New Mission, New Diary

MoneyMission2015

I've been using this site for a while to give me ideas and motivation to become debt free, but have never really stuck to anything permanent and am constantly in a cycle of clearing a few hundred pounds on a card then using the credit again.


But as it is a New Year I have decided that 2015 is my year to clear it all, once and for all. I'm fed up of always paying debts off, always worrying about the level of debt and feeling guilty about anything I buy. We aren't struggling for money & on paper we should have a healthy surplus every month, but we just seem to spend money on things, not anything important, just things. This is what got us the debts in the first place, as in the past we've just bought things on credit, instead of saving. 3, 5, 10 years later that 'thing' we so desperately needed (apparently) is now in the attic/given away/sold for a fraction of the original price, but we're still paying debts.


Also long term I want to start overpaying our mortgage again and although my car is currently fine, it is getting old and has high mileage on it so I don't think it will be too long before I need a replacement. I want to be able to buy one without having to use credit, so savings will also be a goal of mine in the next 12 months.


So the debts are as follows


cc1 1904.06
cc2 5255.41
cc3 1671
next 3114.87


I have a DD set up for the minimum on cc2 and then an extra standing order of £80 per month also going to that.


I requested a DD mandate from the bank for cc1, received the letter saying mandate enclosed, but no mandate! So I've requested this again and will get that set up as soon as it comes through.


I have a DD set up for cc3 for £100 fixed amount (minimum monthly is around £40).


I pay Next by debit card every month but am literally rounding the minimum payment up to the next pound or so, as the minimum payment is really high at the moment.


My plan is to keep this payment method up for all accounts, but then at the end of every month I will see how much money I have left over to then overpay something. I know all about snowballing but the interest rates are all more or less the same for each of my debts, so I want to split any spare money between the cc2 and Next, as these are the debts that bother me the most because they are so high.


I'm also trying hard to cut down on spending. Previously I would buy lunch every day which was around £3-£5 per day! Plus I would go out to buy this lunch just to get out of the office, so using up diesel in the car.


But this week I have brought food in every day so am cutting down on the fuel I'm using and also not spending money. I'm also eating a little bit healthier because of this, so hopefully should lose a few pounds too!!:rotfl:


Grocery shopping is a massive failure of mine. We easily spend around £150 per week on groceries (there are 4 of us!). So my target at the moment is to get down to £100 per week and then trim that a little further where I can.


Today I do have to spend some money because my daughter goes to Rainbows so I have to pay her fees today.


After that payment today though I am going to try and have 3 days a week of spending no money. I've had 1 so far, which was yesterday, tomorrow should be another day of no money and possibly Friday.

MoneyMission2015

That post was long so I wanted to post it so I could read it and then set my goals for the week and the rest of the month.


It's looking like at the end of this month I should have about £150 left over so I am going to split that in half to pay the cc2 and Next.


There are 17 days left in this month, 12 of them are working days. I'm aiming to have 7 more days where I spend no money on the working days and then for each weekend I want 1 day of no spending per weekend. There is no point me saying no spending at all on the weekend because I have to do our weekly grocery shop for packed lunch items.


So in total that should be 10 more days this month (or 9 if I do my grocery shopping on Saturday 31st January instead of Sunday 1st Feb).


I will update as I go along and then when statements are updated I will keep updating my debt totals.

MoneyMission2015

Didn't pay the Rainbows fees yesterday as I only had £20 (which it usually is) but this term it is £35!! The extra is for the rent or something, I need to read the letter to see what it's for.


Unfortunately the opportunity of a day of no spends passed me by as I had to go to the supermarket to get a few top up bits. I was very disciplined though & only bought what I went in for.


I won't be spending any money today though which is good because it means I am keeping on track with my no spend days.


I've done an SOA too & the surplus money is almost exactly what I had worked out in my head. I've just got to start cutting down on the grocery shopping and also keep track of the silly spending.


My goal tonight is to come up with a shopping list based on what we already have and what sort of meals we enjoy, then break that down to 4 weekly shops. Top up shops are another downfall of ours because we go in just to grab bread, end up spending £40 and still not really got anything substantial.


Another goal of mine which will go hand in hand with the above is to try & use up what is in the freezer.

