It's kind of fun to do the impossible

Sholly

Don't you just hate it when you go out for a meal with a group and pick something cheap off the menu and only drink water to keep the cost down...then the decision is made to split the bill "equally" between everyone...there's no equality in that!! :mad:

Sholly x

Sholly

It's the day after payday 😊 how does my bank balance go from :j to :eek: so quickly!! :rotfl:

So, the debt figures on 01.10.14 are...

My debt £940.00 ... TRIPLE FIGURES :j
Joint debt ... £32,599

That means we've paid £1,443.46 off our debt this month 😊 happy happy happy 😊

Sholly x

Sholly

It's the first working day of the month which means it's spreadsheet day :j simple things!

This month I've paid £480 from my individual debt and we've paid £963.00 from our joint debt :T

My individual credit card now stands at £460.00. I'm only paying £10 onto it from my next pay and the remaining £450 in December - I'm taking a month off for Christmas, although whatever I don't spend will be thrown onto the credit card. It will be LOVELY to start 2015 with this gone, it's been a long time coming! Then I can ramp up the money going towards the joint debt which currently stands at £31,636.

We had planned to pay minimal payments after March 2016 onto the joint debt as I have a payment coming to me in August 2016 but we've changed our minds and will just continue with the big payments from the March - June. This will mean we have very little spare for an extra 3 months but will mean we pay it off 2 months early, then my August money can be spent on something else, maybe put towards a buy to let deposit - there's plenty of time to think of what to do with that though!

I'll check all of my balances over the next couple of days when the payments have cleared but apart from that, it's another wait until the next payday. I'm not wishing my life away but where finances are concerned, I can't wait to get to the next month to cross another month off the debt-free plan!

For now, over and out.

Sholly x

liltdiddylilt

Hi Sholly!!!

Just read through your diary and it is incredible what you have done in such a short space of time. You still have the flat, and I presume are managing to cover more than the mortgage with the money you get in rent... that is incredible considering you now have a joint mortgage with boyfriend too :D

Congrats on moving in together by the way

I am always ticking months off on YNAB and wishing away the time until payday so that I can up my savings a bit. I just realised this week that it is November.. Where has this year gone?

I bought a house at practically the same age as you, with an almost identical mortgage. The market crashed about 6 months after I moved in and all of a sudden I owed £20k more than the house was worth. I think it is in the positive now. I wouldn't really know since I moved out with a promise for then ex to buy me out and get me off the mortgage within 2 years. He still owes me a couple of thousand pounds (£2300 precisely) from the paltry 9000 we agreed in 2009 when I moved out and I am still on the mortgage. I hear on the grapevine he is moving down south (which I did when I left) so will be interesting to see if he wants me to sign to say he can sell the place. Weird situation, and now living where I do, working 3 days a week and earning pittance to save on childcare, I doubt I will get back on the market any time soon.

Still, I am happy and healthy, my savings are going the right way and I spend less than I earn small things eh?!

Keep on going. You are inspiring! x

Sholly

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

Hi Sholly!!!

Just read through your diary and it is incredible what you have done in such a short space of time. You still have the flat, and I presume are managing to cover more than the mortgage with the money you get in rent... that is incredible considering you now have a joint mortgage with boyfriend too :D

Congrats on moving in together by the way

I am always ticking months off on YNAB and wishing away the time until payday so that I can up my savings a bit. I just realised this week that it is November.. Where has this year gone?

I bought a house at practically the same age as you, with an almost identical mortgage. The market crashed about 6 months after I moved in and all of a sudden I owed £20k more than the house was worth. I think it is in the positive now. I wouldn't really know since I moved out with a promise for then ex to buy me out and get me off the mortgage within 2 years. He still owes me a couple of thousand pounds (£2300 precisely) from the paltry 9000 we agreed in 2009 when I moved out and I am still on the mortgage. I hear on the grapevine he is moving down south (which I did when I left) so will be interesting to see if he wants me to sign to say he can sell the place. Weird situation, and now living where I do, working 3 days a week and earning pittance to save on childcare, I doubt I will get back on the market any time soon.

Still, I am happy and healthy, my savings are going the right way and I spend less than I earn small things eh?!

Keep on going. You are inspiring! x

Oh thank you Lilt! It seems like a long hard slog between paydays!! It'll be worth it in the end though!

Yes, the rent covers the mortgage...just! I am in profit by the truly humongous sum of £5.04 per month! I know, I will try not to spend it all in one big spree! I am lucky though, I don't take for granted how things have worked out.

What's YNAB? It sounds like something I'd like! I can't believe it's November too, it does fly doesn't it? Is Jelly excited for Chrimbo yet? My littlie has done his list already, with the Lego reference numbers and everything...very organised, good lad!

Do you think you'll get the dosh from the ex or are you in for a battle there? You're right, it is the small things. I think it's when things are tight that you really realise what's important.

Thank you very much for your kind words - they really do mean a lot.

xx

Sholly

All figures checked and correct on the supersonic spreadsheet :T

19 months to go - I can't wait until it's the 18 month milestone - that will be a real countdown. June 2015 will be 12 months to go. December 2015 will be the final 6 month stretch.

At the minute our payments are...

My credit card (the others are joint)
Minimum payment: £5 (should be £4.60 but min is £5)
What I am actually paying £10 payday this month (Christmas pressie money taken from next pay), £450 in December which will pay this off :j
End of 0% deal: Mar 2015
When I will actually pay it off: December 2014.

