“Debt is normal. Be weird.”

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Agreed, holidays for large families are extortionate! Your planned glamping sounds lovely

browneyed_girl

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

Agreed, holidays for large families are extortionate! Your planned glamping sounds lovely

Thank you! It must be even harder with five children (something I’ll hopefully experience first-hand one day - just don’t mention it to DH or he’ll probably emigrate! :rotfl:).

Another early start with DS this morning, which is giving me the chance to formulate further debt-free plans . I realised on starting this diary that I haven’t set any specific targets regarding lowering debts, so thought I should share some with you lovely people to keep me on track and monitor my progress. The targets I have set might seem ambitious, but if we’re careful and stop wasting our disposable income on whatever it is we’re wasting it on, I really think they are achievable.

Here we go...

• Pay off £13,618.59 Sainsbury’s loan by December 2020 (current end date October 2022)
• Clear £14,087.04 Natwest loan by December 2021 (currently September 2023)
• Clear debt on CCs and Very account before Xmas this year.
• Make full annual contributions to my and DH’s lifetime ISAs from April 2020 (total £8000), predominantly funded by additional income from side hustles
• To have paid off student loan by end of 2023.

Manageable or unrealistic?? To put it into context, I should be looking at a significant pay rise next year (giving about an extra £400 monthly after tax), which would increase our available income to pay off debts to nearly £1400 (after scheduled loan payments), but accepting that not all of this will make it to the intended target. Paying off the Sainsbury’s loan would then free up a further £368.07 monthly, and clearing the Natwest loan gives us another £293.48. Everything can then be put toward student loan (because I know I’m going to have to pay it off eventually) and mortgage deposit

Feeling extra motivated now as I pop off to get my first cup of tea of the day. Bring it on!!! :dance: (I’ve just really wanted to use that smiley for a while...).

jwil

Good luck with it

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Sounds good... have you used the snowball calculator? It will give you really clear dates on what's possible with your repayments.
The only thing I'd say is that I'd personally leave the student loans to sort themselves out through wages, you'd get n the property ladder much quicker.
LOL to the potential 5th baby, we hadn't plaaned for ours, but he's gorgeous and universally adored by us all... financially, we found going from 3-4 the biggest jump, needed a 7 seater for a start! Apart from childcare, no.5 has been relatively painless financially. No more for us though!!

browneyed_girl

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

Sounds good... have you used the snowball calculator? It will give you really clear dates on what's possible with your repayments.
The only thing I'd say is that I'd personally leave the student loans to sort themselves out through wages, you'd get n the property ladder much quicker.
LOL to the potential 5th baby, we hadn't plaaned for ours, but he's gorgeous and universally adored by us all... financially, we found going from 3-4 the biggest jump, needed a 7 seater for a start! Apart from childcare, no.5 has been relatively painless financially. No more for us though!!

Not used the snowball calculator but have done lots of calculations of my own! And I will probably reassess the student loan repayment once other loans are paid off. It’s not as though it’s interest-free, so I feel there are still savings to be had by paying it off early. And given a high level of job security, it is 99.9% inevitable that I’ll have to pay off the full balance anyway.

Lucky for us, we already had the MPV as we’d planned for lots of kids . I’m from a large family (one of six) and our parents had to buy a minibus to accommodate all of us!

Back to today, it’s been non-stop housework and child-centred activities. DH took DD1 out to a cafe for a treat on the way to getting the food shopping. We’ve recently started treating DD1 and DD2 to dedicated mummy/daddy time, since a lot of our attention day to day gets taken up by the younger two. DD2 stayed up with me last night to watch a film of her choice together (plus hot chocolate and biscuits), then DD1 got a hot chocolate and a muffin whilst enjoying quality daddy time today.

As for money, DH spent £6.05 at the cafe (budget was £10) then £20.13 on a small food shop. This isn’t bad, but I’d given him a list and a budget of £20, only to find out on his return home that he had gone OFF LIST! :eek: Additional spends were £2.84, which in fairness is a lot better than usual for him, but I’m still adding it to his tally!

