Debt free by 30!?

Lonelygambler

Hey, keep going. Take it a day at a time. You’ve made progress from your first post to now. 

LG

wannabedebtfreemum95

@lonelygambler you’re right! I am loving your diary too. You are doing amazing! 

I’ve written a list of 25 for 25 which includes trying 25 new veggie recipes to cut down on meat consumption, hoping this will help us stick to £100 per week for groceries. Feeling frustrated this morning as our online shop for the week came at 9pm on 27th and 1 massive pork shoulder, 2 chicken breasts and 2 portions of salmon all use by today. Very annoying! I cooked the chicken yesterday and have frozen that as fajita/burrito bowl mix. The salmon will be today’s lunch with frozen stir fry veg (need to make room in the freezer!!!!!) and I’m going to slow cook the pork today for dinner. I’ll freeze the leftover pork in portions for burrito bowls or tacos which I’m already excited about! 

We’ve had a few plans cancelled over the next few days so I’ll need to come up with some free alternative plans. If the wild wind calms down over the next few days we might even make it to a blustery beach. 

It’s back to work and nursery one week today and I’m feeling very ready for the routine to be in place! Solid Starts suggest having a rotating meal plan with each day being a set item. Ours will be:
Meat free Monday 
Tex-mex Tuesday 
Wildcard Wednesday (my non-working day) 
pasta Thursday
easy peasy Friday 
super quick Saturday 
Sunday roast 

wannabedebtfreemum95

We’re at the point of betwixtmas where the chocolate bag is running low, the kids are getting far more screen time than usual and they are living in cosy jammies. I’m itching to get moving, get the tree down, clean the house from top to bottom but trying to remember that this is their time off nursery too so to enjoy a bit of chill! 

I’ve had a bit of a farce this morning - I’ve accidentally paid my NatWest credit card direct debit amount 3 times this month. I paid on 19th (payday) thinking this would stop the direct debit (due 29th). Yesterday it was still showing so I paid it directly. Woke up this morning to a text saying I was in my overdraft in my wee NatWest account - they’d taken payment again!! Ah well, it’ll mean an overpayment I wasn’t planning and the next direct debit will be 1st March and £75 (rather than minimum or 1% of the balance). 

Today should be a NSD. I’m trying to resist the lure of the sales because I don’t need anything for me. The only thing on my list is new shoes for the big boy as he’s been scooting around so often, there’s holes on the front. We had plans to see family tomorrow but that’s been cancelled so I think we may pop to the shops to buy some Hogmanay Picnic Dinner ingredients, shoes for the big boy and potentially stop by the post office so I can bank all the Christmas cash. Otherwise it’ll sit in the biscuit tin forever!

vampirotoothus

Hi well done on getting a solid and working plan in place, it really makes a difference. With regards to what you do next, with all being on 0%, I would chuck all the amounts and dates they come off 0% into the Snowball calculator and work on that basis, so you clear them down in the order that they will start to charge interest (it's also good to know the dates in case you need another balance transfer). 
Good luck on the rest of your journey and happy new year V x

wannabedebtfreemum95

That’s a great idea! I have looked through them now:
CC1 (Lloyds): £958 ends in July 2026, £1100 ends in Dec 2025
CC2 (NatWest): ends in Oct 2025
CC3 (Virgin): ends in Sept 2025

I’ve paid off the John Lewis card (yay!!!) and there’s a £27.50 payment going to PayPal this evening. This is the minimum and is partly covered by my mum sending me her half of the Apple subscription and her Apple Watch. Happy days  

in less fun news, Mr WDF has had a bit of a scare and ended up at the doctors today with a lump. Luckily (and I am truly very grateful) we can use the emergency fund to pay for an ultrasound in the next few days rather than waiting 3-4 weeks. Whats that saying about how if you’ve got money, you’ve not got problems? Hopefully all clear but a worry nonetheless. 

wannabedebtfreemum95

It’s been an eventful Hogmanay! So much so, both kids are sleeping now (6:40pm) and I don’t think I’ll be too long after them. We had a slow morning with the milk delivery (minus chocolate milk, much to big boy’s disappointment) and used up some stale bread and 3.5 leftover sausages for French toast. Always feel like a budgeting queen using up random leftovers! 

In the afternoon we popped to the shops. I didn’t have much on the list but I did want bigger vests for the baby and new shoes for big boy before nursery on Monday. He’s scooted the toes out of his fave shoes and he had Christmas money to spend. We got shoes in sale for £10! He was eyeing up a Pokémon T-shirt in the sale but it was only age 12. He is age 5… so we bought two (£6 each on sale) and I promised I’d sew him a matching tshirt and shorts set. Nothing like buying yourself an item on the to-do list! But I’m sure I’ve got a pattern for both and I can print them out. We treated ourselves to some picnic food and other goodies in M&S for a Hogmanay party picnic, as well as a magazine for me. This was so expensive - £81. 😭 I should’ve had a budget but with baby in sling, big boy pushing trolley and grumpy worried Mr WDF, it was always going to be a shocker. 2025 resolution - do food shop without helpers! 

