My 1st financial setback, only because I didn't prepare for it.

£7 Challenge


 Well I've made it to the end of the week. It started so well with the £7 challenge. You can view our progress here on Mortgage Free Journey's blog. Here is what I had to eat this week to save money.

 Monday: I had Sunday dinner for lunch, and pizza for dinner. £0

 Tuesday: I had pizza for lunch and pasta bake for dinner. £0

 Wednesday: I had pasta bake for lunch and prawns and rice for dinner. £0

 Thursday: I had prawns and rice for lunch and pizza for dinner. £0

 Friday: I had pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner. £0

 Saturday: I'll be having eggs and bagels for lunch and chicken and rice for dinner. £2

 Sunday: I'll have bagels and eggs for lunch and go to nans for dinner. £0

 Total spend £2 for the bagels and eggs. Not bad, as this week would usually cost me about £25. That's a £23 saving for me to throw into my Dirty Debt.

*1st Financial Hurdle Alert*

Whilst I was busy crunching numbers with my IPad on my Budgeting App, which Ive blogged about here. I got excited that I was on track to save an additional £380. Now I realise that its not much considering how much debt I have but to me this was still progress, and enough to put a huge smile on my face.

That's when it happened. I put some music on because I was in such a cheerful mood (Rudimental-Waiting all night). Took my jeans off to put on my comfy PJ's, and threw my jeans on my bed. Then I  heard it. CRACK!!! I looked over to my bed where I had left my IPhone and IPad and my heart just sank. I thought, which ever one it was that I had broken, I would still be upset about. So I went over to inspect them both. I went over to my phone and found that it still had a pulse but my iPad was not so lucky. It currently has a huge crack (thanks to my carelessness) that has split in several directions going right across my screen.

This is a financial set back because I already know a cracked screen is going to be expensive to repair. So I'm off to the apple store to find out what the damage will be to my pocket. This is exactly why I should have an emergency fund, because when things like this crop up in life. I'll be better prepared with emergency funds to handle them without hindering my progress to financial freedom. 

So now I'm not so sure I'll have £380 for my debts after all but we'll see. I'm not giving up all hope just yet! 

Next step for me is to build up an emergency fund for life's little unexpected emergencies. The best way to protect yourself and your savings. If you don't have one, and you're trying to clear debt, stop everything and do this first!

Anyone had any set backs recently? I'd love to hear how you've dealt with them in the comments section...

Labels: ,

Debt Busting Chick!: My 1st financial setback, only because I didn't prepare for it.

9 Nov 2013

My 1st financial setback, only because I didn't prepare for it.

£7 Challenge


 Well I've made it to the end of the week. It started so well with the £7 challenge. You can view our progress here on Mortgage Free Journey's blog. Here is what I had to eat this week to save money.

 Monday: I had Sunday dinner for lunch, and pizza for dinner. £0

 Tuesday: I had pizza for lunch and pasta bake for dinner. £0

 Wednesday: I had pasta bake for lunch and prawns and rice for dinner. £0

 Thursday: I had prawns and rice for lunch and pizza for dinner. £0

 Friday: I had pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner. £0

 Saturday: I'll be having eggs and bagels for lunch and chicken and rice for dinner. £2

 Sunday: I'll have bagels and eggs for lunch and go to nans for dinner. £0

 Total spend £2 for the bagels and eggs. Not bad, as this week would usually cost me about £25. That's a £23 saving for me to throw into my Dirty Debt.

*1st Financial Hurdle Alert*

Whilst I was busy crunching numbers with my IPad on my Budgeting App, which Ive blogged about here. I got excited that I was on track to save an additional £380. Now I realise that its not much considering how much debt I have but to me this was still progress, and enough to put a huge smile on my face.

That's when it happened. I put some music on because I was in such a cheerful mood (Rudimental-Waiting all night). Took my jeans off to put on my comfy PJ's, and threw my jeans on my bed. Then I  heard it. CRACK!!! I looked over to my bed where I had left my IPhone and IPad and my heart just sank. I thought, which ever one it was that I had broken, I would still be upset about. So I went over to inspect them both. I went over to my phone and found that it still had a pulse but my iPad was not so lucky. It currently has a huge crack (thanks to my carelessness) that has split in several directions going right across my screen.

This is a financial set back because I already know a cracked screen is going to be expensive to repair. So I'm off to the apple store to find out what the damage will be to my pocket. This is exactly why I should have an emergency fund, because when things like this crop up in life. I'll be better prepared with emergency funds to handle them without hindering my progress to financial freedom. 

So now I'm not so sure I'll have £380 for my debts after all but we'll see. I'm not giving up all hope just yet! 

Next step for me is to build up an emergency fund for life's little unexpected emergencies. The best way to protect yourself and your savings. If you don't have one, and you're trying to clear debt, stop everything and do this first!

