Scottishsuz Debt Diary

scottishsuz

Right...

I've been merrily reading everone elses diary for a few months now and never gotten around to one yet so tonight is the night. I figure if i have to answer to you guys it will give me the motivation I need to carry on!!

The situation is as follows;

From my sig you'll see I owe a car loan, student loan and mortage. My aim is to pay off the car loan soon and have the other debts cleared by the time I'm 40, if not before and possibly try and move up the property ladder from a one bed flat to a house with a garden and driveway (maybe thats just wishful thinking ).

I've had a really bad July with vet bills (£140), roof repairs (£102), joiners (£60) and b'day pressie for bf (70). So Aug needs to be v.tight. I'm also £30 o/d boo...

So far this month I've been bad and bought my lunch which cost £2.20, bad me!

Thanks for reading my ramblings!

Suz

*zippy*

Good luck suz

scottishsuz

Update:

I have reorganised my money so it will remind me of what my budgets are and how much I've spent. I now have two wallets, one for food and diesel and the other for treats. Both have little cards in them which tell me what the budget is and has the following highlighted with big stars so it grabs my attention

"£1 on mortage saves £2 on interest" and Need? Want? Wait?

I also have a spending diary to record where my money is being frittered away to.

Its all thanks to you lovely folks, both these suggestions came from people on this site via other threads, so thanks

scottishsuz

Wee update:

So far I have managed to keep my spending diary up to date (main entry is sweeties :whistle: ) and having two purses seems to be helping lots.

This morning I've sent of my withdrawl form to get the money out of my savings account to pay off my car loan. Yay :T

Next month I'll be paying back my bf with the loan payment and the following months I'm aiming to re-gig my finances to attack my mortgage next

Suz

scottishsuz

Update:

Sent of a cheque this morning to pay the balance of my loan.
The settlement figure is less than I had anticipated so I'll be able to pay back my bf this month too, £2070 cleared in a day!! :dance:

This debt repayment is really quite adictive!!

Suz

madmoney_2

lol isnt it just?! ur doing really well, keep us posted xxx

Burlesque_Babe

scottishsuz wrote: »

"£1 on mortage saves £2 on interest"

Love the quote - i'm going to keep that in my head!

scottishsuz

Update:

Well I've paid my car loan off, which is good. My bf is getting paid back hopefully today, I wasn't organised enough to pay him back after all which is not so good.

I've upped my mortgage payments by a little bit and re-gigged my SOA to the following;

Wages 1081
Expenditure
Vets 25
Diesel 40
TV Licence 11.5
Gas & Electricity 40
Life insurance 8.5
Buildings and contents0
Phone 26
Student Loan 15
NSI 80
Food and sundries 90
Mortgage 272.06
Mortgage overpayment55
Car 60
Council Tax 79
Heating maintenance 15.5
Treats 160.00 (40.00 per week)

Total: 977.56

Leftover: 103.64

Except I'm having real trouble sticking to it
Kinda lost my way a bit with a few things, the spending diary has fallen on its head, and I really need to give the two purses a better try, it all got very muddled last month.

Just need to keep going, I know if I can keep to my SOA then that extra £103.00 a month would make a really good impression on either my savings or mortgage. Its just so hard to say no when your asked to go out. I am getting much better at not entering into 'rounds' of drinks with people, I buy my own and drink very slowly then switch to water when everyone else is too pie eyed to know any different!

How do you guys stick to your budgets? Looking at others in here who are living on £20 odd a week makes me feel really quite inadequate!

I guess I just need to pull myself up by the bootstraps and get on with it.

Suz

scottishsuz

Been a shaky start to Sept but I'm getting better organised I think.

I've managed to put extra pennies into my mortgage tin, not sure how much I avoided counting it properly or it will be too tempting to dip into it at a later date but it was over £15

Had a note through the door about getting a security door put on my building, no idea how much these things cost but its a cost I could really do without. Need two back tires on my car but they are fairly inexpensive so I'll be able to pay that out of my car fund next month.

Just plugging along at the moment.

Edit: Just noticed my total debt including my mortgage is now below £50K!!!! YASSSSSSSSSS

scottishsuz

Update:

Pootling on with becoming debt free. Unfortunately got the MOT bill and bought a new jacket which I shouldn't have done...oh well.
Am getting to grips with spending £40 a week, I'm hoping to reduce it as time goes on as I become used to a smaller budget. My aim is to get down to £20.
My house insurance is due in Nov. so I'm being extra careful with pennies so I can pay it off in one go.

Slowly but surely its reducing....

fletch3163

Hah, don't you just HATE it when spending gets in the way of saving? That's been happening to me now for almost two months. First the washing machine, then the tumble dryer, then the central heating. Fair puts a person off their stride. Well done on your achievements so far.