Road to Financial Peace

Nymphadora

Hello, Happy New Year. 

I have attempted keeping a diary a few times on here but never kept it up for one reason or another.

So here I am again but more determined than ever to shift this debt (I am not getting any younger lol)

So I am late 40's married with 2 adult children still at home.   DH is the main wage earner and always has been.  Up until 2 years ago I worked full time but not in a high paying role.  Unfortunately my health has taken a dive and I have reduced my hours and also my salary.

Last year I felt much better and upped my hours to only have another set back health wise so for now DH and I have agreed to me keeping my reduced hours for the next year or so in the hope I can get back to decent enough health to go full time.

So the debt and the reason for this diary - We have £19,856.66 on Credit Cards.  Very lucky all is on 0%.   We currently slightly over pay the minimum and we are paying £635 a month to these so chipping away slowly.

I would like to make additional payments to this each month if I can.  Each month I allocate funds for petrol and food so if I can keep these below budget then I can have more to send to our debt.

We are fortunate to have around £15k in savings and want to keep this in the bank while our debt is on 0% however if these deals go away then we will of course use this.

So here is to another year with debt but hopefully by this time next year we will have made a decent dent in it and my health makes some improvement.

liselle

Very best wishes for your health, and debt, journey

Nymphadora

Thank you.  

So the 1st and 2nd were no spend days.   Today's spend is my lotto ticket - I have had the same numbers for decades so kinda stuck and hopefully one day our numbers will come up lol

I not long up - having a bad day however now I am up my plan for today is:

Do a freezer inventory
Make a meal plan for the week
Sort through the endless boxes of biscuits and treats left over from Christmas
Sort through the many toiletries I have
Check the bank - going to try to do this daily.

So leftover gammon tonight for dinner to use up the last from new years day 

ryandotdee

Good plan   You are in a fortunate position to have the savings, and hopefully this will really help with not putting things on credit when necessities / emergencies come up.

One thought on that, not sure what type of account you have the savings in, but you could look at paying the interest off your debt, 15k is probably getting somewhere in the region of 500 a year in interest, so its an option. almost an extra months payment and you dont need to technically save anything.(if you ignore inflation obvs)

Will follow along for further updates

Nymphadora

Thank you.  Will need to have a look and see what interest the savings are getting.  Most of the savings are with a credit union so not sure how interest works but that is a good idea to use the interest towards the debt.

So plan for today -

Small shop for back to work lunch supplies - back tomorrow for everyone.
Check the bank to make sure still on track for the month
Check interest on savings
Put a wash on.

Not a busy day thankfully.    
   

Nymphadora

Oh it's a cold one here.  I do have the heating on but have layered up so once it clicks off I hopefully won't be too cold. 

So I have taken out a chicken joint from the freezer for tonights dinner.   DH was not supposed to be back at work tomorrow however they were offering overtime for today so he has picked up a shift.  It works out if DH can do 2 overtime shifts a month then that more than makes up for the money we lost by me going part time.  

I had a look at the interest rates on savings and most are not good, the savings are over 7 accounts and some don't have much money in them so might look at other accounts over the next few weeks.

Not much planned for today -

Put a washing on
Do the banking
Walk the dog
Check work emails ready for getting back to work.

Nymphadora

2 Washings on
Dog walked
Emails checked 
Banking done.

So we have £297.77 left of our food budget for this month however my freezer is full and the cupboards are full also down to 3 adults to feed and one gets fed when working (4th works away) so I am hopeful that by pay day at the end of the month there will be some of this left to put over to the debt.

Also my current account has of today £767.76 in it that is not set aside for food, bills, petrol or parking for work.  Again plan to keep ad hoc spends to a minimum and see what is leftover this month that could also go towards the debt.   

Nymphadora

First day back at work completed.

Need to walk the dog. 
Prep dinner - baked potatoes tonight.

I have checked the banking for today and on track.  Had to buy a packet of my supplements last night as noticed I only had a few days left so £14.99 out of our ad hoc spend budget.  
Today should be our 4th no spend day of the month - unless DH ends up spending between now and getting home.   
 

Nymphadora

Another work day just on my lunch.

I went to the shops before work and spent £19.67 and £40 on petrol.  Not counting this as a spend day as I count these as essentials.

Mince in slow cooker to make a cottage pie for tonights dinner.
Got the bed stripped ready to wash and tumble when I get home.

To keep me on track and accountable I am going to note my balances here for food, petrol and ad hoc.

Food budget £275.10 - this is to last 22 days till pay day.  
Petrol budget - £120.00 - again to last 22 days
Ad hoc budget - £742.73 - again to last 22 days till pay day.

These are the budgets I am hoping to be able to save from to make additional debt payments.  

I budget £500 for food each month - this budget started on 23rd December so is needed over a longer time frame and also included some christmas/new year spends and so the £275.10 is less than I would normally have at this point of the month however my freezer still has a good few meals in it.

I budget £160 for petrol - this is usually not used up and is something I have not adjusted in a few years since we swapped one of the cars to electric. 

Ad hoc is what is left over after all bills, food, petrol and parking - this is different every month and some months will not be as high - all depends on how much overtime DH does. 

Right off to eat some lunch.

Nymphadora

Last working day of the week for me and it is a work from home day.  So I am on lunch and about to take the dog for a walk.

Absolutely shattered today so plan to do very little.   I have checked the bank and apart from paying the window cleaner there should be no further spends but will wait till later on the day to update figures.  I do have a parcel to collect at M&S (used gift card to purchase) so will need to pop out and get that although it doesn't need picked up today.

I have had the heating on far too much over the christmas holidays and was shocked at how much we have spent so I am keeping a very close eye the bills now - we do have a large credit balance with our energy company so we can afford to have higher bills this winter but I don't like to see that credit go down too much for some reason.

Right off to wrap up and take this dog out.

Nymphadora

Still shattered today so very little being done today.

1 Wash in the machine.
Banking done
Dinner taken out of the freezer for dinner - Cooked ham left over from NY to be had with soup, potatoes and veg.
Need to make a list as will need to do a shop tomorrow however will keep this a low as possible as still a good few meals in the freezer.

Figures -  Petrol £120.00 left till pay day
                Food £275.10
                Ad hoc £723.77

On the gas and electric front.  Since making an effort the gas amount has come down by £1 each day (not masses but over a month that's £30.  The electric hasn't updated yet for all the days so need to check back in the next day or so but again if I can shave £1 a day off that then the total saved is £60.     Yes it has been very cold so expected the heating to be on more but it was getting to the stage we were walking about in t shirts lol.