Debt free before 30!

rockm87

Hi!

happy friday to you too.

That's good about your payrise, nice when things work out and it makes life a little easier.

Hope you enjoy your takeaway, cheap weekend for us too! glad it is sunny :-)

spendaholic1986

Ahhh just wasted £10 on the national lottery website on instant wins! So annoyed with myself! Went on to buy a lottery ticket and thought I might be lucky but no! Silly silly me! I never even usually do the lottery but for some reason it popped in to my mind.

Oh well lesson learned, the house always wins!

spendaholic1986

Well I just completed an SOA but couldn't post it here as as on my iPad and it won't let me copy and paste! Anyway it was such an eye opener! I should have £280 a month left after my minimum debt repayments and bills but I definitely don't! I think part of the problem is every month I end up getting myself in to unofficial debt with my OH, savings account etc! So I'm always starting the month around £50 down then overspend.

I'm obviously not sticking to my budget. According to my calculations this month so far ( baring in mind it's still two weeks until payday) I have already spent £135 on entertainment (nights out, takeaways, sweets for cinema etc) and I had only budgeted £80. That money has been 'borrowed' from my savings account and food shopping money. wasting £10 on the lottery didn't help either!

Really need to learn to stick to my budget.

Feeling very disappointed with myself as even though I thought I'd had my lightbulb moment I obviously haven't become a money saver!

Planning to spend some time reviewing my budget this weekend to incorporate this months overspend to make next months budget more realistic.

sick_of_being_in_debt

Well done on your debt free journey so far, at least you have realised and attempting to stop increasing it further. Hopefully the key will be to set a realistic budget allowing yourself a certain amount to spend without feeling guilty. I probably could clear mine a lot sooner but allow myself a bigger spending budget which I save up for in the school holidays etc. Although this year I am really struggling to save for christmas as my electrical appliances keep breaking:eek:.

spendaholic1986

Hi! Thanks for dropping in I agree I need to start giving myself a reasonable amount of money for the month and take in to account any pre planned events. Sorry to hear about your electrical appliances breaking...things like that always happen at the worst times!

I need to start trying to spend under my budget rather than up to the edge of it. i tend to think I can spend ££ this month when I should try and spend the minimum amount! I'm just such a spender...hence my name!

spendaholic1986

Right in order to help me stick to my budget and be more accountable for my spending I am planning to record all my spends for at least the next month on here!

So let's start with this week:
Monday:
£35.47 on Weight watchers subscription for the next three months
£2.56 on snacks for work

Today:
£2 on a scratch card (didn't win)
£2 on two drinks for today and tomorrow for work.
£2.89 paid off Halifax CC

Was hoping to a NSD tomorrow but have just gone to make my lunch and my wraps have gone mouldy so that'll be another couple of £££ on a sandwich!

Turned down a holiday to Italy in May next year with my family today to prioritise paying off debts. Disappointed but have my holiday in November so can't justify another one. Am proud of myself as would never have done this a month ago,

Have a call planned tonight with a uni friend who is always trying to persuade me to do fun things like weekends away so am going to have to keep my sensible hat on to make sure I dont agree to anything that I can't afford!

Doris17

Good Morning spendahloic,found your diary.
Well done on your progress so far. Shame about the holiday, just think of the holidays you can have when you are debt free that have been paid for and not added to the debt.
Have a good day Doris.xx

enjoyyourshoes

You only get the £1 once, if its spent you never get I back again. Debt is a result of all those little things that one spends, mags, lotto, snacks, crips, coffee's, cigs, booze, treats.
Probably worth calculating how much its costing you monthly to service your debt, this may give you a wake up call. Then see what you could earn in interest if you were saving that money you throw at your debts (to be debt free you need to pay off £800 per month every month till nov 16 without accounting for any interest
You could be saving this is a regular saver at 6% (HSBC £250, FD £300 & Lloyds £400 (albeit at 4%)) then calculate the money earned in compound interest

spendaholic1986

Thanks for popping in Doris!

There will be plenty of time for holidays and I've been spoilt enough to have had plenty over the years so I'm not exactly hard done by! :rotfl:

spendaholic1986

enjoyyourshoes wrote: »

You only get the £1 once, if its spent you never get I back again. Debt is a result of all those little things that one spends, mags, lotto, snacks, crips, coffee's, cigs, booze, treats.
Probably worth calculating how much its costing you monthly to service your debt, this may give you a wake up call. Then see what you could earn in interest if you were saving that money you throw at your debts (to be debt free you need to pay off £800 per month every month till nov 16 without accounting for any interest
You could be saving this is a regular saver at 6% (HSBC £250, FD £300 & Lloyds £400 (albeit at 4%)) then calculate the money earned in compound interest

Hi enjoyyourshoes, thanks for popping in

What do you mean by servicing my debt? Do you mean the minimum payments?

I agree, I could definitely make some savings with daily spends which I'm hoping this diary will help with over time. I am a long way from becoming a saver yet but find your idea interesting! Are you suggesting paying the minimums and putting anything additional in a savings account to earn interest (as my debts are mostly on 0%) Sorry new to all this so not sure I'm understanding!

To be honest, debt free before 30 is probably a bit optimistic as I will not be able to pay £800 a month off my debt, according to my spreadsheet I should be able to pay off both credit cards, the very account and one of my loans by then. Maybe this diary should be called credit card free and catalogue debt free before 30 LOL :rotfl: