Making changes to become debt free

Poppy1984 · 2 March 2018 at 12:08AM

Right I'm going to attempt to put a detailed budget plan on here:

Income:
Wages £1,200
Child benefit £80
Child maintenance £120
Total £1,400

Outgoings:
House bills
Mortgage £203
House insurance £18
TV Licence £13
Gas& Electric £67
Broadband £19
Council Tax £65
Water £18
Haircuts £20
Total £464

Car
MOT £20
Insurance £23
Tax £13
Petrol £60
Total £116

Debt payments
Next £30
Very £50
Tesco £30
Total £110

Savings
Christmas £70
Uniform £20
Emergency fund £10
DS's savings acc £50
Birthdays £20
Total £170

Entertainment
My mobile £50 contract ends June
DS mobile £12
Work lottery £10 (leaving this month)
Total £72

Outgoings total £932

I then allocate £200 for shopping this includes all food, household items and toiletries

And I allocate £200 to "spending money"
This is a little woolly for me I'll admit.
I'd like to say this is £200 to spend on whatever I like but in reality it's £200 to spend on anything that doesn't fall into the Bills or shopping budgets.
I'm not sure what would be better.... keep it like this or say £50 a month for a anything that doesn't fit into bills or shopping budget and £150 to spend on what I want. There's no budget for ds so anything he needs/wants will also have to come out of my "spending money" budget. Undecided on this one I guess it might change as I go along.

That brings my budget totals to
Income £1,400 Outgoings £1,332

It really doesn't give me much wriggle room which feels like constant stress and pressure at the minute.

Any thoughts, advice, ideas, would be most welcome.

Poppy1984 · 2 March 2018 at 3:25PM

I've joined a couple of challenges and added them to my signature. I have joined the grocery challenge and NSD's challenge.
I've decided to bake some cookies to give a friend for her birthday at the weekend.

Poppy1984 · 3 March 2018 at 11:28AM

Another sleepless night, lying awake worrying about money.

At the moment I have 0 savings.
This scares me as I have no buffer to pay for anything that goes wrong or any unexpected costs that may come up.

So in the past they've gone on overdraft, credit card or catalogues....

I want to get all my debt paid now I am not adding to it so whats going to happen in an emergency or an unexpected unavoidable cost comes up?

I have my shopping budget which I could lean out and take money from if absolutely necessary but there's not a lot of room there anyway.

I have my spending budget which I can definitely use but as that's allocated on 15th month and renewed on the 15th of the next month it will depend what date the unexpected spend pops up and what others things have come out of that budget that month as to how much will be left.

So I was thinking (rather than sleeping) there's a few ways I could do this but which way would be best.
At the end of the month (my month runs 15th-15th) I was planning on paying any left over shopping and spending money off my next acc (I really want that gone!) BUT will it be more sensible to put that money into an EF instead? I currently have £10 in an EF because as I've said I have standing orders set up to save for various things but when times have been bad I've emptied them to pay my overdraft back or similar.
The other option I thought I could split whatever's left put half in EF half off the next acc but this will only be a small amount and not make much of an impact on either.

Other news item I'm selling ends today fingers and toes crossed it sells!

x

MeenaM · 3 March 2018 at 1:18PM

Poppy1984 wrote: »

Another sleepless night, lying awake worrying about money.

At the moment I have 0 savings.
This scares me as I have no buffer to pay for anything that goes wrong or any unexpected costs that may come up.

So in the past they've gone on overdraft, credit card or catalogues....

I want to get all my debt paid now I am not adding to it so whats going to happen in an emergency or an unexpected unavoidable cost comes up?

I have my shopping budget which I could lean out and take money from if absolutely necessary but there's not a lot of room there anyway.

I have my spending budget which I can definitely use but as that's allocated on 15th month and renewed on the 15th of the next month it will depend what date the unexpected spend pops up and what others things have come out of that budget that month as to how much will be left.

So I was thinking (rather than sleeping) there's a few ways I could do this but which way would be best.
At the end of the month (my month runs 15th-15th) I was planning on paying any left over shopping and spending money off my next acc (I really want that gone!) BUT will it be more sensible to put that money into an EF instead? I currently have £10 in an EF because as I've said I have standing orders set up to save for various things but when times have been bad I've emptied them to pay my overdraft back or similar.
The other option I thought I could split whatever's left put half in EF half off the next acc but this will only be a small amount and not make much of an impact on either.

