My debt reduction log

boltneck123

Hi all,

Some may have read my thread here

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4646903

I will not be continuing it on the thread at the end of the above link, because I think it is starting to resemble a diary so it is best off here

boltneck123

So far so good this week.

Working on a very tight budget due to only have one weeks pay this month. Got my shopping bill for work down from an average of between £25-£30 to £17 this week . Made use of some long lost tins in the cupboard. Also only put in £10 fuel in the car for this week instead of my usual £20, so now I have a spare £10 if anything pops up and next week I intend to bike around more, walk or stay in more.

Doesn't look like I am going to be able to pay any extra off of things this week other than the regular payments. In order to stay true to my current goal, I refuse to use the last £400 of my overdraft, because when I do get a full months pay in August I will be out of it for the first time in years!! Granted, I will be back in it by next pay day, but I'll be out of it even further on Septembers pay day, and so on and so forth.

Feel so motivated at the moment!!

Still no rating back from textbroker though

boltneck123

Buying a house is sodding stressful!

Had my surveyor report from the bank back this week and the house downstairs will need damp course treatment to seal it. The bank has requested that I get quotes for the works and show in my bank account that I have the spare capital to have the work done upon completion. This work is estimated to cost approx £1700!

Thankfully I can get this from a family member, just to get the bank happy and then hand it back to them. All this means that the whole thing is going to have to be pushed back a month, so I have chance to save even more! To then have the works done.

Buying a house, while trying to reduce personal debt only adds to the stress of the whole situation. I will have this debt cleared house or no house. But I would much prefer to be doing this without any debt. Unfortunately a house which ticks all the main boxes + a host of smaller requirements, for me and my brother within our price range hardly pops up near where we live.

To further aggravate matters, the vendor is very stubborn on the price and the Estate Agent has expressed that the seller is very stuck on it, so the £1k price reduction I have asked for, as a gesture of good faith probably wont get accepted.

But oh well!!!!!

God I need another job, I am capable of more I know it. Tempted to try and become a solicitor my self after seeing their costs! Anyone know how I could change career paths lol (Oh look at that I am still a bit lite hearted Amazed :0 )

Ah!

boltneck123

Oh,

and also on target for this weeks goals while at work.

Only buy £10 fuel to get to work and home at the end of the week, with a bit left to scoot around in the week i am off. Done . If I run out of fuel next week, then walking and cycling it is.

Keep food budget for work this week at no more than £20, pushing the limit at £19.51 at the moment. Don't think I need anything, got no snacks for in between meals though so I am starving! .

Regardless, I am sticking to my guns and doing this!!

beanielou

Do you have a £350 bill for your iphone?

boltneck123

Hi beanielou,

Yes but not a phone bill, this is finance that I pay off at £18 P/M.

---

Hardly have anything to eat, if i get a loaf of bread that is 51p over my budget, I know it is not much, but I have done so well i cannot bare to do it £20 is the limit.

Pah!!

boltneck123

So it is pay day a week today !! Fianlly! .

I have £2.06 left out of my £700 budget that I have stretched out over the last three weeks, thankfully I have everything I need (fingers crossed) to last me till next Wednesday.

There is a chance that I will have to use the overdraft on Monday or Tuesday for the dentist, depends how the appointment goes, but with pay day so close I happy for it to be part of that budget. I have no big expenses next month.

After my £400 has gone in the joint account I am forecasting I will have about £900 to work with in August, to pay all bills and make some more pay towards my debts. Looking to put £200 to one side to make up for a short fall in pay in September since I need to take a week off unpaid (will have to see how this goes)

The overdraft is due to reduce to a £1k limit on the 28th of August, currently it stands at -£997.94 so if i can make another large saving come the end of August I will be safe from interest charges and have the overdraft come next payday less than £1000. Then I can confidently update my sig knowing it wont go back down .

Feels good to be heading towards no overdraft, feeling the frugal life now my weeks are a bit dull and I feel guilty that I cannot take my girlfriend out much, thankfully she says she understands and sees what I am doing as a positive step.

boltneck123

Well it has been an interesting couple of weeks since I got paid.

Made it to the second to last stage of a graduate scheme application, but did not get the whole way in the end . So that was money for a suite and petrol wasted.

