Is it time?

catriona79

Hi,

Firstly - many congratulations on your marriage! How exciting!

I've just read our diary - you're back and looks like you're full of good ideas.
Very wise re stoozng, you are full of good ideas. Ill have to take a leaf out of your book for tackling my debt.... The desire to pay it off really does ebb and flow....

Maybe_its_because

catriona79 wrote: »

The desire to pay it off really does ebb and flow....

Thanks Catriona - you are SO right. The urge to spend verses the urge to get rid of debt is something really difficult to balance.
The spending gremlin always pops up when you don't want it to.

Off to visit your diary....

catriona79

Maybe_its_because wrote: »

Thanks Catriona - you are SO right. The urge to spend verses the urge to get rid of debt is something really difficult to balance.
The spending gremlin always pops up when you don't want it to.

Off to visit your diary....

Hey MIB,

I do like your smart approach to credit. Also I think I understand how you're feeling re your partner, as I am in a similar relationship, where I am the more motivated about saving, getting somewhere, my OH is much more relaxed about it, and just says "don't worry, it will come"...
Whereas I want it all and I want it now! :rotfl:

Ill be trying to balance out the spending and saving...

I dream of the day when all my income is mine... :T

killerpeaty

Congrats on your wedding MIB.

Why does Hubby want all his eggs in one basket? With internet banking it's so easy to mosey over to all of your baskets!

What do you mean by sweeping your bank account?

Maybe_its_because

killerpeaty wrote: »

Congrats on your wedding MIB.

Why does Hubby want all his eggs in one basket? With internet banking it's so easy to mosey over to all of your baskets!

What do you mean by sweeping your bank account?

Hi,

Thanks Killerpeaty for stopping by.

Yeh, Hubby is 100% on board with the whole MSE thing. But his job is so stressful, and brain is usually fried from work that he's a keep it simple kind of guy where everything else is concerned. All his accounts are with the same bank, on the same log in.
I on the other hand have about 8 different online accounts for various savings/CCs/bank accounts. :rotfl:
When he jumped on the MSE wagon (i.e. when he met me), he had no idea how much he earned, how much he spent and on what. The fact that he knows all of those things now (moreorless - he's a creative type not a numbers guy) is a huge step forward.
I'm happy that he's got this far and found his own comfort zone within MSE living.
Plus the majority of our savings are all managed by me - he just has a little mini stash in last years ISA - so far! So the interest lost isn't much to write home about.

Oh and sweeping the account - is something I used to do the day before payday by seeing what balance was left in my pocket money account and transferring it to my mortgage as an Overpayment. As the OP is currently on hold since we bought the new house I sweep the account at the end of the month and then consider what to do with it.
Mostly I put it into savings - but now and again, depending on how good we've been during the month, we treat ourselves with it and use it like a "little bonus, pat on the back, well done" type of thing. There's hardly ever that much left though

Cheers, MIB

Maybe_its_because

Finally, I see the payday light at the end of a long month. cant wait for Friday!

So things, as always, never really go to plan. Albeit in a nicely positive way.
It seems the JL credit card interest period is until June so that didn't need paying this month. So we just paid £50 off the balance. We've paid the usual monthly payments on all the other CCs.

We managed to save £700 instead of just the usual £650.

tradesman 2 isn't coming til next month (as is tradesman 3 - £950 :eek:) so wont have to pay them for a couple of weeks.

Tradesman 1 has been and gone so that's £1250 paid out but didn't need to take it all from our savings as we sold those euros and massively reduced our food budget to make up the rest.
I have to say that The Boss' suggestion of a weekly shopping budget has paid dividends. OH and I are always struggling to keep the monthly budget going til the end of the month but weekly seems to work for us much better (so far). Love this site!!

So as of today - our debt v savings is £11,520 v £17,406

next month debt should reduce by £825, we should be paying out £1,490 in tradesman and our savings should take a hit of £1830 but then increase by £650 with the standard monthly DDs.

This is all lovely and complicated - and thank goodness for spreadsheets.

Maybe_its_because

I have to say again how much I love this site. OH would be well and truly brain-fried if I had to share this level of detail with him. And saying to family and friends, "we have £11,500 of debt" or "we have £17,400 in savings" would be a no-no. one sounds frightening and the other sounds like showing off.

The MSE community I hope are much less quick to judge either statement.

Maybe_its_because

Aww man -forgot to add the argos debt in my post above - must move that onto my CC payment page on the spreadsheet so I don't keep forgetting it.

So, lovely big changes in our DvS ratio this week.

Pay Out/Off
tradesman 2 paid £540
tradesman 3 paid £950
JL credit card PAID IN FULL £638.94
All other credit cards minimum payments made.

Take Savings
Using £1,800 of our savings to pay off debt/tradesmen

New Savings
Usual £650 of savings DDs

Means our new debt total is £11,498
Our new savings total is £16,256

We still have a healthy difference despite all the work on the house being (almost) done and 1 credit card debt completely gone.5 becomes 4.......:jThat's £50 a month no longer being spent on that debt. And once the painting is finished a lovely house to relax in.

New debts are
Virgin. Apr 12 = £4,742, Jun 13 = £4,078. 0% period up in Oct 2013
M&S. May 12 = £2,920, Jun 13 = £1,741. 0% period up Jul 2013
[STRIKE]JL. Nov 12 = £802, Apr 13 = £688. 0% period up Jun 2013[/STRIKE]
Fluid. Mar 13 = £5,024 Jun 13 = £4,875. 0% period up May 2014
Argos. Oct 12 = £1,102. Jun 13 = £804. 0% period up Sep 2013

Next on the list is M&S. That's got to go. My recent statement pointed out the interest free is up 3rd July.

Already spent £50 of our weekly £80 budget. WT&F still to go and meal planning done so hopefully just a few quid to be spent on topping up the basics like milk and veg.
At least all this painting and decorating is occuping our evenings so we're not tempted to pop to the corner shop for late night goodies... there is no spare time or energy for that at the mo. Every cloud......

Maybe_its_because

Happy July Monday

Glad payday has been, and managed to underspend on last month's pocket money so very chuffed with ourselves.

Anyway. July's DDs are all in place and set to pay;

Virgin. £40.79
M&S. £1,741
Fluid. £48.75
Argos. £50.00

Virgin. Apr 12 = £4,742, Jul 13 = £4,038. 0% period up in Oct 2013
[STRIKE]M&S. May 12 = £2,920, Jun 13 = £1,741. 0% period up Jul 2013[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]JL. Nov 12 = £802, Apr 13 = £688. 0% period up Jun 2013[/STRIKE]
Fluid. Mar 13 = £5,024 Jul 13 = £4,826. 0% period up May 2014
Argos. Oct 12 = £1,102. Jul 13 =£824. 0% period up Sep 2013

To make these payments, we'll use £1,522 of savings. The rest we will absorb from the joint account and have reduced this month's DD into ISAs to £390

So new totals for July 2013 are
£9,688 debt vs £15,125 savings

Very chuffed to be under the £10k barrier for our debt. Just got to keep plodding downwards to widen that gap between the D and the S.

Maybe_its_because

Maybe_its_because wrote: »

So new totals for July 2013 are £9,688 debt vs £15,125 savings

Somehow we put in an extra £50 towards savings this month - so the July end total is £9,688 debt vs £15,175 savings

No massive payments in August as we've a few extra holiday outgoings but we are planning to pay off...

Virgin - £40.38
Argos - £250 (hopefully)
Fluid - £48.26

MIB x