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Advice for Newbies (beware long post)
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Liliyanna
Posts: 109 Forumite
Hi everyone,
Late last year I finally became debt free, shortly after I received a PM from a lass asking me how I'd managed it and if I had any tips. I sat down and wrote to her describing exactly how I'd managed it (it was quite cathartic and seemed to close the door on a very tough two years).
The lass suggested I post my reply on the forum for others to read but I felt a bit awkward as if I was blowing my own trumpet. After looking round the last few days I can see many people posting who are at the same stage I was when I first found these boards and looking back I wish I'd had some sort of start up help.
So, I'm posting this to help anybody who has realised they need to sort their debt out but isn't sure where to start, I hope it helps in some way
Beware it's a long post...................
I've been thinking back on the last few years and am quite surprised myself. The short answer is we overhauled our entire lifestyle and worked every extra hour we could.
The long answer ….My OH and I had been together for 5 years (no kids) and after both coming from unhappy long term relationships to be together we went a little mad with several foreign holidays a year, a new car and furniture and lots of partying, all put on credit cards. We ran separate finances till 1st Jan 2013 when we decided we wanted to settle down and have the house, kids etc so we brought all our financial paperwork together on the kitchen table to have a good sort through, well I could have cried, in fact I think I might have! It was a very sobering day. After looking at everything I think if we'd have carried on within 6 months we would have hit the wall and been unable to pay and would have been looking at a DMP or worse.
The first thing I did was create a list of everything we owed, including interest rates, special rate finish dates and completion dates. We hobbled along for the first 6 months paying off what we could but with no clear plan of how to get out of the mess, then I received the MSE email in my junk folder and it changed everything. I started off reading all the posts on the DFW board for hints and tips. I pored over the old style thrift board and made pages and pages of notes and eventually stumbled across someone talking about their 'spreadsheets.
I brushed up on my spreadsheet skills and made myself a work book, it held sheets for everything and anything, more on this later.
I first shifted everything I could onto 0% credit cards, the 0% expiry date dictated our DFD date as I was determined not to pay any interest. I used price comparisons sites for the car insurances/utilities etc. Once I had everything down to the lowest payments I added all outstanding amounts and divided it by the 18 months left to our debt free date, this meant we had to pay our bills as usual and then over pay everything by £1600 a month to reach our date.
I took over the finances completely as my OH doesn't really have a head for this kind of thing and it certainly helped having total control over everything. This was a bit hit and miss to begin with as OH would still spend little amounts and forget to tell me and everything would go to hell. In the end I took their debit card away and gave them pocket money each week. After a few months the lesson was learnt and the card returned.
Everything up till this stage was relatively straight forward the hardest part was coming! There are only two of us in our household and for 18 months we have lived on the following monthly budgets
Food £100
Entertaining/Sundries £200
Petrol £150
FOOD
I batch cook everything we eat. I make Curry / Chilli / Lasagne / Shepherds Pie / Chicken Stew / Meatballs etc. I portion them up and throw them in the freezer, pull them out before work and they're defrosted when we come home, throw them in the microwave, job done. Saves on time, washing up and electricity. I have my main recipes listed by contents and price per portion. If it's an especially tough month I choose my recipes by cost rather than what I would actually like to eat. I shop on one day and batch cook the next. As you cook everything together it means there's no wastage, everything gets used up.
I make a shopping list using mysupermarket.co.uk and compare prices on everything, I put alerts on the more expensive items so I get an email when they price drop so I can decide to bulk buy outside of my usual shopping times if it's a good enough deal. One of these is the Oral B disposable electric toothbrushes which we both agreed we wouldn't compromise on. They generally sell for £6 but Tesco puts them on offer at £2.50-3 and Adsa puts them on offer now and again at £2. When I get the email from Asda I'm round like a shot stocking up! I prefer to go shopping alone as I always feel pressured to buy 'off list' if the OH is with me (sometimes its like having a small child with you !!). Aldi super six has become a firm favourite and I often pick my batch cook meals to take advantage of what they have. That said Morrisons have now started price matching Aldi and do their own version of the super six so I can generally get whatever I need.
