Crunchy pays off the loan early, and other stories

crunchy_time

Morning all

First day of the summer holidays!!

I got paid on Monday as well as the kids having been on screens all morning whilst I have been doing banking and working out.

Here is the latest credit card report as we work out what pots we need post pandemic:

Husbands
£142 Interest (I know - this is horrifying)
£22.20 - Sports clothes for kids 
£120 - earphones - husbands supposed to be expensing these but of course hasn't done this yet!
£560  extra food money 
£125 - garden stuff 
£106 - Spending money
£14.30 - Family spending
£22 - Hair - used cc instead of bank account
£30 - Sports massage - from health money
£154 - fuel - paid off in arrears
£115 meals out

Total: £1410

My Credit card
£98 interest
£60 - weights and books - from spending money
£159 - Bike for DS.  Ordered the wrong size by mistake.  AWAITING REFUND
Total: £317

So husbands has gone up, but when he gets paid at the end of the month, some of this will be paid so I shall re post it then

We have £219 left for food for the month which is plenty. I also need to pay for the dogs grooming out of this as I forgot to budget for it.  But I'm going to use up what is in the cupboards since we are off now and then some of this money can pay off some off the £560 on food on husbands credit card.

It may not seem it but this system is working for us.  We are gradually getting pots onto Monzo again and staying in budgets.  It is going to take some time but we can do this.  This is the best way to get out of this credit card debt cycle for good.

Not long to go before we are in the £2xxx for the consumer debt as well.

Will be updating more regularly now its the summer holidays.  Cor, that was a real downward spiral towards the end.  Glad it is finally here.

Crunchy xx

crunchy_time

Morning all!

Another work out smashed this morning.  No spend day yesterday. We went for a lovely family walk after dinner which was nice. 

Today’s plans are tidying up and food shopping. I had a brief look at the freezers and cupboards yesterday and we have enough for at least 3 meals. Husband gets paid a week today which is when our new food month starts.

Also, dog won’t be able to be trimmed for another few weeks so that can come out of next months budget - more money to chuck at the food overspends on husbands credit card.

I very much enjoy these days just relaxing at home, guilt free.

Crunch xx

crunchy_time

Evening all

Did final min food shop of the month today just to top us up until Friday and have managed to save £116 from our £750 for 5 weeks so I have immediately paid that off the food line on the credit which was about £560 but is now £444.  We have £46 left from the fuel budget from this month as well so I shall be using that to pay off more on Friday when he gets paid.

Shall update more then!

xx

crunchy_time

Morning all!

Husbands pay day today so done a money shuffle and reduced the loans by their min payments - we are now sub £2500 of consumer debt which is great news!!  Our emergency fund is nicely near to £2000 now but we shall need to dip into this to buy some oil.

We have have a camping trip and a week away to funding spending money for so that is my next focus - get that in budget.

I'm also very pleased that we have reduced the extra food money from £560 to £398 just from shopping in Aldi - shall keep this up for August to reduce it more!

Still haven't managed to get anything on bay of e yet but I have bought son some second hand rugby boots for the new season which only cost about £15 with postage.  Also did a big school uniform shop as well.

Anyway, slowly and surely we are heading towards being consumer debt free by Christmas as planned and then only having £5k of house debt on the loan and then the 0% credit card to pay off.  We have to find about £267 if we want to be consumer debt free before Christmas.  If we don't then we will be consumer debt free for 2022 which is still awesome.

Crunchy xx

Husbands
£164 Interest 
£15 - Sports clothes for kids 
£7 - app sub
£120 - earphones - husbands supposed to be expensing these but of course he hasn't done this yet!
£398  extra food money 
£125 - garden stuff 
£169 meals out

Total: £997

crunchy_time

Morning all!

I can't believe it is August already - where has the time gone?  We were meant to be going on our lovely holiday to central America this week but because of covid we have postponed it till next year.  We are going away in the UK later next week.  Its not going to quite be the same but at least we are lucky enough to get away this year.  

Food shop yesterday for the rest of the week.  We have £125 a week for the rest of the month which shall be a bit of a challenge, especially on holiday.  I'm going to have to keep my cool with husband and constantly monitor him so he doesn't blow our budget.

We went to the dentist yesterday.  My teeth are fine so just had a scale and polish and check up - still - £120 but husband had to have x-rays and will need to book in for a refilling.  I've told him it needs to come out of our savings and he is happy with this.

We will need to buy oil as well.  Half a tank is about £250 - £300.  We were saving £50 a month for it but were over saving for it.  We had loads of oil and then I just forgot to adjust the budget to save again.  I think we may have to use our savings for this as well. I shall do some calculations.  I have now put the £50 a month back in the budget.

I'm realising that £50 a month is not enough to cover two children for clothes and shoes - I am always in deficit for this budget. Will need to look at this.

So its still a juggling act sorting out the budget and making sure we have enough pot categories and then enough money in those pots.

