reach by end of September is now £1,482!

CB through today - need to keep most of it back to pay for this weekend. I'm taking myself into town to pick up some milk and bread for the rest of the week and then the rest will pay for the extra fuel, food and the cider hubby wants to get while down there.

Feeling a bit negative generally this week. I don't really know why but it could be something to do with the fact that I'm really having to watch what I eat in order to shed this weight. It's hard work with an underactive thyroid and I'm struggling. Trying to eat 1200 cals or less each day, ideally 1000 but I tend to feel naff if I eat that little. So far I've lost 3lb which isn't great but ok considering I actually put 2lb back on last week :mad: I want to have a 10 at the front of my weight by the end of this week so I am trying hard since Sundays weigh in. Not holding out much hope though - I'm not very good at this whole dieting thing due to growing up with a parent who was perpetually on diets. It just makes me feel low constantly. I have to try though. Aiming to be 10st4lb and currently at 11st1lb (was 11st4lb on 1st July).

Anyway, lots to do today. I have to pack for the weekend, do my daily chores and I also have a blog post to put out before the weekend.

aimeemum

Back from Lidl - got some school uniform bargains!!

2 x Jumpers - £1 each
2 x polos (pack) - £1.75
2 x shorts (pack) - £2.49
2 x water bottles - £3 for 2
= £9.24

aimeemum

Wonderful weekend away had by all - back to reality with a resounding crash today though

Good things to report -

We stayed on budget for the weekend. Hubby and I decided that we would take cash and use that for everything...cards can spiral. We left fuel money only on the card. We came home with enough change for fish and chips for tea on Monday!!

We used our EH membership twice this weekend - Stonehenge should have cost £54.40 and Muchelney abbey should have been £13.20. That takes the tally to £81 of the £105 of DD's that I will have paid for this year. Not too far to go until we're into a profit from it Plus we had 2 lovely trips out!!

I've managed to earn £7.51 in cashback by shopping with my Halifax card in Morrisons this month! I've also got £7.50 in More points on top of this!! The cashback will go into the EF. The More points are now up to £25 towards Christmas with minimal effort!

My bank accounts are looking very healthy at the moment. Payday tomorrow and UC will be paid Friday (supposed to be Sat but they don't pay at weekends). I should be more or less on track for July to end the month £90 up as my spreadsheet had predicted!!

I've organised the kids uniforms and have priced up what I need on George's website. Minus 1 backpack for middle DS I need to save up £95 which isn't as bad as I thought. The Lidl bargains have helped a lot, although I have too many jumpers now! Whoops.

Tesco order is done ready to be delivered tomorrow.

Weather is scorching here - rained last night and this morning but is warming up now and is so muggy. We've retreated indoors for today but I think the paddling pool will be back out tomorrow for sure! I'm loving being able to get my washing done

July has been good...here's hoping August is as good....lots to look forward to and only 10 more weeks until we're at our target date!!

Oh, and Aqua tried to up hubby's credit limit again to nearly £4k! We were astounded.....this time last year he was over his limit and in 'persistent debt'. 6 months on from finally taking control *and with a current balance sub-£100!* they're basically attempting to make him lose control of it all! He declined it. It's already at £1,800 and we don't think there's anything that could ever go wrong for more than that amount. We just need to pay off the debts finally (10 more weeks!!) and then we'll be able to build up a proper EF and hopefully not need to use CCs again.

aimeemum

Happy Thursday!

Already have washing on and sorted finances out for today. Paid £88 to debts/credits which means that £67 is off the balance. Takes me to 56% paid. I also need to pay off the Lowell (£122 debts in hubby's name) as they've offered 75% discount so that's a good offer - that's the last little one that isn't counted on my main total also....happy with that!

Also got someone coming to pick up the bike I have for sale. Hopefully get at least £15 for it (I have it up for £20) as that's boy's holiday spending money saved!

Added up my savings - I've been skimming and putting a couple of £'s a week aside on top and I'm up to £40 across them all. Will put another £10.21 into my EF tomorrow also (1% of my UC).

Tesco order coming too...and I also need to order a new filter for the fish tank. £27 for the one hubby has told me to get which I don't think is too bad. They're only goldfish so don't need anything fancy. Very old goldfish....one of them is 14 years old!!!

aimeemum

The woman came to get the bike and gave me to full £20 I had been asking. I've put it into my savings jar and it will be the kids spends for the trip to Dorset - They get £1 per night each, which is £6 each...perfect!