A new debt free journey

lcc86

So today wasn't a NSD after all, I bought my mum a birthday present. It was budgeted for so no issue there, just ruined my NSD plan :eek:

It was my final day at work today. Work gave me a £25 voucher for one of my favourite online shops. I actually feel really touched that they got my likes so spot on even when I haven't been there long. I do feel sad for leaving as I felt like I fit in better and enjoyed the job more than my previous one, and the people there were really, genuinely nice people who are doing an incredibly difficult job under a lot of pressure. I'll miss them. But... I've left for the right reasons and to further my career and prospects. So now I'm finally starting to get excited! _party_:dance:

On another note, I've watched the first two episodes of Hugh Fearnley-Whittenstall's new programme about waste. Gotta say it's really opened up my eyes about the supermarkets we rely on. I have never been a fan of @ldi and l1dl as I have always questioned their cheapness v quality but now I've seen how much waste the rest of them make I genuinely want to make a change. But don't know how to! I guess it's a question of being able to "afford" to have principles I guess. If money was no object I probably would buy mainly organic food from an ethical local source. BUT the very reason I am here is because money is an issue!

lcc86

Today has been a really nice day, went dog walking with four lovely dogs and had a lovely time. Good exercise and I was very tired afterwards!

Bought some hair dye as I had a £4 voucher so only needed to spend 99p. Once again it's ruined my NSD plan but it was a budgeted spend. Perhaps I am being too strict on myself re NSD's, after all everything I have spent has been budgeted for so the fact I have spent isn't the end of the world.

Got a letter confirming I've saved £5.95 by paying off £25 from my loan. Small steps. I've also added about £1.50 to my emergency fund by sweeping pennies again. And I've got a lot of studying done last night and this afternoon so I don't feel too much pressure going in to my new job to do it all while I learn the ropes. All in all a good day.

crazy_cat_lady

Hey - these small steps add up you know. Marginal gains as our deputy head calls them...

lcc86

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

Hey - these small steps add up you know. Marginal gains as our deputy head calls them...

Every penny paid off is a penny closer to becoming debt free! Just looked at my total this morning and updated my signature - £7,072 still to pay. When I look at it like that, yes it is quite daunting. But if I carry on breaking it down into manageable chunks it's not so bad. To have cleared almost 25% of what I had this time last year despite the ups and downs of 2015 is a great achievement for me :j

Debt-busting may have to take a back seat in January as well as December. I have to pay for my course, which is £500. The provider told me I can pay in instalments, but have recently proposed two instalments of £250. I kind of don't see the point in that, I might as well lump the lot on my 0% card and pay off, say, £100 a month for 5 months. We'll see, nothing is finalised yet so I don't have to make my decision for a couple of weeks. What I've noticed is that a few months ago I was panicking about having to find this £500 but now I feel so much more in control over my finances (regardless of the new job) that it's not an issue. That's a good feeling

Today should be a NSD (about time lol). I'm off to see my parents but the car is filled with petrol already and I've paid for the Dartford toll crossing too so I just need to get from here to there. I'll take the opportunity to stock up on cheap Guinea pig food while I'm there but no other spends planned. Looking forward to a chilled couple of days

Right, time to get on with some chores and then get ready to go!

lcc86

Okay so yesterday I decided to top up the car with petrol on my way to my parents' so it wasn't a NSD after all, but petrol is no biggy. I also took £25 from my holiday account and bought some fish related stuff as me and OH have decided to get some so I need to cycle a tank to get it ready. I'm not going to beat myself up over taking a little money from my holiday fund, I have 6 months to save so no worries there.

Today has finally been a NSD :j haha it's about time :rotfl: Tomorrow will be too now that I don't have to fill up with fuel before I head home. I should get my final expenses payment through tomorrow from my old job, that will go towards paying for travel to my new job. I also forgot OH owes me £56 for our holiday deposit, I have reminded him to get it over to me!

lcc86

Okay so I've been doing a little thinking since yesterday after having a chat with my parents. It's mainly over targets and goals etc., what I need to be saving for and in what order. Obviously my course fees of £500 are my most imminent thing to pay for, although I've still not decided exactly how best to pay for it. I have no concerns about getting it paid for one way or the other.

