AimeeMum's Debt-free challenge

aimeemum

It's been an exciting week. Last Friday the landlady called and I had to do a crisis clean of the house (thankfully it wasn't in a bad state) and get it sorted ready for the gas safety checks to be done and for her to do an inspection ad hoc. All went smoothly and the house is still in a pretty good way which is a bonus.

After we were sat calming down (as you do) and I got the urge to look on gumtree for guinea pigs...we've been thinking about it for a while and an advert came up for 2 GPs, cage and accessories, just up the road. So we went and got them. Cost us £25 which probably put us a little bit over our weekly budgets but to be honest, they're brilliant and I'm glad we got them.......2 boars called Derek and Domino they're adorable. So the weekend was spent settling in the piggies and watching star wars movies. Hubby was away Saturday night so we all just had a very chilled out time generally.

Monday we went to partake in my Birthday present of Afternoon Tea at Patisserie Valerie and then spent my New Look vouchers on some new shoes and socks (very exciting! lol)....we did end up spending some cash on some sweets from the Haribo shop though Yesterday we spent milling around the house catching up on chores that should have been done on monday :rotfl:

Anyway, today I'm back on my normal routine. I've done some basic jobs as I normally would, and have spent this morning writing out my 'goals' and generally doing some 'me-time' type activities. I watched some motivational videos while I was pottering about so hoping that the positivity will be inspirational......you never know :A

Money wise - I've not been on my best behaviour this week. With it being hubby's weekend off, and then the purchase of the piggies, I've not kept to budget at all. Having said that, we have 8 days left in this phase and then we've officially said we're onto phase 2. My only aim for the next 2 weeks of pay days is to get the CCJ paid up....that's all I have to do. I will then re-assess next week when all the payments have come in and make sure we're on target, and make a start on the next year's plans.

Loosely these are:

1. Maintain budget as it is, making payments into sinking funds for EF, car, christmas, holidays etc as planned.
2. Save up deposit and moving costs to move house (Need £1,100).....aim to be moved by Easter 2020.
3. Book and pay for in full 9 nights holiday for summer 2020 (probably first week of summer hols this time) at Norden farm again.

Possible spanners -
-Car is going in for service and MOT in October and it will need a big one as it's on 98k miles.
- We would love a puppy but this will have to wait until we have moved as there's no way we can save up for a puppy AND to move simultaneously.
- We need to make some investment in the house. Decorating, DIY and some new furniture are needed, as well as some new kitchen equipement. I plan on taking this out of the household weekly budgets but I think some of it will have to come from the savings we make.

We have decided to take everything in 12 month sections as planning too far ahead is making things harder to budget for. This year we are aiming to be moved, to have a fully funded EF and to be have all the remaining straggly bits gone.

Straggly bits - £1600 (Vanquis and Elec)
Move house - £1100
EF 1 months bills - £1200

Total is £3,900 - Considering we've managed to pay off over £6k in the last 12 months, I am hoping that this is very doable...especially as I hope to make a little extra money through decluttering and ploughing time and effort into my writing too.

Bring on Phase 2!! Sorry for the essay, it's been a busy few days :eek:

aimeemum

Thursday pay day - tesco man has been already so that's come out, and hubby has filled the car up with fuel. He's got training in Middlesborough for the next 10 weeks every thursday. Bad news is it's going to cost us in food, fuel and parking but good news is he can claim it all back in expenses That will come back to us before Christmas.....hubby keeps saying that it will be a top up for Cmas but I would rather it went into the moving/car fund. I need to pin hubby down and have him help me say definitely we will be moving.

Speaking of Christmas, middle DS broke his (admittedly very very old) Nintendo DS last night. He was upset at first but has asked for a 2DS for Christmas....I had planned that anyway, but bless him he's happy to wait and eldest has even said he can borrow his in the meantime! That love each other really

Money-wise I'm unsure what to do this week. I've put my 'bills' money aside and paid the minimums, but I don't want to put too much to the debts if we're going to have lots of extra expenses. I'm an ideal world there will be about £60 to go towards my CCJ but I have just paid the minimum and will move anything extra on Wednesday next week once we've done everything we need to.

Anyway, off to do the rest of my day-jobs now. Washing to put out in the sunshine, dog to be walked, and a whole host of little bits to do before I watch Rise of the Nazis this afternoon.....as has become tradition

abba1772

sounds like a great plan .........weve got two guinea pigs oreo and gizmo had them about 8 weeks now x

aimeemum

Aww I'm definitely becoming crazy guinea pig lady lol. Love them so much and can't wait to have them downstairs. At the moment we've got Bracken for at least another week so until she's goes home they're occupying the landing (and covering it with hay! lol) They're starting to show their personalities now and making their presence known....especially when it's meal times!