I don't know if you've read it yet but MSE talks about the brand match challenge, dropping down the brands till you can find one you're happy with. We we went cold turkey straight away and I started buying the basics range of toiletries from the start. To be honest there wasn't that much difference, it is noticeable but it's certainly tolerable. It may take a bit of shopping around till you're happy though. OH prefers Morrisons mouthwash to Tesco and I prefer branded shampoo but will only buy it when it comes on offer.
Our main two shops are Aldi and Tesco simply for price reasons. We signed up for scan and shop with Tesco so when I shop I take my bags and put all my value range straight into my bag so it's not on display so I never feel awkward if I bump into any of my colleagues. Because you scan everything as you go you also find if there are any unadvertised bargains as you go along. I recently scanned a £1.79 jar of green thai curry paste and it came up as 50p so I cleared the shelf!!.
We 'yellow sticker' shop as often as possible. Our local Co-op drops their prices at 6pm and Tesco and Morrisons just a little earlier, Aldi does it throughout the day and you have to look out for the red 50% stickers. Buy as much as you can and freeze what you don't use with an eye to batch cooking next month. I always have an eye out for good meat reductions and some months don't have to buy any as I've already stockpiled discounted meat.
When I first started batch cooking we bought a stand up freezer from ebay for £50 and it's brilliant. We freeze just about everything, milk, cheese, bread, rice, veg, wraps etc. As I do the main shop once a month it's a god send. We always keep pasta and tinned tomatoes etc in the cupboard as a standby for when we get a bit fed up of batch cooked meals. So I always try and keep veg in the freezer, frozen sliced mushrooms are just as good as standard fresh ones when cooked and are cheaper by weight. I always keep bags of green beans/leeks/peas in the freezer to bulk out any batch cook meal if we're extra hungry. I make a lot of curries so always need natural yoghurt but wasted so much as it's always cheaper to buy the big pot but you only need a small amount, I now put the extra into an ice cube bag and freeze it, when I need some I can then just pop out a few cubes and they melt straight into the curry.
Entertaining/Sundries
The first things to go were the holidays, the first year we had none and the second we had a Sun holiday in Devon which cost us about £60. It was cheap and cheerful and we enjoyed it no end.
Before we would buy all sorts of different styles of alcohol, spirits,alcopops, ciders etc but now we buy only wine. We either buy the mid price range from Aldi or wait for the 3 for 10 offer to come up in one of the other supermarkets. I would like to say we weren't the biggest drinkers but looking back I think this would be a lie!!! Money saving has certainly made us cut down and that can only be a good thing.
We plan our outings with precision now, Tesco boost vouchers are brill for cost effective dining. Wetherspoons on a Monday is the most cost effective drinking pub as they do the Monday Club. We have an old phone lying around the house that we've put an orange PAYG sim in and use it to get the Orange Wednesday reduced ticket. We're both with O2 so always checkout the Priority Moments app to see what is on offer or free in the area. Groupon has some good deals but you have to be strong willed as it all looks so lovely.
We both have IPhone 4's which are out of contract so I've dropped both to a sim only contract which cost each of us £16 per month, it includes calls, texts and internet.
Petrol
I can fill my tank for £60 and if I drive nicely this will get me 500 miles, this equates to 12 a mile. I know that it's a 32 mile round trip to work and my rota tells me how many times I will work during the month. I then try and factor in all my other little trips and cost it all out. If something unexpected comes up in the month I do a quick calculation on what sort of money it will cost me and know straight away if I have it spare or will have to decline.
