Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

Round up, round up! Tis the day when we get the pay. I love payday, can't you tell?!

Lets get straight into November's expenditure profile. It's been a rocky road:

Net Salary: £2,251.61 (after tax, NI, student loan & 9% pension deductions)

October Carry Over: £10.05

Total Monthly Budget: £2,261.66

Total Debt Payments: £496.66

Net Monthly Spends: £1,186.94
Groceries: £186.85 (also used £15 JL vouchers in Waitrose)
Cash: £90.80 (£most on family visits that involved train travel & food; £1 poppy appeal; £2.20 on parking; £4.15 on ‘lazy work lunches’)
Toiletries: £8.38 (foot spray & plasters)
Household Misc. £427.44 (new boiler)
Work Expenses: £21.20 (train & tube)
Misc. Slush Fund: £447.88 (£spent on family visits that included hotel, train and food)
Ebay: £4.49 (M&S winter cardigan, a bargin!)
Books: £1.24 (Audio book)

Immediate Obligations inc. mortgage & bills: £527.84

Yearly Expenses: £52.25
Clothes: £52 (1 x cardigan & 4 x pop socks, 2 x heel grips)
Interest: £0.60 (from CC1 final balance)

Unspent residual from November’s Budget to carry over to December: £2.03, which represents £0.06 in cash, £1.97 in misc. slush fund

Other Income received during November: £50.70 (£0.46 from T0pCashBack, £1.59 in bank interest, £45.65 in expenses refund, £3 found in swim bag). This has already been accounted for in the above ‘net’ monthly spends.

Outstanding Work Expenses: £101.37 claimed last week, to be paid in January salary.

The ‘Naughty Corner November CC Spends’ that I’ve shuffled into December’s budget: £684.23
Xmas: £102.92 (gifts, stocking fillers & xmas drinks)
Health: £243.20 (dentist & prescription)
Hairdresser: £50 (necessary to avoid looking like Worzel Gummidge)
Clothes: £180.44 (2 x shoes, 1 x trousers, 2 x winter jumpers, 1 x polo neck) :o
Work Expenses: £92.67 (dinner, tube, train)
Household misc: £15 (new front door mat)

How do these spends compare with my 1st of the month budget?

Monthly Spends:
Groceries: £186.85 vs. £205 budgeted :starmod:
Fuel: £0 vs. £45.25 budgeted :starmod:
Cash: £90.80 vs. £23.60 budgeted :exclamati
Toiletries: £8.38 vs. £0 budgeted :exclamati
Household Misc. £427.44 vs. £610 budgeted :starmod:
Work Expenses: £21.20 vs. £0 budgeted :exclamati
Misc. Slush Fund: £447.88 vs. £129 budgeted :exclamati
Ebay: £4.49 vs. £0 budgeted :exclamati
Sport: £0 vs. £10 budgeted :starmod:

Immediate Obligations inc. mortgage & bills: £527.84 vs. £525.57 budgeted :exclamati

Yearly Expenses:
Presents: £0 vs. £111.25 budgeted :starmod:
Health: £0 vs. £225 budgeted :starmod:
Clothes: £52 vs. £0 budgeted :exclamati
Books: £1.24 vs. £0 budgeted :exclamati
Interest: £0.60 vs. £0.00 budgeted :exclamati

Reasons for Shifts in Spending:
- Unexpected visits to poorly family member 4 times resulting in £531.33 of non budgeted spends that had to be accommodated in my November budget. Was mindful with money the whole time but London is so expensive. Family member better now, really glad we were able to be part of the support.
- Health, presents and (most of the) clothing spends were deferred to December by using CC3. Felt guilty about doing this but it was necessary, so fairly content. An emergency fund would have covered this, but I'd rather ride the 'interest free for 56 days' wave than lose a month of debt slaying to build the EF.
- I had enough fuel left in the tank from last month and barely used my car this month, so didn’t need to spend any money on fuel. Phew!
- I managed to keep the food bill down this month by better managing the fridge and freezer contents.
- The clothing and shoe spend flood gates clearly opened.:o I was sort of prepared for this as it is my spending Achilles heel. But, I was fairly measured in my choices and purchasing logic and I've now got some decent winter jumpers & cardigans, which I mostly got in the sales. I have earmarked cashback and present money to cover two of the items. The others just simply come off Decembers budget.

