2-4-1 on Babies - Time to Tackle Debt

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary.

BetterThanIDeserve

Back to reality after what was a lovely holiday, with so many memories made with the family.

The holiday was off to a rocky start with all flights being cancelled by the airline that day due to a technical fault! 8 hours in an airport to be told it’s cancelled with twins isn’t for the faint hearted.

We managed to book a flight from Leeds instead of Manchester for 6am the next morning and then a return flight back to Leeds (we where able to cancel and get a refund due to the cancellation).

now home, the first step of getting to £1K savings before we tackle all the debts didn’t take too much of a beating. £374.80 down to £351.40 mainly due to some V*nt*d items that I sold not being collected by the buyer and returned. One of the items has been returned, re-listed and already sold!

I’m still waiting to receive the other parcel but as soon as it’s back I know it will sell straight away and I’ll be in a positive from the savings dip!

We can’t take full credit for the savings as my parents treated us to a fair few meals out for my birthday etc but still proud wile didn’t go silly and deplete the £1K pot anymore!

BetterThanIDeserve

As the weekend draws to a close, payday arrives in the morning with my wife’s following on Friday 🙌

It’s felt a bit of a slog the last week, we have had to dip into the emergency fund for petrol but we did so strategically and filled the car up with money earmarked from tomorrows wage to cover it. We found a station selling petrol at £1.60.7 instead of the £1.72.9 we have seen closer to home. Although it felt rough to spend the £80 from the emergency fund it will feel good putting it back in tomorrow.

Once my wage comes in tomorrow it will cover all the household bills and a proportion of food / playing out money. When my wife gets paid the wage will cover the remaining food, playing out money and a good chunk of the emergency fund.

We have budgeted for £495 to go in, so once I top the money we have dipped into on top of the above we shouldn’t be too far off the £1K EF (emergency fund) target. Once the bank switch money comes in, we should hit this and next month we can start chopping at the debt!

Very excited to hit that £1K goal, I think seeing it land will give me a real dopamine hit and secretly my wife will be pretty impressed as we’ve never really been savers!

Hope everyone’s had a lovely weekend and ready for the week ahead 🙌

honeybee1234

I think you're doing really well! I like how you tackled the shortfall with the petrol quite logically and had a plan for it.

Although not twins, I did have 4 kiddos 6 and under years ago, so I hear you on the getting out of the house! I used to do things like the local park, going to see family for lunch/tea - or vice versa, them coming to you, and a good one is grabbing the free National Trust passes that are often highlighted by MSE. National Trust very often have themes or ongoing events that are family-orientated so would be ideal for you and the twins. Another possibility (although your mileage may vary with this and their age) is the kids' screenings at the local cinema. Tickets are cheap, and the atmosphere is accommodating for kids compared to a regular cinema trip.

I do have other low-spend suggestions if you are ever thinking more towards things in the week but the above all work on weekends!

BetterThanIDeserve

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82143458#Comment_82143458

Hi @honeybee1234, thank you for those kind words 😊 I hurt to take out the emergency fund but being able to adapt feels good as in the past, simple stuff have made the wheels fall off, but not this time!

Thank you for those tips, I’ll keep an eye out for the National Trust passes as that would be amazing, especially as they are learning to walk so the wide open spaces would be the perfect setting on a month or two 🙌

I’m sure I’ll be reaching out in the future for one or two more 😁🙌

honeybee1234

See, this is what an emergency fund is for! What you're doing is progressing and pat yourself on the back because you had your emergency fund to utilise. Later on on your journey you'll have petrol costs fully factored in so don't worry about this. Having that fully funded 1k will feel great there in the background and allows you to focus on what you want to do moving forward.

Yep, National Trust places will be great for the twins learning to walk. Take yourself a hot drink in an insulated mug, with a picnic and it's a great few hours to enjoy!

BetterThanIDeserve

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82144467#Comment_82144467

You are totally right @honeybee1234, I have the car pot ready to be built in the future and like you said this will be outside the emergency fund 😁

BetterThanIDeserve

Evening everyone,

Lovely day today off work with my wife while the boys where at nursery we headed town. We visited the bank to grab one of the card readers that’s needed to transfer money with our new bank account from the transfer.

once we got that sorted, I was able to move the money about that I had dipped into and add some additional money in on top of this ahead of my wife’s pay day on Friday when the £495 can we added as mentioned.

With the money I added in today, it’s taken us to £500 in the emergency fund so we are 50% there! Friday we will be £5 short so I’ll top it up from my ‘fun money’ to tick that off the list 😍🙌

still waiting for the balance transfer money to land, one it does, that can pay off our smallest credit card!

Feels good to be making a dint! I don’t want to wish the days away, but it makes me already excited for next month to really start making progress on the debts.

Have a lovely evening everyone, back to work from the random AL day today for us both 😊

BetterThanIDeserve

Feeling a little frustrated today. We are waiting for a current account switch bonus of £175 from Nation*ide, however they are now saying we didn’t meet the criteria in time!

I opened the account and asked for the transfer to take place on the 9th of September, which they did. My pay went in, well above the required amount, many direct debits and spend on the card as required.

They said that this needed to be done 30 days on opening the account, I thought it was 30 days from the transfer requested date (I didn’t need the account before the transfer and I wouldn’t of done it if I’d of known).

I’ve lodged a complaint so fingers crossed they do it in goodwill or I’ll be transferring again to another bank as I feel like it’s off to a poor start with them if the bonus doesn’t come through!

it’s only a minor hiccup in the grand scheme of things in terms of debt payment but it’s the principle I’m more annoyed with (The Yorkshireman is coming out of me!).

keep your fingers crossed guys, girls and everything inbetween 😊🤞♥️