2018 New year, new focus and new mission

Choccygirl123 · 31 December 2017 at 12:35PM

With the new year arriving tomorrow I've decided to start a new diary. My old was depressing me, as you could track the debt increasing slowly over time so I'm starting over. Fresh new diary to keep track of my spending and keeping us afloat.

My main aim this year is to stop adding to the debt! No more credit card use or falling into the overdraft at the end of the month. Our debt stands at £16271.56 over two Zopa loans. I'd love to overpay, but the reality at the minute is there's no spare cash as have large expenditure coming up in first half of the year. We have a good income, but money is tight. Have trimmed and cancelled everything I can and without giving the children away, i know we can't cut back anymore.

So this is my plan, it's official and in writing so set in stone for Jan/Feb/Mar
- save £2200 for much needed house repair, have set target needs to be done by MAY
- pay as much as possible off kids school trips £200 / £384 owed
- save £50 a month towards an emergency fund £400 target
- save £50 a month towards christmas, to avoid panic next year and hope to increase
- withdraw £75 a week to food wallet and only spend cash on food - hope to decrease shopping budget massively, use up freezer supplies and get inventive with my meals.
- only shop once a week and stop 'topping' co-op and meal plan
- declutter and sell, sell, sell
- try and look for a part time job to fit around my current role
-have as many NSD as possible - at least 20 a month

Need to stay focused, meal plan and keep logging on here for motivation. Right choccy....this is my kick up botty you need!

Happy New Year!

[Deleted User] · 31 December 2017 at 7:27PM

Good luck on your mission for 2018 !!! It's sounds like you are off to a good start . All the best for 2018

Choccygirl123 · 1 January 2018 at 1:57PM

Thanks for popping in to say hello adapt. Your name does make me laugh as hubby uses the expression all the time.

I am feeling positive and am enjoying some much needed time at home. The children are busy playing Mario, hubby studying so I get a chance to read other people's diaries. Wow, what an inspiration you lovely people are!

Aims this year It's not all debt busting, but more debt prevention
-stay afloat at the start of the year and don't use overdraft or credit cards
-get the big expenditure out the way using money we save
-squirrel money away for Christmas and the emgerency fund regularly no matter how small the amount
- hopefully start over paying the Zopa loans in the second part of the year.

Good moneysaving points about today
- Checked all online banking
- Won't spend a penny (Still have £14.29 left in shopping wallet)
- Made huge amount of yorkshire pudding batter ready for later - as eggs needed using, will freeze spare yorkies if I can find space!
- Started collecting a few bits in a to sell box
- relisted 3 things on ebay that didn't sell last year (bookcase has 9watchers already so fingers crossed.
- Talked to hubby about freaking out £2200 needed by May (Problem shared, problem halved)
- Being completely inspired by other DFW diaries (Thank you

)
-starting to clear the post-crhistmas washing mountain (will rope kids into putting stuff away later)

elly68 · 1 January 2018 at 2:15PM

Good luck choccy hope its a happy new year for you and your family x

Choccygirl123 · 1 January 2018 at 2:49PM

Thanks elly, same wishes to you. X

Choccygirl123 · 3 January 2018 at 1:02AM

Day 2 in the big money saving house

A planned spending day unfortunately and a local eBay bargain!

Have been looking for a cabinet for few weeks and have £70 Christmas money to buy one. Not seen one I liked until today. Local seller listed the most perfect oak one for £22. Collected tonight abd it’s perfect!

Points of the day
-checked banking
-checked union membership and after pay cut can reduce monthly payments by £1.20 a month
- food top up shop £12.02 bread, butter, pop, bin bags abd food bags (only wanted to buy bags)
-used 1/3 beef from joint and bulked out with leftovers from frozen Quorn
-last few ice-cream bites and beef stock used up
- froze 2/3 beef after blitzing ready for spag Bol next week
-grrrrr hospital parking for checkup £2.80
-drink and mints for 1x child as waited so long in hospital £1.98 leaving 29p in food wallet
- total nsd in jan 1
-£22 on cabinet out of Christmas gift cash balance going into joint account

Got to admit I’m feeling a little blue. Christmas is over and the tree needs to come down. Always hate first week in jan, but pay day just iver 3 weeks away so crossing off the days abd trying to stay focussed. I nirbally have a post Xmas shopping spree, but not this year!

Choccygirl123 · 3 January 2018 at 3:08PM

Day 3 of 2018

I’m feeling rubbish and very grumpy! Have been busy tidying up and sorting the post-Christmas chaos. feel horrendous so have come back to bed to catch up on Mse and watch a film on amazon. Hubby decided to take the kids to the cinema tonight as a treat and to give me a bit of peace and quiet. They’ve both been poorly over Christmas and we’ve hardly been out. It’s cinema on a budget...meerkat code, free cinema ticket and a child’s ticket so £9.41 for all three of them. Little one seems to be a money saving expert and announced she’s going to take a bag of crisps and some of the Christmas chocs. It’s a proud moment in the choccy house &#55357;&#56838;

Storm89 · 3 January 2018 at 3:11PM

Hi Choccygirl I am in pretty much the same position debt wise as you and about to start a new diary. Our debt is over £16k so I'll def be keeping track of how someone else is doing in similar position. Good luck !

Choccygirl123 · 3 January 2018 at 6:13PM

Hi storm, thaBjs for popping by. How long are you hoping to pay yours off? We’ve given ourselves 6mijths to get our emergency fund built up, save for the house stuff and sort kids trips out. We’ve drawn a live in the slabs and will not add to the debt.

Storm89 · 3 January 2018 at 7:29PM

I'm aiming for December 2019 although it was August 2020 before. How long are you planning ? I like the idea of drawing money out to spend on food , it's so easy to use a card and then not really pay attention. I am aiming for £60 a week on weekly shop since I bought the savvy shoppers cookbook, that includes cleaning stuff etc. I think that's a good idea to have little targets like 6 months for emergency fund. We had no savings last year & wish we had done similar. We had a lot less money and ended up using the credit card a few times so although we didn't add to the debt, we didn't get it down much. Now we have a little more money we can get some savings built up and not have to use the credit card. I think January is a great time to get into the spirit of making changes !

Choccygirl123 · 4 January 2018 at 6:38PM

I've not set a date yet because I know we need to concentrate on creating a emergency fund and good money saving habits. It's so easy to fall back on overdrafts and credit cards, so for us the next 6months is about learning to manage and budget properly.

From June 2018's pay day I'm going to see how much we can throw at the debt. The good news is that after this month's repayments our debt is under 16k - It's only just scraped under, but feels like a huge step in the right direction. I'm hoping 3/4 months time we'll be in a lot better place with meal planning and budgeting and we can make a stat of the debt. Fingers crossed!

O/s Loan 1 - £11068.29 (payment £197.65 - 3.0% finishes Aug 2022)
o/s loan 2 - £4905.51 (payment £100.11 - 3.8% finished Jan 201)

2018 New year, new focus and new mission

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