As soon as I was aware of everything we owed I signed up to internet banking with all of the companies and set up minimum payments on DD so nothing would ever be overlooked. I manage everything through my Barclays current account and OH's Halifax one. Halifax only has the bills go through it and neither of us keep a card for it. One of the sheets in my work book covers all bills so I know how much this account should have each month. On pay day I make sure there's enough in the account to cover it and then forget about it. We live out of my Barclays account. I have the phone app for both these accounts so can check them at any time and move money around within moments.
I have 6 savings accounts attached to the Barclays account and use these for my budget pots (Barclays will let you have as many as you like and all can be set up online, I know someone with 17 savings accounts!). I have Petrol/Food/Entertaining/XmasBirthdays/Cars/Contingencies. Whilst I was learning to manage everything I would put everything into each pot on payday so my main account was practically empty and then each time I paid for something I would move the money from the corresponding pot back into the main account to cover it, I'm a lot better at it now and generally leave the food and entertaining in the main account and keep a running total in my head.
I add both car insurances, MOT's and a something for general maintenance together and divide by 12 and put that away each month. I'm not sure how far you are along your journey but these are the basic rules of a SOA's.
I keep an A5 notebook with all the details of my MSE ways. It's nothing special, just somewhere I scribble bits and pieces in. I price match food items by price per unit and used to keep a running list of what was a real bargain, say if I stumbled across some cheese on offer/reduced but wasn't able to compare it on mysupermarket my little book would tell me that a really decent offer would be around the £5 per kilo mark so I would know straight away whether to buy it or not. I do this for washing/dishwashing powder/tabs etc, I'm sure you get the idea.
I write all my shopping lists in the book and scribble down anything I need to be aware of. I keep all my Tesco/Morrison/cut out coupons in the back of the book so am never without. Just remember to pick it up off the checkout when you've finished packing. More than once I've had to go back and get it, D'oh!
When I first started a lass named NSK would post a monthly challenge that I would join up to, I'm quite a competitive person so this suited me down to the ground. There were about 10 rules each month and one would be no spend days, trying to meet these certainly focused my mind and made me plan my spending better. There are loads of challenges around the boards for just about anything you can think of, if I was starting again I would sign up to a few more I think.
******************
All in all the culture shock to us both was massive, we are both in 30's and have reasonable jobs, we've always bought what we wanted when we wanted without price matching or asking if we actually needed it. We have so many gadgets and 'label' clothing not worn or used it makes me angry just to look at them.
What we needed more than anything to pull this off was total commitment and that's what we gave it. I don't think our families and friends are aware of how hard we've worked to get this done because I've found that debt is something people are unwilling to talk about even within a close group such as ourselves. I read early on that one of the best things was to be completely open with everyone about being in debt and how we were working to clear it so wouldn't be able to do certain things. The thought being that you don't put any pressure on yourselves to 'keep up with the Joneses' because you are trying to maintain an affluent façade.
Everyone has been really supportive and some know more detail about the depth of our debt than others. It has certainly prompted some long discussions on debt/manageability etc and some of our nearest and dearest have admitted to being uncomfortable with their current levels of debt but alas don't seem to had their own LBM yet
(
The learning curve was extremely steep but now we're coming out the other end I wouldn't change it for the world. I've learnt so much not only about consumerism and money management but about myself and how dedicated I can be to achieve my goals. The house deposit savings start on 1st Jan 2015. I think the OH thinks they can have a breather money wise so they're in for a bit of a shock there!! That said my OH has shown complete trust in me, allowing me to comb through their life and dictate what they should do with their own hard earned money and never questioning when I said we couldn't afford to buy or do something. I only hope your own family will be just supportive of you.
I wish you all the luck in the world with your challenge and hope this has helped in some way. If you need any further advice or just need a sounding board feel free to drop by. I don't post very regularly any more but I'm always surfing the boards.
Good luck my friends
Lily x x
Late last year I finally became debt free, shortly after I received a PM from a lass asking me how I'd managed it and if I had any tips. I sat down and wrote to her describing exactly how I'd managed it (it was quite cathartic and seemed to close the door on a very tough two years).
