HelenPie's Big Year

HelenPie

Hello :wave:

I've started a diary before but a long while ago. I don't think I'd had my true lightbulb moment back then. 23rd November 2011 was the day I came back to MSE and, two months on, this is the longest I think I've ever actually made an effort to stick with my debt-free mission. I'd say LBM achieved then :j

I'm trying to clear all my debts by the end of the year and am part of the Pay All Your Debts By Christmas 2012 Challenge. On top of that, OH and I are getting married on 23rd June this year. :j We're pretty much already committed to most costs so not much we can cut back there but we are trying to save to actually pay for it (rather than borrowing more) :T This means that most of our surplus cash each month is going into a savings account rather than paying down debts until the summer, when any leftover savings and all future excess income will chip away at our debts.

Today, our borrowings (excluding mortgage - that's for next year :rotfl:) are:
£14,799.93 already down from £16,660.26 on 24th November :T
Additionally, I have a target of another £8,153.47 to save before June

Total £22,953.40 by the end of the year :eek:

I think I can find that, which makes me mad that I'm in this position in the first place. Clearly if I'd had my LBM sooner, I could have cleared a lot already :mad: Oh well, I'm here now

I've set up a large collection of spreadsheets for monitoring income/expenditure, budgets, payment plans, etc. along with aides for the grocery challenge and second purse.

I wasn't going to start a diary as well but there are a number of things that I would like/need to do for budgeting and snowballing, etc. but the wedding savings element is complicating matters slightly so I decided I needed somewhere to keep track of the things I want and need to do. Most importantly, I'm also I'm finding that every day I realise something new and I'd like to be able to look back. Hopefully one day I can use what I'm learning to help others

So here goes.....Helen's big year is well and truly under way :T:T

HelenPie

Number one on my things to do it to set up more separate pots of money for specific things such as clothing, Christmas, any medicines/prescriptions, and a contingency fund. I have set a budget for these things but at the moment trying not to spend where possible so that the money can go to the wedding fund.

My plan is therefore to make a record of all of the different pots I need and how much should be in them. For now I will continue to put everything into the wedding account and just dip into that should the need arise. Once everything is paid for, I will divide anything left over into my pots and set up regular transfers to them, hopefully keeping ahead of costs rather than always playing catch up.

Also, I am going to repeat a note that I posted in the DFBX thread of my things to do in the short term so I can check back to make sure I've done them :rotfl:

Ok. I seem to be posting a lot today but have put together a list of money saving things I must do this week:

*Change my car insurance policy from Comprehensive to 3PFT expected saving: £250 should be able to get some cashback too I would do this now but need to double check my no claims
*Investigate my water supply for leaks (metered bill up from £12pcm to £32pcm!) expected saving £240 (though likely to be offset by plumber's fee in the short term. Better for the environment though and also in the long term. Need a plumber anyway as one tap has stopped working
*Try and haggle down wedding decoration supplier (one we like more expensive than other quotes) expected saving £90

Alright, so it's not as long a list as it seemed in my head most of my to do list appears to be chores instead

Anyway, if that all works out, then that's an additional £580 towards debt repayments, and £490 of that is on an ongoing basis Wow, what a waste

My mum needs a plumber, too and was going to call her ex-brother-in-law. I'm therefore going to share the call out with her in the next couple of weeks. We're going shopping for new taps on Saturday.

I called my insurer about TPFT for the car and it was more expensive. Am shopping around to see what I can get elsewhere.

I have sent an email to the wedding company telling them that we liked them but they were very expensive. Hopefully they will respond with something positive......

H xx

HelenPie

I have another task to add to the to-do list, that can be done pretty quickly (I just need to talk it over with OH first): Switching from Virgin Media to Sky.

We currently pay £50.50 a month to Virgin for tv and broadband. That's £606 for a year, assuming no more price rises.

