Wannabe Debt Free!

I've just had my lightbulb moment. After months/years living in denial it's time for us to admit that despite the fact we live a good lifestyle, it could be better if we didn't have so much debt.

I'm sick to death of bills, I'm sick to death of worrying about pennies, I'm sick to death of feeling guilty every time we spend 50p and I'm sick to death of debt!!!

So this is a journey to be debt free. I'm going to sit down tonight and figure out exactly how much we owe and where but I'm pretty sure our debts amount to around £30,000. It did go down for awhile but then it went back up when we bought my Smart car...

I want it gone. And if we can do this then hopefully we can pay off our mortgages too. But I will go into those once I've finished with the debts and loans.

I need to figure out our state of affairs as it's referred to on Money Saving Expert... The main problem being because Martin runs his own business we never know exactly how much is coming in month by month. :( So it gets a bit confusing and is hard to pin down. BUT when the money comes in, it really comes in. For example I know that Martin has an order which will bring us a profit of around £10,000 in June/July. That has already been put aside for debt repayments.

So tonight I'm going to try and work out the following;

Monthly Incomings:

Martins salary - £
Benefits - £

Total - £

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage 1 - £
Mortgage 2 - £
Council Tax - £
Gas - £
Electric - £
TV License - £
Phone - £
Food - £
Car Insurance - £
Petrol - £
Life Insurance £

Total: £

I can't think of anything else that should be in there but isn't...

This is going to be really difficult, and I'm actually quite scared of what we'll have to cut out and go without. We're used to meals out regularly, nights away, holidays at the drop of a hat, shopping spree's for no real reason, lunchtime pub trips, days out with the kids.... I hope we're not going to have to cut back on too much but I really think we may.

I'm hoping we can pay off our debts by the end of this year. But I'll need to work stuff out before I can be more accurate. :(

Scary, scary, scary!

Love,

Sarah-Jean