Debt support thread #2

[Nerfmother]

Here we are! Can't be bothered to think of an exciting title, sorry

isshesingle
can I suggest a way to make your son's birthday cheaper and more fun ?

Go to the supermarket and buy one large margarita pizza for each of them from the chiller
then buy a selection of meats and fish and cheeses and veg
then let each of them customise their pizzas and cook them
messy, fun, and will be less than half the price of pizza hut

spanishlady
put the loan figures into my mortgage spreadsheet and check that it will actually work out cheaper for YOU than just locking down the cards.
I strongly suspect not
as my method clears credit card bills in a shorter time.

Isshesingle please look online for Pizza Hut discount codes. They nearly always have a 241 deal or 50 % off deal. Makes the cost a bit better.

NSD today, making quinoa and black bean burgers out of frozen mixture that was left over from stuffing peppers last week. Will serve with potato wedges and fresh spinach.

Hoping to go for a run with a friend from work tonight before dinner. I keep eating biscuits and sweets!

Ooh, thanks skull, I just found a 50% off a £35 spend or 40% off a £30 spend for Pizza Hut which might just do the trick.

Talkin - the original idea was making pizzas, I make my own using the breadmaker most weeks and DS1 says they are nicer than Pizza Hut.

BUT DS2, being 13, thinks that delivery (while playing PC games on the lounge TV - usually not allowed) is far 'cooler'. And that make your own pizzas is not a birthday treat because we do that all the time. And it has to be Pizza Hut because he doesn't like dominoes pizza.

However, as DS2 only like margarita,
I will stick to a big order of them - cheaper than different varieties - and will buy garlic bread, drinks and coleslaw separately so the order can literally just be pizza.

Not so much luck on the odeon codes. Secretly hoping there is nothing on they want to see and they'll be happy ordering a film at home from Virgin instead!

Actually, if I spend £35, get 50% off but tell ex husband the total without the voucher and he pays 50%, I might end up not paying anything for Pizza Hut, just paying for the drinks etc. Is that naughty?

I've just found four odeon 2for1 vouchers valid everyday 28/02/14-25/03/14 redemption at box office only. I could post them to you?

Hi nerf mother, that is really kind of you, but they are going to expire before his birthday, which is the 29th

That would have been perfect :-(

Oh no! What a shame.

Ishesingle could you whip to the cinema and pre-buy them a day or so before?

I spent £7 on junk from the petrol station today. In a rush to get to fracture clinic, desperately in need of something to stop ds2 falling asleep in the car, and painkillers for a throbbing tooth for me, plus a drink to swallow - which meant HE had to have a matching drink... Gah I would've had anNSD otherwise!!

puffy
next time, do not leave the house without a bottle of water in the car for each of you
a rule which applies to every outing and will save you a fortune in the utter rip off that is bottled water

YNAB specific question: So, I just realised that although I won't actually be overdrawn this month, thanks to my ynab savings categories, my ynab is still carrying a £150 overdraft in "pre ynab debt", as that was the balance the day I started ynab - so a big fat red number.

For non ynab-er's: that means if I had to pay out every penny from all my savings "pots" I would be £150 overdrawn.

So I think I am going to allocate the remainder of my "new tv" monies, and any future ebay sales to the o/d until it is gone. I'm also thinking I should zero out my emergency pot (all £30 of it!) to put towards zeroing the o/d out.

I mean, I have a £200 o/d limit, which really is an emergency fund if I really have a disaster, so what is the point of carrying an o/d in ynab while having a but of money sitting in the "emergency fund" category? The net result is the same bank balance, but psychologically I want the o/d gone in the software and the category hidden.

When the o/d is "officially" gone in ynab I can build the emergency fund. Am I making sense?

Puffy - maybe, depends on the terms of the voucher.

+1 for carrying bottled water. I bought a filter jug 2 years ago and I fill bottles from that - every day for schoolbags and every time we go out during summer months. Hate buying bottled water! Occasionally I buy some packs from Aldi just to get new bottles, but that is it.

Talkin I have a bottle of emergency water in my car at all times saves a fortune.

If there's one thing I'm usually guaranteed to have on me, it's my portable britta flask! Today - I was in a rush

Best £10 I ever spent (I can't and won't do tap water - bleurgh I just can't do the taste!!)

Ishesingle - sorry I can't offer any help on the YNAB - I'm sure someone will be along shortly who can help

ishesingle I'd be tempted to wipe the 'overdraft' and then rebuild your other categories. It's totally psychological, but I would want to as well

Off to do food shopping in a bit. Will be expensive as need to do some batch cooking for next few weeks (post natal), but would like to keep it sub-£110, I have decided.

That's what I thought possibly, I've moved it to the bottom so I can kind of ignore it, but it is still there even though I probably won't actually ever be overdrawn. Will zero the EF and add all ebay etc sales money to it until it has gone I think. Made £3.26 on Amazon today and allocated it there

Am a bit , I somehow managed to only spend £75 on food shopping, and that included a magazine, cotton wool and some (more) chocolate for my hospital bag. Bought tons of mince and things to do some batch cooking, will prob need to top up on fruit/veg on Tue, but definitely enough main meal stuff and bread/milk for 8-10 days. Hurrah!

WOO HOO! Have paid off SLC, meaning the overall debt has been reduced from 8000 to 6500 (all on 0% CC) plus the overdraft of doom.

Next step on payday (end of month) is attacking the overdraft, and updating YNAB (or 'Have I got a budget for you?' as DH is convinced it's called). And then figuring out a plan for the CC.

WELL DONE
its nice when an account is removed from the list

the money one My Student Loan (not even in our debt snowball!!) is £16,000 If I keep paying it back just from salary it will take 9 years according to their calculator. MSE recommends people with my type of student loan de-prioritise paying it off as it is very low interest (currently 1%) so I'm going to tackle it last.

This pay month is the shortest, so why does it feel so LONG?????????

One week until payday...

Fabulous stuff themoneyone - we need some kind of Debtor of the Month award!