The lass suggested I post my reply on the forum for others to read but I felt a bit awkward as if I was blowing my own trumpet. After looking round the last few days I can see many people posting who are at the same stage I was when I first found these boards and looking back I wish I'd had some sort of start up help.
So, I'm posting this to help anybody who has realised they need to sort their debt out but isn't sure where to start, I hope it helps in some way
Beware it's a long post...................
I've been thinking back on the last few years and am quite surprised myself. The short answer is we overhauled our entire lifestyle and worked every extra hour we could.
The long answer ….My OH and I had been together for 5 years (no kids) and after both coming from unhappy long term relationships to be together we went a little mad with several foreign holidays a year, a new car and furniture and lots of partying, all put on credit cards. We ran separate finances till 1st Jan 2013 when we decided we wanted to settle down and have the house, kids etc so we brought all our financial paperwork together on the kitchen table to have a good sort through, well I could have cried, in fact I think I might have! It was a very sobering day. After looking at everything I think if we'd have carried on within 6 months we would have hit the wall and been unable to pay and would have been looking at a DMP or worse.
The first thing I did was create a list of everything we owed, including interest rates, special rate finish dates and completion dates. We hobbled along for the first 6 months paying off what we could but with no clear plan of how to get out of the mess, then I received the MSE email in my junk folder and it changed everything. I started off reading all the posts on the DFW board for hints and tips. I pored over the old style thrift board and made pages and pages of notes and eventually stumbled across someone talking about their 'spreadsheets.
I brushed up on my spreadsheet skills and made myself a work book, it held sheets for everything and anything, more on this later.
I first shifted everything I could onto 0% credit cards, the 0% expiry date dictated our DFD date as I was determined not to pay any interest. I used price comparisons sites for the car insurances/utilities etc. Once I had everything down to the lowest payments I added all outstanding amounts and divided it by the 18 months left to our debt free date, this meant we had to pay our bills as usual and then over pay everything by £1600 a month to reach our date.
I took over the finances completely as my OH doesn't really have a head for this kind of thing and it certainly helped having total control over everything. This was a bit hit and miss to begin with as OH would still spend little amounts and forget to tell me and everything would go to hell. In the end I took their debit card away and gave them pocket money each week. After a few months the lesson was learnt and the card returned.
Everything up till this stage was relatively straight forward the hardest part was coming! There are only two of us in our household and for 18 months we have lived on the following monthly budgets
Food £100
Entertaining/Sundries £200
Petrol £150
FOOD
I batch cook everything we eat. I make Curry / Chilli / Lasagne / Shepherds Pie / Chicken Stew / Meatballs etc. I portion them up and throw them in the freezer, pull them out before work and they're defrosted when we come home, throw them in the microwave, job done. Saves on time, washing up and electricity. I have my main recipes listed by contents and price per portion. If it's an especially tough month I choose my recipes by cost rather than what I would actually like to eat. I shop on one day and batch cook the next. As you cook everything together it means there's no wastage, everything gets used up.
I make a shopping list using mysupermarket.co.uk and compare prices on everything, I put alerts on the more expensive items so I get an email when they price drop so I can decide to bulk buy outside of my usual shopping times if it's a good enough deal. One of these is the Oral B disposable electric toothbrushes which we both agreed we wouldn't compromise on. They generally sell for £6 but Tesco puts them on offer at £2.50-3 and Adsa puts them on offer now and again at £2. When I get the email from Asda I'm round like a shot stocking up! I prefer to go shopping alone as I always feel pressured to buy 'off list' if the OH is with me (sometimes its like having a small child with you !!). Aldi super six has become a firm favourite and I often pick my batch cook meals to take advantage of what they have. That said Morrisons have now started price matching Aldi and do their own version of the super six so I can generally get whatever I need.
