Extracting head from sand and facing the truth

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  • Lydia42
    Lydia42 Posts: 133 Forumite
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    My OCD kicked in today so i logged onto all four credit cards and rounded the amounts owing up: £1.39, £1.45, £1.86 and £1.40. Might seem silly to everyone but i pay a set amount to each card each month, so now the balances will look tidier and every little helps as they say. haha
    Total Debt November 2018: £23, 795
  • Lydia42
    Lydia42 Posts: 133 Forumite
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    So......i finally braved the snowball calculator today. It says we can be debt free in 44 months! Relived it's under 4 years if we stick to our budget and plans, but a bit gutted it's not a shorter period of time.
    Hey ho - I guess that's what happens if you bury your head in the sand. I'm hoping it will help me focus as i don't want to increase our debt free date.
    Managed a NSD yesterday. Shopped today and spent more than i intended but i bought food for our camping holiday next week. Hubbies Grandad left us £500 so we wanted to use it to make memories with the kids. Plannning on keeping it as cheap as possible by taking food with us from home and cheap/free days out.
    Total Debt November 2018: £23, 795
  • Lydia42
    Lydia42 Posts: 133 Forumite
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    I've got friends of my son and daughter (11 and 8) coming for sleep-overs today. Cheap day planned. Picking them both up after lunch so i only have to feed my two. Going to local park; it's huge with an awesome play park and FREE!!! Packing drinks and snacks so not tempted to buy stuff there, then back for films indoors - popcorn courtesy of supermarket. Breakfast will be toast or cereal so cheap too. Happy kids and happy budget!!! Yay!
    Total Debt November 2018: £23, 795
  • Lydia42
    Lydia42 Posts: 133 Forumite
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    One week left of the school holidays and then things will go back to normal (well, as normal as things ever are in our house lol). At least the kids will then go back to packed lunches and wont be around during the day constantly raiding the cupboards and fridge haha. It's been lovely having them off school and spending time with them though.

    Bathroom is now complete. Hubby's dad very kindly painted the remaining bits whilst we were camping using paint we had kicking about in the garage - mainly skirting boards as the kids weren't in the way to touch the wet paint. Just need to pick up a bath panel (hopefully next month after pay day).

    Managed to pick up a second hand bean bag for my son today as he's been asking for one for ages. Other than that a NSD as dinner was roast using stuff we had in the fridge/freezer. I'm planning on emptying and defrosting the freezer over the next few weeks so that should help make it more efficient (running cost wise) and also mean i spend less on grocery shopping this month. Really struggling to control the food shopping. Definitely my major problem area.......Off to rummage in said freezer now to meal plan for tomorrow.
    Total Debt November 2018: £23, 795
  • redmel1621
    redmel1621 Posts: 6,002 Forumite
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    Hi Lydia

    Thought I would pop over and have a read of your diary. It looks like you had a tricky start with so many things going wrong at once, but I'm sure you feel more on top of it all now.

    I am right at the beginning of my dfw journey and I am struggling to see where to start.

    Interesting seeing lots of people mentioning Dave Ramsey, so I will have a look at who he is later. I also have no idea what a zero based budget is?? Something else to look into later.

    I have a similar plan to you. I want to get used to saving for things, well already having the savings there, for when we want/need something, rather than getting into debt for sudden, urgent purchases/fixes.

    Good luck going forward. I'll subscribe to your diary so I can keep an eye on you hehe.
    Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
    Nothing is going to get better. It's not.
  • Lydia42
    Lydia42 Posts: 133 Forumite
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    redmel1621 wrote: »
    Hi Lydia

    Thought I would pop over and have a read of your diary. It looks like you had a tricky start with so many things going wrong at once, but I'm sure you feel more on top of it all now.

    I am right at the beginning of my dfw journey and I am struggling to see where to start.

    Interesting seeing lots of people mentioning Dave Ramsey, so I will have a look at who he is later. I also have no idea what a zero based budget is?? Something else to look into later.

    I have a similar plan to you. I want to get used to saving for things, well already having the savings there, for when we want/need something, rather than getting into debt for sudden, urgent purchases/fixes.