However there's another potential cost I need to think about. My mortgage deal is due to end in June next year. It seems like such a long way away, however I know that to fix again is probably going to cost me a huge chunk in money for fees. Trouble is, I don't know if I actually WANT to fix again right now, because I don't know where I see myself in 2-3 years time. My mortgage is pretty small (67k as of today) and I've always read advice from Martin which says that if you have a small mortgage paying large fees isn't particularly MSE :money: I just did a quick comparison of various providers and the cheapest product fee was £495 with the most expensive being £2000+ :eek::eek::eek: equally if we decided to move during the term of the next fixed deal, we could be lumped with exit fees. But then if I don't fix, and choose to revert to whatever the rate is at the end, I could be susceptible to rate rises. I suppose I need to work out what would be likely to cost more, and it's something I won't know until nearer the time. I might speak to a broker next year before the deal runs out. But, knowing that I need to consider any and all options probably means I need to think about getting some money saved in case I do have to pay product fees. The new job has come at the best time in that respect, but it does put the kibosh somewhat on my grand plans of chucking everything I have at the debt. But on the plus side, it's absolutely for the right reasons and luckily I now have this opportunity to be able to save, so I'm not going to be stressing out as my deal comes to an end.

I'm glad I was able to write that down into some sort of logical pattern to help make sense of it. I guess it's easy to sail through life thinking you have things sorted and then before you know it stuff like this creeps up on you when you're least prepared! And I really don't want to be unprepared for big, important stuff like this. December's budget is pretty much set and doesn't give an awful lot of scope to pay additional money off the debt or save additional money. I can only realistically start thinking about saving for potential product fees in January - although perhaps the pennies I've been squirreling away could be repurposed towards this goal instead? The emergency fund target of £1400 is just totally unfeasible right now that I think about what my upcoming priorities are but that's not to say it's off the table forever, just postponed a little longer. Equally my thoughts of potentially being debt free by the end of next year if I really scrimped and saved are unlikely unless I don't have to pay out for any mortgage fees when the time comes. Still, it's just a delay, it's not as if I'm burying my head in the sand and ignoring it. I'm still determined to hit my 25% target by end of 2015 and that will not change!!

I'm glad this came up when it did actually because I've had time to sit and digest it all and make sense of what I need to do. If I'd been at work I probably would've been too busy to even give it a second thought, so it's been good to have this chance, even if I can't put my new plan into action until January. :T

Anyway, today will be a NSD, I'll be driving back home later this evening and then off to an event during the day in London tomorrow (so not a NSD). It's not essential that I attend, it's an AGM for the field I'm about to start working in, so there's nobody telling me I must go as I haven't started my new job yet, but I think it'll be really beneficial and might give me the opportunity to do some networking too.

crazy_cat_lady

Sounds like a good plan. We've been on the dreaded NRAM variable rate for 5 years now. We couldn't remortgage when the fixed deal ran out, but our payments went down by £50 a month and stayed there. My current credit rating won't allow us a new deal, but our mortgage is about the same size as yours so even with big rate rises it should still be affordable.
I spent a bit of time over the past couple of weekends sorting things out and making plans for next year. I have to remind myself though that we can't rely on dh's money every month so a back up plan is always a good idea.

lcc86

Thanks ccl, sometimes it's hard to know what the best thing to do is! And then I find myself worrying about things that haven't even happened or may not ever happen! I had a bit of a 'f**k it' moment earlier in my head, sometimes it's hard to always focus on paying debts when life seems to be passing by.

lcc86

I woke up this morning feeling a little unwell. I felt a bit funny last night on the way home, I'm reducing my antidepressants and am experiencing some of the side effects that I'd read about. I decided not to travel up to London to this event, I think I need to take it easy today. I have horse riding tomorrow and plan to meet friends as well over the next few days so I want to be feeling better for that.

On the plus side I've saved myself the £40 I'd budgeted so I chucked £30 to my loan to bring me up to 23% paid off. Got to hit the 25% target before I move on to the next goal! On the plus side, my loan and credit card payments for next month will bring me to the 25% goal without worrying about overpayments, so that's good.

I've kept £10 of the £40 as I desperately need some new sharp knives having broken about four recently, so I'm going to buy some from wilk0. Apart from that I'll just be chilling out, dying my hair,buying a few bits for dinner and tidying up.

lcc86

Spent £7 in Wilk0 on various household bits I needed. Also went food shopping at the c00p. Made the change from Mr S after doing some research into supermarket ethics. Didn't notice any difference in price either. The only issue is my local branch is pretty small so I probably will still have to use Mr S.

I forgot that I noticed my car is making a noise. May have to visit my mechanic friend soon. Luckily I'll be starting commuting by train soon! I think it's something like a CV joint but can't be sure, just speaking from previous experience. I'll have to see what next month's pay is like before booking it in.