One step beyond!!!

natsplatnat

Hi All!

Well here it is - my shiney new Diary for 2011.


My old diary started in November 2008 when I got angry with myself (and the cashpoint that wanted to charge me £25 to withdraw £10) for getting into the lack-of-money situation I found myself in. The last 2+ years have seen me document many money making / saving ideas - some more successfull than others - all with the aim of becoming debt-free. I will freely admit that some ideas and budgeting strategies were not the best (or were totally far-fetched and ridiculous) along with admitting that I am by no means a dedicated DFW..... I do try, it just seems to go a bit wonky every now and then (without me realising) and then I have to end up reworking my reworked plan! But, I am getting there, which I assume is the most important thing!

My previous ramblings can be read here (if you are that interested! lol) https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/1303349

As of today, my situation is better - although by no means perfect!
I have consolidated all my debts! :eek: But this is a good thing!! Thanks to my OH inheriting some money last year, he was in a position to pay off everything I / we owed and now I just owe him.... INTEREST FREE! (this is the only time I would recommend consolidating, having done it myself before and fallen into that 'oh so common' trap of racking up more debt whilst paying off the consolidation!!) So my Diary title refers to 'one step beyond the interest!'

My (lov-er-ly) OH kindly cleared £16,300 worth of my debts for me - to this I need to add a little bit of overspend from christmas :mad:, but I did have £649 set aside to put towards the CC bill (only open CC is the Tesco one as it gives us clubcard points!!) So I reckon I will be looking at a total of £17,000 - still cringeworthy considering that I have only cleared £2000 (and a bit) in just over 2 years!

But I have a plan!!!! (yep, here we go again!!! lol) I am repaying my OH £100.00 per week, every week, until I have cleared my debt to him! For those of you who are really sharp, you will remember that I did say I would up it to £125/wk. This would mean that it would be cleared quicker, but leaves me with virtually nothing to set aside for car tax, servicing, christmas 2011 etc, so have changed back to the original £100/wk). This will see me repay £5,200 a year, so (everything going according to plan) I will be debt-free in just over 3years and 3 months!! YAY!!

My spreadsheet (which I love almost as much as my OH) has been set up for the whole of 2011 and I have forward forecast every known DD and weekly cash withdrawal for the next 12 months. IF everything stays as it is (which I know it won't as I have things like my mums 60th birthday to sort out!) I will have £2000 left at the end of the year. Out of this I need to allow for my car tax, service and insurance, all birthdays, possibly a holiday (Shhh) and next Christmas!! I just need to make sure that I don't 'lose' the £167.00 a month that it breaks down into!

Right, that's enough rambling from me for now (don't want to scare off any new readers who might stuble across my diary)!

I will be back in a day or so with a summary and possibly an updated SOA!

Here's to a debt-busting year for everyone!!! Nats x :beer:

Gingerjar

Wooooh Nat, you go girl!

The year long spreadsheet forecast thingy sounds brilliant, am going to nick your ideas and do the same thing myself as there's always a birthday or something boring like car tax that I seem to forget.

Keep up your good work!

natsplatnat

Thanks GingerJar!

If you get stuck with the spreadsheet give me a shout! Being able to look at how spending money now affects my account in 3-5 weeks time is a real benefit - mainly as I get paid weekly and obviously DD's etc are monthly - boy I love 5 week months!!

Olderbutnotwiser

BOO!!

Didn't think you could shake me off did you?

I'm going to follow you here too:p what would you do without my pearls of wisdom:D

Lemon_Tree

helloooooooo found you
I'm still thinking of doing an annual budget as well as the monthly one i've been doing for donkeys years.

natsplatnat

YAY! 2 of my 'regulars' lol have found me! (thank goodness for the thread linking ok eh!)

OBNW - well, I was hoping, but...... ONLY KIDDING - great to have you around (have you started your new diary yet?)

LT - I would be truely lost without my spreadsheet - sometimes I do think it is the only thing that keeps me sane! I told my boss about it yesterday - he looked at me like I was a total freak!!!! ;O)

Right, better do some work, I'll be back later! Nats x

chevalier

hey don't know your self about 'only' paying off 2k. that means that it hasn't gone up which is an achievement in itself
chev

natsplatnat

Cheers Chev!

I know I should be proud of what I have achieved - it's just that although I know I am not the most dedicated DFW, I get frustrated and annoyed at how long this journey is! (in my defence, I would have cleared more - actually did clear more - but then went on a cracking holiday that OH wanted to pay for in full, but I felt only right that I paid my half considering what he has already paid out for me!)

My balance will only go down from this Friday - hopefully at a lovely steady rate... soooo looking forward to 2014 when it has all gone!

Intergalactic_Floozie

***subscribes***

natsplatnat

Hi Floozie - glad you have joined me!!! How you getting on?

Olderbutnotwiser

'One Step Beyond' .... surely this is madness!!

Hi Nat's no I have not started new diary yet, things to tie up this week .... need to draw a line under them and my New Year officially starts next week

And young lady I want to see a weekly decreasing figure on your signature..... otherwise I may just think you are a male overweight socially challenged predator grooming me.