Russell's 'New Leaf' Spend Less, Make Money, Pay off Debts Diary

rustysmart

I'm not going to count my chickens etc etc, but I've been looking at my finances spreadsheet for the coming month (inputting things I know need to go out etc.) and I quite pleased with what I can see.

I am not going preempt what the new signature will look like at the end of next week, but I think I could be debt free by the end of 2010 - which is great considering I was planning on repaying just one of my loans before December.

Some possible things to note on the new signature could be a significantly reduced overdraft (possibly half last months), no loan and still over £1K in savings. We'll have to see what will actually happen next week when I get paid, but I'm almost shaking just thinking about it!! :j

rustysmart

Well the car went this morning, a little bit sad to see it go, but looking long term that I have (or will have when the money goes in) halved my total debt.

I'll be on the phone to HSBC tomorrow as soon as the money shows up to pay off my loan, that will be a great feeling. I was excited about paying off my AA loan 4 months early just before Christmas, but I will be clearing this loan 18 months early!!

Not sure of the exact amount of money left over after the loan is cleared as I don't know how much interest I will be saving, but it will be in the region of £500 which will go towards my overdraft very nicely too!!

rustysmart

Currently waiting for the car money to arrive in my bank - anytime between 1pm and 5pm I was told, obviously not too specific then!!

rustysmart

Just done a sneaky signature update because as of 15:45pm BST (!) I have just paid off my loan 18 months early!! I haven't totaled up the 'Debt to date' and 'paid off' part of the signature yet - so if the numbers don't add up that's why. I will do a full signature update at the end of next week when I get paid (23rd). Cheers everyone!!

rustysmart

A quick update just to prove that I'm still here! Some crafty money making coming up:
- more Amazon DVD sales this week, not bank breaking but can't complain
- nearly £30 of Quidco has been confirmed and received, will be banked end of month
- (best bit) my work needs to book train tickets in Spain and no one apart from me has an American Express card so the tickets are going on my card - what's so good about that I hear you say? Well I'm getting 5% cashback from AMEX and a cheque from work to pay it off so no interest gained either! Cheeky but true!! 5% of 400 euros can't be bad for doing nothing!

Signature update to come at the weekend, can't wait - I've been doing some sneaky peeks at my spreadsheet and looking fairly good - still in debt, but by a manageable amount! Speak soon.

rustysmart

I've waited for nearly two weeks to update my signature, well here it is!! YAY!

Obviously the differences are thanks to my car sale, but even so there are some great highlights.

Overdraft is £400 down from last month. The loan has obviously been cleared. Loving my savings at the mo too - I've never had savings before!! And although the credit card has hardly reduced, it's still on 0% so I'm not hugely bothered by that at the mo.

I'm going to work on buying a new car in the next few weeks, but it will only be a little runaround and I plan to spend no more than £1000 on it - this can then come out of my savings with no need for a new loan.

Enjoy the sun everyone!

rustysmart

Off out to buy a suit today - gutted because I've just found out that Burtons have ended their 'complete suit for £99' offer which included shoes, shirt and tie too!

Will pop to the local outlet village where there are a few suit retailers and see what they have to offer.

rustysmart

Well I bought my new suit yesterday for the two weddings that I have coming up this year. Although we have an outlet village in town there was not much to offer there so I bought it from Next in the end. At £130 it is probably the most expensive single item that I have purchased since my LBM - but fortunately I had money in my savings to prevent me from using my overdraft or credit card. Happy days!

rustysmart

I'm not really sure why I am posting this as I have nothing new to report - I guess it is just to confirm that I am still alive and moneysaving!! Having a lovely bank holiday weekend although I'm not doing anything huge - out for dinner later courtesy of a mystery shopper visit with greene king which is always nice. Still need to find a shirt to go with my suit, but not a huge priority at the moment!

rustysmart

I write this feeling rather smug and apologise if I come across in that way. However, I will also hold my hand up and say I've not prioritised my debts correctly and therefore cannot class myself as a moneysaving expert :mad:.

Last night I discovered the snowball calculator (I know, took long enough!) but using it really opened my eyes to prioritising the debts that I have. A revelation therefore struck me - I need to change the order/priority that I pay off my debts.

The following happened today as a result:
- I have transfered £800 from my savings to pay of my HSBC overdraft (I was being charged 19.9% on the overdraft and as you can imagine earning nowhere near that in my savings)
- I have calculated the amount needed to pay off my A&L overdraft ready for next payday (still got payments to go out so can't confirm amount yet) - doing this is saving me £5 a month is overdraft fees.
- There's no point touching my credit cards as they are both on 0% so I am paying min. payments next month.

It will mean that my signature update for June will have a savings battering (almost nothing in there!), but I can not believe it has taken me this long to realise how much my overdrafts (especially HSBC) were costing me.

Future signature update to feature £0 overdraft and £0 in loans :j so possibly a great new LBM even if my savings have disappeared!