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

LzzyIsGod

Leftovers from Sunday roast is one of my standard Monday Meals although increasingly the meat doesn't last for 2 days (greedy eaters my lot) so I tend to do sausages or a pie with the leftover veg and potatoes. Nice and quick for a Monday and doesn't need much thinking on my part. Ironically I loathed Monday leftovers as a kid but now I blooming love them.

I hear you on the impatience bit - hard not to wish life away when you're itching to achieve a goal

Debtfree2026

I've done my usual morning check of bank accounts and excel spreadsheet and with all direct debits gone out for January I am pleased to report that both are agreeing with a whopping 39p balance in the main bank account!

Still with £66.11 in personal spending account and £129.15 in groceries account - to last until Monday 27th so I'm confident!  As I said before, any surplus from those accounts will be put towards an ad hoc payment to my Nationwide CC. I've been doing that with odd payments this month.

So in December my Nationwide CC was £3,523.27 and I managed to transfer some over to my new MBNA 0% card so it was at £1,360.27 and I've managed to get it to a current balance of £1,181.81 so that's not bad! Am really going to try and focus on this and Littlewoods to get them gone, so I can concentrate on the big MBNA card whilst it's 0%.

Debtfree2026

I've just added up my repayments on all debts so far this month (with the surplus mentioned above still to be added when I confirm how much it is) and........£1077.84. Now imagine if I didn't have any debt and was ploughing that amount into saving, investments, holiday funds....honestly.  It's a total eye opener.

I'm feeling guilt.  Guilt that I've incurred this debt and that our JOINT salaries are going towards sorting this out. Guilty that my girls are missing out for a couple of years on fun trips etc, because we need to chuck every spare penny at this debt.  Luckily for me my husband is completely on board and he knows that I do everything for the good of this family and we are very much a team.  I am so grateful for him.  I don't think I've ever really talked about how I incurred my debt?  A lot of times spending on credit cards with the intention of paying off straight away, and then didn't.  Activities for the kids.  Presents for the kids. This is a big one and also why I have a pot for both birthdays and Christmas going forward.  No more presents on credit cards/catalogues.  My daughter's mud kitchen had fallen in a state due to being outside in all weathers, so I gave it away and bought a new one for my daughters on a credit card.  It arrived end of September.  It hasn't even been used yet as the weather hasn't allowed for outdoor play.  At least this time I bought a protective cover for it, so it shouldn't get as damaged as the last one.

My pots and pans were a bit worse for wear - no longer non-stick.  Hence £300 order to Lakeland on the credit card. 

One of my biggest vices is coffee.  I love a takeaway coffee and get two a week. (And yes, I've been a customer with Octopus for over three years and have only just started getting the free cafe nero coffee!!) I really want to get a new Sage coffee machine but I've created a pot for it and told myself that I'll put odds and ends into that pot and save up.  Realistically I can't justify putting stuff into there whilst I can pay off my debt!  But this time last year that would have gone straight onto a credit card.  So I am learning.  Seeing that one month's worth of payments to debt would have got me the coffee machine outright is both depressing and motivating!

 Let's get this debt GONE!

LzzyIsGod

I too feel guilty, it's really hard not to but think of the good example you'll be showing the kids going forwards. That's a gift that's priceless amd will last longer than any toy or appliance xx

Cara_

It’s easy for me to say but I don’t think you should feel guilty. Yes, there Is debt but you are tackling it and you’re doing really well.

I’m fairly new to joining in on the forum and I didn’t want to labour the point about buying joints but just to take it one step further, I bought a gammon joint yesterday and cut gammon steaks for dinner; today it is in the slow cooker for ham which will be sandwiches and any bits can be turned into a pasta dish, quiche or omelette. I used to buy cooked ham for sandwiches and gammon steaks and then bacon for the rest, as it never occurred to me that I could get everything I wanted from one piece of meat. It was a light bulb moment for me!

If you do buy joints then, just check if the price per kg is cheaper than the item you were going to buy. For example, I cut up slow cook beef joints to make stewing steak which is usually cheaper but sometimes there are offers on when it doesn’t work out. Also, scissors are your friend for cutting up strips of meat which is another tip I got off the internet. Where would we be without the internet 

Your children are young, so it is an ideal time to clear the debt and then as you commented, the money can go towards savings etc.

