Our Journey from Debtdom to Freedom

PinkPoppies

Sympathies. This is the kind of thing I have done several times. When you are taking so much joy in every single £1 off the debt it is truly rubbish to feel as though you are taking a big step back!

Just recently I made a stupid typo in my signature figures (which I get so much pleasure out of updating-very sad) and got all excited about hitting a milestone only to find my spreadsheet didn't tally up to the tune of £500. Wind majorly knocked from sails.

But, there's no point looking at it what way as the total debt is the total debt regardless of errors, and the over-payments made are still going a long way to tackle it

You are doing GREAT! :T

judi24

Just wanted to stop by and say hello! your challenges everyday sound like mine and I totally get the 2 forward 1 back thing you are experiencing but it sounds like you are ploughing on! I have downloaded the ybab thing but struggling to get my head round it!


Anyway good luck!

hazeldreams

PinkPoppies wrote: »

Sympathies. This is the kind of thing I have done several times. When you are taking so much joy in every single £1 off the debt it is truly rubbish to feel as though you are taking a big step back!

Just recently I made a stupid typo in my signature figures (which I get so much pleasure out of updating-very sad) and got all excited about hitting a milestone only to find my spreadsheet didn't tally up to the tune of £500. Wind majorly knocked from sails.

But, there's no point looking at it what way as the total debt is the total debt regardless of errors, and the over-payments made are still going a long way to tackle it

You are doing GREAT! :T

Thanks pink poppies, it's good to know I'm not alone in making this error! You're right about knocking the wind out of the sails though, and I've a banging headache to boot! I'm determined to not let this knock back beat me though, I'm about to tackle ten years of accumulated junk in the loft...wish me luck!!!!!

hazeldreams

judi24 wrote: »

Just wanted to stop by and say hello! your challenges everyday sound like mine and I totally get the 2 forward 1 back thing you are experiencing but it sounds like you are ploughing on! I have downloaded the ybab thing but struggling to get my head round it!


Anyway good luck!

Hi judi, thanks for the well wishes, and for stopping by! Keep going with YNAB it is brilliant and has nothing to do with my monumental fail with the figures, I often take on too much get extremely tired and then make silly mistakes like this when I'm rushing around juggling raising 2 DDS, a full time job and all the other trappings of adulthood! Like all of us I suppose... Let me know if there is anything I can help with with YNAB ...their tutorials are really good too xx

hazeldreams

Wow it's been a long time...nine whole months! The good news is we're up to 17% knocked off what we owe, the bad news is we haven't made anything but minimum payments for 2 months now and I can feel old habits returning with a vengeance ...

Back to the diary ... Back to motivation .... Still a long way to go but still determined to make it by feb 2018!!!

hazeldreams

Think I'll do another statement of account soon...really could do with some help of you lovely peeps to understand if there is anywhere else that I could save some money every month to chuck at the darn debts!!

Living more frugally needs to be key also. I know we could spend less on the grocery shopping every week (and the alcohol!) We make very thing from scratch already but I don't have the time to work out pence per meal although I know that this would save me tons!

I'm also looking for some lovely success stories to read to renergise me!

So any suggestions for some great diaries and help with the grocery bills would be very gratefully received!

Thanks muchly!!!

Digging_2

hazeldreams wrote: »

...another PAD made by rounding down my current account - I'll have to find the PAD thread and work out how to join in that I think - only a teeny weeny 0.34p but it 0.34p less than I owed 10 mins ago!

I do this! I like nice round even numbers. But then my credit card has an uneven amount and I send a bit more across to even it out. But then my current account is uneven... you see where I'm going :rotfl:
But at least I can join in the PAD challenge!

hazeldreams wrote: »

For example I split out alcohol from the grocery budget and allocated £50 for the month on 1st October - I'm horrified to find we've already spent £52.20 this month on alcohol - obviously a weak spot that we need to reign in!

How about putting a set amount in an envelop marked 'alcohol' and when it's spent it's spent:eek:. For example try £45 next month and £40 the month after.

hazeldreams wrote: »

Let me know if there is anything I can help with with YNAB ...their tutorials are really good too xx

I keep reading about this and I had a look at their website but it says there's a 30 day free trial. I can't find a price but I'm assuming it costs monthly to use? I'm not entirely sure what it is but again I assume its a spread sheet of some sort. Is it worth the cost when there's debt to pay? I feel like I need to get 'spread sheet' organised but don't want to add to outgoings.

Oh and great diary:T. I'm subscribing.:j

brizzledfw

Hi hazel...good to have you back :wave: I have been away for much too long and trying to get back into regular posting to keep us all in track

YNAB is amazing. Well worth the money which is a one off payment. See if you can get a discount code. It does have 30 days free I see to remember. It's a great product for forecasting rather than simply accounting for spends. We love it..OH too!

hazeldreams

Digging wrote: »

I do this! I like nice round even numbers. But then my credit card has an uneven amount and I send a bit more across to even it out. But then my current account is uneven... you see where I'm going :rotfl:
But at least I can join in the PAD challenge!




How about putting a set amount in an envelop marked 'alcohol' and when it's spent it's spent:eek:. For example try £45 next month and £40 the month after.

I keep reading about this and I had a look at their website but it says there's a 30 day free trial. I can't find a price but I'm assuming it costs monthly to use? I'm not entirely sure what it is but again I assume its a spread sheet of some sort. Is it worth the cost when there's debt to pay? I feel like I need to get 'spread sheet' organised but don't want to add to outgoings.

Oh and great diary:T. I'm subscribing.:j

Hi digging, thanks for stopping by!

i love YNAB, they do a 30 day free trial you should definitely try it out, it's really helped us over the last 2 years! I think it cost me about $60 as a one off fee

Thank you so much for the advice, I think I'll budget for it a little less each month and see how we go!

hazeldreams

brizzledfw wrote: »

Hi hazel...good to have you back :wave: I have been away for much too long and trying to get back into regular posting to keep us all in track

YNAB is amazing. Well worth the money which is a one off payment. See if you can get a discount code. It does have 30 days free I see to remember. It's a great product for forecasting rather than simply accounting for spends. We love it..OH too!

Hi brizzled! Good to hear from you! I've lacked so much discipline over the last 2 months but I'm proud of how far we've come especially as I've gotten out of the routine of posting on here.

But really need to get back into the discipline of posting daily, it makes such a difference! I've been catching up on pink poppies diary-we started our journey at roughly the same time and shes managed to clear so much more than us and I'm convinced the discpline of reviewing diaries and posting daily must be at least partly to do with her successes-well done pink poppies! :T

I'm planning on revisiting your diary too brizzled! It helped me so much in the early days to stay on track!