MoneyMission2015

I've logged on 3 times to update & ended up not being able to finish because of having to do something else, my internet explorer crashing, or internet going down.


So I'll try to keep it short for now & update properly later.


First week went ok. Good points were I had lots of no spend days & also had some cashback payable on Topcashback, so that's £50 I can put towards payments.


Bad points were my Next balance is higher than expected. I was estimating the amount based on what the current balance was, plus a few things I had ordered ages ago & were on reserve minus some stuff I'd returned. The stuff that were on reserve came & I very sensibly sent most of it back, but 2 of the items were something my daughter needed for school (proper running trainers & a sports bag). I was tempted to send them back & get elsewhere but my daughter desperately needed them & was worried she'd get in trouble in school without them, so I kept them but sent everything else back.


Also another bad point was I forgot I needed to pay the window cleaner £60.


I've done that though & keeping track of our joint account & my own bank account. Everything is fine & there is enough money in for the last remaining direct debits for this month, then I'll see how much money is left over.


Fingers crossed everything will be ok now this week & by the end of the month I'll be able to make some sort of extra payment to something.


Back later to talk no spending & targets for the next few weeks.

MrCrimeFiction

Hello and welcome to the forum. Its such a great place. Keep on coming and updating, even if noone comments. Its your diary and a place to log info and spill your thoughts to the world.

Well done on getting your thinking head on. Its all about thinking positively and smashing down the door to a better future. I am in debt myself but after joining this website im in a better position already. No needless spends.

In relation to your credit cards, are they all 0%? I would throw every spare penny at the bigger % so you save interest.

Also, few points I picked up on. Window Cleaner??? £60??? I will drive to your house and clean your windows for that. What is the chap using, liquid gold haha. Thats a massive saving right there, along with smashing that grocery budget.

Have a look in the debt free challenges. There are some great ones to save some money and ways to bash down that debt.

All the best and good luck

MrCF

MoneyMission2015

Thanks MrCF, I will keep coming back. It's mainly to help me stay on track & read back in future to track my progress.


I do feel better just reading through other people's stories & have been getting inspiration from other people's money saving ideas.


As for the window cleaner, its actually only £12 every 6 weeks but because I'm never home when he comes I owed him 5 payments. However, I will be cancelling this because at the moment it is just a luxury. It's nice to have clean windows, but I think i'll leave it a few months and reinstate him when I have room in the budget. I can then use the £12 to go towards debts. For the time being I will try & clean them myself as best I can.


I'm happy to report that I did have the £150 I had estimated would be left over at the end of the month. First time I've had money left over for ages! I did check interest rates a few months ago & I think my cc3 was the highest, which I was surprised at because I thought the Next account would be the highest. So I'm going to pay the £150 on that credit card.


I managed my target of no spend days, which I was really pleased about. I can be terrible for going out at lunchtimes & buying a baguette or sandwich, so I am happy that I did so well in this area.


One thing I have been so pleased about is how much fuel has come down! My car is a bit of a gas guzzler & used to cost almost £90 to fill up, but I filled up the other day & it cost £58. I know this is still a lot compared to smaller cars, but I actually wouldn't be able to afford to buy a new car at the moment anyway so I just have to bear this cost at the moment. I have been looking at smaller cars so that when we have got the money to replace my car I will get something more economical.


My grocery budget has been looking good & I've not spent much at all this week. I've got plenty of food in the fridge, freezer & cupboard. I will need to do a small top up shop this weekend but I have budgeted £20 for this as there really isn't much to get. I have started roasting a chicken on a sunday evening & using the chicken for meals during the week. This has worked well & we've had various meals then from this chicken.


Will be back later to set new targets for February.

PiggyBankShaker

Hi, and welcome!

Good luck with your debt busting.

Have you thought about transferring and consolidating your debts on a 0% credit card?

MoneyMission2015

Hi PiggyBankShaker, thanks for popping in.


I have some of it on a 0% but did apply for another 0% card to transfer the other balance & got rejected. I won't try and apply again just yet because I know it looks worse the more applications you make.


