Journey to £0 by 2020, with a few bumps along the way

chelseablue · 13 August 2018 at 5:42PM

Pay day next Friday (24th) and there's £455 in the bank.

One more bill to come out this Wednesday for the internet, £38

I need to order my son the next size up car seat which is £140 (Mothercare have it on sale at the moment, down from £180). It's the one that lasts from 4 years old until 12, so will be the last one I need to buy.

Had a letter about husbands car tax renewal, £66 for 6 months or £120 for the year. Its not due until 1st September so can wait until pay day.

I do need a new tyre and wiper blades for my old banger, might just do them this week and get it over with. Tyre will be about £35 so not too bad really.

Every month there seems to be something that crops up that needs replacing, fixing or buying!

chelseablue · 21 August 2018 at 10:21AM

Pay day on Friday and there's £156 in the bank.

Phoned the place where I usually get my tyres done and a new one for my car is £38 so getting that done in my lunch hour today.

Plus there's a problem with husbands car so that's booked into the garage tomorrow

really hoping its just a new battery that's needed. But his car has a start/stop button and apparently batteries for those are more expensive

So will either have to pay on my credit card and (hopefully!) pay off on Friday or use savings (but they're meant to be for Australia)

Already got loads of planned spends for Friday:

£66 on car tax for husbands car
£83 to Next (this clears the balance in full)
£79 to Barclaycard (this will clear the balance in full)

DEPRESSED!

enthusiasticsaver · 21 August 2018 at 10:40AM

I am not sure anyone "needs" a golf jacket. Won't an ordinary coat do? My brother plays golf all the time and just wears an ordinary rainproof coat which normally comes off quite quickly regardless of weather. Expensive cars and hobbies sound like they need budgeting for ideally out of fixed spending money monthly so it is your DH who needs to think about that rather than you constantly juggling money around. My DH has a fairly expensive hobby and we both have the same personal spends each month (goes up and down with money available). I always have plenty and DH always running short but he admits that he could spend with no limits if we did not do this. He got through his mums inheritance with very little to show for it.

chelseablue · 21 August 2018 at 11:28AM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I am not sure anyone "needs" a golf jacket. Won't an ordinary coat do? My brother plays golf all the time and just wears an ordinary rainproof coat which normally comes off quite quickly regardless of weather. Expensive cars and hobbies sound like they need budgeting for ideally out of fixed spending money monthly so it is your DH who needs to think about that rather than you constantly juggling money around. My DH has a fairly expensive hobby and we both have the same personal spends each month (goes up and down with money available). I always have plenty and DH always running short but he admits that he could spend with no limits if we did not do this. He got through his mums inheritance with very little to show for it.

I think the jacket he wanted could be used whenever really, not just for golf.

I've been thinking it would be a good idea to have a separate savings account that is just for car stuff?
Would just be for MOT, parts, tyres.

Maybe £50 a month?

stay_at_home_mum · 21 August 2018 at 1:04PM

just discovered your diary chelseablue. love reading it as you sound very similar to me. I have just got rid of my next card and promise myself if i need anything that i cannot afford outright i will only use a 0% purchase card. answer to your question. you can buy with other cards / paypal not just store card.
my son starts reception too this September. i am lucky in the fact my daughter is already there so he will get all the hand me downs but i still need to buy shoes and trousers. i know uniform is expensive but ive found that they dont really need too many casual clothes as they are at school for most of the day and when they get home i put them in pjs if we arnt doing anything. plus, once you start the school, most schools will have a second hand uniform shop.
good luck on your journey - i will be following with interest:wave:

chelseablue · 22 August 2018 at 9:44AM

stay_at_home_mum wrote: »

just discovered your diary chelseablue. love reading it as you sound very similar to me. I have just got rid of my next card and promise myself if i need anything that i cannot afford outright i will only use a 0% purchase card. answer to your question. you can buy with other cards / paypal not just store card.
my son starts reception too this September. i am lucky in the fact my daughter is already there so he will get all the hand me downs but i still need to buy shoes and trousers. i know uniform is expensive but ive found that they dont really need too many casual clothes as they are at school for most of the day and when they get home i put them in pjs if we arnt doing anything. plus, once you start the school, most schools will have a second hand uniform shop.
good luck on your journey - i will be following with interest:wave:

Thank you! Do you have a diary on here?

chelseablue · 22 August 2018 at 4:17PM

Well, husbands car went into day and unfortunately it wasn't a new battery that was needed

It needed a new crank shaft pully and a fan belt (whatever those are!).....£310 including the labour.

Out of interest I called the local BMW garage to find out how much they would of charged and they said £580 :eek:
So glad I found a good garage that doesn't charge the earth

I've opened a new savings account that is just for car stuff, going to put £100 in each month on pay day so that in the future if (when?) this happens again they'll be a pot of money there to use

enthusiasticsaver · 22 August 2018 at 5:01PM

BMWs are money pits. Parts cost a small fortune.

Dot.007 · 22 August 2018 at 5:11PM

I can't agree more

chelseablue · 22 August 2018 at 5:26PM

I'm just glad it wasn't £3,000 :rotfl:

I've had my Nissan 5 years and it once cost me £350 to fix when the sub frame broke so if this is the only big thing the bmw needs then I'll be happy.

I've set up a new savings account that I've named 'Cars'. I've set up a standing order to transfer £100 a month to it.
So when something like this happens again I'll have a pot of money I can use.

Journey to £0 by 2020, with a few bumps along the way

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