Cutting a few bits here and there (minimal - mostly affecting OH as no sports news), but adding a phone line (we don't currently have a landline) would cost:
£20/m for the tv/broadband/phone package
£12.35/m for the line rental
£10 one-off installation of the phone line
But cashback should be £60.60 through TCB, and if I do it with a friend's referral (don't have one but will get mum to do it) we each get £75 in M&S vouchers!
Net cost for the year: £262.60 saving £343.40:T:T That's 57% cheaper. Can always switch back to V again after a year if it doesn't work out (and get more cashback in the process )

Can't believe I haven't bothered to do these things in the past. I've read the tips on this site enough times to know better

HelenPie

Plumber still not booked but OH's dad is going to fit the taps for us next Saturday. That means we only need the plumber for the leak, which I hope will save a bit. We were limited in what we could buy for taps by what would fit (don't want to replace the whole bathroom suite, clearly!). So those plus new toilet seats (upstairs broken, downstairs yucky and rusty) So £84.92 spent there _pale_

Managed to shave the cost of our wedding rings down from the original £2,000 budget to £878 though so a massive saving there :j

Spoke to OH about switching from Virgin to Sky. He would still want the sports news (it is all he watches, so I can forgive him that) but even with the additional cost of £5/month it still is cheaper. The conversation made me realise though that our analog tv will be no use to us come the spring as our area goes digital. Of course we could save by not having a TV but bearing in mind we've taken our social life back to bare bones and we're usually home alone (his work pattern is different to mine) a TV is our biggest luxury. That means another ££spend to replace it soon. :eek:

Car insurance: still haven't looked for my existing paperwork, which I need so must do that soon. However getting the house clean and tidy ready for plumber/OH's dad is priority #1 at the moment :rotfl:

HippyChicLisa

Have you looked at Freecycle as a way of getting either a free digital box or any of the million things you'll need for your wedding? You may have tracked down taps too, I've just given away a stairgate and am collecting a weight lifting bench today-bizarre eh? But all for free and no landfill!

HelenPie

Thanks. I've actually used it in the past (that's where our current tv and half of our furniture is from :rotfl:) Didn't cross my mind though. Thanks

HelenPie

I've just realised that I didn't post about my saving on our wedding rings :j

Original budget was £2,000, which a cut back to £1,200 (decided on a simpler ring for me and was going to use old gold of OH's to make his ring).

OH decided he wanted platinum rather than gold, which is fine but clearly about 3x the cost, putting us back well above £1,200 :eek: However, shopping around, one of the jewellery shops suggested palladium - 10x stronger and cheaper than gold, and looks identical to platinum - amazing :j That would have taken the cost down to £1,145, so back on budget :T

We then went to speak to a jeweller who is a friend of my mums, and who she's used for years. Told him what we wanted, he couldn't stop raving about palladium for OH and has agreed to make both rings for free for us. He's even passed on his discount from the metal traders to us so total cost is £878 :j:j:beer: Very happy me :cool:

Unfortunately no new money saving/debt-busting news though. xx

HelenPie

OK, just realised that I did post about that already :o Oh well, it deserved another mention, I'm sure :rotfl:

HelenPie

Oh, I do like this MSE stuff

After reading Martin's weekly email (first time - how bad is that?!) I've:

*instructed OH to buy the Sun newspaper tomorrow for the £6 off Mr M voucher and started a shopping list to see the best way to spend £40 to take advantage
*ordered a birthday card for a family member for free using the £5 voucher for registration
*started looking into switching current account to Santander as they are offering £200 for mortgage customers, plus £30 Am@zon voucher for MSE peeps

Happy Helen :T:T

HelenPie

Got my £6 off at Mr M voucher from the Sun today so will happily spend that on Sunday.

A NSD yesterday.

Also able to properly declare my totals for January:

Grocery Challenge: £479.13/£200
Frugal Living: £1,559.18/£13,000
NSDs: 7

HelenPie

Big congats Kerri on the new addition to the family And a big thank you also for the tip on the bingo with cashback. I've managed:

Gala: £10 deposited, £18.50 won, £22.72 CB (not tracked)
Paddy Power: £10 deposited, £8 won (not yet withdrawn), £30.30 CB (not tracked)
Tombola: £10 deposited, £0 won, £20.20 CB (tracked)
Sun Bingo: £10 deposited, £0 won, £10.10 CB (not tracked)
Heart Games: £10 deposited, £132.08 won, £15 CB (not tracked)
Virgin: £5 deposited, £11.60 won, £5 CB (not tracked)

Total profit if cashback successful: £218.50! Even if none of the cashback comes through I'll still be up £115.18

Trying to register with Mecca but it wont take my deposit at the moment. That's at least a break-even (£15 CB with £15 deposit).

Happy Helen. Will see which ones track and then get OH to register, too. He'll need convincing that any profit is for debts and not treats though