Enjoying the journey - budgeting, saving and remaining credit card free

fedupandskint

Well I did it!

It took 5 years from joining this site and 12 months of really hard work and changes repaying them, but I did it, and paid the credit cards back. For the first time in 14 years I am credit card free and if you would have told me that a year ago I would not have believed it was possible.

Here is the diary of all that hard work and change - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=4168577

With that phase of life well and truly over, here I am, moving on to the next stage of my journey. Over the last 2 years I've been teaching myself to save; starting off small and learning I can do it.

Now it's time for the next phase;
Building up a long term nest egg
Emergency/redundancy fund
Household and white goods fund
House decorating
Car and car deposit
Holidays
Christmas and birthdays

Also continuing the change pots savings challenges - £2, 20p, 50p and 5p and the £1 every time a beauty product is used up.

I've made a start with all the above and over the next year I'm aiming to build this up while living within my means. This is the point I'm really happy to be at now and to maintain all of this is what I really want to do next. I am learning to save up for things rather than use credit. That's one of the biggest lessons I've learnt over the last 12 months - onwards I go!

In 10 months time I will have paid off a long term loan and will at a point to sort out the final long term loan which is the final one to sort out apart from the mortgage and then I might be in a position to over pay on the mortgage at last.

Oh yes, and the other thing I really want to happen? To change my career and that's my priority over the next six months.

MrsGSR

We are trying to pay off a small debt just now so we are able to save small amounts too. Will be following your journey for new ideas

Chrisblue1962

I think you should change your name to happynsolvent :T:T:T Well Done :T

Bad_Weather

WELL DONE!

What a great story! Sounds like you are have really learnt aswell!

An inspiration to me that has been in debt since 2009...also nearing on 5 years!!! x

Bad_Weather

WELL DONE!

What a great story! Sounds like you are have really learnt aswell!

An inspiration to me that has been in debt since 2009...also nearing on 5 years!!! x

clippy_girl

well done :T:beer: all your hard work has been worth it :money:

AlexLK

Well done. I will be interested to see how you get on long term debt free.

fedupandskint

Firstly, thanks for all your good wishes. At one time I was going to change my user name once I had turned the corner on debt as it summed up exactly how I felt when I joined the site. Now however, I'm not too bothered as its only a pretend name after all plus, for now, its a reminder to me of where I came from money wise and it certainly hasn't described how I feel for many years now thankfully!

Last night I had a little tot up of what I repaid last year - £12,919.39 repaid from loan repayments and credit card repayments - I paid back half and a ppi refund paid back the other half to repay the remaining credit cards 12 months earlier than the plan I was sticking to.

I have also repaid a £500 overdraft over the last 3 months

The plan for next month is to stay in credit, monitor all budgets and continue to stick to the petrol budget. Then, see if I can increase the food budget a little and also if I can set up a treat budget for myself for coffees at the weekend and so on each month. This has been in my plans for a while, and it would be really good to set that up next.

I'm going to increase the Christmas present budget by £5 each month for next year which is manageable and certainly has made life much easier saving each month rather than having to find £30-50-60 each month from my bank account and as I did previously for presents. Birthday budgets can stay the same for next year and this was the best thing as I usually struggle to afford to buy birthday presents and it was really nice to have the cash to buy them this year!

Today's plans are to fab myself up with a hair mask and face mask, finish the cleaning off, do the ironing and do some exercise at long last. Try not to aggravate my toothache further as I managed to yesterday and today will be NSD 12 along with no clothes spend day 13 as I go for a 6th month without buying any new clothes - good grief!

HOK3Y

How absolutely fantastic!! Stories like yours are what spurs on all us DFWs who see a chink of light at the end of the tunnel and are pushing ourselves towards it with every bit of strength. I am so pleased for you and know that this time next year I will be in your position because of being here and feeling such amazing support and comraderie. Very well done and best wishes for a very bright future.

WantToBeSE

Hi FU&S, well done on clearing the CC's!! Feels great doesnt it, especially if they were very high in the 1st place

I recently became DF and have similar goals as you-
Building up a long term nest egg- I really need to do this. I have never really thought of the future before, but i am more determined than ever to make sure i have some decent savings.

Emergency fund-Mine was wiped out last month due to car trouble (£500!!) so i need to make sure that i have about £2000 emergency fund.

Household and white goods fund-I hate to think what would happen if any of my white goods broke down! Although i did fix my tumble dryer last year, thanks to the help of some lovely people on this website! Only cost me £22 to buy a part online and it was very easy to fit My 1st piece of proper DIY ever!

House decorating-I am actually planning on moving house (i rent) so i need to have about £2000 for this.

Car- I need a new one, so about £2000 again! Eeek!

Holidays- LAst in my priorities, but it's be really nice to be able to afford one!

Christmas and birthdays- I budget for this. I NORMALLY save all of my Child Benefit all year and this pays for it all, but this year was a really tight one, so havent managed to do this. As of now i have £0 saved up...and it's almost November! but both of the kids have been told that it'll be a small Christmas this year.

Anyway, enough rambling from me! Have subscribed and look forward to reading/posting more

fedupandskint

A very priductive morning

Cleaning and ironing all finished - yeah!
Ebay sale parcelled up ready to post tomorrow
Ebay fees paid from proceeds made - very tiny amount this week
Worked out my spends from the isa account saving to make sure all is on track which it is.just a bit strange seeing the balance go down as the spends are made for what I have saved for but hey that's the reason why!

This afternoon will be listing more items as its free listing weekend - better get quite a few on there I think! Strange now, as before all the profits went straight to credit card repayments for the last 12months, will have to work out what to do with them - pop them in a savings account maybe for white goods or emergency saver I think.

Thanks for reading everyone, I remember when I read diaries that had been in this position and really really wanted to reach this stage myself - so all I can say is you can do it - stick at it and progress is made and then you see yourself getting to where you want to.