A new debt free journey

crazy_cat_lady

I have had 2 bags of clothes sitting at the bottom of my bed to take to one of those cash for clothes places since October. Every time I go in my bedroom I think 'must sort that' and never do... :rotfl:
I pinched an idea from someone on the small things thread - she does an 'annoying jobs that will cost a tenner or less to sort' list and tries to do one of them on a regular basis. Whilst I still haven't sorted the clothes bags I have done stuff like changing light bulbs, sorting cupboards etc - might help you get that plug sorted once and for all

lcc86

Haha, it's so true CCL, when I think back on the things I've needed to do/buy that I've just left, it's madness! Especially when I wasted money on cr*p!

I have a sickly guinea pig I discovered last night, found a lump on one so it's a trip to the vet and probably an expensive bill. Going to postpone my car service and use that money instead.

lcc86

I'm feeling a bit weird today. I keep thinking about buying a different car, a cheaper one than what I have, and selling mine to pay off my debt. I also keep thinking about borrowing money on my mortgage to invest in something which will give me a small income too. I'm really not sure what's going on in my head. In all honesty, I probably could afford to add some borrowing onto my mortgage but why am I thinking of this in the first place? And in respect of my car, yes, a cheap run around would be good by helping me clear a big chunk of debt, but my car, despite being part of the source of my borrowing, has (touch wood) never had a problem and suits me just fine!

I don't really know what's going on in my mind it's at times like this when I feel like a massive contradiction. I've stated time and time again that I can't wait to be debt free. That I don't want to increase my borrowings again unnecessarily. That I want to be able to overpay my mortgage one day. That I want to be less obsessed with material things. And yet here I am thinking in my old patterns again.

I never keep a car for more than a couple of years. There's no reason for this, I just get bored and want to change. Traditionally changing car has meant adding more debt as well. Cars are a big reason as to why I got here in the first place. Now that I'm writing this down I'm actually quite angry with myself for even thinking about these things :mad::mad: knowing how it's affected me in the past, and continues to affect me to this day.

I really don't know what it is, this constant striving for more, always wanting more or being jealous of others when, in reality, there is nothing wrong with what I have and I'm very fortunate to have it!

Well, time to look on the bright side, at least I recognised I was starting to fall back into old patterns again and came on here to rant at myself and tell myself off! There's no need for me to sell my car. Yes, I'm still paying it off, but so what? I'm on top of it, and as I said, it causes me no problems. There's no need for me to borrow money on my mortgage just for the sake of having something else to tie myself down to.

One of these days, I truly hope I will learn to just stop worrying about whatever other people have and just be happy with everything I have and with my lifestyle instead of always being concerned with wanting to do something different. Or in layman's terms, maybe one day I'll just learn to chill

lcc86

Feeling better about things today. Back on track. Credit card bill still hasn't arrived, and I thought it was due today, so I just sent £5 to it to make me feel better. Will make the full payment when I have the full bill.

lcc86

Had to spend £50 at the vets in the end. There's a chance I may have to pay for an op further down the line so I will keep the money I'd budgeted for my car service towards that, and pay for my service next month instead.

I've been researching mortgage deals and if I stay with my bank I won't have to pay any fees. I'm not going to hit my savings targets by March anyway because of the vet issue so I'm just going to try and not stress about it.

I read today that my local council are increasing parking charges. I have to pay outside my house and this could impact on me a fair bit because the council don't currently give residents any permits, so I've contacted them to see if they will start a scheme. Probably more chance of hell freezing over but hey!

I've been offered four hour's additional work with my old zero hours job. I've decided to take it as a one off. Yes it'll probably only equate to about £25-£30 after tax but I don't mind doing it if it's sporadic.

Off to the gym tomorrow morning and then meeting a friend before doing a top up shop.

Synonymous

Hey lcc, quietly following along with your diary. 25% off your debt was a great goal to smash in 2015 - good work!

Seems like you are getting a bit fed up with your progress, perhaps some achievable short-term debt-busting goals would keep your morale?