Debtfree2026

Happy Friday!

Thank you so much @Cara_...... can I ask where you buy the joints from?  Just from the supermarket? My daughter's love some gammon so that sounds extremely tempting! As does the beef stewing steak!  With this wind howling outside I could absolutely do with a warming beef casserole tonight! 

I have been very good at sticking to the meal plan this week. I have amended my lunchtime meals a little - I had planned on having mainly soup for myself - as I generally had leftovers from the night before, so I ate them for lunch and have saved the soup for next week.  I need to batch cook some soup in fact as the shop bought stuff is expensive considering what I'd save by making it myself.

Another change this week - I have a Go Henry card for my 9 year old and was really begrudging the £5.99 fee, so signed up for the 'coming soon' Monzo 6+ bank account at the start of the year.....I got the email yesterday about  it and immediately signed my daughter up!  So its an account attached to my Monzo account but she also gets a debit card.  So I'm going to close the Go Henry account and manually put the money into her new Monzo account.  She was very excited to see that she can make some pots like mine!  She's requested a 'Stationery' pot and 'make up' pot.  Not too sure about the second pot as she's only 9 but I think she is thinking of skin care mainly, as she suffers terribly from eczema at times.  Anyway, I digress.....my point is that she is already starting to think about budgeting and savings which is extremely positive and I'm being open with her about why we are doing a budget and how important it is to  try and understand finances from a young age.

I don't work Fridays as I spend the day with my youngest, so next time I'm in the office I'll be running the pay roll! Whoop! I do always get her a sausage roll from the local bakery on a Friday after our phonics class but I have factored that into my spending for this week so we are still doing ok! £112.77 left in groceries account and aiming for no more than £100 on Sunday's shop so should have a little surplus to transfer to Nationwide CC if all goes well!

Cara_

Yes, I buy the joints from the supermarket and then have a think about what meals I can get from one piece of meat. The old style section of the forum will help with some ideas with recipes if you need some inspiration.There are some really good diaries where you can pick up tips - it you've not read foxgloves diary then I recommend it as she has some really good tips about shopping from home etc.

The wind is howling here too and as I live in a draughty house, it is on the cool side this evening.

It's a good idea to teach your daughter about budgeting and it's great that she is already thinking about savings pots. Have you any plans for the Go Henry fee that you will save? It's a nice saving of £70 over the year,so could be used for a treat or added to a savings pot? 

The grocery budget is looking good and a nice amount to pay off the Nationwide CC.

Debtfree2026

Thanks @Cara_ I am definitely going to check that part of the forum out.  I feel like I did ok with the chicken last week, so would certainly be up for some more thrifty meals this week! I've made the girls a beige dinner for a Friday night - chicken dippers and some homemade chips I premade and froze from the surplus potatoes I had left over at Christmas!  And I'm cooking up a sausage pie that I made before Christmas for myself and my husband, and we'll have it with some frozen veg!

Re the Go Henry saving - I think for now it'll just go towards surplus debt payments. I have quite generous allocations for my pots already and I'm impatient to get the debts down so anything I can do to help that I will!

Debtfree2026

Tomorrow is payday, so I am going to do my January round up here now:-

HSBC CC December: £7,942.88 - this has been a massive interest rate of 27.9% for YEARS and I have been naively paying just over the minimum for as long as I can remember.  Got a new MBNA 0% balance transfer card and transferred the entirety onto that.....so HSBC CC: Nil.  Card shredded.

Nationwide CC December: £3,523.27 - interest rate 1.3%.  Transferred what I could from this balance onto the aforementioned 0% card.  Current balance: £829.96 (incidentally, this card is shredded also!)

Littlewoods December: £808.91 - BNPL scheme, due November 2025. Obviously I'm paying back before then.  Current balance: £560.66

HSBC Loan: £15,615.86.  Current balance: £14,697.28

New MNBA CC: £10,425.28

Summary:
New debt balance: £26,513.18
Repayments January 2025: £1,163.69

MFWannabe

Morning
Well done on the balance transfer. When you say the HSBC card is shredded have you also closed the account? 

Have you also removed the account from any one line stores / payments?