Silly student debt diary

greensalad

Yesterday

- Played mini-golf, only cost £5 instead of £8.50!
- Bought a drink after, £4. Didn't eat with everyone else.
- Chicken salad for lunch, healthy

Today
- Eating leftover salad
- Going out for ice-cream
- Going to this exhibition with work

So quite a lot of spending

Tomorrow
- SD (going to get coffee)
- Gym day, will cycle over to the gym
- Salmon for dinner

greensalad

Some exciting things happening...

My and my partner have been talking a long time about buying a house. We so desperately want a space of our own and the ability to do things that we want to do and it's just not happening.

We have talked about moving up North and we are now pretty much set that next year we will be moving to Leeds. It's a nice area, very cheap and my partner has guaranteed work there. Best of all he may be able to negotiate his same London wage in Leeds. I would take a paycut but it would still be cheaper.

Our current naff little two-bed costs us £1250 a month. Similar and BETTER flats in Leeds cost £725! And with the extra, we could save for a house deposit within a YEAR. It's insane.

One of the big worries for me moving more north is my Mum. I'm an only child, she is divorced and does not have a partner (and doesn't appear to have plans to have a partner either) so I've always been worried she would be so sad and lonely if I moved. We do have other family, but it's different because your sisters aren't always going to want to hang out with you when they have their own husbands and children. She also has no pension, and has been relying on working for as long as possible to stay afloat.

Well, she went on holiday to Yorkshire this year and fell in love with the area. She's a very "Southern" person but I think it hit her just how nice the area is. She really wants to move to North Yorkshire but was afraid of being alone. So, if me and my partner were moving to West Yorkshire we'd be a lot closer. We've also discovered that my Mum's 2-bed Victorian house could afford her to be mortgage free, buy a 3 bed cottage in the countryside AND another property to let out to help her have a small income, easing the burden of her retirement worries.

So it's all rather exciting. My partner and I both have debt, his is £2000 and mine is around £3500. We also want to save up at least £2000 before we move as a fallback (5 weeks of my current wage) in case I don't find a job immediately. That's £7500 (his company pays moving expenses) to save by next Spring, which is doable if we both put the effort in.

greensalad

Doing a bit better this month! Just got paid for a small job.

I've run low on money (waiting for holiday to come around which has eaten a huge part of my budget) but I paid off £185 from CC. I then used £30 off the CC to purchase YNAB. So, I've still spent on my credit card but it's 0% and it's for a good cause

greensalad

Expensive weekend and I didn't keep to my budget very well One week until holiday so me and the boyfriend have decided to keep it as cheap as possible.

I owe my friends so much money, not sure how much as it was hard to keep track so I'll probably just average it out and send her some. She paid for a £40 shop for 6 of us to go to a summer fete in town. Another friend then paid £40 for pizzas in the evening so I'm the only one that hasn't given anything in exchange for it! Then on Sunday me and one friend went for ice cream and also to Carluccios (where one of my friends is the manager) so although we go some freebies we still had some food.

I've worked it out to be about £55, which I guess isn't that bad for a VERY busy weekend with lots of treats.

This week

Bacon sarnie's for dinner tonight to use up the bacon and bread I bought!
Planning to go the gym for Body Pump this evening at 7pm. Haven't washed my kit though... febreeze?!
Buying lunch from ASDA for the next two days (probably tzatziki, pitta bread and some ASDA's own fruit smoothie)
Hoping to sew some more of my maxi dress for holiday
Print out the second dress pattern for my beach dress.
Spoke to my cousin about this job he wants, he's just waiting for the cash to be transferred to him from his GF's Dad so they can pay my invoice.

greensalad

Just got paid for a web job starting soon, yay!

Have budgeted for the next few days of expenditure.

£411

-£84 owed to a friend
-£15.98 for BF's birthday present (had budgeted for next month)
-£15 for some food shopping
-£15 for travel to the airport on Tuesday
-£10 for fuel
-£20 for work night out (hoping to come back with some cash!)
+£250 into the debt savings account!

I'm trying a new method for clearing my current account OD. I've been trying, and struggling, because I 'live' in that account.

I set up a new savings account and I will transfer over money into it, until the pot is big enough to close the account. Then I'll arrange an appointment at the bank, and move the money over on the day of the appointment so I don't get tempted to spend it on stuff.

So I've got £250 in the pot now, and the OD is £500.

I've got a second £1800 OD I'll be trying the same thing with.

greensalad

Just readjusted my paying schedule based on this new work that will be coming in, and it looks like I will be debt free by June 2016. However, that doesn't account for a) any extra work that comes in (business has been good recently!) and b) a possible pay-rise around October as I am going for promotion.

greensalad

Finally getting into the swing of things with YNAB.

Have got paid, put all my bill and food shopping money into our joint accounts and have budgeted for the month:

- £842.13 utilities and rent
- £175 groceries, fuel and entertainment
- £100 tax savings
- £70.02 phone savings
- £25 birthday savings (will be used on Tuesday evening for drinks as it's my boyfriend's birthday - but will still have some leftover)
- £40 car savings
- £50 holiday savings (for September)
- £222.79 debt savings.

That means a total of £557.81 has gone into saving pots this month.

I am only £167 off paying my tax bill, which will be a nice relief (it's due in January but I'd rather have it out of my hair).

I've got £352.79 in my debt savings pot. The aim is to get this pot to £500, make an appointment at the bank, and then transfer it over to my current account OD on the morning of the appointment. I tried to clear this debt before, but stuff came up and before I knew it I had slipped back into my OD so had to cancel the bank appointment to close my account. This time I have a better plan.

I should be able to pay the tax bill and clear the Barclays OD by the end of the month (either within August if I get paid for a job, or with my 28th August paycheque). That will be two nice 'ticks' off my debt list :beer:

I've also purchased this month:

- New sandals
- Hair dye for 2 months (cheaper than a salon!)
- Spanish classes for September

So it's all clicking together quite nicely!

Two web jobs to complete, totalling £1631! They always take forever to come through though as projects lag behind schedule when clients are slow But that's still nearly half my remaining debt.

greensalad

I've made the decision to move all of my savings pots (currently as separate web-saver accounts with Barclays) to one giant, mutual pot (my cash ISA). It has a higher rate, but I've always preferred to keep the savings actually separate. However I'm getting on really well with YNAB which is allowing me to keep stock of what savings belong where, so I've been able to combine all the pots together. Currently got £1500 saved in various pots for things that will inevitably come up, plus £350 in the debt savings pot! Can't wait to clear this OD.

greensalad

Getting very close to receiving payment for a job I'm doing. Hopefully early next week. Planned spend on YNAB I will be able to clear small OD (Barclays £500) and pay my tax bill, which would be two massive ticks on my finances. OD will only make a small difference to my credit score but I just want to get rid so I can focus on my other OD.

greensalad

Money saving has been going OK, though I've made some mistakes and overspent a little.

I currently have £31 in my bank, not a lot. And I don't get paid until the end of the month. However I did manage to tuck away a healthy chunk of money this month for debt repayment which is sitting in a savings account, so at worst I can borrow off myself. But I'd rather not.

I'm due £50 from Halifax and £22 from Quidco. If both of those show up then I'll be fine this weekend. My only major expense this weekend is going to London with BF's family, for which I have budgeted £80 but obviously only having £31 means it's not possible without borrowing off myself!

If I can not dip into my debt savings, then I should be able to pay off my Barclays OD at some point in August