Mighty Titan Overdraft will crumble!

hohum

Oh....and this month we moved into the 2% interest bracket for our money in Santander It's not tax free and I may need to look at how we use it going forward in order to get best use of ISA rates, but at the moment even net rate of 1.6% seems better than what we can get tax free.

Remembering this is a debt free diary, if we had to pay every single bill and had no more money coming in, we'd be in £500 of overdraft. I'm just trying to store the money in the best place whilst we clear it off. The equivalent of 0% cards balance juggling I suppose.

liltdiddylilt

Hey you

That graph is fabulous!! I come up to a year in June. Can't wait! Although March will show a giant dip :o:o £400 on clothes :eek: but April holds a £1k bonus and 10.8% salary increase so hopefully that will hold me!

You have done really well and even if that is a simplified version of events, you're still in a MUCH better place

Lovely to see you back xx

hohum

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

Hey you

That graph is fabulous!! I come up to a year in June. Can't wait! Although March will show a giant dip :o:o £400 on clothes :eek: but April holds a £1k bonus and 10.8% salary increase so hopefully that will hold me!

You have done really well and even if that is a simplified version of events, you're still in a MUCH better place

Lovely to see you back xx

You're a canny lass - I'm imagining those are clothes you've been needing for a while. I am starting to believe in consciously building a wardrobe and being a bit aspirational eg dressing like where I want to be. I have thrown away two pairs of new to me jeans I've had for years in the last few weeks. I then made myself go and buy a nice replacement - after research i went to Marks and Sparks and ended up with the ones I liked £5 in the sale! *winning*

Really well done on the bonus. That is some raise too - think they might value you a bit!

liltdiddylilt

Hello!!

I had a look and most of my wardrobe pre-dates moving to Kent nearly 7 years ago. The odd bit here and there was new, but sales/supermarket clothes just to tide me over for occasions where I had actually nothing to wear. I now have a fantastic selection of clothes - most of which I haven't even worn yet and I plan on keeping on top of it now, by setting myself something I've never had before. A clothing budget in YNAB :rotfl: - well I had one, it just was never furnished with any cash!!

Well done you on getting rid and still amanging to get new ones cheap!! :D especially if they were the ones you wanted!!

Thank you very much. I got the figures wrong. It was actually 11.8% :rotfl: they love me. Hahahaha

hohum

Just dropping in to note it really is worth pursuing getting quotes on car insurance. I bullied boyfriend into getting quotes because current providers wanted to up monthly premium by £20. Err no. He bartered them down to an increase of £10 and was going to settle for that but I was determined we look at reducing because I'm convinced we pay through the nose (not sure if that will ever change - he uses car to get to places of work that are outside everyday commute, which does make him a 'risk' to insurers. Anyway, he was grumpy about it but phoned round, and turns out it is possible to get it cheaper, £20 per month cheaper in fact which saves us £220 a year. Get in. A win made shinier by being right

Is it also massively geeky that I want to do my tax return RIGHT NOW. My entire income has been through employment this year so filling it in will be a breeze. I have a suspicion I might owe something though as I worked two employments and although they spread my personal allowance over the two jobs, I'm not quite the split was quite right.

Finally mortgage app number 2 chugs on aaaaargh. We've got as far as valuation this time so that's an improvement. I'm actually more twitchy this time as having removed the problem (well actually, their problem with processing any kind of income that is not 'employed') I'm imagining all sorts of issues with our credit history. Which apparently is a problem we have passed but still eeeeeeek.

hohum

So! It appears April/ May gives a lot to update.

- we got the mortgage offer. Yaaaay! After they sent it out with the wrong term - 16 years rather than 20, !!!!!!. And apparently me being a Ms does not compute with legal people. So far in this process I have either been a Mrs or a Miss. Go, equality. Fortunately amending the offer was straightforward and they sent out with the correct amounts. The plan is to overpay whilst we are on stupidly low fix rate for two years (1.89%!), then remortgage by which time we will have increased the value of the house, and reduced the loan to original valuation ratio. Which even if we've had kids in that time should hopefully mean that we can still get good rates.

