Crunchy's Final Debt Free Diary!

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  • crunch_time
    crunch_time Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    I'm just stopping by to say I have updated my signature into a more simple one. EF is currently at £44 and we have paid off £220 of the debt so far!! Debt currently stands at £12,896 so we are not in the 'teens' anymore which is a great start!

    This month my main focuses are sticking within the food budget and weaning the husband off his credit card.

    Crunchy
    19/8/19 vs now Current Total debt £14,188 Savings £2757
    Overdraft £1600 vs £1050
    HSBC1 £1900 vs £3868
    HSBC2 £4100 vs £3730
    Virgin 1 £3050 vs £2800
    House stuff and improvements £4460 Virgin 2 £2740
  • crunch_time
    crunch_time Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    Evening!

    Tax rebate has come through so the EF line of signature has been updated! I will have to dip into it as forgot to budget for a wedding present (£50). Husband also had an impromptu trip to London for work which involved catching up with a friend over drinks so we may need to chip into it again by the end of the month.

    I have paid the nursery bill which was as budgeted - £45. We won't have to pay anything in August as she wont be there but we will have to pay £100 a month roughly from September. We qualify for the 30 hours but the government doesn't pay the nursery enough money to cover its costs so they charge an extra £1 an hour she is there. We have decided to set up childcare vouchers from September. Our annual bill will be £1014 for the academic year but makes sense to claim as husband is a higher rate tax payer.

    I'm coming to the end of my course in the next few weeks so will be ready to hustle come the end of this month. Absolutely LOADS to do this month then!

    Still doing our best to breathe in this month but might have to dip into the EF - but at least it is there and we can top it properly next month with husbands pay rise.

    Crunch xx
    19/8/19 vs now Current Total debt £14,188 Savings £2757
    Overdraft £1600 vs £1050
    HSBC1 £1900 vs £3868
    HSBC2 £4100 vs £3730
    Virgin 1 £3050 vs £2800
    House stuff and improvements £4460 Virgin 2 £2740
  • crunch_time
    crunch_time Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    Morning

    I have rung up the children's swimming provider today and got the low down on how the direct debit works. First payment won't go out until 20th August so the money I have put aside for this month can be swished into the emergency fund! Hurrah! So it now stands at £554!

    However, My sunglasses have broken so I need to buy another pair today, Nothing fancy but setting a budget of £20 so this will go down later. I also might not have enough money in the haircuts pot this month. Will look at this later - may have to make a withdrawal from the EF for this.

    Crunchy x
    19/8/19 vs now Current Total debt £14,188 Savings £2757
    Overdraft £1600 vs £1050
    HSBC1 £1900 vs £3868
    HSBC2 £4100 vs £3730
    Virgin 1 £3050 vs £2800
    House stuff and improvements £4460 Virgin 2 £2740
  • crunch_time
    crunch_time Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    Wow - ten days since my last update! Sorry!

    We've been very busy.

    - Stuck to budget for new sunglasses - £20
    - Hair up for the wedding we went to at weekend was - £35 - more than I expected but it did look pretty

    Both theses have come out of emergency fund.

    - DD for breakdown insurance has come out of my account - £35! Must be an automatic review. I'm sure I can get it cheaper so shall investigate. Money will come out of emergency fund.
    - Husband got a parking ticket the other day - bit bleary-eyed from wedding and just forgot. Annoyed. Another emergency fund thing! But I can't find where the paperwork is at the moment.
    - we have just enough food money to last the month so long as we are sensible. Same with fuel but may have to dip into it for some spending money but aiming to keep the next few weekends frugal now the wedding is over with.

    Payday is two weeks today! I will be launching my business in the next two weeks so its about to get verrrrrrry busy over here.

    Crunchy xx
    19/8/19 vs now Current Total debt £14,188 Savings £2757
    Overdraft £1600 vs £1050
    HSBC1 £1900 vs £3868
    HSBC2 £4100 vs £3730
    Virgin 1 £3050 vs £2800
    House stuff and improvements £4460 Virgin 2 £2740
  • crunch_time
    crunch_time Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    Gosh

    Another ten days since my last update! Lots to update on.

    Payday on Friday so looking forward to that. It looks like we will have £200 in the emergency fund but no more credit card debt! We have dipped into the emergency fund when we have needed it so all in all this is good progress and we are slowly turning around the tanker back onto the straight and narrow.

    I have £200 spending money to entertain the kids these summer holidays for 5 weeks and then we go on holiday for a week. We wrote a list of things we would love to do with a variety of cost options from free to visiting the local zoo - £50!! So it's going to be about pacing ourselves and I will get them involved with the budgeting. I'm planning on taking out the £200 and putting it in a jar and help them divvy it up according to activity. I also have £200 fuel money which I am hoping I will have change from.

    According to my budget, we will have about £200 left over from the monthly outgoings to top up the emergency fund which will make it £400 ish which is great! But we also have a terminally ill cat that I will need to pay 15% of remaining treatment costs for which currently stand at £600 ish. Poor boy.

    I'm not feeling great about the amount of interest we are paying on credit cards - £80 to £100 month so need to come up with a plan to reduce this if possible. Husband was rejected for a credit card a few months ago and I can't access anything right now since I am unemployed/ self-employed.

    So much to do and sort out. Must go!

    Crunch x
    19/8/19 vs now Current Total debt £14,188 Savings £2757
    Overdraft £1600 vs £1050
    HSBC1 £1900 vs £3868
    HSBC2 £4100 vs £3730
    Virgin 1 £3050 vs £2800
    House stuff and improvements £4460 Virgin 2 £2740
  • Linz4383
    Linz4383 Posts: 319
    First Anniversary
    Forumite
    Subscribed !!!55357;!!!56833;!!!55357;!!!56833;
  • crunch_time
    crunch_time Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    Morning all!

    Payday today - not sure how much it is exactly as some is expenses.

    I've reduced the overdraft from £1100 to £1000 and topped up the emergency fund so it stands at £575 (but some will be for vets bills) but other than that feeling flat.

    I thought I had done really well with sticking to budgets and we had the emergency fund to dip into for things unaccounted for but then I notice the husband has racked up more debt on his credit card. It really frustrates me and I don't really know what to do about it. He has had to buy some equipment for an event he is participating in but I don't know what else. Will have to look at his statement.

    In other news I've launched my business but got no clients yet. Must keep on trucking.

    Right - off for a shower and then to do a reccy of toiletries and cleaning products ready for a big shop today.

    Crunchy xx
    19/8/19 vs now Current Total debt £14,188 Savings £2757
    Overdraft £1600 vs £1050
    HSBC1 £1900 vs £3868
    HSBC2 £4100 vs £3730
    Virgin 1 £3050 vs £2800
    House stuff and improvements £4460 Virgin 2 £2740
  • crunch_time
    crunch_time Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    Had a little chat with the husband. Told him his buy now pay for it later ways have got to stop and his attitude of we earn enough money does not justify buying stuff on credit cards.

    I told him now we have a small amount of emergency fund, we use this if we need to buy anything that doesn't come out of our food/fuel/spending money budget and he absolutely is not allowed to buy anything on his credit card unless it is discussed with me first i.e. so i can make sure I pay it off/check that we really need it.

    This is my own doing really. I just want him to be happy and feel guilty that he supports me financially by being the main breadwinner at the moment.

    I've been looking at costs for our summer bucket list. I thought £200 was quite generous and would enable us to do loads but visiting two attractions in our county with just me as a paying adult would cost £55 per each attraction visit!!!! Don't worry, we have lots of free stuff on our list too but what!! I feel differently this summer compared with how I did the previous two summers of being a mum of two. I feel I can entertain them more in the house and not have to go out a lot for sanity reasons. We have decided to do a big family art project - making a desert island for the Playmobil with paper mache, paint, and paper. I've longed to do art projects for a while now and finally feel now DD is nearly 4 that we can all benefit from them!

    Going back to the husband chat, we also discussed that we feel we don't have to keep up with everyone anymore. Not so much keeping up with the Jones in a financial sense I mean constantly doing stuff with friends and family that costs money. There was a time when I would have made plans with someone every weekend as a way to show up in the world and life felt chaotic at times and that we rarely had time just to be ourselves. Now we may go a few months without seeing individual friends and I feel its nicer as you have more to chat about and you don't feel awful if its only been two weeks and you have literally just worked/slept/raised children in that time. I'm saying this as one of the first people in a lot of our friendship groups to have children. Waaaay before kids I had a friend who was single whilst I was happily couple up with husband, who would insist on seeing me a couple of times a week and ask me what I had been up to. I felt inadequate at saying er working? and watching telly? You do not do the same? I realise this was more about me but it built a foundation of insecurity about being the massive introvert that I am and probably meant that I said yes more than I should of in the past because of a fear of letting people down.

    I have a quote now in my study right in front of my desk that says 'You aren't missing out on anything when you're busy getting your life together and working towards your dreams and goals.'

