£121K debt payoff - challenge accepted

Iwantanewlife

Welcome to the boards! I know the first steps are hard, and the realisation of situations are even harder. Good Luck! I know my diary has been a real contributor in keeping me on track with my journey. Ill be following you! x

savvysarah

Thank you so much everyone! I must say it's nice to know I'm not alone - with the debt or the money pit house
I'm struggling to find time to post this week - I normally have a few mornings a week when my youngest is at nursery but we've been hit with a stomach bug this week which has meant no spare time at all. I'm still waiting to see if I go down with it, but hoping my husband is back from working away tomorrow before that happens!
Money update - this month is simply too long for us, and to be honest I'm feeling quite stressed about it, although I'm trying my best to stay zen. After paying off all our overdrafts about 2 years ago, we've had to dip into a new one to the tune of £300 this week and I'm gutted. It's fee free though which is something. However, I still don't think it's enough. We owe for kids music and dancing lessons (which I know we should be cancelling but all were started before our LBM and we still need to figure out if/how to stop these) and if I pay for them we'll have literally nothing left for food or fuel.
So - my vague plan is: pay the most pressing one this week, put off the other one for now Batch cook my backside off over the next few days to ensure none of the food we have in goes to waste, ad make the food we have in the cupboard/fridge lasts 2 weeks. Minimise all trips in my car so it doesn't need filling up again this month. And then get selling stuff...…..as soon as I have a spare minute I have quite a bit of stuff to put on my local fb page and clothes for specific selling pages so I need to crack on with that. Although I'm stressed I feel fairly optimistic APART from our rental - I've not heard anything from the letting agent so I have no idea what is happening there.

SORRY! These first few posts seem to just be a brain dump, but they are helping me! I'm hoping next week everyone will be well, and I'll have a few mornings/evenings spare to get a little more organised with my posts on here, and to read lots of other diaries too.

So, thanks for sticking with it! I hear a child awake now :eek: so I'm signing out. Happy Wednesday!

savvysarah

Right, quick update, let me try to organise my thoughts a bit more today.

Spends today £0 :T
Money made today £0
Rental house update - nothing to report yet, we're waiting for the contractor who assured us a leak was fixed to review it, as apparently its leaking again :mad: This has cost us thousands so far...
Renovation update: husband is on his way back from Ikea where he's been designing a kitchen, yippee! I KNOW we can't afford it at this point, but we figure if we get the design in place we can then do things super slowly e.g. electrician to move some lights, then save a bit more for the plasterer etc etc. It'll be a loooong job!
Christmas worry level: HIGH - if only for the kids. I know we'll make it work and I can work magic with pennies but still, it all feels a bit too much this year and I really do love Christmas, I think that's what makes me feel even more sad about it.

On a positive note, right now it looks like everyone will be back at school/nursery in the morning, so I might have a couple of hours to try to get a few things online for sale. AND I have fancy plans for some chicken and my slow cooker (not fancy - I'm literally going to put the chicken in the slow cooker but then it will magically be COOKED!! Hurrah!)

So, here's hoping no one else goes down with the stomach bug in the night :cool: Happy Thursday!

savvysarah

Hello! It's Friday! We made it!! :j

I'm feeling a lot more optimistic and resolute today. I've decided to withdraw all of the money that is currently tied up with matched betting and use it to stay straight and avoid using the credit card this month, which will still be a monumental challenge as its only around £130 and it leaves us very tight.
Then, turn my attention to figuring out next month. Somehow, we have to balance Christmas, one of my children's birthdays, paying off the £300 overdraft, paying the final kids activity, paying for next terms swimming lessons, and supplying the food for Christmas Day. Simples! :eek::eek:

I am absolutely determined to start 2020 off on the right foot though, so I'll be gutted if we're not straight by then. One thing I need to look into is a cheapo planner, I usually use a Passion Planner (which I LOVE) but I just cant justify the price so if anyone has any tips for where to look for a decent frugal option please let me know!

Money Out: £10 kids haircut, £3 Children in Need
Money In: Not officially new, but £130 from MB moved over to spending account.

Enjoy the weekend everyone, I'm going to read some diaries until my youngest inevitably wakes up for some evening cuddles

Iwantanewlife

You sound really determined! Keep going x

enthusiasticsaver

Have you explored returning to work? £121k debt is a lot to repay on just one salary especially if your house also needs work doing on it. Presumably if your kids are in school and you get free nursery hours for your youngest you could either get a job in a school or pay for wrap around childcare.

savvysarah

Iwantanewlife wrote: »

You sound really determined! Keep going x

Thank you! I feel really determined, but experience tells me it is HARD to maintain the enthusiasm needed so I'm trying to use my debt busting energy wisely :cool:

savvysarah

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Have you explored returning to work? £121k debt is a lot to repay on just one salary especially if your house also needs work doing on it. Presumably if your kids are in school and you get free nursery hours for your youngest you could either get a job in a school or pay for wrap around childcare.

Thank you for your reply! Yes, definitely. My youngest is only in 3 mornings a week and on each of those days I get just less than 2.5 hours free. This is very new, she only started about 4 weeks ago as she's just turned 3. Her two older brothers are at school. We have no other help, and my husband works away at least one week night a week. And he's on call on the weekends. So, yes, I'm exploring work options, and I would LOVE to bring in some money, but options are a bit limited at the moment. Their school/nursery doesn't provide wrap around options for nursery age children.

I was previously a teacher, and would like to get back into schools in some capacity (ideally the kids' school) and I'm looking all the time for positions that suit but they aren't coming up at the moment round here.

What I AM doing, is trying to use my time to both bring in money, and make sure we're being as economical as we can with our money and food. So, selling, surveys, matched betting (although I hate it so will stop soon), meal planning, batch cooking, online shopping etc etc. And also looking slightly bigger, for firms that might value remote workers eg creating lesson resources, exam boards.

The positive side of this is my husband is free to work as much and wherever he needs to. He runs multi-site operations and whether I worked or not, his hours are long and can be random. He has a (new) bonus incentive scheme so him being able to work without family limits (eg taking time off for sick children, leaving early for pick up) will really help him work towards that.

That was such a long wittering answer! :eek::p But they're the thoughts that go round and round in my head all the time anyway so definitely have a place on this thread, and hopefully give a fuller picture of my/our situation.

savvysarah

I always tally up the debts around this time of the month. New debt:

£118,584 :beer:

april_hunt

Well done you