However, I am still on target for a good budget this month, all be it a bit tighter than it would have normally been. Silver lining, I have a good suite all sorted now for my friends wedding at the end of the month and I am off for three weeks from Monday so I get to spend lots of time relaxing and reading more .

Next pay day is 2 weeks and 4 days away so not to long to wait, plenty to keep me busy, completing my house purchase (fingers crossed) at the end of the month. So I will be busy beg, borrowing and stealing to get that ready to live in.

Holding off on a sig update because of the suite purchase, but credit card balance on my debt stats should get an update soon though transferring that soon; so I have opted to pay a few big payments off on it so I don't pay to much when I come to transfer at the usual ish 3% they charge, then I will drop it back to a min payment of £20 a month while I focus on mopping up the rest of this overdraft.

Managed to get my self about 25 hours work with another company I do some bank work for, in September, so I should be able to earn back the value I spent on the suite , so that will come in handy in November when I get paid for it.

Trying to keep my hopes up and stick to budgeting, felt a bit deflated since Thursday about everything and having a crisis about what my 'passion' is or 'purpose' in life is, since I seem to have bounced around from job to job and have a varied education over the past decade.

Not feeling as positive about my career aspects as I once used to, I am not even sure what I want to do anymore. I was so much more sure of my self when I was a child, I wish my parents had nurtured my dreams then with relevant education!

Oh well.

boltneck123

Payday a week on Wednesday . Looking forward to knocking another £100 off of the OD.

Upped my payment to Halifax CC for September to £75, then I plan to balance transfer to another 0% card hopefully a 18 month one and then set up a regular payment of £20 a month on that one. I can leave that then in the background while I continue to pay down the OD. I went for a one off £75 payment before switching to help reduce my transfer fee costs to another card when the time comes in October.

Completing on my house soon (I hope) so Septembers wage will instantly take a £400 hit,
£100 aside for the OD

£75 for the Halifax CC,
£18.06 iphone reg payment
£10 phone network payment
£30.63 car insurance
£11.50 union
£5 student loan (for something separate)
£110.30 car

Total outgoings from September wages for bills and debt - £760.49

Estimated wage after tax - £1250

Money left for living (Petrol, food, etc etc) - £489.51

Need to make my living budget now! It is going to get harder with the mortgage and running cost of the house to deal with very soon.

Thankfully my Textbroker rating came back I got 4 stars, you may wonder how reading some of my posts, I tend to write very loosely on here, basically just a narration of my thoughts.

So with that, hopefully I can start to earn on that soon (fingers crossed) even if it is only £10 a week, I will be happy.

This feels like I am running a marathon, a few months ago I would say I got serious about debt reduction and I loved it, now I feel like I am hitting the "wall". My routine is very samey, because I am avoiding going out, spending money on impulse etc. I feel like my social life is also being effected too. I think as positive as my actions are now to reduce my debt there are clear side effects. However I take solace in the fact that it will not be like this forever and I will mostly likely be much better off for suffering now rather than worse later. Seeing my Girlfriend's friends get lots of presents and treats out makes it hard for too, my girlfriend understands what I am trying to do, but I do worry sometimes I am letting her down. If anyone has any ideas on very cheap dates that don't include walking or feeding the ducks (done to death) then please, please, please share.

Thanks

boltneck123

Yay new sig updates, it is coming down progress is shown ! and next month will be even more, I hope.

Living off £46 a week at the moment, some how getting £10 of fuel out of that, along with food and the odd social encounter. I am rather amazed it can be done (no options is a powerful motivator).

I so want it to all be over though now really starting to loose my cool with it all, feel like just going out and splurging, amazed I have held back so much. Not even like that now days, I think it pops up occasionally because I know I cannot do it, but when it is all cleared and paid off I will finally be able to live a little .

Hope everyone else is doing well.

boltneck123

Two Taylor Swift tickets and one pre-booked hotel room later, and I am left with £26 left of my budget to last me the month .

Sh*t.... .

I knew the girlfriends bloody birthday was coming up soon and I had budgeted to get her something out of this months kitty. But then the Taylor Swift tickets came on sale, the O2 Arena gig, the only UK venue doing it as part of her tour.

I guess this will have to be a dip into the interest free spending on my new cc which is for a Halifax balance transfer and then pay it back off next pay day. It just gets complicated every month.