Adventure wanted, but first we must rid ourselves of debt

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

You are doing well on reducing the debt. An emergency fund is essential really for getting you out of the mindset of using credit for any unforeseen expenditure. The amount to aim for initially though depends on circumstances and I think the amount of debt and income level is also relevant. I think though in your circumstances I would be prioritising the debt reduction over a larger emergency fund so maybe aim for £500 initially as the cost of maybe a large car repair and then look to increase to £3k later on in the year.

Hi, thank you for the advice. I’ll continue throwing most extra cash at debt and paying £150 p/m into emergency fund. Hopefully I can add a bit extra here and there to EF to get it to £500 and then later £1000 asap.

Just realised I’ve been a bit rubbish with recording NSDs. Yesterday was one as we didn’t leave the house.

Today has been a busyish day. Had to nip out this morning to collect a Christmas present I’d ordered from Argos. Got there to find that they’d had a system error and my item had no longer been allocated to me in store (even though I’d paid for it and had confirmation it was in store :mad:). Luckily they had it in a different store, but was frustrating as it meant driving out of my way to collect it. On the plus side we were given a 10% off voucher for our trouble. Managed to pop to the supermarket and get some essentials whilst we were out, so hopefully won’t need to go shopping for another week now. Really want to use up some of our freezer food before the next big shop, as we seem to be hoarding food again!

Have purchased a few more Christmas presents today, so I think bar two presents I am done. Will be getting a voucher of some kind for one, and then thought maybe something for the garden for my parents. Not really too sure what to get them. Thought about getting them some bird boxes for their garden as they haven’t had many birds this year, but not too sure. My parents both suffer with depression/anxiety so would be nice to get them something that could help, but not sure if they’d use it. Bought my Mum one of those adult colouring books before, but don’t think she’s ever opened it. Maybe a jigsaw would be an idea....

Am hoping that DH will get all the presents out tomorrow so I can check over what we have got and start wrapping. I have an awful feeling that the number of presents is going to be ridiculously large. Don’t know what it is about Christmas but I always have that desire to buy more. DC3 is only 13 months and has absolutely no idea what Christmas is or is bothered about presents, and yet I keep having to stop myself from buying more presents just because DC1&2 have more gifts. The 10% voucher we were given today hasn’t really helped. I have been toying with the idea of getting a Nintendo switch as a family gift for the past 6 weeks, but haven’t bought it as we already have a PS4 & Xbox 360, and it’s really expensive. I’m glad I haven’t bought it, but find my resolve slipping at times (especially when we’re given a 10% voucher). I really need to try and stay strong and not buy anything else for Christmas (other than the remaining 2 gifts). At the end of the day the more stuff I buy the more things I’m going to have cluttering up my already cluttered house!

In other news, paid £5 off CC1. Balance now £985.

Have paid £4 off CC1 since I last posted. Money is annoyingly tight this month, so I don’t have any spare for my payments a day to debt.

Still waiting for a £13 refund from the kids climbing club for a cancelled session last month. Is really annoying that companies don’t repay you immediately, but instead delay it for months. Also waiting for a largish hmrc repayment to DHs business, which will mean that we can withdraw some money we lent the business, but at the moment there are no signs it’ll be coming before the end of the month, most probably even January!

Today has been such a lazy day. DC3 slept terribly last night and has now developed a cold, along with DC1. So we didn’t venture out anywhere (which also means it was a NSD!). It was heaven!!

At the moment I feel a bit down about all the debt we have. I find the debt all consuming - I spend a lot of time looking at ynab to figure out different scenarios & read lots of debt free wannabe diaries, but sometimes i do think I need a hobby/to read a book rather than spend so much time concentrating on finances. It’s so frustrating that it’s taking so long to get rid of it! Hopefully once Christmas is over it won’t feel so chaotic with the finances. I know the debts are going down and hopefully by the end of 2018 we’ll be in a much better place, it’s just a very long journey to be on.