I pinned hubby down last night and he's agreed with my plan to get us moved by Easter. He has also agreed that the expenses will majoritively go into the pot for moving...although he has requested that we up our personal christmas budgets from £15 to £40 each so we can spoil each other a bit more. I thought that was a reasonable request (I also know he wants a new fishing reel which just happens to be £39.99 :rotfl:) so we'll take that £50 out of the expenses and put the rest aside as a compromise. Even taking that out we may be able to move by the end of Feb which would be great!!

Not sure what to do with the rest of my day. I have spent the morning selfishly - have a cold coming thanks to middle DS - and caught up on Strictly ready for the weekend. This afternoon I need to put a stew on for tea and put away all the washing I've managed to get out on the line which isn't that much. Money wise, I've updated everything....rounded down into savings as I do every day.....and I think I may sit and do Christmas and birthday (DS1 is 10 in october) planning later on. Excited....I do love Christmas! :j

aimeemum

Something good came in the post. A while ago I had the YW man out to check our water meter. They've now written back that the leak is now considered 'fixed', but because it's the first issue we've had with them (read, they should have picked up on it sooner!) they've credited my account with the approximate cost of the leak - nearly £200! That takes our bill from being £138 in Debit to £58 in Credit! I am beyond pleased with this.....one less worry and to boot they've lowered my DD from £50 to £24 Good day.

Tomorrow is payday and the last day of the month for us....and the last day of Phase 1! I'll post up tomorrow when I've paid this week's payments and give a roundup of a year's hard work...

abba1772

Thats fantastic news glad the water meter is now fixed xx

aimeemum

We made it!!! I can't believe today is here! :j:j

Anyway today I have:

- Sorted my banks out and transferred my amounts for payments for the final time. (I logged on to find that the YW credit had been sent to my bank!! :eek:)
- Paid my CCJ in FULL! It's now officially gone. I'm going to call them tomorrow and make sure they send me a letter to confirm it's paid in full. Hopefully the CCJ will not impact us moving in Feb/Mar/Apr if it's at least 6 months since it was paid up and it's over 4 years old!

So as we stand our overall figures are:

Original amount: £7,773
Remaining Debt: £1,699
Paid in last 12m: £6,074

On my DFBX I'm on 64% and that should go down, I'm aiming for 70% by Xmas but as it's all on 0% payment structures there's no desperate 'have to pay it off now' about it all. The remainder breaks down as £1,059 in Elec/Gas arrears (I'm paying £140 a month so that will go down by average £50 a month over the next couple of years. I'm going to pay little extra when and where I can, same with the water, just to keep on top of it all and stop arrears happening again.), and £640 on Vanquis. I pay £5 a week by SO and it will close once it's all gone. They keep sending me messages asking if I want to re-open it as I'm now well under my limit but I keep refusing. I may, after Christmas, revisit and put the SO up a little bit to clear it quicker.

Jobs to do now:
Buy a new Contents insurance policy - We've not had one before now as the DD's used to bounce so frequently. Going to go through Compare the market and get the movies etc if I can.

Setup A Help 2 Save for Hubby
Setup all the SOs for the Savings accounts and the bills that aren't on DD including hubby's new CC
Re-do all my spreadsheets for the new financial year. I've already updated my debts list so it's just the remaining amount- feels good!

abba1772

Great news about the ccj being cleared well done xx

aimeemum

Thanks Abba - I hadn't been sure I'd manage it before the end of the month, but the £58 from YW meant that I could afford to just go for it without too much struggle. There was only £145 left on it so it was being annoying and not disappearing quick enough for my liking. :rotfl:

Yesterday was quite a productive day in the end. I got a few jobs done around the house and sorted most of the things on my to-do list. I set up Hubby's H2S and sent him his first £5 to open it up. From next week it'll be £10 a week going to each account so that will soon add up. Not sure what we're going to spend the money on but I'm just happy we'll have some proper savings for the first time ever!!

I re-did my spreadsheets, started my October budget sheet and set up payments - well all the ones I could. I couldn't findmy pinterest machine for the barclays so wasn't able to set up the ones out of there, but I have set up the ones in/out of the halifax as they do all their security over the phone. I really need to find the machine...hubby had it last!:mad:

Today's to-do list. Clean all the bathrooms, and sort my washer out as it's playing up. It is not spinning properly and a bit of on-line research suggests there's a blockage so I'll empty all the filters and see if that helps. I could really do without spending £300 on a new washer (although I could get a washer/dryer like I need for the winter lol....just not right now would be grand!)

Hubby has said he'll book the car in for it's service and MOT today. Needs to be done by the 19th so we have a bit of time. It's going to be a big one as it's 100k miles and it will need new brakes all around (this bloody car and it's brakes! It needs a replacement caliper on one corner as well as new discs and pads.) but hubby is going to do them himself to save us a few £s...just need to get the parts which are about £200! :eek:

abba1772

My hubby had one of those pin machines they were a pain in the butt xx