MrsB83's Debt Free Diary - it starts here!

walby1993

Hi MrsB83,

Really interested to read your diary as DH and I have similar levels of debt and is nice to see someone who is clearing and doesn't have a salary too dissimilar to mine - quite inspiring! Would be interested to see your budget!

MrsW

mrsb83_2

Hi MrsW! Always glad to meet another DFW.

Here's a rough outline of my budget. It does change from month to month depending on what's going on. There are areas we could save on, but I find it a good balance.

Combined wages: £2700

Snowballing: £900
Mobile phone: £30
Utilities: £130
Insurance (life, car, home): £140
Mortgage: £200
Council Tax: £110
Petrol: £250
Groceries: £250
Entertainment: £175
Medical: £35
Home maintenance: £80
Car maintenance: £125
Clothes: £50
Cash: £100

Hope that helps you. Good luck on your journey!

mrsb83_2

I've cleared all my credit card debt!

I can't believe it.

My CC debt was never that out of control because I had small limits on the cards. I think it was around £2300 at its worst. I'm so glad the limits were low because I really was terrible for "spend now think later" with them.

Moving on to the overdraft now. Not paying as much as I wanted to this month because of weddings etc, but still paying enough so that it won't delay my DFD.

Kepp

Just catching up with your diary!

mrsb83_2

So I've made it to over £5k of my £10 for this year target, and a little bit early too.

Feeling good.

Don't have much spare for overpayments this month so I'll be doing much smaller PADs.

mrsb83_2

Made it to sub-£17k! It always feels good to knock a grand off.

I'm having trouble deciding what to do about my overdraft. I allocate every penny of income within my budget, so my available to spend on the day before DH's payday is always £0.00 (balance is -£2000).

I'm starting to pay the overdraft off but I've just been putting the payments in a separate account for the moment because leaving it in my current account really messes up my accounting. I know it's silly to be overdrawn on my current and pay interest when I have a lump sum in another account but I really don't know how to work it.

I think I'm going to wait until I have £1000 set aside then pay that into my current account. That's a nice round number to figure out the budget with. That should only take two months, and I think I'll swallow the interest on the overdraft to make sure I keep within the budget.

Kepp

Well done on going sub 17K! :T

mrsb83_2

beccie wrote: »

Well done on going sub 17K! :T

Thanks beccie! You'll be joining me there soon!

Kepp

I hope so!

mrsb83_2

So I've already made it past £500 in the overdraft fund. Next month I'll be putting £1000 in my current account

I'm excited about clearing it and getting to the Natwest loan which is the last of my interest-accruing debts (we owe some ££ so DH's parents interest-free). The interest is crazy low at around 3% so it should start to go down very quickly.

Budgeting is going well generally. I have £60 of my bonus money left and have no idea what to spend it on - it's amazing how quickly spending habits can change.