Facing up and cracking on

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  • remote_control
    remote_control Posts: 625 Forumite
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    Thank you for your lovely posts, cheered me up.

    I have downgraded my shop. I don't tend to buy branded stuff but we like to buy organic/fairtrade etc and so to downgrade is tough because it goes against what we believe in. We have such power as consumers and if we all bought ethical products it would make such a difference to the world. Anyway, once the debt is paid off we can get back to it (debt is from house renovations and car, we can ordinarily live within our means thereabouts).

    My positive change in attitude is working out well. Balance transfer should be sorted by the beginning of the week which means a big chunk of this will be 0% for 29 months!

    Had a few dribbles of money in from surveys and ebay. Ebay seems really quiet this year. Can't wait to do my budget for the month, I'm (pretty) sure we've not spent much.
  • remote_control
    remote_control Posts: 625 Forumite
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    Hi everyone,
    Been feeling much more positive about debt the last few months but have a spendy summer with some house renovations. Builder's costs are all saved for but we need to source fixtures and fittings. Its that usual balance then between quality and cost. We prefer quality items that will last 20+ years but they are more expensive.

    Sometimes the debt gets me down but it goes down every month, we haven't added to it at all. My budget spreadsheet is great as I can see where all the money goes now and we have been in credit each month for the past few months so we are finally out of our overdraft mostly.

    Nothing left to ebay!! Need to have a real hunt for things.

    Onwards and downwards
  • remote_control
    remote_control Posts: 625 Forumite
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    Had a mortgage appointment this morning and remortgaged to a much better rate!! Small party as now paying £150 less a month!!!!!!
  • Tahlullah
    Tahlullah Posts: 1,086 Forumite
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    Congratulations on that huge victory!
    Still striving to be mortgage free before I get to a point I can't enjoy it.

    Owed at the end of -
    02/19 - £78,400. 04/19 - £85,000. 05/19 - £83,300. 06/19 - £78,900.
    07/19 - £77,500. 08/19 - £76,000.
  • remote_control
    remote_control Posts: 625 Forumite
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    Thank you. Looking forward to next month's budget as it will include the new payment.

    Haven't had a debt total in months as we've been doing lots of shifting about to stay on 0%. Hopefully this is nearly done. It annoys me not having a total but it goes down every month so I shouldn't worry about it for now. Very nearly in the teens and then it'll fly down, especially as have an extra £150 a month to throw at it. Using up all the food in the cupboards for the next few weeks. Going to have a look for some money saving meal ideas as I really have no idea how much each meal costs.
  • remote_control
    remote_control Posts: 625 Forumite
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    Got accepted for a new 0% card and the credit limit was insane!! About 20k. No wonder we all end up in this mess! Anyway once that comes through we're done shifting 0% around for over a year which is great. Looking forward to being in a better position financially this time next year.

    Lots of nice time in the garden and some veggies in so here's to some cheap meals I hope.
  • joedenise
    joedenise Posts: 16,560 Forumite
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    Have a look at the Old Style board. There is a grocery challenge each month.

    At the beginning of the grocery challenge thread there are several pages of recipes, most of which are cheap.

    Another good source of meal ideas is the internet. There are lots of thrifty meal ideas on various website. Cookingonabootstrap is one that comes to mind (used to be called A Girl Called Jack) although her recipes are vegan rather than vegetarian now but all her older recipes are still on there. Another is Thrifty Lesley who cooks meals for 2 people for £1 a day, might be some ideas on there for you to try.

    Hope that helps.

    Denise
  • remote_control
    remote_control Posts: 625 Forumite
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    Well after months of jugging balance transfers to keep everything at 0% but also move everything with 0% fee we finally have a debt total: £19,999.99!
    Our total was slightly over this and we had money in the bank after everything went out at the beginning of the month so we payed a bit off to be under £20k.
    Very exciting to be under 20k and look forward to it going down.
    We have around £6k on a card that runs out in a year so all ebay sales etc will be going towards that.

    Thanks for the tips re reducing the meal costs, its on my list to research!
  • remote_control
    remote_control Posts: 625 Forumite
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    Small DD went out so our debt total is £19,914.00

    So happy to have a figure and see it going down.
  • remote_control
    remote_control Posts: 625 Forumite
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    I think debt is down to £19,765.99 with a couple of survey type things and ebay.

    Just completed month 11 of writing down where all the money goes. It was in the red for the first time in a while, mainly due to mortgage fee and holiday. If you take out the car we bought (which I know you can't actually do) we are on average in the green each month by £140. But we did buy the car and that can't be ignored. So once this car is paid off we need to save for the next one.
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