No more being "FinanciallyUnsavvy" in 2014!

misstara

I know what you mean about the small purchases adding up - have felt myself slipping a bit this month too. Definitely need to have some fun money though or else life would be very boring

Yay to payday being Friday and that extra £40. Good luck with whatever you decide to do

elfy1807

FinanciallyUnsavvy wrote: »

Ever feel like people are ever so helpful and nice as pie to other people, but then just talk down to you?! Sometimes I don't know why I bother.

I've been having a bit of an internal debate with myself lately. Now the OD is nearly gone - which nobody seems to care about, it's a big achievement to me and I'd like to celebrate but hey ho no chance - I don't know what to do. The CC is interest free for another 16 months or so. Is there any point in me burning myself out trying to pay £500 a month off? It's not going to save me any money. It still would be nice to be completely debt free by Xmas, but it's getting difficult. I'm struggling to do much 63336 in the evenings because I'm just so exhausted all the time. It gets me down not having much spare money to do stuff. So.. I don't know. Don't know whether to pay off what I can without worrying about reaching £500 every month or to carry on the way I'm doing and make sure I get that £500 pm so in 6 months time I can celebrate being completely debt free.

Without the slog it'll take me an extra 4-5 months I'd imagine. Not sure if it's worth it.

Bit of support would be nice but outside of the 2 or 3 of your lovely ladies who read this (& I appreciate you all immensely), there's not much available.

Oh well. suck it up, Kim.

Clearing your overdraft is a brilliant achievement, especially if you've spent a long time living in it.
In all honesty, I don't think it's worth the stress trying to find the extra £200 a month.
Yeah, it'd be nice to be cleared off sooner, but I feel that if I'm putting pressure on myself to do something, the less likely I am to do it, and the more annoyed about it I get.
And trying to find £200 a month would stress me.
I keep thinking I should pack some stuff up for car booting, and then just can't be bothered.
And ebay is such a hassle that I don't bother with it.

Also, with the extra money in your pay packet... as you said to me... treat yourself with the first one.
If not, can you not continue to manage without that extra money and completely ignore it?
Pretend you're not getting it and put it somewhere, like a savings account and save it all up to treat yourself in a few months time with a holiday?
It's what I do when I get a bit of unexpected money in my wages. Straight into my savings account.

Hope you start to feel better soon

sassychick2014

Morning hon

Well, much of what I was going to say has been said already but tough, I'm going to say it anyway!!

Clearing the OD is a fantastic achievement and you should be really proud of yourself. ODs are the one debt that I think people misjudge because they think it's not a "proper" debt. But longterm it's usually more expensive than a loan so stand up and be proud that you no longer have one!

With regards to busting a gut to pay £500 a month to an interest free card. Um why? If you're not well (which I'm sure you're not - have you seen the doctor yet?) stressing about finding money to pay off a debt is the last thing you need. If you think it would take you and extra 4-5 months that's what, Easter next year? It's not as far away as you think.

What I would do is make the minimum payments onto the debt & put whatever else you can REALISTICALLY afford into a high interest savings account. This way you're making your money work for you. Then, when you get to the amount you need to pay off the remainder of the interest free debt you can. And hopefully you'll have a little bit extra to buy yourself a well done treat too.

I'm sure by doing this you'll feel better about everything/less stressed which in turn will be good for your health. Is it really worth getting yourself into a state for the next 6 months on a debt that has no interest to pay?

Obviously at the end of the day it's up to you but your health is the most important thing here and if taking just a little longer to pay it off helps then why not. However, if there was interest this message would have been different! lol

Hope you're feeling better soon hon xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Hey guys

Friday, pay day and a bank holiday all in one so I can't really complain about much today.

I'm actually about £52 up from the payrise, so a little more than I expected, which is awesome. Haven't had chance to crunch all my numbers this month into YNAB, so that'll be a job when I get home this evening. I THINK I'm going to clear the overdraft well and truly - I'd pay off £200 anyway, and I may "borrow" the last 79 from my savings pot, and put it back in out of my 63336 money in a couple weeks.

I posted the other day on the main DFW board about whether it's best to close my OD altogether or leave a small formal overdraft in place "just in case" (if for any reason my account did slip into the red I wouldn't get charged excessive amounts). People were less than helpful, so what do you guys think? I have absolutely no need nor desire to ever "use" my overdraft. I've never seen it as a "pot" to dip into - my overdraft HAS been my bank account for the last 7/8 years, wages have gone in and I've still been -300 or something - I had no other option and no way out (or so I thought at the time. Paying it off when I still lived at home would have been a hell of a lot easier but hey ho!) But I just think it makes sense to leave a small amount there because you never know. Not sure how much though. At the minute it's £500. Do I leave it there or reduce to £100/£200?