In other news, I'm feeling restless in my job again.  I've been doing it for 18 months and I earn £1170 a month.  I used to earn about £1450 a month 3 days a week teaching.  The difference has since been made up by husbands pay rises so the issue I have is not about earning enough money for now.  I really want to move on and do something better paid again.  I'm supposed to be doing this support role so that I can have the headspace to do my masters but I'm not even doing that at the moment.  I think have decided what I want to do but it is specialist and there are not many jobs out there for this role as there are for regular teachers.  Part of me feels that I should go back to teaching again but wait and give myself a year to find a suitable job for me.  The reason I quit was because of husband working away so much but now he is pretty much home based we have the space to deal with a dual career household.  I could always do the course and then look for specialist roles as well as regular roles that suit me so by Sept 2022 I am working as a teacher again, either mainstream or specialist.  It's tricky as the thought of being a teacher again is very overwhelming but I'm not sure what else I can do?  Well I do but its just scary and a huge learning curve to get there but you only get one precious life so you might as well just go for it eh?

Crunchy xx

crunchy_time

Morning all

We are back from our UK cottage holiday!  We had a lovely time - lots of walking and time together, although a lot of driving around and now a lot of washing!  ha ha!

We ended up eating out a few more times than I had budgeted for but agreed for this money to come out of the £5000 that is in savings for our big holiday next year and we make up  the savings later in the year.

On our first day there we got a tyre puncture from accidental driving over a rock!  Gah!  Luckily managed to get to a car park with toilets before it completely went flat.  We have breakdown cover through our manufacturer thank goodness so got taken to a kwik fit and paid £217 for a new tyre and wheel alignment - coming out of the emergency fund.

We have £260 in the food budget for two more weekly shops which is excellent and better than what I was expecting after a week away.

We have finally had the house painted this month too.  We have been saving for it for over two years now and it kept being postponed.  It cost around £3000 to do and it was so nice to actually have the money for it!

The 0% privacy project has gone down from £2978 to £2903.  I want to be paying off £100 a month for this but need to sort out our budgets and the credit cards first.

I've come back even more determined to stop procrastinating about the things that will actually make me more happy - less scrolling and slumping in front of the telly and more action towards my goals.

Some really motivating news is that our mortgage is now in the £26x,xxx - when we bought nearly 4 years ago it was over £300,000.  Husband and I will be very satisfied when it gets below £250,000 which will be by mid 2023 which seems a long way away.  Our mortgage rate will expire then and we reckon our house will be worth around £400,000 so it will be nice to have a good £150,000 of equity.  At the moment it is about £93,000 equity and I have taken the debts off this - not car though.

Plan for today is a frugal and healthy food shop, massive sort out and tidy up of the house and maybe a lovely dog walk later.

off to hang the first load of washing out!

Crunchy xx

crunchy_time

Morning!

My son had a check at opticians yesterday. His eyesight is gradually declining. He is only 9! They have suggested contact lenses that could correct his problem - for £40 a month. Of course we shall research this further my point is discussing this instigating a long overdue conversation with husband about money. It’s me that manages the day to day and husband dips in occasionally but stresses me out with comments about affording things that are not based on any facts.

So I went through the spreadsheet with him including what was owed on credits this year and we have agreed to pay off the food, interest and a few other bits using the £5k of holiday money we have saved this year for the holiday that didn’t happen. He is also going to use some of this money to pay for paint and wood to spruce up his garden office and build a better desk. The tyre and filling will still be paid out of emergency funds.

We have also decided a strategy to stay on budget by using monzo more. We were doing this before the pandemic but stopped when everything closed and we literally just buying food.

Feeling good. We also didn’t argue during this chat and I didn’t cry.

Crunchy x

crunchy_time

Afternoon all

Just got home from last weekly Aldi shop of the month and am within budget!! 

Very pleased as have been on holiday for a week as well. Also managed to stay in budget for holiday spends - I don’t know if I have mentioned that before!

we havent received a refund for the bike as they never received it from the post office despite recorded delivery. Royal Mail have lost it and said that the supplier need to claim on their insurance to give us a refund. Husband is still working on this.

also waiting until he gets paid next week before we take money out of savings to cover some credit card costs.

Otherwise all going well here. Looking forward to loans going down again on the 1st.

Doesn’t it feel like autumn right now?

Crunchy xx

WinterWarrior

The supplier should refund you before they claim on the insurance. I would think your contract is with them and they shouldn’t involve you in their postage issues 😖
..and yes, very autumnal! 

Well done on keeping to the shopping budget…that’s hard! 

crunchy_time

WinterWarrior said:

The supplier should refund you before they claim on the insurance. I would think your contract is with them and they shouldn’t involve you in their postage issues 😖
..and yes, very autumnal! 

Well done on keeping to the shopping budget…that’s hard! 

Thanks I’ll let husband know that. Never going to buy anything off eBay again. Have lots of kids shoes to sell anyone recommend someone other than Facebook (don’t have an account anymore thank god) or gumtree?

crunchy x