Now or never

Its_time

@enthusiasticsaver wow..........official kick up the !!!!!!
It's taken me a day to reply, it literally made me suck in my breath.
But you are right....thank you
So to follow your advice and get a rough figure in my head that I can use over and over, I will pay 15% to pets and 15% to emergencies each month from the amount we have left, which is approx £1400 the rest will go to debt.
In relation to my business I work for a month or two then have a month or two off, I go like hell then I stop because our main job takes priority constantly.  Lately, since August I have been able to work a lot more, still not daily but a lot more and have earned approx £2000 less expenses with another £1250 due on Sunday.  I do keep accounts but tend to do them a few months at a time as my ins and outs are large and perhaps 2 or 3 a month not lots of little purchases/expenses daily.  I've never thought of paying myself a wage just use the main account or credit card to make purchases and then put all the sales back in.  I like the idea of having a wage and keeping it separate, just never thought about it.  I think it will be more necessary as I increase the work over the next few months and am really liking the idea of earning a wage, it feels funny.
All this is a bit beyond me really, I suppose I should start  to keep my accounts weekly or as soon as I have something to enter and open a separate bank account.  I might keep the £1250 due on Sunday in the new account as the start of my business account, then I have some money to pay for the next business purchases and also a wage for me.  Maybe then if it is looking good and is making a decent profit I could look to transfer some more to the debt in the next few months.  
All the money ins and outs has all been in one account except for DH's money so it's a muddle.
I'm going to pay all DH's off the debt each week and transfer the two 15%s to separate accounts from the main account and also keep mine separate from now on, that way, we should be able to have our main account with not much left in it each month but (once OD cleared) in credit.  An emergency account.  A pet account. DH's account and my business account.  Then to cheer myself up once all the debt is cleared a savings account.  I already pay £500 standing order to the credit card, I will replace this with DH's money and use it to pay the £210 into pets and £210 in to emergency leaving £100 in the main account which might give us a little buffer in time.
I do think the cards are there for me and constantly use them as my money. 
I can't promise to get this right all the time but I promise I will TRY to get it right all the time.  Thanks for taking the time to shove me in the right direction, it is so much more appreciated than you might think.  Here's to the journey

enthusiasticsaver

Sounds like a good plan. There was a good diary on here by @BabyStepper who was self employed and followed the Dave Ramsey approach to pay off debt. Not saying that is the right approach for you but she used to pay herself a wage from her business and keep the expenses separate. She is debt free now so not active any more but you can search for it. Getting out of the mentality of using the cards for spending when you have gone over budget will be the biggest thing you can do to see the debt coming down steadily. 

Its_time

Ok thank you @enthusiasticsaver.
I think there will be fallout from old habits for some time such as this morning when DH told me we need bedding for the animals, not budgeted for, last night I saw an item on ebay I couldn't ignore for my business so bid and won it, where is the money coming from....??
The new rules are prompting me to say the £1250 which is coming on Sunday will be spent as follows:
Approx £300/£350 bedding
£350.00 Ebay purchase 
£150 my wages put towards emergency fund
£150 my wages put towards pets in advance 
Total of £1000 the rest will be towards the businesses account leaving a balance of £250 for future purchases etc.
I think this is what is happening, no credit cards or overdraft used.  No debt paid off from the £1250 but no debt increase either.

joedenise

It's good that you now have a plan for the money which you having coming in this weekend.  The main thing is that everything is being accounted for and nothing being put onto the credit card and adding to the debt.

I'm a great believer in Pots for future expenditure and have been using YNAB for about 7 years now (I'm still using the old version as not prepared to pay a monthly or annual fee for it to use the new version online.

Keep planning and get those Pots filled, especially the Emergency Fund.

Have you thought about using the old Tilly Tidy method of paying extra off the debts.  I used to do it daily but now I only round the account a couple of times a month - mid month and end of month.  Those small amounts make a big difference.

Good luck on sticking with your plan.

Its_time

@joedenise thank you for your encouragement.   I have thought about Tilly Tidy and at one time used to do it, but as the main account is usually not in credit it feels a bit like cheating.  
One of our biggest issues is that we never put money away for anything, I mean anything, nothing is planned or budgeted for, if we want it then it either comes out of the main account and overdraft or credit cards, that includes everything from emergency is right down to weekly shopping. This really is needing some drastic changes, I said to DH don't worry about going on holiday, if we pay lots off the debt  we can use the card for the holiday,  that was only last week, I'm sat here thinking I need to open a savings pot for this, ugghhhhh I need everything laid out in front of me and a clear plan to follow, one mistake and I am likely to give up.
I have so many weaknesses I don't know which is the biggest..
Thank you so much for all your advice.

enthusiasticsaver

Its_time said:

Ok thank you @enthusiasticsaver.
I think there will be fallout from old habits for some time such as this morning when DH told me we need bedding for the animals, not budgeted for, last night I saw an item on ebay I couldn't ignore for my business so bid and won it, where is the money coming from....??
The new rules are prompting me to say the £1250 which is coming on Sunday will be spent as follows:
Approx £300/£350 bedding
£350.00 Ebay purchase 
£150 my wages put towards emergency fund
£150 my wages put towards pets in advance 
Total of £1000 the rest will be towards the businesses account leaving a balance of £250 for future purchases etc.
I think this is what is happening, no credit cards or overdraft used.  No debt paid off from the £1250 but no debt increase either.

