Fresh Start At Fox Towers.

foxandflowers

(shiny new diary and the title makes me feel like I am in an Enid Blyton book)

For those of you who are new, and those who are not, quick life re-cap: 

Household consists of me, Mr Fox, and Mini Fox. Regular visitors are the 4 stepkids, 2 of which are now adults. I work full time and Mr Fox is currently SAHD'ing to Mini Fox. 

We are moving to a new house shortly in a big downsize. Previously we have moved house, and it hasn't worked as we continue to live outside our means, so this is a last ditch attempt to clear the 44k that we owe. I am really excited to live out my minimalist tiny home dreams and pay off my debt, and actually have some spare money at the end of the month to live a little. 

Debts currently stand as follows (total, £44.067.37): 

£32,712.31	Stepchange
£7,775.00	Friend 1 Loan
£2,000.00	Friend 2 Loan
£195.47	Ramsdens
£300.00	Credit card
£259.00	Adrian Flux
£440.79	Phone Finance Left (Ends 23.06.26)
£200.00	Family Loan
£184.80	Cash Generators

Embarrassingly, since I started my DF journey in January 2023 - we have barely paid anything off. Currenly 6.64% according to my spreadsheet. I have absolutely no explanation for this, except that my life keeps blowing up in my face on a semi-weekly basis, and I have no savings to counter it. 

As Caleb Hammer says, not having an Emergency Fund IS an emergency. 

The plan is, as soon as we move, pay off all the non-Stepchange debt, then haggle HARD on the Stepchange. Aiming to pay everything off with a pot of around 30,000, which will leave me with around 10-15k for savings and getting things for the new house that I don't currently have (ie a fridge freezer as mine is inbuilt). 

I've got roughly two weeks to go until we move if everything goes smoothly. I'm posting some hair to my friend today for £100, and I've sold my leather sofa on marketplace for £150 and they are collecting on Saturday. So that's £250 in the cash emergency pot. 

I've got moving boxes arriving today, and will be packing up what I can this weekend. I'm trying to get rid of as much furniture as possible, as a lot of it won't fit in the Tiny Terrace and then we will be tackling FB Marketplace and charity shops to replace what we need over the coming months. This ought to also reduce my moving bill as we ought to be moving with the bare minimum essentials, which is very exciting. And my books, obviously. 

Our new van (under warranty) is still at the garage at present, waiting on the warranty to be approved so the head gasket can be replaced. As soon as that's done, we will be doing lots of tip runs / charity shop drop offs. 

I will post an SOA in January, as while I have a good idea of what my bills will be, I need to be sure before I write anything up!

I am going to start 2025 from a place of being content with what I have, and being thrifty. 
My goals are: to be entirely debt free by 2026, have 15k in savings, and be a financially literate, less depressed, responsible adult Fox.

foxandflowers

Exciting MSE update; I have just gone through my Paypal history with Friend 2, and I actually now owe £1181, not £2000. So I have paid back more than I thought, and have just saved myself £819. 

New debt total: £43,248.37

Humdinger1

@foxandflowers I've subscribed! One question: many people go to self administered DMPs because it gives more flexibility.   Stepplan while good want 100% of debt to be repaid; don't agree with full and final offers; and want payments to be a % of what's owed.  I think if you search NEDCAB in the forum, there are template letters for announcing that you're going to self-administered.  I think it will help you get debt-free much more quickly.  You'll have paid the original sums borrowed several times over and any purchasers of the debts will gave bought them for pence in the pound. Well done for deciding that you are going to live within the money available. Contentment is all.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx

millymolly22

Good luck Fox and Flowers...hope everything goes to plan...keeping everything crossed for you 🤞

overhauler

Good luck fox, I’ve followed along with your journey for a while now and wish you all the best. 

foxgloves

Best of luck with your new start, @foxandflowers. As an ex-fritterer (married to another ex-fritterer!), I can tell you that taking financial responsibility in our early 40s was game-changing. We got ourselves into the mindset of the money coming in each month being OUR money & everything else we might have used with devil-may-care abandonment in the past (loans, credit cards, overdrafts) is somebody else's money. Having paid it all off, there is absolutely no way we ever intend to go that route again. As you identified, it's about your income dictating your spending. Getting a good emergency fund behind you is also such a relief when you've flown by the seat of your pants for so long.
Am so hoping this is going to work for you. It's just not worth borrowing. It just mounts up, hangs around, debt-payments take money which could be used for savings & security, etc, & as you know, kicks off that awful stresful situation of constantly robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Fingers firmly crossed here for you that this is the big re-set.
Good luck!
F x

Four_Seasons

Wishing you the very best for your move and reset will be joining you on your journey xx

_Dolly_Rocker_

Subscribing to the Foxy family!

dreaming

Glad to see a more positive diary name - I hated that you called yourself an idiot when it is clear you are not. I hope that positivity carries on into your new house and you start to get to grips with the debt etc. Best wishes.

dawnybabes

Onwards and downwards ! 

Take_a_hike_Elon_and_Jeff

Hello Mrs Fox
I’ll be following your new diary and wishing you the best for a smooth move! Some great positives I imagine about a smaller terrace compared to your current home (you’ll no doubt realise)
easier to clean
cheaper to heat
smaller outside space to maintain 
lower council tax?
cheaper household insurance 
less clutter 
It might be worthwhile looking on freegle to see if you can get any free stuff people don’t want for your new place.
I get you on the emergency fund like yourself and so many others I don’t really have one either but that is my goal too.
 I recently opened up a 7 day notice account and a 60 day notice account (savings)
This month even though I couldn’t afford it, immediately for the first time ,I took 10% of my salary and sent it to those two accounts.
 I can’t trust myself just have instant access but I figured with the 7 day one if I had an emergency I could access the funds in 7 days.
 I watched a video on “u” tube by a guy whose channel is called Better Ideas and the video which has inspired me is called “the only way to stop being broke” I think he sums it up quite well.


Have you seen the latest documentary on Ntflix called Buy Now I thought that was pretty good. Wishing you  a great weekend packing!