You'll see it was a bit of a struggle to balance the books this month with the unplanned but necessary visits to see family. However, I ended the month with debt slaying to the tune of £496.66, completely clearing CC1. I've already assigned all 'Naughty Corner November Spends' to this months budget and I've paid for a new boiler, all without going into debt. To me, it's simply remarkable to have managed this, especially when I think back to how I would have handled these spending challenges pre-LBM. The thought makes me shudder.

Finally, I've just cleared CC3 of its 'Naughty Corner November Spends'. I'll reconcile my YNAB categories tomorrow when its the 1st of the month. Can't wait for the guilt to be over.

Look forward to reading everyone else monthly round ups!

DSL :j

I'm working at home today and just checking in whilst eating a grotesquely sweet cake from the local bakery that DF came back with. I'm not sure I'll need to eat again today. Sugar fail

Anyway, I bought my car insurance last night, which came to £368. Got DFs too, which was a similar amount. Really pleased with that prices as they're half the price of A8miral The Rip off Merchant's renewal quote. We've gone with H4stings Dir3ct which DF is a little nervous about because he decided to did a tinterweb search for customer reviews and discovered that they weren't great for customer service. However, I then did the same search for competitor insurers and concluded that there are bad reviews for any / all insurers. My gut instinct is to stick with H4stings Dir3ct as we do have to declare 5 incidents between us - 2 x windscreen & 1 x contents theft that we didn't claim for but that are on our A8miral schedule and then 2 x claims for bumps & malicious damage, all of which have happened in the past 5 years.

I also switched our buildings insurance from C0untrywide to Ax()a saving us £200 a year!! It turns out DF had never switched since we moved in 10 years ago :eek:

Next on my list is contents insurance, which is due in January - again, DF hasn't ever switched, so I'm hoping for a decent saving too but I first need to do an inventory of items since we do have quite a few 'expensive' individual items that need declaring separately.

Should I be worried about H4stings Dir3ct car insurance......? DF has me second guessing now. We have 14 day cooling off period so we could still cancel. Av1va is probably the alternative we'd consider though it's a bit more expensive.

DSL :j

As its the 1st of the month, I am now able to say that since my LBM, I have paid £3,200 off my debts!!

That means over the past 4 months I've used on average 36% of my salary for debt slaying and lived off the remaining 64%. Alternatively, it means I've used 71.06% of two months salary for repaying debt.

My current total debt level stands at £9,385.14, made up of £8,121,16 on CC2 and £1,263.28 in car finance.

Just before my LBM, in late July, I was overdrawn by £639.45 with existing CC balances of £11,222.89 and car finance of £2,052.83. On 30th July, my total debt exposure was £13,915.17 :shocked:

Woah! I've never calculated that figure before.:shocked:

But it does mean that, since 1st August, I've paid a total of £4,530.03 off my debts, which is 32.55% of the 30th July total!

This is more than my 1st September total, but I'm sticking with September as my formal debt slaying start date as my LBM didn't properly turn on until 14th August.

I'm happy with these 5 months of debt slaying when I consider all the unexpected family costs, big birthdays, xmas, pension contribution increases and annual insurance policy purchases I've paid for during that time.

I'm so glad I made the decision to create this diary, own up to my debt, do something about it and learn from others. I feel so much more in control of my life and my future and I cannot wait to sign on to that debt free board!

DSL :j

EDIT: I've just updated my July 30th debt exposure figure. I initially used my August statement balances rather than the July statement balances. It now shows an even higher debt figure :eek:

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

DSL,

I love your round up above. You are such an inspiration.
Even with the curve balls that have been thrown at you you haven't thrown in the towel. Here's to a fabulous Christmas. And a debt free future.

Thanks Wish! And best of wishes to you and yours this xmas too! :beer: