Making 2026 a debt busting year

YORKSHIRELASS

So, debts currently stand at £29,923, compared to £38,115 at 31/12/24 and they were previously much higher. I am pleased that the balance is under £30k but there is much more work to do.

We have two card balances totalling £4,500 that we pay interest on, a whopping £88 a month! So I will do a balance transfer today to sort those out.

We have £1,020 in the house improvement fund, a paltry £60 in the heating oil fund (we topped up the oil and emptied the pot a few weeks ago) and £200 in the car repair fund. My car has had quite a bit spent on it recently and DHs car goes for MOT next week so that pot hasn't been enough, but we will look at that going forward. We also have £1,689 in the emergency fund and some money set aside for DS1 which I can't access at the moment.

In total we have around £5,000 to go towards the balance for the wood burning stove and the new waste treatment plant (which will be around £10k). At the moment I am splitting whatever is left each month after essential bills have been paid and putting half towards the debts and half into this fund. I would rather put it all towards the debts but we don't have much choice.

A further update will follow, I want to summarise my first quarterly spending next.

YORKSHIRELASS

Well I haven't updated for a while but I am still plodding on. DS1 and his fiancee have just bought their first home and we gave them £2000 towards this. Not only did we plan this in advance, we also saved it up, which is unheard of for us. We are also still overpaying the debts too.

We have just had a bank holiday weekend away camping, 3 nights for a total of £72, and it was well worth it. We did have lunch out a couple of times and thinking about it afterwards we both agreed that we would have rather taken a picnic.

I have been getting worked up over DS1s wedding and what to wear. I found a lovely Monsoon dress reduced to £90 which I was happy with until I saw a Facebook advert for a local dress shop with Mother of the Bride and Groom outfit advice. I convinced myself that this was a better option even though their dresses seem to start at £600!!

So, deep breaths, I don't have £600 to spend on a dress. I actually don't need to spend this much, and in fact if Facebook didn't exist I wouldn't even know that was an option. This has given me a lot to think about.

Further updates to follow.

peb

Monsoon have lovely things. You could try that dress on and see if theres anything you like in that size/style on vinted/ebay but ive been caught out too often to do that now. Slightly different style/colour/material and £10/20 wasted

liselle

I wore Monsoon dresses for both my daughters weddings. I don’t personally go for the ‘mother of the bride’ look, I prefer something that I can wear again.