Other news item I'm selling ends today fingers and toes crossed it sells!

x

I would put that into an EF , I know you are really keen to get started on paying off more to the debt but at least get something in that EF so you can relax a little bit knowing you have that "cushion"
fingers crossed for your item selling :j

you are doing really well enjoy the day! and hope you sleep better tonight

MeenaM · 3 March 2018 at 1:21PM

Poppy1984 wrote: »

Right I'm going to attempt to put a detailed budget plan on here:

Income:
Wages £1,200
Child benefit £80
Child maintenance £120
Total £1,400

Outgoings:
House bills
Mortgage £203
House insurance £18
TV Licence £13
Gas& Electric £67
Broadband £19
Council Tax £65
Water £18
Haircuts £20
Total £464

Car
MOT £20
Insurance £23
Tax £13
Petrol £60
Total £116

Debt payments
Next £30
Very £50
Tesco £30
Total £110

Savings
Christmas £70
Uniform £20
Emergency fund £10
DS's savings acc £50
Birthdays £20
Total £170

Entertainment
My mobile £50 contract ends June
DS mobile £12
Work lottery £10 (leaving this month)
Total £72

Outgoings total £932

I then allocate £200 for shopping this includes all food, household items and toiletries

And I allocate £200 to "spending money"
This is a little woolly for me I'll admit.
I'd like to say this is £200 to spend on whatever I like but in reality it's £200 to spend on anything that doesn't fall into the Bills or shopping budgets.
I'm not sure what would be better.... keep it like this or say £50 a month for a anything that doesn't fit into bills or shopping budget and £150 to spend on what I want. There's no budget for ds so anything he needs/wants will also have to come out of my "spending money" budget. Undecided on this one I guess it might change as I go along.

That brings my budget totals to
Income £1,400 Outgoings £1,332

It really doesn't give me much wriggle room which feels like constant stress and pressure at the minute.

Any thoughts, advice, ideas, would be most welcome.

do you need to save that much for Christmas? can that be trimmed down a bit? and the £200 to spend on what ever , can you try to not spend that? or at least cut back on spending that?

Poppy1984 · 3 March 2018 at 9:54PM

MeenaM wrote: »

I would put that into an EF , I know you are really keen to get started on paying off more to the debt but at least get something in that EF so you can relax a little bit knowing you have that "cushion"
fingers crossed for your item selling :j

you are doing really well enjoy the day! and hope you sleep better tonight

Hiya thank you for the advice I think I'm leaning towards that to be honest. As if something happens I'll have nothing available and end up going into my overdraft. It didn't sell :-( I've re listed it x

Poppy1984 · 3 March 2018 at 9:59PM

MeenaM wrote: »

do you need to save that much for Christmas? can that be trimmed down a bit? and the £200 to spend on what ever , can you try to not spend that? or at least cut back on spending that?

Yea the Christmas savings is also for DS birthday I've actually added extra to that because in the past I've used very and next as well as savings so to make sure I have enough I added more.
That's definitely the plan for the "spending" money it sounds like a luxury to spend on whatever I want but realistically it's for anything for me and ds that doesn't fit into the bills or shopping category so doesn't stretch that far really.
I am hoping to have some left in both my spending and shopping budget by pay day though x

Poppy1984 · 3 March 2018 at 10:49PM

Looking at my spending and shopping budget and plans for next weekend it's lookin positive that I may have £100 left. So it's whether to pay it off the next account or put it in my emergency fund..... in thinking what meenaM says is a good idea and to put it into my EF but part of me really wants that next acc gone! x

MeenaM · 4 March 2018 at 9:38AM

Poppy1984 wrote: »

Looking at my spending and shopping budget and plans for next weekend it's lookin positive that I may have £100 left. So it's whether to pay it off the next account or put it in my emergency fund..... in thinking what meenaM says is a good idea and to put it into my EF but part of me really wants that next acc gone! x

If it is still a dilemma by then , then how about splitting it 50/50 ? :money:

is there anything you can add to ebay selling?

also what about switching bank accounts to get some free money?

Poppy1984 · 4 March 2018 at 11:17AM

MeenaM wrote: »

If it is still a dilemma by then , then how about splitting it 50/50 ? :money:

is there anything you can add to ebay selling?

also what about switching bank accounts to get some free money?

I might do that, will see what the next couple of weeks bring. I've messed up with the next account just received my monthly statement and things that had been ordered have only just gone one so the actual balance is £500

even after my returns and payments. I'm gutted but at least it's not 750 which it would have been without the payments. Urgh such a slog!
I think I'm tempted to move away from over paying in debt and start building a EF I'll still obviously stick to my monthly minimum payments, but out any extra into an EF as I've seen that seems to be quite popular advice and I do keep having that worry of what exactly will I do if there's an emergency.
My Christmas savings are locked in for 12 months so I can't touch those. Which I think is a good thing as it'd be too easy to "borrow" money from them and not really be able to put it back in time for Christmas.
I know it's going to take a while to build a fence t emergency fund and I know the reccomendation is £1000 but I think I'll concentrate on getting £300 first then maybe go back to overpayments.
I'll have a declutter see what else I can put on ebay. X

Making changes to become debt free

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free