In years to come I will laugh

flyingscotsman67

It has been a great week. As I said before kids are back at university and the flying Scotswoman, my son and I are in a nice routine. I am proud of my daughter who has a great work ethic and applying for another p/t job to supplement her own spending at uni. We make a not insignificant contribution to her rent each month- but she also pays a part and covers all of her other expenses - as she is 21 that's the way it should be but she has turned out with a health appreciation and understanding of money- much quicker than her dad! As for my son (18) and in the states- he is a work in progress, but to be fair he lives frugally- can go days without spending anything. Just as well as his University experience in US keeps bringing unexpected costs (looks like ive another £300 to pay in some international student tax)- he is on a scholarship but I am currently paying for his food (I hope this will also be part of his scholarship with a bit of luck next semester) and lots of additional taxes, travel etc. He will need a wake up call soon that he will need to start earning if he wants to do anything socially- but that will come!

On our budgeting front- lots of wins! We are sticking to our weekly budget and have underspent every week - so building our emergency fund nicely. My wife has been picking up lots of extra shifts at work- she was previously reluctant to do this, but now that she knows the scale of the task she is super motivated and chasing extra hours. All the extra shifts and a few unexpected bonuses from work mean that Jan will see us not adding to our debt for the first December/January that I can remember ever! Furthermore we will have reduced our debt and there should be a healthy lump sum at the end of Jan and Feb for us to allocate to savings and debt repayment. 

Much to my delight I got a 0% offer on an existing card and a larger balance- this along with a couple of 0% offers on my wife's cards meant i have been able to move a good chunk of our credit to 0% deals for the next 15-20 months So happy with that! It does meant that the balances will go up with transaction fees- but i have calculated that this will be 2 months of the interest i was paying and giving me 15-20 months where the balances will come down quicker. Psychologically it feels great to know that a much healthier % of what I am paying is going to the totals. 

I am going to start focussing on selling now! There is stuff everywhere- so I will aim to sell a couple of items each week. 

We have agreed that we will aim for an emergency fund of £3,000 and when we have that everything and anything spare will go to the debt- we have even started to talk about which cc to pay first- which is exciting. 

Day 18 not drinking and not drunk 38 of the last 42 days- another win. Running and sauna in the gym most evenings. So as I say all good! 

I have read lots about DMPs- i think with the wind at our back we can avoid that route for now- but in all honesty it holds few fears for me- so if the situation changes i take comfort in knowing there are options for us. We also have the option of downsizing should we want to. However, we are both clear BUDGETING is everything for us no matter what path we go down so that's the goal and focus for the next while. Thanks again to everyone for the comments and encouragement. Enjoy your weekend!

lucielle

All sounding really positive. 

L

flyingscotsman67

Another busy but enjoyable week. I said on my first post in early December that I was tired of the roller coaster lifestyle and wanted calm- well that is what i am feeling now and its bliss. We continue to budget and every penny has a purpose. This month brought a couple of significant unexpected expenses but we have been able to adapt and flex to deal with them. It is so great that my wife is fully on board- she has been getting lots of extra shifts at work and we should have some really good income from both our wages at the end of Jan/Feb. We got lucky with a couple of 0% offers and i have been working furiously moving debts on cards with interest back and forward to get them on 0% offers. We started with a position that we were paying approx. £2,200 on credit card debt with close to £800 in interest- we now have £268 on interest and I am confident we can get this lower still. This has added to the debts in fees but i calculate that will have been cleared in 6-8 weeks and then 15 months of 0% where that £600 would have gone on interest - circa £9,000 extra towards the debt. In addition to this it feels so much more positive that the large sums we will be paying to the cards will be making a dent on the debt.

Another win when DS posted this evening, from his uni in America asking if we could go on a family holiday in the summer, in previous years the conversation would have gone along the lines of- isn't it great they still want to go on holidays with us at their age- maybe we should have a holiday when we still can as a family and off we would have gone and put it on the cc. This time, without a conversation my wife said we won't be able to this year as it costs a lot to help with the uni fees- would be lovely to do it again one year. Such a great reply! 

Still enjoying the running, gym, sauna- ive ran 20 miles this week! which is unreal for me and not bad for a big lad! Still dry and loving that too...

Still need to sell some stuff and on the to do list... speak soon!

lucielle

That’s really good on moving the deb to 0%. We’ll done for saying no to the holiday and especially well done on the running. 

L

Lesleyhay

Just found your diary and you are a real inspiriation.  Keep it up and I will be following avidly.

Iamouttheotherside

Loving your catch ups, such positivity and movement forwards!   

durhamcowboy

You’re doing great and your story really resonates- good luck!

Fortune_Smiles

Just de-lurking to say well done on your amazing progress.

Fortune x

flyingscotsman67

So end of month 2 of budgeting and 1st month of tracking the numbers and its been a great one! On the down side we faced two hefty bills covered by weekly savings in our budget. My wife has been picking up extra hours in work and we both had unusual bonuses from work - the total from all of this is approx. £1,000 extra coming in- which is brilliant- some of those extra hours (50% or so) should be available for a while!

So great progress one month in:

Debts:
Credit Cards x 12 10 £86,360 /£85,359 (-£999)
Loans x 2: £19,600 /£18,600 (-£1000)
Total: £105,960 /£103,961 (-£1,999) - 1.88%

Assets:
Emergency fund: 1,926/ £2,500

Pension 190k (took a bit of a dip with stocks and shares £187k
Capital on house £300k -£108/ £107k mortgage (£192) (£193k equity)

overall debt down by £1,999 and emergency savings up by £500 so a £2,500 swing in our favour.

February budget should see approximately £1,300 going to cc debt, £706 to loans (£2,006) plus anything else we can squirrel away from weekly budget and from selling. I have a few items up for sale just now including golf clubs  

All in a great month and its January! I have started to cook home made curries with a spice box gift i received at Christmas- every bit as good as the curries we used to enjoy from the takeaway so savings there too.

Running going great- i am on schedule to do 70 miles in Jan- 25 this week. Still very slow and far from light on my feet- but getting there. Loving my sauna sessions after and 30 days without alcohol today- which is all good and i am down from 104kilos to 99kilos also.

Older kids are back at uni and away from home and doing great and are happy --- Blimey- does it get any better than this!!! I know there will be tougher periods and bumps on the road- but for now life is good! I hope all  is good with those of you reading- take care and thanks. 

lucielle

That really is a wonderful post to read.  Well done to you and your wife.
L