- pay for property searches, £295? Why yes we can, my category is fully funded all ready to go.

- the car needed another fix. Another £150. boyfriend is very attached to car. In the last year we have spent over £1k on parts, MOT and labour. It's too much. I think I need to present him with the figures. The car was a relative's old one that was going to scrap and we've had it for 5 years. Of course back in the day we never thought we could save for a replacement. OTH, we still had the money there for repairs. Admittedly it means that for the MOT next month I will have to dive into my annual car insurance pot again (one day I WILL pay it in a lump sum!). But even if we need more repairs to pass MOT, it's still covered.

- my hard drive died. After a weekend of trying to apply a fix, I had to give in and take it in. Fortunately I had a back up laptop, even if it took 7 hours to update it and was painfully slow. £140 later I have a new functioning laptop. All hail a) having all important and work files in the cloud b) having imap mail synchronised accross device c) having an emergency fund. Halved the fund but it was so nice not to be freaking out on multiple fronts. Because of fund, emergency became inconvenience.

- I finally quit my second job. It is a risk, finance wise but I think boyfriend has enough work this summer for us to start the next stage of process, from digging out of the hole to laying the ground for future not falling into holes

- I have spent a lot of money on driving lessons, failed my test first time! But strangely I feel quite positive about it. I failed by doing worlds worst parallel park (normally a strong point), and then letting that throw me so didn't do the observations. But a) I could handle it b) most of the drive went well. So will book in for another soon. Hoping to get private practice in more so that drop in income from second job doesn't match with continued increased expenditure on lessons.

Mighty titan overdraft doesn't seem so mighty these days, hanging out at -£375.12 (in YNAB - in RL my account is now permanently in credit). This means it could be stretch to get it cleared by July 15. However I may decide to use a proportion of house money to wipe it out. My share of 'deposit' gifted funds will be on hand to do required works to house, but I think I may legitimately divert part of it to pay off. A year ago, the balance was -£1940 let's remember. That's £1564.88 paid off in a year. On our income, I'm pleased with that and especially as I have taken to prioritising emergency, rainy day and other funds. I am on the brink of becoming evangelical about putting money aside for these kinds of incidences. £150 here and there could so easily have just dragged us back into the cycle of debt if I did not have the money set aside. Also emotionally I find it a lot easier to deal with unfortunate incidents as expected unexpected, rather than lurching about and always feeling pinched money wise. That's my big thing about this whole journey... setting aside for things works.

hohum

Oh, and our cashback savings account is about to go up a level to the 3% tier. Only for about 5 mins, but still yay go us.

liltdiddylilt

That is such a brilliant update to read!!! I am so happy for you on the mortgage offer. No mean feat in the current day and age!! The rest of the news is totally fab and so exciting. Cannot believe how much you have decimated your debt by!! And woohoo to permanent credit. It is a good feeling isn't it

Lovely to hear you thinking on the kids front. Your life is becoming very stable for someone who rolls with the punches that SE throws at you.

You are the person I hold up as a shining example of just how well YNAB works. Apply the dedication, rules and mindset effectively. Budget properly... and look at you now. Debt decimated. Permanent credit in account. Money saved for expenses, emergencies and otherwise.

You are so fab, I am very proud!! x

hohum

liltdiddylilt wrote: »

That is such a brilliant update to read!!! I am so happy for you on the mortgage offer. No mean feat in the current day and age!! The rest of the news is totally fab and so exciting. Cannot believe how much you have decimated your debt by!! And woohoo to permanent credit. It is a good feeling isn't it

Lovely to hear you thinking on the kids front. Your life is becoming very stable for someone who rolls with the punches that SE throws at you.

You are the person I hold up as a shining example of just how well YNAB works. Apply the dedication, rules and mindset effectively. Budget properly... and look at you now. Debt decimated. Permanent credit in account. Money saved for expenses, emergencies and otherwise.

You are so fab, I am very proud!! x

Thank you Lilt, what a lovely thing to say.

