My bumpy road to being debt free!

laurasbump

In a bid to motivate myself I'm setting up my own own debt-free wannabe diary. I owe £5300 made up of 2 credit cards and 2 overdrafts. My partner owes another £40700, split mostly across cards and a single loan. We have a joint mortgage of £118,000. We both have reasonably paid jobs and are intelligent people however we are both spenders rather than savers. We want to change this particular because any day now we will become parents for the first time. Our little boy was due nearly a week ago so his arrival is imminent. Like any parents we want to give him the best life that we can offer.

I have now been on maternity leave for 4 weeks and its given us time to think about how we're going to get to our goal of zero debt....

- first off my OH has a gambling problem. In April he gambled over £4000, he won some back and ended up about £1300 down. I have known about this problem when he first told me of his debt just after Christmas however I hadn't realised how serious it was. I have no idea how much he's gambled away but I suspect that a great chunk of that 40k has been built up over a number of years of slot machines and online poker. I now control all of his finances, putting cash weekly into a newly opened co-op account and a single credit card for expenses.

- secondly I now have control over all accounts and can decide how and when debts are paid off. It's good to feel in control and I think that OH is relieved that the pressure is off him. I have put together a budget and have been cutting back on our spending. We're in a relationship where he tends to pay for everything when we're out and about, I realise that this has been unfair of me and just feeds his bad relationship with money.

My intention is to return to work in January 09, so regardless of situation belts will have to be tightened. My pay will be reduced over the next seven months and then when I do go back to work we'll be paying for childcare.

Well here goes. Wish me luck.

Laura x

sophie27

Hi Laura!

Just wanted to say best of luck, you sound really motivated and determined. There are lots of lovely people on here who I'm sure will give you advice/help whenever you need it. I'm in charge of the OH's spending now, much more effective!

Congratulations on your imminent arrival, you must be very excited.

Sophie x

REDMADCURLS

Hi Laura

Well done for deciding to get your finances sorted, I wish you lots of luck with the baby too

RMC

laurasbump

Thanks for lovely replies.

I am sooo cheesed off! I'm now 6 days over. Currently lying on the sofa, hoping that my swollen ankles stop aching soon. The baby is kicking away and seems quite happy where he is.

I went to Asda at 8am this morning to do the weekly shop, partly to avoid the heat and get a parking space close to the store but also so that OH couldn't come with me. He is terrible for grabbing 'bargains' and buying too much. I'd rather buy small amounts rather than chucking things out. I read Martin's guide to supermarket shopping and swapped a lot of my normal branded stuff to shop brand, I even bought the no frills products in some instances. Woo hoo! Tentative steps. Have picked up a leaflet for free delivery and will use that next week as the baby is pretty much guaranteed to be here (OMG!).

Need to work out whether it's more lucrative to go through a cashback site or whether to buy through mysupermarket and collect the iPoints.

Waiting for our Wii to arrive. Okay okay, doesn't sound like great money saving but I had £140 of nectar points to spend at Argos so it only cost me £40. Think OH will love it (and me when the bump's gone). We cut back on gym and sky and OH complains that one of the reasons he gambles is that he's bored. At least this gives him another option, plus we can play it together. I cajolled him into going for a bike ride on Saturday, and he loved it and went again on Sunday. Result. Can't wait until I can get out on the bike.

Right. I'm ready for a kip!

Laura

Welshlassie

laurasbump wrote: »

Need to work out whether it's more lucrative to go through a cashback site or whether to buy through mysupermarket and collect the iPoints.

Waiting for our Wii to arrive. Okay okay, doesn't sound like great money saving but I had £140 of nectar points to spend at Argos so it only cost me £40. Think OH will love it (and me when the bump's gone). We cut back on gym and sky and OH complains that one of the reasons he gambles is that he's bored. At least this gives him another option, plus we can play it together. I cajolled him into going for a bike ride on Saturday, and he loved it and went again on Sunday. Result. Can't wait until I can get out on the bike.


Laura

Congrats on the imminent arrival, I remember how frustrating going overdue it. My DS was 8 days late last August and I spent the last few weeks playing Wii tennis and Tiger Woods golf. (In fact I carried on playing after I went into Labour as an excuse to keep me upright).

I personnaly use Mysupermarket for the ipoints as the cashback sites will only pay out on your first order, so rethinking that I'd use a cashback site for your first order and then use the Mysupermarket from then onwards as you get a bonus for use Mysupermarket for the first time regardless if you have shopped with your supermarket before. (Hope that makes sense) You'll be surprises how quickly your ipoints stack up using Mysupermarket.

Best of luck and how your DS arrives nice and quickly for you. :T