Can Edinburgher be debt free and a mortgage holder by 30?

doodledo_2

Evening Edinburger. Pah to the £60 but least you know where you stand with that now, no nasty surprise on the horizon.

Think you might be right about the wine club though

edinburgher

doodledo wrote: »

Think you might be right about the wine club though

True - but £20 a month seems so small in the grand scheme of things! Ah well, I've got £160 sitting in it - that will buy me a very good 'last hurrah'

doodledo_2

£160 of wine..........I'm there

edinburgher

It was £140 (of wine), but it has now been ordered! I will be giving the gf a very large half of the booty after she waived the last ~£20 of the money I owed her. I think she was feeling guilty that she gets paid earlier than me

Down to two debts, with a crate of wine on the way - think 2009 is going to be my year.

My sealed jar goes well - convinced it's seen the better part of £15 already, now that I'm a £2 coin saver as well.

Have moved my savings accounts around and will largely be using IF for this -while they don't pay the best rates they have a good online portal, it's easy to transfer monies and set up regular payments and they have Scottish customer service. I'm not predjudiced against any nationality, but it helps to bank with someone who understands what I'm saying!

*Update: our downstairs neighbours have just turned up - their bedroom is being flooded as we speak... Got our landlord's dad coming out at 8am tomorrow to see what's up

doodledo_2

Evening Edinburger.

Mmmmmmmm wine

Not good news about the flooding. I assume that you have the relevant insurance policies in place so fingers crossed nothing which is going to cost you anything.

Fingers crossed for the morning and good news.

edinburgher

We don't have insurance (but landlord will). I've been down and the damage isn't too bad - soaked bedsheets and a few grubby towels. The obvious issue is figuring out why the hell it happened in the first place.

Nvm, landlord's dad is a certified plumber and should be here this morning.

edinburgher

It's been a good few days since my last missive, so I suppose one last update before Christmas won't hurt :rotfl:

We're off to Scotland for the holidays tomorrow, very much looking forward to seeing friends and family (and cats, don't forget the cats!) It will have been one day shy of six months since I was in Scotland and I've missed my family a fair bit. It will be hard to drag ourselves back to Kent, but I suppose we have to keep on reminding ourselves that the job opportunities we have down here only come along once in a blue moon in Scotland

Not a whole lot of news on the DFW front - have continued with the daily clicks/free scratchards and have had a reasonably economical Christmas. That said, all the spare money from my December wage is already gone. Not to worry, my new DFW budget will see regular payments set up for holidays/gifts etc. from 01.01.2009 - starting the year as we intend to go on. It will be nice to not have to worry about where money is going to come from for x, thanks to the wonder of linked savings accounts. I opened another couple, so the savings will hopefully grow fast next year.

Best wishes to my fellow DFWers for Christmas and the New Year - let's all take a break, I feel we've collectively earned it :xmassign:

edinburgher

Can't believe I've left this so long without updating

Christmas and New Year were very enjoyable (but hectic, we're contemplating going away next year). Lots of useful gifts and books etc., which are always nice to receive as I don't spend money on that sort of thing for myself any more (debt comes first).

The first of the regular payments have started coming off for savings etc. and I've seen a huge jump in my savings balance (£50 or so to ~£400). Yes, I know most of that's for specific purposes, but it still gives me the feeling of security that's somewhat vital at this time of year.

Throughout my adult life I've always been very aware of feeling a bit insecure with my finances and not really knowing where the money is coming from/going. Now the pendulum has swung the other way and I'm ridiculuously organised and to be honest, it feels good. I know that 2009 will be a tough year, but for the first time in ages I don't feel worried about the future.

Managing to stick to all the challenges (sealed pot, virtual sealed pot, £2 savers club) and have come up with a new one for myself. It's not very complex, I just up my regular savings amount as soon as I save money elsewhere. For example, a pet insurance policy got cancelled recently, saving me £13.68 a month. This has been added to my savings account and I'll continue to do so in future.

I've recently cancelled a home insurance policy for £7 a month, so I suppose this should go in too. I know most people advise having contents cover, but I don't have so much to lose that couldn't be replaced fairly cheaply This is nice, as it makes me feel far less material than I used to. Am starting to realise that stability and happiness are the key, not flashy !!!! that clutters the shelves and needs dusted.

Happy 2009 all!

edinburgher

Had some hot spreadsheet action this morning and discovered a gaping flaw in my DFW logic that means my debts are going to take 6 months longer to pay off than I'd originally thought Basically I was adding in a total from a savings account where the money was only 50% mine (holiday account with the GF) and tricked myself into getting excited too soon.

In addition to this, I discovered that the rate on my savings account has fallen by a further 1.25%.

Now I thought my bad news was done for the day, but it transpires that the security clearance (for my new job) won't be through 'til the end or January of later, meaning that I'll be in my current awful job until mid March anyway.

Does anyone else hate Tuesdays?

edinburgher

Time for another page in my sanity log (well, it helps to get these things down on paper.)

Having reached the end of January, I'm feeling pretty much down in the dumps and haven't really managed to wean myself off of not living with a budget. To clarify, I do have a budget and I am sticking to it, but it's tough. Part of me really misses the feeling (no matter how fleeting), of receiving a pay cheque and going 'Yes! I have £xxx 'spare' this month'. The problem with that system, however, was the fact that I usually came down to earth with a crash roughly half way through the month!

My debt totals haven't gone down a whole lot, but my savings are creeping up. I'm off on holiday (Greece) for a week in May and it's the first time in years that I've budgeted for it. There's also talk of another holiday towards the end of the year and I'm getting a little worried about all the costs. Will my debts ever go down?

I've tried discussing this with my GF and she's been very understanding. I've even got her saving now and between us we're putting away about £450/mth, which will buy us some much needed security when her contract of employment ends in early September. The problem is that I want to save more, but I don't want to bore her with constant money chatter - I suppose a lot of you know how I feel? The fact that I'm a closet economics enthusiast doesn't help

Also, I'm selfishly terrified that all my good work will go to pot if I use my hard won savings to help support her for more than a few months. Part of the reason that my student debts ended up being so high in the first place is that I gave maybe £1.5k to my ex, a serial debtor. I'm worried that I can't make a distinction between being needy by lending money and lending money to be a decent bloke Ironically enough, my ex is now essentially debt free thanks to a loan from the bank of Mum and Dad :mad:

It's not all doom and gloom tho! My security clearance for my new job came through and I'm due to start on the 9th of March (after a lovely 10 day break). Flexible working, slightly higher wages, possible bonus and a lovely Civil Service pension.

Oh well, off to make some coffee.