£22248 12 July 2020 at 7:08AM in Debt free diaries 58 replies 4K views

storybookgirl

I’m new around here and just wanted to say hi as I’m hoping to stick around for a while! I have £22248 of debt, mostly from taking on my husbands debt with a little bit of my own added in. I think I’ve finally got my husband to see sense and he is on board for dealing with this seriously now.  He does have a smaller amount in his name again too.


It’s a tricky time as I’m just starting on maternity leave so my wages will be going down but my husband usually works part time and will switch to full time whilst I’m off to make up some of the deficit although he isn’t the main earner.


Our main issue is purely unnecessary spending. Trips to the shop, buying non important things on amazon and eBay etc. We are living within our means now but are only covering minimum payments so we need to turn things around.

Main areas I think we can save are stopping general spending, reduce food bill, possibly change gas and electricity supplier and be more mindful over use, lots of low value items to sell. 

I’ve joined in the 1% challenge for two of the smaller debts totalling £1686 (pushchair and masters module) which aren’t on a 0% card.


 Looking forward to getting this down and chatting with some lovely people on the way!

storybookgirl

This weeks plan:


-No unnecessary spending (1 cheap family day out ~£10)

-Free daily activities with my toddler

-Sign up to some survey and cash back sites (does anyone have any recommendations?)

-Food shop for click and collect so my husband can’t buy extra!

-Contact Barclays to get a card sent for the account I’m using as a business account

-Sit and do a proper budget

-List 10 items for sale

Newstart3

Hi I hope you and bump are doing well.
I'd definitely recommend starting a spreadsheet for your budget and debts.  Sounds like you are doing a good job though planning your week, this will help you keep yourself accountable. Good luck on your journey x   

storybookgirl

Thanks Newstart3!  I'm a huge planner so I definitely think that it's the way to go for me.  That and small achievable goals on the way to my big goal.


So far I have signed up to Qmee and Prolific for surveys - I'm having an issue verifying my phone number with Prolific so have emailed them as I cannot start the surveys without that!

I've sorted out a bag of clothes to list on either Depop or eBay this evening so that's another job done and a drawer cleared!

I took on a very small amount of freelance work a few weeks ago and I'm wondering if I can build on it to increase my income.  At the moment the extra work is covering the cost of a new laptop and the remainder was going to be put back in to the business to see if I can make something out of it.  I'm just not sure what yet!

storybookgirl

I’ve got 8 items as drafts on eBay, just need to take the photos tomorrow when it’s a bit lighter.  I’ve tried not to price myself too low as some of it is fairly decent quality.


I had a super cheap dinner with my little one which we both enjoyed and I just have to hope that my husband didn’t spend while he was at work! He works in a supermarket and is terrible for buying extras everyday.... I’ve started a meal plan for next week but I got distracted with that today so will carry on tomorrow.


 Freelance work for today is complete and I’ve started to show that I’m interested and capable of doing a bit more in the hope that some extra comes my way!


 Today I spent £7.99 on a pair of neoprene shoes for my toddler so that he doesn’t slip when he’s playing with water, I’m trying to label items as high, medium and low priority before I buy and only buying the high priority which I saw those as because he slipped twice this morning!  

FOMO_overspender

Hiya @storybookgirl, just commenting to wish you the best on your debt free journey. I have a similar amount of debt as well and I have definitely found the small wins are really helping keep me focused (e.g. the £5 here and there from surveys etc). Sounds like you have a good plan & we'll all be here to cheer you on! 

[Deleted User]

Hi @storybookgirl, just found you diaet and looking forward to following your progress. 

[Deleted User]

No idea why my phone has changed diary to diaet 😂

storybookgirl

I checked my credit report today and my actual starting balance is £22296.... At least I was close!

We've started writing a budget and during the week I looked through the bank statement for the first time in at least 18 months. It gives me real anxiety to do but I think if I plan to check it more often and control my spending it will be easier for me to do.  It's just made me realise that we really shouldn't be in this position because we do have a surplus income and we just throw money away.  We're going to withdraw cash for our food shopping money as my husband thinks this will be easier for him to manage as he'll be able to physically see the money, we'll give it a try anyway.  He's terrible for popping to the shop everyday....  he works in a supermarket and just spends so easily when he has the card.

I've got a bunch listed on eBay but saved to drafts and I'm just waiting for a free listing weekend to make it live.  I'll sort out another bag of clothes to put on this week too.  

I've started answering surveys on prolific and have made £12 so far which is more than I was expecting to make in such a short space of time, that's nearly a 1% for the challenge that I have set! 

It's my payday on Tuesday and we're taking that day as the first day of getting this cleared! I've signed up to the grocery challenge too but it's a bit of a guess this month.  My husband has been set the task of clearing a gas and electric debt that I took out some money on a 0% card to pay off months ago and then he didn't pay it off.  The money has just been sat in an account and not touched thankfully.

We have one big purchase and one medium purchase this month to make that we've set as a high priority so we can't go without them.  A car seat for the new baby and a blind for my boys room as he is still in with us at the moment but needs a window covering for when he goes in to his room, we have some of the money saved for the car seat already which is great.  I think that's reasonable (but please someone give me a reality check if not!!)

ceremony

It sounds like you're doing great!

You say you're covering the minimums every month, now that you've started to reduce your spending are you pushing to clear the interest-bearing balances more quickly?

I made a spreadsheet for mine with the minimum payments for each debt, expected DFD date based on paying only those minimums, and then an actual DFD that gets updated based on overpayments that I make. It's motivating to see each extra payment move the date forward by days or weeks depending on how big it is.

A car seat sounds to me like something you definitely NEED, and saving up for it rather than putting it on a card is an awesome step!

storybookgirl

ceremony said:

It sounds like you're doing great!

You say you're covering the minimums every month, now that you've started to reduce your spending are you pushing to clear the interest-bearing balances more quickly?

I made a spreadsheet for mine with the minimum payments for each debt, expected DFD date based on paying only those minimums, and then an actual DFD that gets updated based on overpayments that I make. It's motivating to see each extra payment move the date forward by days or weeks depending on how big it is.

A car seat sounds to me like something you definitely NEED, and saving up for it rather than putting it on a card is an awesome step!

Thank-you!  Yes, we will start overpaying but I just need to wait and see how much my maternity pay will go down to before I can set a figure.  I've requested a breakdown from HR but it's taking it's time!  I don't technically start mat leave until September, I just have lots of annual leave to use so I am already off!

Once I've got the figures I'll use the snowball calculator to get a plan together.