Let's Do This....Debt Free Before 2019

ShiftThisDebt

Just checked and Barclaycard have credited the £50 which means I can now call them back and actually shut the account down for good! Plus they'll owe me £2.10

12_month_challenge

ShiftThisDebt wrote: »

Yes well according to SOA we should have about £800 spare. Really makes me wonder where the cash is going

I too often wonder where my spare money is going also. On paper it all looks so good but in reality not so.

Since your very first post you have come such a long way. Just organising your finances has made a huge difference in your tone already.

I have put some money in the cupboard and told OH its for the week ahead for essentials only. What's left in the bank on Friday will be used for debt. (OH gets paid weekly) what's left in the cupboard will be added to and so on Therefore no little withdrawals from the bank. I aim to try this method and see if it makes a difference.

Keep up the positivity

enthusiasticsaver

I was one of the people on your last thread querying where the spare £700+ was going and I have to say I am still wondering that as your debt still appears to be going up as it is now more than £36k and it was around £30k from what I remember?


You have obviously restructured and it is good it is on 0% but your soa says nothing for holidays but you have a Disneyland trip coming up? You mention home improvements and builders but nothing in your soa for that either. With three children there will always be something you can spend your money on but to get rid of debt you have to prioritise that over holidays, home improvements, nfl tickets etc etc.


Having said that I do hope that you prove me wrong and you can live within a budget and get rid of this but I am still wondering if you have really had your LBM and having got this all on to 0% you may have just moved it all a few years down the line.

ShiftThisDebt

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I was one of the people on your last thread querying where the spare £700+ was going and I have to say I am still wondering that as your debt still appears to be going up as it is now more than £36k and it was around £30k from what I remember?


You have obviously restructured and it is good it is on 0% but your soa says nothing for holidays but you have a Disneyland trip coming up? You mention home improvements and builders but nothing in your soa for that either. With three children there will always be something you can spend your money on but to get rid of debt you have to prioritise that over holidays, home improvements, nfl tickets etc etc.


Having said that I do hope that you prove me wrong and you can live within a budget and get rid of this but I am still wondering if you have really had your LBM and having got this all on to 0% you may have just moved it all a few years down the line.

Thanks for commenting enthusiasticsaver.

In terms of my SOA, the part that I'm now trying to get my head around is that "spare" money. Clearly it goes somewhere. Genuinely I don't know at this moment. The SOA is how I understand things at this moment.

This diary is designed to be a learning journey. I don't have all the answers right now.

As for Disneyland that was booked a year ago before we knew we were buying a house. We were committed and the house buying process cost more than we thought. It is what it is. We're not going to cancel the holiday. One thing we've never done is put a holiday on credit, so some of that extra cash has gone there. (Yes I know we need to budget better, I'm getting there with that though!)

As for NFL tickets, well you've got to live a little bit and I'm not going to apologise for buying them. It's a passion of mine and tbh I rarely buy anything for myself anyway.

I've worked out an affordable snowball (perhaps I've even underestimated it a bit in terms of how quickly we could pay it back) which we're happy with and we will get this debt paid within 3 years. I have had my LBM. I know I have as I've worked bloody hard since Christmas to get all this sorted out, literally seeing what I can do everyday to make progress.

Also your right the debt did grow, Unfortunately we took out a loan for essential home maintenance which included a new boiler.

As I say we just need to get better at budgeting which I'll readily admit. But from where I was before Christmas, I'm feeling good about it.

enthusiasticsaver

ShiftThisDebt wrote: »

Thanks for commenting enthusiasticsaver.

In terms of my SOA, the part that I'm now trying to get my head around is that "spare" money. Clearly it goes somewhere. Genuinely I don't know at this moment. The SOA is how I understand things at this moment.
My point is that all these other things is where your spare money is going. That is fine but you need to account for it on your soa or it is a pointless exercise and just a wishful thinking rather than actual soa.