One I use is to calculate the daily interest paid on my mortgage. You can work this out for any debt by doing total debt, divided by 100, multiplied by the interest rate on the debt, divided by 365 (or 366 I suppose, as we are in a leap year!). So for a loan of £10,000 at 6%: 10,000/100*6/365= £1.64 per day in interest. Then make it your goal to reduce this by a set amount in a set timeframe. You have to play around with it for a bit to get a feel for how big a difference a payment of £1, £10, £100 etc makes to your daily interest rate so you know how high to aim, but it's easy to set up a column in a spreadsheet for it. Paying £6.67 of interest on my mortgage each and every day makes me feel a bit ill, so it's very motivating and very 'real' to me if I bring it down, usually 2 pence at a time :rotfl:.

I mainly popped up to reiterate what a bad idea borrowing to invest in something is, particularly from your mortgage. (Just in case this crosses your mind again on a weird day - we all have them!)

You'd be paying out money up front for something you are hoping will pay off in the future - it's risky, so you really don't want to use someone else's money that you might not be able to pay back, and definitely not secured debt in case it doesn't work out and missing your payments means you end up homeless. It can also seem like a good deal as mortgage rates are low - but you would be paying interest on that borrowing for the whole life of your mortgage - which really adds up.

You probably know all this, but sometimes it helps to see it written down, and I would hate to read an update down the line saying you decided to do this after all! Keep your chin up, you're going in the right direction :T

lcc86

Hi Synonymous,

Thanks for your reply, it's EXACTLY what I needed to remind myself how silly the thoughts going through my head have been!!! all of what you said, I know deep down, so I don't know why I let my frustrations get the better of me!

I just calculated my daily interest on my mortgage, it's £4.90! When I look at it that way, it's almost sickening! :eek: My mortgage currently is £66,800 at 2.69% over the next 31 years. I've seen some better interest rates and was thinking perhaps to reduce my term by a year so that my monthly repayment goes up slightly but I'll be making more of a dent into the actual debt. I'll see if I can do that when the time comes. However, even without that, you've given me food for thought. In the average month I'm paying almost £150 in interest!!!!! I think this month's been hard because I hit my 25% target in December but made 0 progress into the second target of saving for remortgage fees. I'm probably going to do away with that target now anyway now that I've done more research into what's available. I'll have to have a think.

On the plus side, my credit card bill came through online today. Minimum payment £64, I sent £200 to it as that's what I'd budgeted. So that brings my overall debt down. I'll update my signature to reflect that, I think it's 32% of my debt paid off but I need to double check.

Right, off to the gym shortly then to meet a friend. I'll give some thought to revising my short term goals to help me feel less frustrated in the long term. Gotta have something to aim for to help on this journey!! :rotfl:

lcc86

Well I had planned to get up and go for a run but it snowed overnight so I really don't fancy it. I'll do an indoor workout instead, no excuses!

Yesterday I spent £31 on food in Sainsbury's, which is my entire food budget gone for the month. I'll have to claw some money back from somewhere to cover any extra purchases I'll need to make before payday. I also spent £10 in wilko on toiletries and hay for the pigs, and £5.40 on coffee and lunch with my friend. I also made sure I bought that plug I spoke about!! Finally!!!! :T and I bought a cheap book which will benefit me at work and in my studies. All in all it turned a bit spendy!

At least today will be a NSD. Most of next week should also be NSD's too. I don't spend much, if anything, on workdays now that I don't work in a town centre, which is handy.

I sat down yesterday and worked out February's budget. I realised that the money OH has been giving me for rent has just been getting absorbed into my overall budget in the last couple of months, which is very naughty of me. So for February, I have split his keep between my debt and savings. I need to act as though I'm not receiving any additional income and budget using solely my own money and then use any additional income towards debt or savings, or both. That's helped relieve some of my frustration I'd been feeling.

I've also decided to go for a PAD challenge again next month. I last did this in October and although it isn't much, it gives me a little sense of achievement. Again, should help tackle that frustration.

Right, better get up, I have a full day of studying ahead of me!

lcc86

A week and a half to go until payday and the finances aren't looking so great, if I'm honest. The food budget has once again proved my downfall... I guess I'm just not budgeting enough as I don't spend extravagantly at all. I must amend this for future and just allow a little more leeway. I don't go over by much, but it's consistently happening each month so something has to change. Anyway, I had budgeted for a week of train travel this month but have decided to drive instead as it's cheaper, so that should help claw back some money to use for food.

Today will be a NSD, looking forward to another week of NSD's (hopefully!).

crazy_cat_lady

Me too. Food budget is always the one I can't keep a lid on. I'll happily look at a full fridge and freezer and think that there's nothing in....