A space for my thoughts - tackling debt once and for all!

Debtfree2026

Sarahwithlove said:

I hope your dad let's you sit down and help him with his finances. Sounds like he could do with it and hopefully he would then he able to repay you at a more affordable monthly amount for him.

He is going to give me some dates when he is free to travel to me - we live about 3 hours apart - but he does seem keen.  He actually paid me £100 back already, which was unexpected but welcome.   

Debtfree2026

So today I had my first slight panic - an invoice came in for the second half of my daughter's after school dance club and I don't quite have enough money in my pot.  Then, I realised that it's not due until 8th June, by which time I'd have put another £200 into the pot and therefore would have more than enough money for it.  Realistically, I also have enough in my other pots, so if I'd truly needed to I could move things around and temporarily take from clothing, entertainment or even home and garden! So no need to panic at all.

Everything has been accounted for and paid for for this month (in terms of direct debits) so we are in a good place.

Looking forward to pay day next week so I can allocate things into my pots! It's half term but I've put my two girls into a theatre workshop for the week and it'll be quiet in the office (the staff are all working away from Tuesday!) so hopefully I can get on with quite a bit!

Debtfree2026

And in fact, the only reason I don't have the money immediately in there is because I spent nearly £200 on the half term club for them!  They break up from school on 2nd July, so no more clubs to pay for until September so plenty of time to get that pot back up to where it needs to be!

Debtfree2026

Another pay day and another monthly shuffle of putting money into various pots and updating the spreadsheet!  I forgot to say before - I actually last minute decided not to pay off my Lapland holiday in bulk as it isn't due until September, so I put it into an savings pot on Monzo and so far this month I have made £18.57 interest on it!  So I'm going to keep it in there until the payment is due and try any interest will obviously just be a bonus and extra spending money perhaps!

My pots are looking healthy in general, which I am pleased about.  I am still quite reluctant to spend from them!  Our local toy store has some great sales on at the moment and I could really get ahead for Christmas/birthdays but I'm just worried to see that balance go down!  Which I'll kick myself for when they go up and I don't make any savings!  I really need to work on that. 

Waiting to hear if I've been lucky enough to get the Nationwide Fairer Share bonus.....I'm not sure if I use the account enough, I think I read that you need to have paid out 10 times but I'm unsure if that's for a month or since March etc?  I'll have a further read up on it.  Would be nice!

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Personally I would go ahead with those Christmas/ Birthday purchases. I tend to buy throughout the year when deals come up. I enjoy buying people presents, especially at low cost lol! I also buy all my wrapping paper and Christmas cards immediately after Christmas and usually pay about a third of the original cost. This saves me quite a lot as I like to send cards to the family labelled Nephew, Mother, Aunt etc… There are also excellent deals to be had on eBay for personalised cards and indeed presents lol. 

joedenise

Debtfree2026 said:

Another pay day and another monthly shuffle of putting money into various pots and updating the spreadsheet!  I forgot to say before - I actually last minute decided not to pay off my Lapland holiday in bulk as it isn't due until September, so I put it into an savings pot on Monzo and so far this month I have made £18.57 interest on it!  So I'm going to keep it in there until the payment is due and try any interest will obviously just be a bonus and extra spending money perhaps!

My pots are looking healthy in general, which I am pleased about.  I am still quite reluctant to spend from them!  Our local toy store has some great sales on at the moment and I could really get ahead for Christmas/birthdays but I'm just worried to see that balance go down!  Which I'll kick myself for when they go up and I don't make any savings!  I really need to work on that. 

Waiting to hear if I've been lucky enough to get the Nationwide Fairer Share bonus.....I'm not sure if I use the account enough, I think I read that you need to have paid out 10 times but I'm unsure if that's for a month or since March etc?  I'll have a further read up on it.  Would be nice!

It depends which account you have with Nationwide what the terms are.  If you have the package account just paying the monthly fee is enough!  I don't do much more than that and I'm getting it.

There's a message on the front page about who will be getting it.

Debtfree2026

Thanks @joedenise - I'm actually not getting it!  Which is a shame but never mind!  I pay £500 a month into it and have regular payments out but the savings are in my daughter's name as it's a junior ISA, so I fall down on the £100 in savings aspect! 

joedenise

That's a shame.  They've been doing it for the last few years so could you afford to start putting a bit into a savings account so that if they do it again next year you should be able to get it.

Ordinary_Yet_Unique

Yes, open something like an easy access saver with Nationwide and put in a few pounds a month. You need at least  £100 to help you qualify for the Fair Share payment in 2026. Of course this assumes it will happen next year and the criteria are not changed!

Debtfree2026

Hi all, I've been logging on and keeping up to date on everything -just haven't had much to report myself!  Just over a week until payday, all bills etc paid off for the month.  I have one more food delivery before payday and less than £100 put aside for it, but last week I bulk bought a lot of stuff (cat food, washing up liquid etc) so I won't need that stuff for a while AND my husband is away from Wednesdays and my eldest is on her residential next Thursday and Friday so I can definitely make it work.  

Next month will be more difficult as our mortgage repayment is going up quite considerably - by approx £400.  So some of the saving pots will be taking a bit of a hit for a while!