Anyone had any set backs recently? I'd love to hear how you've dealt with them in the comments section...

Labels: ,

posted by Nik @ London Sauce @ 02:02   8 Comments

8 Comments:

At 9 November 2013 at 12:57 , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had something similar happen to me. In fact I did it twice within a couple of months - I dropped my iPhone down the toilet. I tried drying it out but to no avail. I also rang my home insurance to see if it was covered, but it wasn't. I don't have special handset insurance because of the cost.
I used a special sim cover for my iPhone sim so that I could use it in an old Nokia handset. I'd kept the Nokia just in case I did something like this. Then I saved up for several weeks to buy a second hand iPhone in CEX. It works just as well, and cost as much as Insurance would over the term of my contract. I won't buy new again - although I didn't buy the last handset as it was on contract.
Hope its not too costly to fix your iPad. And keep up the blog - very inspiring!

@sarahcrawleyred

 
At 9 November 2013 at 14:24 , Blogger Nik @ London Sauce said...

Thank you so so much for the support. All of these insurance companies run a mile from covering for water damage. Its funny we all have these touch screen phones that break so easily but these older phones like the Nokia's just keep going. Those types of phones just put up with anything, whilst smart phones just kick the bucket so easily. Good on you for buying second hand though. I don't have any insurance simply because I didn't think I'd need it. How wrong was i? I've been told to get it repaired privately as apple will be too dear.

 
At 10 November 2013 at 08:17 , Blogger Unknown said...

Hi,

Firstly it is great that you have done so well on the food challenge! You have managed to spend only £2 in the whole week (which makes a £23 saving not £18?). Well done that is amazing, if you could save this much one week a month you would have an extra £276 at the end of the year!

Secondly you are going the right way about it with the ipad. You need to get 2 or three quotes to repair the screen. Some people would throw it away but it just needs a new screen. Once you know how much it is going to cost you then can start to save for a new one. It is of course a want not a need so it something that should be saved for not put on a card - I am sure I am preaching to the converted here anyway!

Maybe all savings you have you could split:
60% towards debt
20% towards emergency fund
20% towards a new Ipad screen

This would mean that you would be working towards the 'want' of the Ipad being fixed but also doing the important stuff as well.

If you had £380 it would mean that you would pay £228 towards debt (min payment on everything and the rest on the highest interest rate), £76 in the newly created emergency account & £76 towards an Ipad screen.
Maybe you could ask for money at Christmas instead of gifts to put towards the screen too.

Once you have the screen fixed I would be tempted to put 75% of savings towards debt and 25% of savings in an emergency fund until you have about £1000 in the emergency fund. Then throw everything at the debt.

This is just how I would do it, you have obviously had your light bulb moment and are well on your way to becoming debt free (and did so much better than me on the food challenge!), I am sure you will be all sorted in no time!

Let me know what you end up doing, good luck & best wishes,

Stacey from Mortgage Free Journey xxx

 
At 10 November 2013 at 08:56 , Blogger Nik @ London Sauce said...

Hey Stacey,

Thank you soo much for your kind and supportive words. Ive never been great with maths, (my bad) i guess i saved a little more then i'd expected. I think you're defo right about splitting the money that way i can do it all at once.

The ipad is absolutely a want but because i use it everyday for blogging, staring at a cracked screen will eventually drive me nuts. so i will have to save up to fix it. Im never ever going back to using that dreadful credit card, gone are those days.

Thank you for your advice x

 
At 10 November 2013 at 15:32 , Blogger Unknown said...

I had a read through your blog - but still cant see what the £7 challenge is?

 
At 11 November 2013 at 05:03 , Blogger Nik @ London Sauce said...

Hi welcome to my blog. The £7 challenge was not to spent more than £7 for the whole of last week. I managed to send £2 only. The challenge was organised by @mortgagefreejny the link is at the top of this blog (Mortgage Free Journey) she's tracked our progress there with how much we've saved collectively. :)

 
At 11 November 2013 at 10:59 , Blogger kknox131 said...

What a nightmare. We had a whole year where one thing after the other would break - my laptop got drowned, the car tyre went, the toilet used to break every five minutes (!), the front door got broken - it just seemed every time we started to build up an emergency fund it would be wiped! Anyway, I set up a standing order from my current account to a savings account of a small amount each month until I hit the target I had set - it took a while but we got there but it's reassuring knowing you have something to fallback on if something was to go wrong x

 
At 11 November 2013 at 14:27 , Blogger Nik @ London Sauce said...

@lemonadebudget Wow you really have had a load of hurdles. It must have been so frustrating for you but at least you haven't given up. I think you're defo right though. Small and regular amounts would probably suit me too, to build up my emergency fund. Thanks for your help x

 

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