    I'm not missing out on pleasing other people. It's time to please myself. And not do anything I dont want to if it means spending money I dont want to.

    Finally, at the age of 36 I feel I know what this means and can implement it. Friendships are harder when you get older! Anyone else find this?

    Crunchy xx
    19/8/19 vs now Current Total debt £14,188 Savings £2757
    Overdraft £1600 vs £1050
    HSBC1 £1900 vs £3868
    HSBC2 £4100 vs £3730
    Virgin 1 £3050 vs £2800
    House stuff and improvements £4460 Virgin 2 £2740
  • enthusiasticsaver
    enthusiasticsaver Posts: 15,445
    First Anniversary First Post Name Dropper I've been Money Tipped!
    Ambassador
    I think you get more selective over friends as you get older. I no longer feel guilty at not making the effort to keep up with people I find mentally draining. I also resist those who brag about their foreign overseas holidays, new cars etc and only mix with people I feel enrich my life. It has inevitably reduced my social circle but we see more of the kind of people I love. Kind, interesting, thoughtful friends are the type of people I like to surround myself with and endeavour to be myself.


    Tough chat with the husband but you are right that the BNPL or credit card mentality that a lot of people have will throw your finances out. I took my husbands credit card away years ago and he has only recently got it back LOL. He understood and I think he just did not really twig how worried I was that our expenses were creeping up because he was buying without thinking if we really could afford it. He had a mentality well he earned good money so why could he not spend it on hobbies etc? I broke down our outgoings and laid it on the line that was it fair I had to scratch around to pay for childrens shoes, food, fuel etc while he was buying hobby equipment? Did he really think that was more important than basics? In the end we came to an agreement that personal accounts for hobby money, clothes, haircuts and general personal entertainment (not joint) was the way to go and a allowance went into each. I always have plenty in mine but he still struggles with his so he has started selling stuff to raise cash. In the past he could not be bothered to do that so I think this is a double win. He has to stay in budget as there is no overdraft on his personal account and he now knows there are fees if he goes overdrawn. I don't monitor his spending so don't nag him about it and leave it to him to take care of and our house is gradually being decluttered from stuff he no longer uses. Afer a few years of doing this he is now a lot better so has now been given a rewards credit card on my account with the instruction it is only for supermarket and fuel spends which is paid off in full each month.
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  • crunch_time
    crunch_time Posts: 1,353 Forumite
    I think you get more selective over friends as you get older. I no longer feel guilty at not making the effort to keep up with people I find mentally draining. I also resist those who brag about their foreign overseas holidays, new cars etc and only mix with people I feel enrich my life. It has inevitably reduced my social circle but we see more of the kind of people I love. Kind, interesting, thoughtful friends are the type of people I like to surround myself with and endeavour to be myself.


    Tough chat with the husband but you are right that the BNPL or credit card mentality that a lot of people have will throw your finances out. I took my husbands credit card away years ago and he has only recently got it back LOL. He understood and I think he just did not really twig how worried I was that our expenses were creeping up because he was buying without thinking if we really could afford it. He had a mentality well he earned good money so why could he not spend it on hobbies etc? I broke down our outgoings and laid it on the line that was it fair I had to scratch around to pay for childrens shoes, food, fuel etc while he was buying hobby equipment? Did he really think that was more important than basics? In the end we came to an agreement that personal accounts for hobby money, clothes, haircuts and general personal entertainment (not joint) was the way to go and a allowance went into each. I always have plenty in mine but he still struggles with his so he has started selling stuff to raise cash. In the past he could not be bothered to do that so I think this is a double win. He has to stay in budget as there is no overdraft on his personal account and he now knows there are fees if he goes overdrawn. I don't monitor his spending so don't nag him about it and leave it to him to take care of and our house is gradually being decluttered from stuff he no longer uses. Afer a few years of doing this he is now a lot better so has now been given a rewards credit card on my account with the instruction it is only for supermarket and fuel spends which is paid off in full each month.

    Sounds like a good plan! A lot of the time what he buys we do actually need but they are of small value and soon add up. And I don't think he quite grasps the concept of pacing ourselves. I do think his attitude is - we do alright and a lot of people are in debt so it doesn't really matter. There is no point getting stressed about it! It's hard.
    19/8/19 vs now Current Total debt £14,188 Savings £2757
    Overdraft £1600 vs £1050
    HSBC1 £1900 vs £3868
    HSBC2 £4100 vs £3730
    Virgin 1 £3050 vs £2800
    House stuff and improvements £4460 Virgin 2 £2740
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