Learning to pretend, in a good way

in_need_of_direction

I love that bit of Sunday before the rest of the house wakens.

judi24

Hi Suzie - just read your diary after being signposted to it Ampersand - who sees similarities between out challnges and attitudes to becoming debt free I guess.


I can definately see that we struggle with the same things and I like the way you have crfeated savings pots - something I have thought about bit not done as I am trying to pay off as much to my debt instead - after reading your diary I think I might look at changing this as I know I have no savings to pay for any big bills!


Anyway just want to stop by and say hello and I will be subscribing

Suziebabe

Hello judi - thanks for reading!

I've got to say the savings pots are my lifesavers !!! Getting them set up helps me keep things on an even keel in the bank accounts, I can't say I put enough away in all of them to match our spending needs :rotfl: but there's enough in there to handle what I'm calling the 'normal' irregular spends like DS's uniform and Christmas/birthdays, not to mention the dreaded car repairs (there's never enough in there for that!) It means I know that anything extra can go against the debts, without worrying about what might crop up and derail the debts. For me, since I'm in it for the long haul, I like being able to predict what they'll go down to and when, and I get too disappointed if anything gets in the way!

I guess though, I hadn't thought of the savings pots as money I could offset against debts - if I did I could reduce my debts by almost £900 since there's a fair bit in there for Chistmas and my MOT which is due in early Feb. but then I'd have to find that money then ... I guess for me, it avoids having to juggle things, I've got the debt payments set for each month at a level that means they go down at least 1% a month with the money going into saving pots automatically, then I just have to repay our spending if we buy anything that's saved for already - and anything extra I make over the month I can pay straight off the debt.

Hope that explains it!

Oh, and INOD - sometimes I deliberately leave them asleep for AGES before I wake them up!! :T:T

Suziebabe

Lazy Sunday morning check-in time! What's happened this week?

Completely disrupted week at work, being away from base most of the week - not good for the NSD count, but I did catch myself before I threw the towel in and did my old 'in for a penny, in for a pound' mentality, so financial damage was limited to just a single early morning coffee, then I stuck to water for the rest of the day, alongwith packed lunch. Fingers crossed for a more stable week next week, I want both the savings AND the NSDs!

On the food front, I'm trying to make my mind up what's the best approach to take .... Last month we tried a 'monthly' shop, buying as much as we could for the entire month, cooking ahead - at the time it was a bit scary, as we used most of our £310 per month budget in one weekend :eek::eek: but since then we've only had fresh food to buy, about £20-£40 per week on milk, yoghurt, fruit & veg. For October, I wasn't convinced it had made much of a difference financially (although it made a big difference in terms of time, lovely to not have a big weekly shop to do 3 weeks out of 4 ) - but this month we're still getting the benefit! Lots of things like loo roll and household stuff have lasted 6 weeks plus, and the freezer still has meals in that are making our weekly shop cheaper.

So... Should we have done another big monthly shop at the start of November, would I have made December even cheaper? Or will we get the same effect by doing one big shop/cook ahead every 2 months? The main difference I think at the moment is the level of variety in the freezer, if we did it every month by the 3rd month we'd have a huge range to choose from, at the moment it's a bit monotonous ... I'm thinking that for Jan-Mar we shop do a big shop/cook ahead each month, to test it out.

Suziebabe

Wow, it has been a long while since I last updated my diary ... Happy New Year to anyone out there!

So, a lovely opportunity to take stock and refocus my ambition for this shiny new year - lovely :D

First, the celebrations
- I'm still fighting the good fight, 17 months after my LBM - no small feat, feels like I've really made some sort of fundamental shift in how I think about money, at long last, Lordy it's been a long while coming!
- for the first time in at least 6 years, I've ended the year with less unsecured debt than I started with (and the mortgage has gone down too yes, I've visited that cul-de-sac in the past!)

Now for the lessons learnt
- setting up the savings pots and minimum spends means if I do nothing else, and don't mess up, the debts will go downs by 1% a month .... Not earth shattering, but keeps some momentum going, and just to keep a focus on that, I've updated my debt free date to show what happens if I only do what I've already done ...
- there's definitely more I can do to increase that, the key is balancing the work needed to clear more debt with the time it takes to control spending/increase earnings.
- in particular, something needs to change on our food shopping, it's one area where spending fluctuates too much.
- the weeks/months when I've stayed away from the demon drink have been the most productive in terms of debt clearance - I think the extra energy I get lets me tip the scales towards managing our spending better.