It's payday today so I've checked the account balance, got all the DD's and SO's written in my diary so know how much I need to cover bills and some groceries and it looks like I've got around £500 to last me the month. That's a really good amount which I know in the past I have just frittered away without really knowing I'd spent it. But I am a new woman & will be keeping track of every penny this month :j


I have enough fuel to probably last me now until Monday 9th February, then I will need to fill up again. So I've budgeted around £80 for fuel for the rest of the month. It sounds a lot but I'd rather overestimate & then have money left over. I'm budgeting around £150 for groceries, again overestimating because my husband will also put in his share for groceries, but I would rather overestimate again.


So this leaves me with £270 for the month. I'm hoping again to have £150 leftover to put towards a debt. If I can do that I will be happy, anymore I'll be ecstatic! I know I have a few expenses to pay out this month otherwise I would be trying to keep £200 back. Next month I should be able to do this & hopefully when I learn to trim the grocery budget down I will be blasting these debts :rotfl:

MoneyMission2015

Happy Sunday! I enjoy Sundays, it's usually my lazy day. I tend to spend the day doing some housework, laundry & just preparing myself for the miserable Mondays. It's sunny where I am today so might take my little one out for a walk to get some fresh air.

I did a small shop on Friday after work. It wasn't a great shop, spent nearly £20 but not much to show for it. I bought a whole chicken, which I am going to cook today & then keep for the week. I also got pasta bake sauces for Fridays evening meal, I had all the other ingredients. I also ended up buying a few other items that if I'm honest we didn't really need. But onwards & upwards, at least I recognise that I didn't need them & hopefully next time I will remember this & put those things back.

My plans for today are:

Cook the chicken
Order some groceries (budgeted for)
Sort tomorrow's lunches out
Come up with meal plan for the week

I think that's it for today.

My February targets are

£150 overpayment on debts
Have 16 no spend days
Find 2 new recipes to add to our meals. We always end up eating the same things, which gets boring, which means we will go off track & order takeaway. If we come up with some new meals we might be able to resist the takeaway temptation.

MoneyMission2015

I have read an idea on another diary that I am going to use. I give credit to DaisyChain1 for it.

The idea is that each month is a moneysaving month but focus on one category this month to get the hang of it, see where things stand with money & then the following month focus on another category, while still keeping track of the things learnt & saved in the previous category.

I think it's a great idea because by focusing on one thing at a time I think the savings will be better than if I was trying to save everywhere at once. Don't get me wrong, I will still be very careful about spending money, but I will spend a lot of time this month focusing on the category I've chosen.

The category I've chosen this month will of course be groceries. In the diaries I've looked at & even the budgets people have put up for advice, it's very clear that groceries is a massive issue for so many people which makes it possibly the biggest area of opportunity for cutting back. I have spent some time looking back at last years bank statements & on average we were spending around £700-£800 per month on groceries! I bet most people reading this would have recoiled in horror after that, but I feel it's important to identify this HUGE overspend & I am determined this will not ever happen again.

Sure, I will spend more in certain months, due to parties, Christmas etc but the main point will be that I will budget for these instead of just freely spending as much as I want to.

My budget for groceries this month is £300. I think this is a good budget because we've actually got a lot of things in the house, for instance our toiletries & most of our household cleaning items are fully stocked so nothing needed there. Actually £300 is probably generous considering I have all these items already, but I think if I set my target too low then I will be really disappointed if I failed. If I stick to £300 then next month I will set a little lower.

I've just put our chicken in to roast so we can have chicken curry for tea & will also have chicken left over for the week. I do need to order some shopping today but all budgeted for, hoping to not spend anymore than £60 today because it's just the vegetables, fabric softener & pasta we need.

MoneyMission2015

Chicken was cooked & I have put all the chicken in the fridge now. I was going to make a curry but my husband had bought one of those meal for 2 ready meal things from Tesco a few days ago which needed eating so I cooked one half of that instead for my one daughter, I've saved the other half for my husband to have & I made waffles, egg & beans for me & the youngest.

But this means I can have the curry another night, which I am really looking forward to.

I also did the grocery shop. I'd been pottering around the house today doing various bits of housework & new things we needed kept popping into my head, so I was making a shopping list throughout the day. This was a great move because I had the list, knew what I needed & didn't get anything that we didn't need. In fact I took some things out of my basket, swapped some for cheaper alternatives & in the end I spent £51 of our £60 budget, including delivery.

The leftover £9 will be kept for any emergency top ups we might need, but I really do think we're covered for the week.