    Good luck going forward. I'll subscribe to your diary so I can keep an eye on you hehe.

    Thanks:rotfl:
    Yeah, definitely a rocky start. I'm hoping things will go a little smoother now. Definitely check out Dave Ramsey even if just for his straight talking. It's very American and he's religious but he has some very good advice.

    I'm still getting my head around the zero based budget. In principle it makes sense and i have drawn one up for us, but i am having to tweak it as i find things i have missed, etc. It's definitely made me aware of my problem areas - namely food shopping and impulse buying in supermarkets. I've done mine on excel so it's easy to tweak and copy over to the next month when i need to start again.

    It's hard to know where to start when you begin your dfw journey, but having it all written out in front of you will really help you. We are paying the minimum on everything at the moment, except a barclaycard as the 0% deal runs out on 1st Nov, so it was easy for us to see where we should concentrate our efforts to start with.

    Good luck with your journey - i've subscribed :j
    Total Debt November 2018: £23, 795
  • Lydia42
    Lydia42 Posts: 133 Forumite
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    Good news. We managed to cut the old bath panel to size, clean it up and re-use it. No more hiding hole for the cat and dust bunnies. And no extra spend :j
    Total Debt November 2018: £23, 795
  • redmel1621
    redmel1621 Posts: 6,002 Forumite
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    edited 30 August 2018 at 2:25PM
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    Lydia42 wrote: »
    Good news. We managed to cut the old bath panel to size, clean it up and re-use it. No more hiding hole for the cat and dust bunnies. And no extra spend :j
    Great saving, not having to by a new panel :money:

    Are you all set for school going back? I'm so relieved to only have 3 uniforms to buy this year and the eldest only needed shirts... Phew.

    I haven't managed to do much more on the dfw journey as it is the end of the month, all the bills are due and we haven't even enough to cover them all really... It is going to be a juggling act as usual.... I struggling to get started properly as we just seem to be fighting a losing battle with everything.
    Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
    Nothing is going to get better. It's not.
  • Lydia42
    Lydia42 Posts: 133 Forumite
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    redmel1621 wrote: »
    Great saving, not having to by a new panel :money:

    Are you all set for school going back? I'm so relieved to only have 3 uniforms to buy this year and the eldest only needed shirts... Phew.

    I haven't managed to do much more on the dfw journey as it is the end of the month, all the bills are due and we haven't even enough to cover them all really... It is going to be a juggling act as usual.... I struggling to get started properly as we just seem to be fighting a losing battle with everything.

    Think we are all set for school now. Managed to get cheap school shoes for both my son and daughter last week. Usually go for Clarkes but just can't afford it this time around - £100 for two pairs of shoes is just too much with our budget at the moment. My son's PE top arrived today - compulsory school logo design so couldn't cut corners with that one. On another good news point, my son still fits his trousers from last term so i haven't had to buy those, and my daughter is fine with the stuff she had as she isn't changing schools. So.......(breathes a sigh of relief), i think that's it. Unless my son needs footie boots or astro turf shoes. School hand book says they do, but friends with older kids at the school say to hold off in case they aren't playing footie this term, and he may grow out of shoes before he even wears them.

    Chin up on the debt free journey. Its a long haul, but things will start looking up soon. We increased our debt shuffling everything to 0%, and with the recent emergency repairs etc. But i'm hoping that over the next month or so we can control spending enough to start seeing some sort of change in all that. I've just updated our debt spreadsheet and am waiting for our bank statement over next day or so to see how much our charges will be this month, as our overdraft is the only thing not on 0%. That's the next one to target for us once the Barclaycard is dealt with as the deal runs out in two more months :eek:

    Have you managed to tally everything up now? Have you found out all the interest rates?
    Total Debt November 2018: £23, 795
  • Lydia42
    Lydia42 Posts: 133 Forumite
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    Grrrrrrr - just had letter from water company to say they are increasing monthly DD by £5. Not a huge amount but every penny counts.
    Total Debt November 2018: £23, 795
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