Thank you for all your kind words the other day. I AM fine, I just get p*ssed off sometimes and have nowhere else to rant about anything remotely financial other than here

With just the credit card to focus on going forward, I'm still not sure what the best course of action will be. I do think I would still like to try and be debt free by the end of the year, so I will try and get to the magic £500 a month. BUT I'm not going to bust a gut doing it. If I only manage £300, fine. If one month I want to do something a bit extravagant so only pay £100, fine. Think I'll just play it by ear, month by month. As you've all said, there's no point stressing myself over it too much when there's no interest to pay anyway. I'll still do what I can on 63336, any extra money I'll still pay towards debt, etc.

I did £10 on 63336 last night (hard going since it was dead quiet so took a lot longer than usual), but I feel a bit better for doing it. I realised I've still got 8/9 days left in this month so it's not written off yet, still got time to earn another decent amount.

Hope everyone has a great bank holiday weekend xx

Ciaerda

Hi Financially Unsavvy (you are totally not) - I think that having the overdraft on your account is ok for peace of mind really just in case your pay is messed about or a direct debit goes through at too much money. You could reduce it to say £100 if that makes you feel happier, personally I don't think you will use it because you have worked so hard to repay it, also you are using YNAB so personally (I love my YNAB) I feel that I am more aware of where my money is going (sometimes I'm scared to spend it because I don't want to mess up my YNAB budget):rotfl:

Well done you are doing great:T

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Ciaerda wrote: »

Hi Financially Unsavvy (you are totally not) - I think that having the overdraft on your account is ok for peace of mind really just in case your pay is messed about or a direct debit goes through at too much money. You could reduce it to say £100 if that makes you feel happier, personally I don't think you will use it because you have worked so hard to repay it, also you are using YNAB so personally (I love my YNAB) I feel that I am more aware of where my money is going (sometimes I'm scared to spend it because I don't want to mess up my YNAB budget):rotfl:

Well done you are doing great:T

Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words of encouragement Ciaerda xx

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Well guys, I've done it...

THE OVERDRAFT IS NO MORE!!! :j :j :j

And I vow that I will never go into it again.

I did a rather unorthodox thing - I started a fresh budget in YNAB. Rather than leaving all my figures as they were and paying the last £279 off my overdraft as a payment, I just started again with the money in my account, and reallocated where it needs to go. Pretty much the same as it was before, but it feels like a "fresh" start, even though my savings pot is now a bit less than before. I can always top it up with 63336 money when I get that, but I don't know if I feel the need to, to be honest.

It's a good feeling, and I've met my target for May before I've made my CC payment, so once again I'll leave that £100 until June, so then I should have no problem hitting my target in June too. 40% of the way there- there IS a light at the end of the tunnel and i WILL get there, even if I have some crappy days/weeks inbetween.

supersaver1000

Hi Financially Unsavvy Just thought I'd pop in. I'm a bit late now I know but for what it's worth I too would get rid of the od. I'm in a real pickle with ours - £1750 and we have been spending up to it!

Took the plunge and used the emergency fund to pay down £750 on the understanding I have to keep it at £1000 which is interest free. Managed it last month but this month took my eye off the ball and slipped over by about 40p which cost about 75p in interest for about 10 mins!

Anyway my plan is to get rid of it altogether, so I think you've done right. If it's not there you can't use it.

Good luck in your money saving. Seems like you're in a great spot. Well done !

mylastpound

Hi Hun


I've just subscribed after reading the first 4 pages of your diary, I was hooked and could relate to some of your daily trials and questions!!


so thought id put my 2 pence worth in ........hope you don't mind


I too kept my boyfriend in the dark with my debts to begin with.
7 years down the line to be exact!!, he still isn't aware of the true figure as I didn't know myself, until I sat down and went through my CC bills ect. we are at a stage were we had our own houses but we want to get one together, but I don't until I clear my debt off
I want to move into the future with a clear bank balance and I want to pay this debt off myself, I got myself in this mess and I want to take the hard option and deal with it myself.
I want to learn the hard way. the worst thing is. I've had this debt for 10 years nearly and always paid min payment, so ive paid probably thousand going nowhere. so its time I sort it out and to also learn to budget at the same time for emergency


regarding the OD. ive been a lurker on here for ages and when I finally get my OD paid off, I will get rid and I will have money in the bank as my own buffer and do without my OD completely even if its just £200 buffer


I am too interested in this YNBA, it sounds really good from reading a few people diary's ive recently seen.........so I will have to look into this


also regarding stretching yourself and paying your debt off by xmas you can look at it in 2 ways


1 year / 6 month is only a small time out of your life to clear this black cloud, how good will it feel if you accomplish this and be debt free by December.......I know its a slog


or


pay the £300 as normal each month and the money you make on surveys ect spend on yourself, treat it as a side job for entertainment spends..........just an option


Don't forget your not on your own, I think your doing the right thing by clearing your debt while you can. wish I hadn't buried my head in the sand for soo long. I regret that I spent my 20s with £300 min payment each month on CCs, where if I had cleared it sooner I could have had it as savings each month........oh well we live and learn xx

misstara

Woohoo!!:T It must be such an amazing feeling to have cleared the overdraft. Did you do anything to celebrate? :beer:

Your last post sounded really positive, you are doing fantastically well