New diary for 2013: The year of keeping things simple

Ruby789

Hi all,

I'm starting a new diary because it's a new year and time for a new approach. This year is all about keeping things simple. I always overcomplicate things, get too obsessive about one area of my life (to the detriment of all the others). My goals are very complimentary so time to just do simple things to achieve them.

1. Carve income up into pots (budgets planned based on the average last year minus wastage) and only spend up to what is alloted. All excess in each pot can roll over into the next month, with underspends at the end of 12 months to be banked in savings.
2. Pay attention to where the money goes, review once a week. 20 minutes. Keep all reciepts. Note balance of each pot week on week on record card to be kept in purse.
3. Diet. Eat better (but less), walk more. Batch cook 2-3 times a week for the freezer for lunches and dinners, leaving enough flexibility for offers, yellow stickers and 'I really fancy...'. Meals not meal planned daily, but 15 or so meals planned for the month generally so I can pick up ingredients as I see offers and cook whatever would be cheapest that week based on that. Walk every lunchtime.
4. Use up the many toilettries I already have. Buy as little as possible for the next 12 months. Will also free up lots of storage space and make tidying less difficult.
5. Join flylady thread. Do a little each day to keep on top of things.
6. Cash is king! Spending money is taken out weekly and when it's gone it's gone.

LBM July 2012.
Cleared £1226.91 off my debts over the last 6 months.

Financial Goals for 2013

• clear 16.9% credit card
• clear the over draft
• once these are clear any spare money goes to savings, aim £4k

Ruby789

So far so good. I'm eating well, walking lots and trying to hang onto the pennies. Was getting a bit carried away stockpiling food but have had a word with myself. I have no freezer space for anymore batch cooking right now, so won't save any money buying up lots of offers but having things go off. Have menu planned half of next month based on using up some food stocks, and have enough food to get to the end of this month already.

Ruby789

I'm close to the end of the OD (predict under £200 on payday) so pondering if I should just put all underspends in the bank to speed things up. It would be amazing to be in the black and would feel like such an achievement as I've been living in the OD 1 week after payday for the best part of a decade! Still not debt free of course, but in control for a change and living within my means (which is the ultimate goal).

But on the otherhand that will inevitably leave me short at some point in the next 12 months as I calcualted everything over 12 months. And the pot system seems to be good for me mentally.

Maybe the sensible thing is to stick with the system that I intend to use for life and take a month longer to get out of the OD.

Pondering .....

Ruby789

Just calculated when i'll be out of debt, and it won't be until May 2014! This is ages away.

But the big credit card debt is on one of those 0% cards so probably best paying it off accross the whole of the free term than paying it off early. Well except psychologically that is.

Will throw a few extra pounds at the debt to my family so that one will be paid off in August this year leaving me with only one debt at least.

The magical dates when my total debt is

under 4 figures - Sep 2013
under 500 - Jan 2014
gone - May 2014

Ruby789

Had a tough weekend on all fronts, but didn't eat or spend my way out of the blues .

I have cleared the £243 credit card (using the OD), and now predict i'll be -£250 into the overdraft at the end of this financial month.

I've also agreed to go on a holiday, which means I need to find extra money fast. Guestimating i'll need £500 by March, but will find the cheapest deal possible and hopefully not spend the full amount. I have a holiday fund set up, but it's not existed long enough to have enough funds in to cover this trip. So I have made short term cuts to other budgets and can so far "theoretically" find 75% of what I need in time (without getting into more debt).

The remainder then will need to come from ebay sales, so I will have to start prepping items and listings. Not sure how much I can expect to make in this batch of sales so generally being tight and trying to save as much of my pocket money as I can.

The timing is pretty bad as i'm so close to the end of the OD, and I could use that holiday money for debt repayment, but there is a reason i'm going. I'm pleased to note though that my mindset now is to find the money in advance. I would normally put it on credit / OD, and also have a detailed plan about how i'd pay it back over the rest of the year (and never actually do it!). This way i'll have the money first which will be a new experience.

Ruby789

Woken up with a desperate urge to buy things! Argh!!!!

Ruby789

Today is a better day, was feeling really fed up yesterday.

I'm 'close' to being free of interest attracting debt, and this feels like an achievement so I want to bring the next two paydays forwards and make it happen now. I'm leaving the interest free debts to run to the end of their free windows so there is little excitement in that.

I'm very impatient about this and this is causing me stress. I just have to accept that it's payday's Jan and Feb that will bring this about, and there is little I can do to speed this up. I need to stick within my set budgets, but no amount of trimming will find all the money I need to make this bit of my journey happen any quicker.

So, I need to let it go, but keep ontop of the budgets, and just wait it out. At least I know it will happen soon.

The good news is I am fairing well with budgeting generally. I checked if I had enough in that pot to dye my hair before pay day and I don't, so i'll wait a week. Simple.

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi Ruby just spied your diary & thought I'd drop in *subscribes*

I soooooo get your struggle with the OD .... it's the only debt I've got now and it is just so depressing when you get paid & are straight back into it - really need to get mine cleared this year! (very little left in my SOA so it's going to take ages!)

I've got a great pot system set up now - I've had the "pets" one for years (was always worried they'd need vet treatment or something & I'd have no money) and started the big "house & car" one last year & it's working brilliantly :T - need to get the "others" one sorted this year (dentist, hair, holiday, optician, presents, clothes)

It's hard work to get them up and running (especially if something like car tax is due early on) - but they're def worth it!:)

Best of luck & I'll pop back & see how it's going if you don't mind:D

Ruby789

Hi rising,

That would be lovely. Have subscribed to yours too :-)

Had a very similar start to you, an emergency budget where I had to overpay some pots so they could handle whats coming, and now a much more comfortable monthly installment system which hasn't let me down yet. . Only pot I didn't bother with was the holiday one, then naturally a holiday might be happening sooner than the pot can cope with. I have a plan though.

Have also spreadsheeted like mad too, and have a few 'if this then that' senarios set up so I can see the impact of small changes. In fact i'm fairly obsessed and update daily! I'm sure i'll calm down soon.

OD debt is so hard to pay off in that if you've been in it a while, that little negative sign in front of your balance holds no meaning anymore. And you don't get that 'making a payment' feeling which is really motivational. But like I said, I am getting there. I couldn't get anyone to take it to a 0% card but i'm rather glad now. At least this way my total debt comes down quicker than being spread over a long period of time. I even made myself a bar chart with the balances on all my accounts on, the visual of chasing zero is motivating.

rising_from_the_ashes

Ruby789 wrote: »

OD debt is so hard to pay off in that if you've been in it a while, that little negative sign in front of your balance holds no meaning anymore. And you don't get that 'making a payment' feeling which is really motivational.

Ohhhh *sigh* I soooo get that!

I did join the "pay off as much as you can in 2013" challenge but found it really hard as it's an OD (so withdrew:o)

Seeing everyone making payments here & there was really getting me down as my OD is really just reducing - very minimally - each month & I don't have spare money to make overpayments to it.

A c/card / catelogue etc seems a lot easier as you get your statement, see what the minimum is and pay more than that, and you can see the balance going down ... nothing like that happens with the OD ...

We'll get there!:)

Ruby789

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

I did join the "pay off as much as you can in 2013" challenge but found it really hard as it's an OD (so withdrew:o)

Lol yeah, can see how that might have been difficult . Not spending and seeing what's left is such a passive way to pay off debts!