Debt free by August 2016

edinburghlad

YNAB is keeping me on track not to overspend this month, although i am a bit concerned I only have £38 for food shopping till the 18th Aug :eek:.

I really want to be debt free, and coming on here every day is giving me the inserpation. My only concern / question is, Do I build a buffer in YNAB or do I pay off my debts with all spare cash that I have?

Mamma85

Hi,
How many do you have to feed on that budget? It could be doable, there's lots of cheap meal idea on the old style threads, and beans on toast is always a good standby.

I haven't used YNAB, but I do try and keep some savings by, I have to pay £65 to replace my windscreen this month, so I'm glad I've kept some money by. Personally I'd have a bit of a buffer.

Good Luck

Giraffeseeker

edinburghlad wrote: »

Quick question regarding YNAB. Should you record your debt counts off budget or not? The getting started videos tell you not too but I want to keep a track of the, somewhere?

I have all my debts as "off budget" accounts. When I make a payment to them it is a transfer from my current account. Means it does not affect the budget but I can see them.

Giraffeseeker

edinburghlad wrote: »

My only concern / question is, Do I build a buffer in YNAB or do I pay off my debts with all spare cash that I have?

I think you need a small buffer while on a DMP. My target was a £500 emergency fund within ynab - but I run a car, own my own home and have 2 teenage boys - you may need less if you have less to go wrong (car? washing machine? etc)

I built my £500 and thanks to my A level examiner payments I have now managed to get it to £1K. I am not sure if I need that much (as I have a separate car repair pot in ynab, and a Christmas pot, etc). However, due to some complicated changes this year to the way examiner tax is paid, it is possible I will have a tax bill in April so I am keeping it for now just in case.

Depending on your circumstances, £300-£500 would be a good buffer to have. I would not go for the full YNAB "live on last months income" buffer until you are debt free.

LosingMyDebt

Good luck! I also aim to be debt free by August 2016 - in time for the Rio Olympics!!

Subscribed

edinburghlad

tintingirl wrote: »

I think you need a small buffer while on a DMP. My target was a £500 emergency fund within ynab - but I run a car, own my own home and have 2 teenage boys - you may need less if you have less to go wrong (car? washing machine? etc)

I built my £500 and thanks to my A level examiner payments I have now managed to get it to £1K. I am not sure if I need that much (as I have a separate car repair pot in ynab, and a Christmas pot, etc). However, due to some complicated changes this year to the way examiner tax is paid, it is possible I will have a tax bill in April so I am keeping it for now just in case.

Depending on your circumstances, £300-£500 would be a good buffer to have. I would not go for the full YNAB "live on last months income" buffer until you are debt free.

Thanks tintingirl, I have a £500 emergency fund put aside already, so i will just with that for the moment :-)

edinburghlad

LosingMyDebt wrote: »

Good luck! I also aim to be debt free by August 2016 - in time for the Rio Olympics!!

Subscribed

Good Luck - look forward to hearing how you get on :beer:

edinburghlad

Hello

So it's been an eventful couple of days:
Tuesday - dentist for a checkup £25 down!
Wednesday - meeting cousin for breakfast in town £6.40 for the train £3.50 for the bus and £15! For breakfast. Dinner out with friends followed by a few drinks £40
Thursday - friends over for dinner and drinks £70
Friday - hangover lunch / dinner - £7

Bang goes £170!

So needless to say I am not on track for paying anything extra off my loans this month. My focus will be to clear the credit card (using emergency fund) by the end of the this month. Next step is to built up an emergency fund from sep & October salary followed by paying extra to my debts from November.

On a positive note I am working today so that might help me not to spend money :-)

edinburghlad

So yesterday was a good day. Only spent £0.20 on a birthday card thanks to the fact I forgot I had money in my funky pigeon account :-) Today I'm on track for a no spend day :-) whoop whoop.

Working nightshirt tomorrow and Tuesday so hopefully they can also be no spend days.

Bit concerned that I have 4 nights out in the next 4 weeks :-( and have a feeling that it's going to cost me a small fortune.

edinburghlad

Wow we are in January and I've totally fallen of the wagon. Time for me to refocus.

The only good news is I have tracked everything I've spent in YNAB since July since I started this blog so I can have a good look at that to see where I've been going wrong.