LBM for me!

hummingbird

Hi Rosie!

I need to cut my grocery spends as well - I tend to do too many small shops that add up!

There are some great challenges on the site to help you on your quest - eg payment a day (PAD) make £10 extra a day, no spend days challenge, collecting a certain type of coin eg £2 or 20p.......we are spoilt for choice on here!!:j There are some challenges specifically for groceries as well.

Bublin1

The Dave Ramsey advice is solid and easy to follow. This time 2 years ago Ihad virtually no savings and it was whilst I was on another forum that I came across his method. I had a LBM and now have over £3000 in savings and and chipping away at a low rate debt I have.

You can be strict or flexible with the plan depending on your needs. As a single parent I wanted to have a larger amount of emergency fund behind me and some other savings before I attacked my debt. I also was already contributing to a pension fund so I have completed steps 1 and 4 (I think).

Rosie_D

Thanks for all your advice everyone!

I've got a plan to make sure the 2 credit cards are paid off when the 0% runs out next year, by then the lowest loan will only owe about £1600, so I'll pay that off by the end of next year & then we'll only have the other 2 loans which I aim to pay off by the end of 2015, then the saving to pay off the mortgage can begin!

We've got £5.00 in the overpayment pot (I know it's not much, but you've got to start somewhere) hopefully on Sunday night there will be a bit more to add. :T

Calling14

Well I was watching Come Dine with me the other night and the 26yr old doing it had a spreadsheet inside her wall unit, basically listing lots of different meals. They would choose enough meals for the month and she would get all the food in. Just an idea, might try meal planniug but over 2 week period instead.
I need to start thinking about re arranging my credit cards and dreaded swopping about soon. Hate having to do this all the time would be nice to see an end in site.
Good luck might have a wee look at your book. I am on my own and an emergency fund is something I dream of.

Chemical_Thundra

Rosie_D wrote: »

It is by an American author, but I didn't find that it put me off, it has made me really determined to get this done, my aim is by the end of 2015 I want us to have paid off the unsecured debt, and then we can become MFW's! I can't wait to go on there too!

Dave Ramsey tells you after you've paid off your debt to put money into an emergency fund which equals between 3 & 6 months expenses, and then put money away for retirement & then for kids college & then pay off your mortgage, but as we've got a really good offset mortgage then we're just gonna put all the savings in there.

I'm allowing £10 per day Monday to Thursday for groceries & if there's any left over then roll it over onto the next day & see how much left on a Thursday & pay that to the credit card. For example, today I only spent £6.91, so the £3.09 will go in the pot with tomorrow's £10 & any left will go into the credit card, on a Friday I'll take out the money for the weekend, and then Monday it'll all start again (sorry if I'm long winded) lol.

I don't know if this system will work, but I'm gonna give it a go, it's all trial & error at the minute!

Thanks! Think I am going to give this a go!

Rosie_D

I'm really pleased that people are wanting to give this a try, it seems to make a lot more sense than doing a consolidation loan, although I'm not saying it will be easier than that!

Really pleased yesterday as made my own fish & chips for us all, usually we would have gone to the fish shop which would have cost over a tenner, it's just getting rid of that mentality that you have to buy ready made, it was much nicer making my own, we already had the fish in the freezer & the potatoes in, so it didn't cost anything.

Going to the poppy parade this morning, & then shopping as dh needs a couple of long sleeved shirts for work as we threw the others away at the beginning of the summer as they were really worn, only going to an outlet place though so should be cheap enough!

We have £55 left of the weekend money, so hoping to have a bit left tonight to add to the cc overpayment pot!

Have a lovely day everyone x

Moneymash

Hi Rosie,

I am a massive Dave Ramsey fan, I love hearing the stories behind the debt-free screams he does. The only sticking point is he advocates paying off the smallest debt first and Martin says pay off the highest APR debt first. Which makes sense since Martin is money-saving and Dave is debt-free, and paying off the smallest debt first helps to motivate people that struggle to stick to a plan. I understand his baby steps so not sure if I would need to get the book.

Good luck with your journey as you have found this site and D R you are well on your way.

Rosie_D

I feel that the lowest to highest balance debt will work for me better, as I'm one of the "want it now" people, which is why we've ended up in this mess, cos the hubby's just the same!

The thing is, we got some inheritance this year & we have enough to pay off the small loan & the smallest credit card, & I know what dave Ramsey says to throw everything you have at the debt, but my hubby is reluctant to do that cos the inheritance was from his mum, & he says his mum & dad worked all their lives & we're just gonna blow it on debt, but the way I see it is that it will really get our debt snowball going as it'll set our debt snowball rolling! If we don't use it this way I fear that it'll just get dwindled away & then well still be in a lot of debt!

What do you all think please, I really see where my hubby is coming from, but I feel like its a good start to becoming debt free.

MrsGSR

I can see both sides. The most sensible thing is to chuck the money at the debt as it will put you in a better for the future. I got some inheritance last year and ploughed it into our savings then bought a new washing machine and dishwasher which we did need. Some has been used to pay debts, the rest is just sat there.

LannieDuck

Could you effectively 'borrow' the inheritance? Use it to pay off some debt so that you save on all those interest payments, but make an IOU for it, and promise to build it up again after the rest of your debts are paid off?