20% Down! Well almost!!

Hello!

Feeling pretty pleased with myself ( not smug, I'm nowhere near good enough for that yet!) : -)

When I started getting a grip if my finances I had 10 debts to clear, today I have cleared the  2nd,earlier than  I needed to. Yay!

So, when I started in June of this year my total personal debt was £14,530.00

Now it stands at £11,875.57

I've cleared £2,654.43 in 5 months!  Thats 18 %  
Hurrah! 

How are you doing? 

Win Win Win!

Hello,

Well it's not often you can say you're winning in any sort of sense but actually I am at the moment! Winning against the bank, winning in the buy/organise Christmas before December and winning with Mr M! Sounds too good to be true!

Firstly the penny dropped the other day and I realised I was paying S******er £30 a month to have an overdraft with them on an account that I only use to pay bills!! In a moment of inspiration I called them and  asked to cancel the overdraft, the bemused girl at the other end said that there was no need for me to do this as the account was in order, money being paid in etc and they were quite happy with me! I bet they are!
 I had to go through to the collections dept and ask again,eventually I convinced them that this was what I wanted and yes I understood that it may prevent further credit with them.......
Because I have an "agreement" with them now, they cancelled the overdraft and I will pay it back at £50 a month, it also meant that they stopped any further charges, so in real terms for an extra £20 a month I will clear the overdraft and not be paying out £30 per month for nothing! Win 1! 

Christmas is organised! Yayy! My wonderful in-laws are taking us out on Christmas Day so we don't have to worry about food on the day just tea later on when we watch Strictly and Doctor Who! We only have the in laws to buy for as well as 2 cousins and of course our son! The in-laws gifts  we will be bought on Friday, M&S vouchers and car mats! Mr M is having new Converse and they are bought and in the wardrobe and our son, well he's been asking all year for a Playstation. I know that lots of bloggers are writing about handmade Christmases but I don't think that will cut with a 10 year old! He isn't spoilt and he doesn't ask for too much through the year so we do treat him and in terms of cost per play/minutes  where I can have a quiet cuppa it's well worth it! I've bought this from Argos where they had a six month interest free deal with free delivery , I've saved the money throughout the year so when the time is up I'll just pay it off. Win 2!

And finally, Mr M! Well he's heard me banging on about budgeting, being more frugal, saving money, rarara for ages. I wasn't sure whether it was sinking in as it didn't  really seem to affect him in any way. Well after months of hearing him say " I don't know what my money goes on" and "Why haven't I got any money?" I finally snapped! After a full and frank discussion (!) we have decided that I will take charge of his money and do the budget for him. I have a list of his outgoings and tell him what to withdraw, we then divvy it up into envelopes and he knows what he has to spend  for the month. We're one month in and I think it's been an eye opener for him, only one mishap but apart from that it seems to be going well. When we've got him on track and spending less than is coming in then we will tackle his overdraft. Win 3!

Hope this post doesn't  sound too smug, it's just me feeling pleased with myself ; -) 
Hope you're winning too x

Towel Transformation :-)

Hello,

A bit boring this post but something I'm quite proud of and a post to get me back in the swing again! 

So, I'm by no means as good as I could be financially  I read a lot of blogs and feel very inspired, I've made some significant changes and have started seeing some real progress with debt busting! We renovated the bathroom on a reasonable budget but even using reduced tiles, auction site suite etc it still added up.

I really wanted new towels to go with the new bathroom but I have expensive taste in towels and I couldn't justify £30 for a new matching bath sheet ( x 3 and hand towels!) 

So, what did  I do? 

I went to Dunelm Mill! And look what  I bought! 

£4.50 a packet and the cost of running the washing machine et voila!

And inspired by these I did some others as well!

The towels were all M&S and still in good condition despite their age and now I have new looking towels for around £10.

So I am learning! ; -)