Cailbhinn's debt journey!

I saw Calvin Harris at the Wireless Festival in the summer - totally amazing.

Well done on your NSD! I'm up to 7 for the month. Never quite got to 10 which is my monthly aim. Still got half the month to go though....

Well done for sorting this out now. I'm twice your age and if I'd known then what I know now my better half and i could have been very comfortable! Still, we've been very fortunate and have no real regrets. I don't envy young people these days - it's a lot harder now than it was when we started out. Good luck!

You will get there but don't forget to enjoy the journey along the way! :j

Well done for looking to tackle your situation before it gets beyond reach Cailbhinn!

Some suggestions for you
- while you don't need to post an SOA in here if you don't want to, you will find that either working through that, or the MSE Budget Brain tool, is helpful to you. It stood out that you said previously that until recently you've not even had a budget - now that you have, it's helpful to have it noted somewhere that you can fiddle and adjust, but most of all keep an eye on how you're doing with it. It also helps you pick up on things that are infrequent costs - so for example annual bills for insurances, things like car servicing/MoT, and to budget for big one-offs like Christmas, or an annual holiday by setting money aside each month to cover these.
- The food/shopping thing - what works for us is ONE visit to the supermarket only, most weeks, plus a meal plan so that food doesn't get wasted. Before I shop I note anything that needs using up, then write the meal plan around that, and only then write a shopping list which includes the bits we need to make the meals on the plan as well as the "usual" stuff like milk, fruit. I find if I do need a further visit to the shops then I almost always end up buying extra bits.
- The issue of cash withdrawals - I have a separate savings account off my current account which is literally my "fun stuff" money - and I feed that with a set amount each month. I take out a set amount of spending money per week, or if I've not spent what is in my purse from the previous week, an amount just to make up what is in my purse to a set level. For planned weekends away, or nights out beyond my weekly spending money, my "fun" account is there to take up the slack and it's easy to use online banking just to switch the money from it to my current account. I found that working this way avoided me being constantly at the cashpoint, and also controls the amount I take out in a month more closely.