So, what's the plan for this year?
- at a minimum, keep paying off 1% a month and don't screw up on the work expenses!
- keep everything on 0% deals
- manage the grocery spending - which actually means managing my OH better, unfortunately he's not quite in the same headspace as me, and immediately jumps to lentils as soon as I push the budget switch whereas if I help manage the food planning & shopping we get more variety without more spending!
- which means more time off the wine, I should do a sad face, but actually I'm really looking forward to the energy surge that I get, not to mention the blissful sleep!

I've set up a specific 1% countdown chart for the next CC to come off its 0% deal, in September. That gives me 9 months to clear £3k, whilst keeping all the other debts ticking along. My hope is that a focus on an extra £30 (1%) will be easier than the 1%/£319 on my overall debt countdown chart, and I'll be able to eat the elephant quicker as a result. The regular payment of £100 a month will clear 3%, if I can shave £30 off the groceries and £30 off my spending each month, that makes it 5% without breaking into a sweat - extras like surveys, EBay, Amazon can each make a difference to get closer to the 11% a month I need to pay to clear it. The big prize at the end of it is not having to do another balance transfer, God knows I'm sick of the juggling already!!

So ... Spreadsheets are all set up, monthly shop done ... Here we go for another 12 debt-busting months!

Maryland_Cookie

Great to see you Suziebabe, happy new year!
Keep posting, you've been missed :0)
Here's to a debt busting 2015 x

Suziebabe

Thanks Maryland - and Happy New Year to you too!

It's been a really really hard week this week - going back to work and getting the brain cells going again after the hols. However, I have managed to stay away from the coffee shop on 4 out of 5 days, just 1 day when I was away from my usual desk.

I've joined the payment a week challenge this year (just the one challenge this year, and then I can make sure I stick with it- lesson learnt from last year ) and so today I set up the payment details for the LLoyds CC I'm targetting on my spending account, and made my first weekly payment across - wow that felt good! It was like seeing the result of a no-spend day (from the NSD challenge) straight away, immediate gratification! If only it'd gone over as a faster payment I'd have seen the result on the bottom line straight away too.

I think this challenge will suit me to a T - immediate gratification is what got me into this mess, how great would it be to be able to use that to get me out of it :rotfl:

Off to try and figure out how to make up my payment next week - avoiding coffee will be harder as I'm travelling - maybe I can set up some ebaying, although that won't bring in the payment until the week after .... hmmmm .... More thinking required!

Suziebabe

10th Jan

Extra Payment A Week 2015: this week £15.60, total £15.60
Lloyds CC: 1st Jan £3224.18 / today £3224.18

LBM Aug 2013, Total Debt £31,992.06 Current Debt £26,770.65 - 16% gone - Debt Free Date Dec 2019

Have also decided to paste my signature into this each week - then at the end of the year I can look back at what I did and how much of a difference it made

Maryland_Cookie

That sounds like a great plan SB. I very often set myself lots of challenges, and then fall into the cycle of failing one, then the other, and then before I know where I am I'm back to square one......

So, new year new me! Just a couple of challenges: one if them is a biggie, well they both are really. I've joined the stepping out of consumerism challenge on the old style board, it's a fab, but hard challenge. The post moves really fast but is really inspiring.

The second is to lose 9 pounds (in weight).

Here's to a successful 2015 for us both!

Suziebabe

Ooo I like the sound of that challenge maryland - must have a look!

Had a really stupid busy week at work, lots of travelling, which is where I ususally go off the rails, on both the diet and the budget (comfort eating!) but I managed to keep it under control. There was extra spending on teas & coffees, but I made the most of hotel breakfasts to keep me away from the flapjacks and chocolates, and found a supermarket to pick up a healthy lunch most days too, so at least the diet hasn't gone out the window completely, and it was no more expensive than the rubbish sandwiches in the coffee shop.

Now to make sure I get the expenses claimed asap to make sure I don't mess up again and end up with interest to pay.

So, reasonable week ahead (or at least, until I get to the office tomorrow :rotfl:) so no coffee shop visits needed - I made sure I picked up supplies for the office in our weekly shop, it amazes me that I can get a really nice filter coffee which will last me a month at least, for the price of a couple of shop-bought coffees, how come I've never worked this out before? 18 months into my debt-free journey, and I'm still finding the lessons sinking in ... wonder what'll be next?

Right, off to check out the old style board! This week's signature below:

Extra Payment A Week 2015: this week £66.03, total £81.63
Lloyds CC: 1st Jan £3224.18 / today £3142.55

LBM Aug 2013, Total Debt £31,992.06 Current Debt £26,770.65 - 16% gone - Debt Free Date Dec 2019