I don't know if you've read it yet but MSE talks about the brand match challenge, dropping down the brands till you can find one you're happy with. We we went cold turkey straight away and I started buying the basics range of toiletries from the start. To be honest there wasn't that much difference, it is noticeable but it's certainly tolerable. It may take a bit of shopping around till you're happy though. OH prefers Morrisons mouthwash to Tesco and I prefer branded shampoo but will only buy it when it comes on offer.
Our main two shops are Aldi and Tesco simply for price reasons. We signed up for scan and shop with Tesco so when I shop I take my bags and put all my value range straight into my bag so it's not on display so I never feel awkward if I bump into any of my colleagues. Because you scan everything as you go you also find if there are any unadvertised bargains as you go along. I recently scanned a £1.79 jar of green thai curry paste and it came up as 50p so I cleared the shelf!!.
We 'yellow sticker' shop as often as possible. Our local Co-op drops their prices at 6pm and Tesco and Morrisons just a little earlier, Aldi does it throughout the day and you have to look out for the red 50% stickers. Buy as much as you can and freeze what you don't use with an eye to batch cooking next month. I always have an eye out for good meat reductions and some months don't have to buy any as I've already stockpiled discounted meat.
When I first started batch cooking we bought a stand up freezer from ebay for £50 and it's brilliant. We freeze just about everything, milk, cheese, bread, rice, veg, wraps etc. As I do the main shop once a month it's a god send. We always keep pasta and tinned tomatoes etc in the cupboard as a standby for when we get a bit fed up of batch cooked meals. So I always try and keep veg in the freezer, frozen sliced mushrooms are just as good as standard fresh ones when cooked and are cheaper by weight. I always keep bags of green beans/leeks/peas in the freezer to bulk out any batch cook meal if we're extra hungry. I make a lot of curries so always need natural yoghurt but wasted so much as it's always cheaper to buy the big pot but you only need a small amount, I now put the extra into an ice cube bag and freeze it, when I need some I can then just pop out a few cubes and they melt straight into the curry.
Entertaining/Sundries
The first things to go were the holidays, the first year we had none and the second we had a Sun holiday in Devon which cost us about £60. It was cheap and cheerful and we enjoyed it no end.
Before we would buy all sorts of different styles of alcohol, spirits,alcopops, ciders etc but now we buy only wine. We either buy the mid price range from Aldi or wait for the 3 for 10 offer to come up in one of the other supermarkets. I would like to say we weren't the biggest drinkers but looking back I think this would be a lie!!! Money saving has certainly made us cut down and that can only be a good thing.
We plan our outings with precision now, Tesco boost vouchers are brill for cost effective dining. Wetherspoons on a Monday is the most cost effective drinking pub as they do the Monday Club. We have an old phone lying around the house that we've put an orange PAYG sim in and use it to get the Orange Wednesday reduced ticket. We're both with O2 so always checkout the Priority Moments app to see what is on offer or free in the area. Groupon has some good deals but you have to be strong willed as it all looks so lovely.
We both have IPhone 4's which are out of contract so I've dropped both to a sim only contract which cost each of us £16 per month, it includes calls, texts and internet.
Petrol
I can fill my tank for £60 and if I drive nicely this will get me 500 miles, this equates to 12 a mile. I know that it's a 32 mile round trip to work and my rota tells me how many times I will work during the month. I then try and factor in all my other little trips and cost it all out. If something unexpected comes up in the month I do a quick calculation on what sort of money it will cost me and know straight away if I have it spare or will have to decline.
As soon as I was aware of everything we owed I signed up to internet banking with all of the companies and set up minimum payments on DD so nothing would ever be overlooked. I manage everything through my Barclays current account and OH's Halifax one. Halifax only has the bills go through it and neither of us keep a card for it. One of the sheets in my work book covers all bills so I know how much this account should have each month. On pay day I make sure there's enough in the account to cover it and then forget about it. We live out of my Barclays account. I have the phone app for both these accounts so can check them at any time and move money around within moments.