Loan:
What we 'should' be paying: £377.64
What we are paying: £821 (increasing to £1,581 after Christmas once my cc is paid off)
End of agreement date: March 2019
When we will actually pay it off: November 2015.

Credit card 1:
Minimum payment until loan paid off, then the money going onto the loan will go onto the CC.
End of 0% deal: Feb 2016
When we will actually pay it off: January 2016.

Credit card 2:
Minimum payment until loan & CC1 paid off, then the money going onto CC1 will go onto CC2.
End of 0% deal: Nov 2016
When we will actually pay it off: August 2016.

I recently changed jobs and will get a bonus this year although I have no idea how much it will be. I haven't included this in any calculations so hopefully will be able to get these numbers down quicker.

Sholly x

liltdiddylilt

YNAB - YouNeedABudget - best bit of kit I have ever bought!! It is a computer programme with attached app for smartphones, where you enter your every income, and separate all of your expenditure into categories. You can add each and every bank account, credit card, loan etc into the 'budget' and then you enter the individual transactions under each. Each one filters through to your budget spreadsheet, and say you had set a budget of £200 for groceries, and then spent £204, it would show in red on your budget and show you borrowing from next months money unless you switch around, from say, your savings budget, or emergency fund, or spending money etc.

I even have my purse as an account on there, and do 'transfers' when I take cash from the ATM. So then if I needed £5 in cash but took out £10, I know what I have done with the other £5.

It really really keeps me on track. It's aim is to not only have you knowledgable about everything you have sent and where (there are reports etc) but to get you to the point where you have a months worth of outgoings saved up within the first few months (debts allowing) so that you are not reliant on your very next paypacket to pay the months bills. Like a grace period.

Where you keep the money doesn't matter, as long as every penny is budgeted towards SOMETHING. It makes your income work for you. So I have 'savings' of £3300 in one account, which is not even included in my budget; each month it goes out as a bill basically. Then I have a current account with a good rate of interest, which I use to hold my excess money. I could class this as 'savings', but in actual fact, £100 is for Christmas food, a further £68 is leftover from my Christmas presents budget (almost done!!) and another £50 is towards insurance which comes out in a few days.

It has helped me cut my grocery bill in half each month and more than earned the £28 it cost me.

Apparently students can get it for free, if you know any obliging so and so's


Anyways enough on my evangelical love of YNAB, yay for bonuses. Ours each year is a nominal pay increase of X% which loses me more in tax credits than it makes me after tax each time, so basically I lose money each year. Sometimes I get a bonus, other times they withhold it to try and force me back full time.

I can't believe how much you are kicking off the debt each month. You're a mini Kat all by yourself!! x

Sholly

Lilt! That's like the best compliment ever!! I'm way off Kat's level though!! Myself and my boyfriend are clearing it but I pay a bit more as he paid the house deposit... so I also have £11,440 to pay into the house but that'll be gone when the debt is (I've just realised that I haven't even thought that the £11k is debt...oh dear! I do treat it like it is though so it hasn't been forgotten!)

Thanks so much for the YNAB info, it sounds fab! I must investigate ��

I'm 2/3 of the way through you're diary!! Will bewith you on page 30 soon!

xx

liltdiddylilt

There are 30 pages to my diary?!?!

I never look! Also, I have it set to 40 posts per page on the settings, so it is probably half that for me apologies for my waffle. Also my last post is doom and gloom of a very different variety to my usual thoughts, so bear with me as I am a bit depressed at the world right now. I will bounce back but I really need to go and have a think about the important things in life. I have them all and I should be truly grateful.

I never ever factored in the payment I made every month until October to DFS for my sofa as a debt. In my eyes it is something that was being paid every month like a bill regardless. Am I in debt to the water company because I pay their DD at the end of the month and use the water all the way through? No. I think you need to pick your important things. The debt that you are paying off, at a fantastic rate too, is what you are concentrating on. After that look to the other things, but where it has been covered elsewhere, i.e. by OH, it isn't a debt. Merely a joint purchase you are both working at.

Hugs!

Sholly

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

There are 30 pages to my diary?!?!

I never look! Also, I have it set to 40 posts per page on the settings, so it is probably half that for me apologies for my waffle. Also my last post is doom and gloom of a very different variety to my usual thoughts, so bear with me as I am a bit depressed at the world right now. I will bounce back but I really need to go and have a think about the important things in life. I have them all and I should be truly grateful.

I never ever factored in the payment I made every month until October to DFS for my sofa as a debt. In my eyes it is something that was being paid every month like a bill regardless. Am I in debt to the water company because I pay their DD at the end of the month and use the water all the way through? No. I think you need to pick your important things. The debt that you are paying off, at a fantastic rate too, is what you are concentrating on. After that look to the other things, but where it has been covered elsewhere, i.e. by OH, it isn't a debt. Merely a joint purchase you are both working at.

Hugs!

Oh Lilt, I'm sorry that you're not happy at the min. Just because you have things that make you happy doesn't mean you're not allowed to feel a little sad sometimes. PM me if you want to chat **hugs** Oh and I love your waffle! Makes me feel better that it's not just me!!

I like that, not a debt, a joint purchase :T

Sholly xx