In an attempt to redeem myself, I’ve gone through each account and paid a micropayment to round to nearest £10. We’re starting 2025 with £13,340 debt which seems like hardly any progress but with £6,330 in our house pot which is so exciting. My aim for end of Jan is that we’ll have £8,000 in the house pot and £12,750 debt. 

wannabedebtfreemum95

One of my goals for 2025 was to spend less on groceries, cut down meat intake and make new recipes. Meal plan this dinners this week:

Today: Chinese chicken curry (using up the chicken due up tomorrow and with curry paste from family members takeaway so high hopes!!!)
thursday: steak pie 
Friday: pulled pork (from freezer) burrito bowls
Saturday: ultrasound day - probably a takeaway 
Sunday: cottage pie 

I’ve just done a Morrisons delivery shop but have realised I’ve missed a few key ingredients (I think). I’ll have to check the potatoes in the fridge for the cottage pie. It would be good to have some cottage pie leftover for baby’s lunch on Monday, and for myself for going back to work! 

To add to shop:
potatoes? 

The shop itself was £39 including 2 packs of nappies, drain unblocker x2 and bleach. The plan is to do a massive clean in Wednesday while the kids are with my mum and I’m very excited for that!

wannabedebtfreemum95

Quick check in for today - we had a child free day to do some tidying, clearing out and even squeezed in a tiny date, even if it was just Morrisons cafe! 

Spent £25 on breakfast, still not quite sure how it was this expensive but we got two meals, a side and 2 drinks. We both added extra to the breakfasts because we hadn’t read what was included, won’t be doing that again in a hurry! Picked up some fruit, lentil soup ingredients for the big boy and some other forgotten bits and bobs too. We picked up a toy for big boy (£5) and two tops for baby (£7). I got myself fancy hot chocolate powder and mini marshmallows (£7) and these came out of our Christmas gift money pots. We went to the charity shop too - 2 books for me at 50p each and 4 100 piece Pokémon jigsaws for me and the big boy to do together. £2!!!!! What a bargain. I was so pleased with myself that I rounded up and added £1 for charity. Gotta be done. 

Yesterday’s PAD was £1.75. Today’s will be £2 (rounding down my bank balance to nearest £5). This will go on Virgin  any joint account PADs will go to whatever is card of the quarter which I will have to refresh my memory on. 

Looking forward, we’ve got no big plans this weekend as the ultrasound is tomorrow (£110 from emergency fund). Big boy is off to grans for a sleepover tomorrow and fingers crossed, all being well, we’ll have a family fun day out of the house on Sunday to celebrate. I’ve promised mini golf at the beach so if the snow doesn’t appear, that’ll be great fun. If it does, we can mooch about and make a snowman in the garden. 

Meal plans:
friday - steak pie 
Saturday - takeaway
sunday - roast ham with honey and roast potatoes 
Monday - meat free Monday, probably lentil bolognese 
Tuesday - tex mex Tuesday, either fajitas or pulled pork burrito bowls (protein from freezer)

wannabedebtfreemum95

The doctor has been and that’s the quickest £120 I’ve ever spent. I thought it was £110 but apparently it was supposed to be £150 so I was getting a discount… either way, it is lipoma so no funeral planning required yet. I’m glad we had the money sitting! 

PAD £2 to NatWest again as it’s from my account. We’re getting a well-deserved takeaway tonight (Pizza Hut, my choice, I’ve had to do all the parenting while Mr DFW freaked himself out into oblivion all week) so that’ll come from the days out fund then I can do a small pay off to debt. The Pizza Hut was £33 which is ridiculous but I’m too tired to care. 

We’ve got £60 of Nando’s vouchers so we’ll have a celebratory lunch out tomorrow. I’m very much looking forward to getting back into some sort of routine on Monday. It’s child benefit Monday too and the day that we register big boy for school. How is he so old!? Exciting times all round  

wannabedebtfreemum95

We had a lovely family day today and managed to spend not too much money. After a lie-in (9:45am!!!) from the baby because he’d been up until 11pm, we had a lovely morning then picked up the big boy for our lunch at Nando’s. I’d assumed we were going to the local one but Mr WDF suggested the one at Ikea and I am never going to say no to an Ikea trip! 

Nando’s was fully covered by vouchers and we’ve still got £20 left on a gift card for a range of restaurants. We took the kids to the arcade games and used their Xmas cash from my mum’s best friend (£20). Feels frivolous but they both had fun and it was nice to win a few games! Ikea was successful - I’ve fully convinced everyone that my choice of sofa for a new house is the right one, so just need to wait and see if the estate agents will get back to me tomorrow. If not then I’ll phone them. The big boy picked up a Saturn teddy that he’s very pleased with, the baby got a ball, I got a candle. Happy days! 

Both kids are bathed, hair washed and ready for the routine tomorrow. The lentil soup is finally in the freezer and I’m ready for a NSD tomorrow and Tuesday (excluding milk man as this is every 2 weeks). 

PAD - £3 to Virgin.