What's it about …
It’s about me, MummyHen, and my family’s (DaddyHen & SonnyHen)
journey to becoming thrifty, debt free, the things we like doing and places we
like visiting; I hope you’ll drop by and see how we get on.
Having read other blogs, see My blog lists for my favourites and those that give me inspiration,
for a few months on how others have managed to change their lifestyles, some
forced some by choice; I took a look at the MummyHen household and decided we
spend far far too much, we have far too much debt (mortgage & credit cards)
and it’s not reducing quick enough, we have far too little savings and its time things have
to change.
So a plan was hatched – we will start today 1st
July 2012.
Challenge #1 – Reduce Food Spending
1.
I calculated that we spent way over £1,200 in
June. July’s food budget will be £500.
2.
Cash will be used and when it’s gone it’s gone –
a daily record of spending will be kept.
3. Decided not to use the milkman any more – not an
easy decision as we’ve used him for years but he’s way too expensive. This is what we had each week from the
milkman:
a)
3 Skimmed Milk @ 66p per pint = £1.98
b)
1 Semi-skimmed milk @ 66p per pint = £0.66
c)
3 pints orange juice =£3.45
d)
3 pints apple juice = £3.45
Total spend per week £9.54, that’s
just short of £500 per year
Equivalent at supermarket
a)
1 Skimmed milk 2pts = 89p
b) 1 Semi-skimmed milk 2pts = 89p
c)
3 Every day/basic orange juice 1ltr (2pints) @
56p =£1.68
Total spend per week £3.46, that’s
just short of £180 per year
It’s a no brainer; we have to use
the supermarket as it will save over £300 during the year.
Challenge #2 – Build up an emergency fund
1.
We don’t have a easy to get at cash emergency
fund – in the past it would have gone on a credit card – these are now band
2.
£1,000 cash emergency fund will be put together during
July
3.
It will only be used for emergencies – ie boiler
breakdown. Not to be used for food shopping
Challenge #3 – Snowballing debt
Six credit cards between MummyHen & DaddyHen – all nearly
maxed out, total debt over £50,000. Wow, OMG that’s really freighting to see
it written down and for us to admit this level of card debt.
1.
Minimum payments have been setup to ensure there
are no additional charges EVER. The card with the
highest interest rate will be targeted.
2.
Our aim is to pay off the first card, by 1st
January 2013 – that’s six months
3.
DaddyHen as a loan that will finish in August,
the payments previously for the loan will be rolled over to the 1st
card, plus
On a lighter note there will also be posts about what we do
as a family – well SonnyHen is getting older so most times it just me and
DaddyHen.
Hi Mummyhen, I think what you are doing is inspirational. Too many people are still living on credit, and feeling that they are entitled to keep spending - well done for deciding to change.
ReplyDeleteI have in the past had a lot of Credit card debt, we used to re-mortgage and clear the cards every couple of years, at the time we only had an interest only mortgage. We now have a repayment mortgage, and pay off our cards each month - without exception. I will take a leaf out of your book, and start thinking about how much we spend on things like milk and whether we can save money on food.
I'm sure if you really work at it, you can get rid of all these debts. Wishing you every success and really behind you on this tough journey.
ReplyDeleteLove Arwedd xx