Snowscreamer's debt reduction efforts

Moneysaurus · 10 March 2015 at 2:09PM

My reply did not log - found your diary!

All looking very positive indeed! Will subscribe and look forward to hearing about your successes x

snowscreamer · 10 March 2015 at 2:20PM

Moneysaurus - I could show you some YNAB reports from spending pre-LBM that now make my hair curl. This month we are aiming to bring in lunch from home 4 times/week and give ourselves one day/week to have lunch out. We figure the whole thing could blow up and be totally unsustainable if we are too strict with ourselves. We now have a top budget of £100/month for weekday lunches out but with our efforts so far this month I fully expect us to be well under and therefore be able to allocate the underspend to debt reduction. Last month we were not disciplined and overshot - £105.60 spend. January £84.96. Our worst recorded (pre-budgeting) is £145 last June! :eek:

hummingbird · 10 March 2015 at 5:48PM

I went through a whole load of credit card statements that needed to be shredded a while ago (they went back years) I know what you mean about that CRINGE when you see what you were doing back then!!! At least that must mean we're making progress or it would still look "normal" to us!!

snowscreamer · 10 March 2015 at 5:59PM

When I get some time I am so going to post some of the reports pre and post LBM for comparison. It's horrifying. Each transaction on its own not so much but when all the categories are totalled up for the month :eek:

snowscreamer · 12 March 2015 at 2:00PM

Just finished my last homemade lunch for this week; tomorrow is my one "day off" where I'll wonder into town and get something. So far this month we have only spent £18.07 between us on eating out at lunchtime during work which is a big improvement on most months - would normally be around £40 by now.

Good news - both our balance transfers are complete and after I post this I'm going to call CC2 provider and reinstate my full balance Direct Debit. CC3 balance is now £5750 (0% 13 months), CC1 (OH) £449.85 and CC2 (mine) £467.37. My next statement is due in 5 days, and as I will not be spending outside of my means between now and then I will be able to pay it off in full out of cleared funds :j I aim never again to have to cancel my full balance direct debit nor to go into my overdraft.

As for OH - he's not sure he will be able to clear the balance on his CC this month as we have some expenses coming up to do with the closure of an old business of his. Thankfully now he is a partner in a company which is profitable and growing, but previously his last business was loss-making and although he hasn't done any work with that business for 3 years, he hadn't formally closed it. We've now decided given our financial situation we can't afford the ongoing admin costs of keeping it as a going concern so will be closing it but unfortunately there are a few upfront costs. The main thing is once we have stumped up and it's all gone through there will be no more ongoing costs or time required.

I'm not that involved but OH estimates closure costs will be around £500

. We are trying to fund this by taking a client of the business who never paid a number of bills to the small claims court over an invoice of £1100. We are hoping to have a reasonable chance of winning as they had the intention to pay at the time but the payment bounced, so I hope they aren't able to worm their way out. It's a real hassle, but we figure it's got a reasonable chance of success?! The upfront cost of small claims is £185 then if it has to go to court there are further court fees. If we win then the other side has to pay OH's costs so it will be revenue neutral. Anyway we shall see... I haven't budgeted for all of this yet as OH is very slow to set things in motion!! When it happens it will slow debt repayment temporarily but it has to be done really.

Hope everyone's having a good Thursday

snowscreamer :cool:

PinkPoppies · 12 March 2015 at 2:55PM

Those meals look delicious!! Sounds like you are doing a great job snowscreamer- very focused!!

Hope your kitten is feeling better

snowscreamer · 12 March 2015 at 3:09PM

Thank you PinkPoppies! Yes kitty is much better. Bounced back to her usual self almost as soon as she came home from the vet - think the painkillers are doing the trick whilst we wait for the antibiotics to clear up the infection. She resisted the first few pill pops but seems to have learnt that a meal arrives straight after if she's good so now she is behaving better!!

MoneyMission2015 · 12 March 2015 at 8:39PM

Sounds like you've got your cards in order now SS, great that you will be back on track paying the full amount. I definitely need to consider a cashback card soon. That's a pain about you OH's card & the company payments, but it'll be better once it's done & dusted. At least it will be gone then & there will be no further expense. Fingers crossed on the court claim too.

x

snowscreamer · 29 March 2015 at 9:50AM

Hey everyone, long time no post. Been very busy at work and then last few days have been totally horrific as our beautiful little boy cat was run over

totally devastated. It was such a worry as he was crossing our (fairly fast country lane) road nearly every time he went outside so it was almost inevitable but doesn't make it any easier. He was such a special, affectionate boy and we miss him so much.

Thankfully his sister has never crossed the road to our knowledge and only goes outside in our back garden and adjoining gardens for short periods otherwise fears would be incredibly heightened right now! Just hoping we have a high number of years left to enjoy from her.

Trying to look on the bright side (pretty hard right now) on the debt and budgeting side we are doing quite well. Look to be ending the month (barring any disasters Monday and Tuesday - please no, can't take anymore!) with just over £3000 net debt. Our expenditure this month has been almost £1500 less than income. Some of this is allocated to future expenses of course but we were able this month to make the first overpayments to our credit cards. Mine is back onto full monthly repayment, OH's has another £250 to clear before he is ready to move back to monthly repayment (due to additional expense on his behalf this month after we did the balance transfers) and due to underspending on eating out (didn't eat out at all this month), I paid £50 off the new 0% card too (hadn't planned to start reducing that one until next month). So all pretty rosy on the money front really. Spend this month around £2600 which breaks the record again for lowest spending month; last month was about £100 more and we didn't have the £250 OH business expense or £200 him insurance. I love YNAB so much!! Beng debt free doesn't look like a distant pipe dream...

Next month - council tax is back - boo! But income is up! OH's company is moving the directors onto monthly pay like the employees which is really good from a budgeting perspective. And income goes up by £25ish due to tax/NI threshold changes which is good.
We are aiming for £600 credit card overpayments next month. Will be great to see the credit card bars start to get shorter like our cash bars have been getting much taller over the last few months! Will post some progress charts at some point; they are good to see and provide tons of motivation!