As it now stands:
Me - £4
DH - £26.84

I think this is significantly better than most other weeks, purely because I’m now accountable on here. It’s all very easy to lie to yourself about spending habits - it’s a lot harder to lie to everyone else!

DebtFreeMonkey

Some ambitious goals but I've no doubt they're achievable with a little discipline and hey, even if it takes you a bit longer, it'll still be quicker than if you were more lax in your ambitions.

Looking forward to seeing all your wins on your debt busting journey

browneyed_girl

Alicia1804 wrote: »

Some ambitious goals but I've no doubt they're achievable with a little discipline and hey, even if it takes you a bit longer, it'll still be quicker than if you were more lax in your ambitions.

Looking forward to seeing all your wins on your debt busting journey

Thank you! Being lax in my ambitions is the one thing I don’t think anybody could accuse me of! :rotfl:

An interesting day today :think: Popped into Mr T on the way into work because I suddenly had the idea that it would be nice to buy banners and balloons to decorate a colleague’s desk for their birthday (I’d already made some chocolates for the bargain price of £3.40). Spent £6 and it wasn’t until I was back in the car that I considered whether I really needed to buy those things. Made sure to take the remainder of the balloons and the banners home with me at the end of the day, so can at least re-use them when the kids parties come around. Will be adding the £6 to the impulsive spend tally. Only other spend was £20 on fuel (planned).

On the plus side, DH has managed a NSD and I earned an extra £80 from self-employment (but won’t get paid this for a while). Have got a lot of pressure from work currently and this is when I usually lose track of spending, but I’m going to try to continue recording my daily spends on here, which will hopefully flag up when I’m slipping backwards.

So, impulsive/unnecessary spending currently stands at:

Me - £10
DH - £26.84

Hope everyone is making the most of a new week!

browneyed_girl

Oh dear. What seems like a lot of spending over the last two days, but I’m hoping it’s not as bad as I think. Very aware of what was necessary and what was an impulsive decision, and feeling bad about it

Tuesday spending was £53.25 on main grocery shop (obviously planned) and then a total of £41.60 on dinner and drinks with work colleagues. Although this was a planned expense (and an evening out for me only happens about 3 times a year!), I went with the intention of only drinking tap water and then ended up spending £15.10 just on drinks :doh: Definitely adding that to my naughty spend tally. Also spent £4 on parking to be closer to work (usually park for free and then walk) but given the weather I was trying to avoid, am not going to beat myself up about it!

As penance for the overspend yesterday, I managed a NSD today :j. Feeling really pleased and then DH decided to buy a steering wheel cover (not sure why...) at £8.99 and also picked up some snacks for £2.70 (despite having a fully stocked kitchen after shopping yesterday :doh:). Seems like we could both be doing better

So for now, the naughty spending count stands at:
Me - £25.10
DH - £38.53

I did, however, make another £80 from self-employment yesterday, which will probably get paid next month and (as I’ve usually forgotten about it by then) it’s always a nice little surprise! . Have also managed a few more surveys and should be able to cash out about £15 soon, which will be going straight into the emergency fund.

Payday on Friday still seems far away, but have already decided that I’ll be using it to clear the balances on the credit cards and then see what I can pay towards Very.

Feeling knackered from work today but trying to keep up the MSE momentum - planning for NSD tomorrow :T

ohdearhowdidthathappen

An occasional treat is always justifiable, especially when it's a rare night out with friends

darrannah

keep up the good work.
Your situation sounds very similar to ours in the fact that we (in theory) should have a surplus but never seem to see it, DH would say we "fritter it on unnecessary rubbish" and to be honest he's right (shh don't tell him though :rotfl:) ours tends to be on the so called "top-up" shops where we only need 1 or 2 things but end up spending £20/£30 by the time we have done :mad:
The planned holiday next year sounds FAB and its great discipline you have with the sealed pot.
With your focus and determination, I don't doubt that your debt will be paid off quicker than you think :j