I have 6 savings accounts attached to the Barclays account and use these for my budget pots (Barclays will let you have as many as you like and all can be set up online, I know someone with 17 savings accounts!). I have Petrol/Food/Entertaining/XmasBirthdays/Cars/Contingencies. Whilst I was learning to manage everything I would put everything into each pot on payday so my main account was practically empty and then each time I paid for something I would move the money from the corresponding pot back into the main account to cover it, I'm a lot better at it now and generally leave the food and entertaining in the main account and keep a running total in my head.
I add both car insurances, MOT's and a something for general maintenance together and divide by 12 and put that away each month. I'm not sure how far you are along your journey but these are the basic rules of a SOA's.
I keep an A5 notebook with all the details of my MSE ways. It's nothing special, just somewhere I scribble bits and pieces in. I price match food items by price per unit and used to keep a running list of what was a real bargain, say if I stumbled across some cheese on offer/reduced but wasn't able to compare it on mysupermarket my little book would tell me that a really decent offer would be around the £5 per kilo mark so I would know straight away whether to buy it or not. I do this for washing/dishwashing powder/tabs etc, I'm sure you get the idea.
I write all my shopping lists in the book and scribble down anything I need to be aware of. I keep all my Tesco/Morrison/cut out coupons in the back of the book so am never without. Just remember to pick it up off the checkout when you've finished packing. More than once I've had to go back and get it, D'oh!
When I first started a lass named NSK would post a monthly challenge that I would join up to, I'm quite a competitive person so this suited me down to the ground. There were about 10 rules each month and one would be no spend days, trying to meet these certainly focused my mind and made me plan my spending better. There are loads of challenges around the boards for just about anything you can think of, if I was starting again I would sign up to a few more I think.
******************
All in all the culture shock to us both was massive, we are both in 30's and have reasonable jobs, we've always bought what we wanted when we wanted without price matching or asking if we actually needed it. We have so many gadgets and 'label' clothing not worn or used it makes me angry just to look at them.
What we needed more than anything to pull this off was total commitment and that's what we gave it. I don't think our families and friends are aware of how hard we've worked to get this done because I've found that debt is something people are unwilling to talk about even within a close group such as ourselves. I read early on that one of the best things was to be completely open with everyone about being in debt and how we were working to clear it so wouldn't be able to do certain things. The thought being that you don't put any pressure on yourselves to 'keep up with the Joneses' because you are trying to maintain an affluent façade.
Everyone has been really supportive and some know more detail about the depth of our debt than others. It has certainly prompted some long discussions on debt/manageability etc and some of our nearest and dearest have admitted to being uncomfortable with their current levels of debt but alas don't seem to had their own LBM yet
(The learning curve was extremely steep but now we're coming out the other end I wouldn't change it for the world. I've learnt so much not only about consumerism and money management but about myself and how dedicated I can be to achieve my goals. The house deposit savings start on 1st Jan 2015. I think the OH thinks they can have a breather money wise so they're in for a bit of a shock there!! That said my OH has shown complete trust in me, allowing me to comb through their life and dictate what they should do with their own hard earned money and never questioning when I said we couldn't afford to buy or do something. I only hope your own family will be just supportive of you.
I wish you all the luck in the world with your challenge and hope this has helped in some way. If you need any further advice or just need a sounding board feel free to drop by. I don't post very regularly any more but I'm always surfing the boards.
Good luck my friends
Lily x x
LBM = Jan 1st 2013 - £42,000 owed DFD = Christmas Eve 2014 
:D
:D0
Comments
-
Congratulations Lily on getting control of your finances and I wish you all the best with saving for a house deposit. As you say to get out of debt the main thing you need is commitment and that is from all members of the household and you and your OH have certainly shown that anything is possible. I am impressed you have managed to bring your outgoings down so low. How much were you in debt initially if you don't mind me asking?