I am lucky in that my income has been pretty stable for the past year, and I am sure that has helped enormously.

I've had a bit of n odd week with money and house purchase thoughts. A large part of this was prompted by life insurance conversations! Boyfriend does not do considerations of these things, but I reckoned that we should get insurance if only to cover us for the term of the mortgage. The thing that's really spun me for a loop is critical illness cover, particularly when thinking about relationships. Like really, disproportionately affected!.

Part of it was prob stress and uncertainty of work plus housebuying. I was having a doozy of a week! But there was other stuff as well - blooming insurance salespeople trying to hammer down the worst that can happen which makes me consider the fragility of our set up. Part of it was an underlying concern I've got about boyfriends job as he gets older. I've got a big fear of being old and poor. Grappling with mortality, in that by the time we pay off this mortgage we will be more at risk of dying! Also that I've seen the impact for friends and family of life changing illness on relationships. That one makes me tear up a bit, maybe as I think about the grief that they deal with for the life that they planned to have? Here we are making plans, when I am also aware that a great big wrecking ball can swing through your life and there's jack you can do about it.

Also, life insurance feels like a bet where you lose each way!

This all sounds terribly gloomy and actually it's really not that bad. I am putting us in a position to pay off our mortgage in 20 years, should we decide to remain where we buy. We are actually not in a terrible position. I talked to my parents who are brilliantly chilled about this stuff and they revealed that they have chosen to invest their money elsewhere, now us kids are adults & mortgage is paid off . They are pretty sensible but also healthily cynical about anyone who sells them financial products, having got burned early with some life protection/ equity products that weren't really suitable for their needs. So they talked me down from my slightly hysterical life insurance nihilism moment. Boyfriend had been mega busy so whenever I tried to raise the convo it was just before bed and well...he doesn't really 'do' existential angst.

Oh also in budget news, our net worth looks pretty hilarious at the minute as parents have transferred their gifted contribution into our account. I have budgeted it all out in YNAB which feel really weird, I can see why some people with big funds have a bit of an issue with making the switch. However like a good project person I have also made myself a proposed budget for house reno/move and this will get updated as I get quotes in and figures become more accurate, rather than try to keep track of the fund within YNAB as I want to know I've ringfenced it.

I also dropped my iphone this weekend which despite being in a case shattered the screen. I wavered briefly with using some of house money to replace handset but NO I stayed strong, and bought myself a DIY kit to use for £15. If I wreck it then I will consider replacement. If all goes to plan, I will continue with handset but fund new handset more aggressively for next few months.

hohum

I still haven't got up the courage to do the screen replacement! This weekend, I shall.

So in I'm an eejit budget news, I clearly haven't been on it in a) reconciling accounts and b) keepng up with entering transactions. I decided to do a catch up this morning and was very annoyed to see a charge for authorised overdraft on my account. How could this be? My account is in credit! Phoned the bank and nice man checked my account and explained that although charge noted related to '7 Ma', that actually meant 8 April to 7 May because of course. Sure enough, I had let the account overdraft like an eejit on 12 April. I was resigned to that was that, when unprompted bank man offered to refund me as a one off gesture of goodwill. Haha! Oh such a different story from when I was habitually in overdraft. Of course now the £6 isn't a big deal, that's when they refund it. Still, there was no reason for them to refund as it was totally user error and the gesture was appreciated by me. Lord knows they've had enough off me over the years. Now to keep a tighter reign on things and not let that happen again.

It was all because I was chasing getting a good interest rate too and had transferred everything over to the joint interest bearing account. I think I will perhaps need to leave a bit more than a few hundred in the current account in future. Boyfriend said the other day how he likes to keep about £500 in his account so he feels secure, and I reminded him that a year ago we would have thought that was hilariously unobtainable. how quickly things can shift. He also said genuinely how glad he was that we decided to do the budget even though he took the mick at the time. It has eased his stress about money a lot I think. He then also cheekily said it was a very good idea of his, earning a punch in the arm from me .