I think that is a good plan.  As you say no debt repaid but you are starting to move away from using credit just to live which has to be the first step.  Budgeting and living without resorting to debt and that means anticipating future expenditure. So yes if you want a holiday then you need to save for it or the debt will increase. 

Its_time

So many jobs for today:
School run x 2
Clean house and try to remove the smell of horse muck border collie number 1 brought in, do this now and then at 3.30
Work/sew 9.30 till 1.30 with coffee break
Paperwork 
Update business accounts 
Open new  virtual accounts on ms money for future expenditures 
Add up exactly all direct debits, have been added up already but want to make 200% sure of my accuracy
Ummmmm meal plan and check freezer contents
Accounts needed so far, birthday, holidays, Christmas,  pets, emergency, business, little wants account to keep us sane, groceries, clothes, house improvements (more like repairs), cars

enthusiasticsaver

You sound organised now.  My daughter has just got a border collie pup who is gorgeous.  Very intelligent dogs.  

I like the sound of the pots.  I would build a small buffer for direct debits in case you miss a price increase.  I don't use ms money but virtual pots sounds good.  At first the amounts will be small but if you get to grips with this in time it will be so much less stressful having the money there to pay for Christmas or pet supplies or car repair rather than juggling credit card balances.  We keep things very simple with just one joint current account for direct debits and monthly expenditure, 1 personal current account each and one savings account for emergencies which is never touched and the other for car, house, holidays and gifts. 

I would try living out of the freezer and cupboard for a week or so just to get to grips with what you have in and give you a chance to build up some credit in your pots. Have you put the cards away somewhere so you are not tempted to use them? 

Its_time

@enthusiasticsaver I am definitely trying to be organised.
Out of the list of jobs for me today I did pretty much everything but did not update my business accounts, just ran out of mental time in my head so I sat and stared at the telly.
But.. I have made virtual pots in ms money for emergency fund, pets, holidays, house repairs/improvements, Christmas and birthdays as well as a business one for me.  Some of them are priority and others will have to wait but I've cancelled the £500 to the credit card and will use DH's approx £1000 to pay that each month. 
The overdraft is running around £505 OD today and will be in credit on Friday when job number 1 pays us, it will stay in credit until two weeks today when it goes overdrawn for about £400 for 24 hours, after that it is in credit permanently so no more high interest charges, I am not going to say hopefully, I am saying definitely, a day to look forward to. 
I have taken your advice @enthusiasticsaver and will try to live out of the cupboards and freezer for a few weeks but have allowed myself £30 a week for shopping, I would prefer not to use this but we will need necessities like milk and butter etc. although I have factored this into the overdraft figures above.   I've meal planned and will stick to it.
I've changed how we have allocated the £1250, its still £300 for the ebay purchase, not sure how much the bedding will be but will know that on Sunday when I go to buy it, but usually around £300/£350, £100 to emergency and £100 to pets the rest is staying in the business account because I need to buy more supplies to alter my ebay purchase before I can sell it for a profit, this will be ordered on Sunday as well ready for the end of next week. 
I've also crunched a few numbers where the new business account is on ms money and I am feeling so much clearer about how the business can earn money and how much it needs to earn.  I've decided to take 15% from every sale from now on to pay my wages/emergency and my wages/pets.  I can then see how this goes and will know if I need to up it or once there is a buffer perhaps I can pay less into these accounts and more in to some others, in the future with careful planning the account will look good enough to take some money and pay off more of the debt, I would like to take a regular wage at some point but I think as long as I keep track of where the money is being spent it is ok to keep the surplus in the account for a business rainy day.
Frugal things today:
I made a curry last night (I know not today) and gave both me and DH less so it made enough for 4 meals, 2 are in the freezer for next week.  Tonight I made pasta and there was enough for a one meal over so it is in a tub and in the freezer.
Good news:
I received an email from Top Cash Back telling me I had funds to spend, we paid for RAC cover in May and did it through TCB, I completely forgot about it, so after some thinking it went into the main account which lowered the amount of the overdraft by £70
Almost bar a little bit of tweaking have finished the job being collected on Sunday so payment of £1250 definitely imminent.
Things to think about:
Christmas....how to pay for it?  How much NOT to spend?  
DIL birthday on Saturday again this is not budgeted for, how are we paying for a present?
New account needed just remembered the house insurance is due for renewal in January....oh dear

Its_time

Jobs so far today:
School run x 2
Work 9.30 till 1.45 and then 3.30 till 5.30
Paperwork
Update business accounts
Open new house/car insurance virtual accounts
Think about DIL's birthday present and Christmas plan