I have never been in debt but only because I worked for a bank after leaving school in the 1970s and in those days if you went overdrawn or were in financial difficulties it was frowned upon and you could even be disciplined. A few years later I was then trained up as a mortgage arrears counsellor so I saw first hand the misery that uncontrolled debt can cause so resolved never to go down that path. It has saved us a fortune as we have never paid bank charges and the only interest was on our mortgage which we paid off asap.
Thanks for sharing your advice and I am sure that it will help many people starting out on their DFW journey.I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free Wannabe, Budgeting and Banking and Savings and Investment boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
The 365 Day 1p Challenge 2025 #1 £667.95/£301.35
Save £12k in 2025 #1 £12000/£80000 -
I have just noticed your signature so ignore my question. To pay off £42k in less than 2 years is certainly impressive.I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free Wannabe, Budgeting and Banking and Savings and Investment boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
The 365 Day 1p Challenge 2025 #1 £667.95/£301.35
Save £12k in 2025 #1 £12000/£80000 -
Thanks for this thread Lili. I've just started our debt free mission, once & for all so am trying to get as many tips & advice as possible.
I like your idea of the notepad with all sorts of money tips you've learnt. I have my diary that I enter all our payments into on the correct date & I check our bank balance every day so I can check that everything has come out & make sure there is still enough in the account for the rest of the month.
I think I am going to get a notepad that I can keep with me too & start using that.0 -
Amazing achievement & a brilliant post. How do I recommend it for a board prize? I think it gives hope & clear direction to those needing to take the same steps." Your vibe attracts your tribe":D
Debt neutral 27/03/17 from £40k:eek: in the hole 2012.
Roadkill 17 £56.58 2016-£62.28 2015- £84.20)
RYSAW17 £1900 2016 £2,535.16 2015 £1027.200 -
Lily, you are not just sharing your experiences, you are lighting the path for the rest of us. Well done and thank you!
0 -
MoneyMission2015 wrote: »Thanks for this thread Lili. I've just started our debt free mission, once & for all so am trying to get as many tips & advice as possible.
I like your idea of the notepad with all sorts of money tips you've learnt. I have my diary that I enter all our payments into on the correct date & I check our bank balance every day so I can check that everything has come out & make sure there is still enough in the account for the rest of the month.
I think I am going to get a notepad that I can keep with me too & start using that.
i have just started and dont know if this helps, but i have an a5 dairy and write it all down in there, you do need a big bag but i use my diary to know what is going on all the time, they also have financial sections in the back so i keep a running track with bills there, as well as my spread sheet - also got diary free with o2 priority app!!1Brother 10/400 Account 1 £0/1131.21 (without interest:() account 2 £0/ £1200 (without interest
)
52 week challenge (50p one) £10/£588(finishing in november)
emergeny savings 0/£10000 -
lillyanna excellent breakdown, thank you, has helped me alotBrother 10/400 Account 1 £0/1131.21 (without interest:() account 2 £0/ £1200 (without interest)
52 week challenge (50p one) £10/£588(finishing in november)
emergeny savings 0/£10000 -
Thank you all for your kind words, it's a good job I'm sat behind a keyboard so you all can't see me blush
Lily x xLBM = Jan 1st 2013 - £42,000 owed DFD = Christmas Eve 2014:D0 -
Superbly explained and an inspiration to us all. I do more or less what you do and those who have read my posts will have seen me banging on about YNAB. Once you take charge of your finances like this, there is no going back. I'm pretty sure you and I will both be doing exactly the same things in years to come. Being consumer debt free is not the end of the road by any stretch of the imagination but it is certainly a wonderful milestone to achieve.
Very well done indeed.Debt Free! Long road, but we did it
Meet my best friend : YNAB (you need a budget)
My other best friend is a filofax.
Do or do not, there is no try....Yoda.
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excellent post! brilliant tips!! well done youTotal Debt in Feb 2015 - £6,052 | DEBT FREE 26/05/2017Swagbucks £200 Valued Opinions £100Dave Ramsey Baby Step 2 | Mr Money Mustache Addict0
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