As for Disneyland that was booked a year ago before we knew we were buying a house. We were committed and the house buying process cost more than we thought. It is what it is. We're not going to cancel the holiday. One thing we've never done is put a holiday on credit, so some of that extra cash has gone there. (Yes I know we need to budget better, I'm getting there with that though!)
You have a holiday booked so you will be spending money on it but there is 0 in your soa. As you say you are not going to cancel it but you should be putting a figure in it.
As for NFL tickets, well you've got to live a little bit and I'm not going to apologise for buying them. It's a passion of mine and tbh I rarely buy anything for myself anyway.

So is that included in the £200 entertainment figure per month or in addition - do you see where your money is going and how you justify it? Not getting at you, just trying to make you see how you got where you are.

I've worked out an affordable snowball (perhaps I've even underestimated it a bit in terms of how quickly we could pay it back) which we're happy with and we will get this debt paid within 3 years. I have had my LBM. I know I have as I've worked bloody hard since Christmas to get all this sorted out, literally seeing what I can do everyday to make progress.

Also your right the debt did grow, Unfortunately we took out a loan for essential home maintenance which included a new boiler.
Again, if you have a house, you know there will be essential maintenance and if you do not have an emergency fund then you need to account for it in your soa
As I say we just need to get better at budgeting which I'll readily admit. But from where I was before Christmas, I'm feeling good about it.

I have replied above in red to your comments about your debts.

ShiftThisDebt

1) Yes you're right. But it currently shows how I see the money coming in and out. Obviously there's a large discrepancy in the budget. As I say, we're working on that.

2) yep so some of this months surplus will be going on spending money. However it seemed pointless putting that in as its one off for February rather than a real monthly outgoing. Though I do concede that we need a holiday budget for our August trip to France and will ensure that in my budget it is there.

3) I'll be honest an entertainment budget is a new thing for us. Going forward this should help us budget better. However the NFL tickets are paid for. Again, that came out of the "surplus" last month. bad budgeting, I'll accept.

4) yep agreed. We're now saving an emergency fund.

ShiftThisDebt

12_month_challenge wrote: »

I too often wonder where my spare money is going also. On paper it all looks so good but in reality not so.

Since your very first post you have come such a long way. Just organising your finances has made a huge difference in your tone already.

I have put some money in the cupboard and told OH its for the week ahead for essentials only. What's left in the bank on Friday will be used for debt. (OH gets paid weekly) what's left in the cupboard will be added to and so on Therefore no little withdrawals from the bank. I aim to try this method and see if it makes a difference.

Keep up the positivity

That's so great that you've done that too! I found a tiny set of cardboard drawers, for stationary, which i stole from my daughter and labelled them 'food', 'petrol' and one for me and one for my wife! Will draw cash out for them tomorrow!:T

enthusiasticsaver

You probably also have to put something in the clothing budget as you have children, presumably the 4 year old and 2 year old need stuff constantly as they grow, shoes and school uniform also need to be accounted for. Also the gas and electric look quite low to me. Is that accurate? After school clubs, brownies, gym clubs, school trips under other childcare expenses?


If you budget accurately for all these things then you can confidently overpay on your debts at the beginning of the month then you are not tempted to spend the whole surplus leaving you nothing to snowball. I appreciate you are working hard at this so don't mean to undermine you. I was a debt counsellor previously so have some experience of helping people to reduce their debts.


Also doing your own packed lunches is really good and will save you a fortune. Undoubtedly I think a lot of your surplus has been going on cash withdrawals which most people forget about and this is probably spent on odds and ends which all add up over the month. I would suggest you and your DW budget for just one cash withdrawal each week and try to keep within that.

ShiftThisDebt

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

You probably also have to put something in the clothing budget as you have children, presumably the 4 year old and 2 year old need stuff constantly as they grow, shoes and school uniform also need to be accounted for. Also the gas and electric look quite low to me. Is that accurate? After school clubs, brownies, gym clubs, school trips under other childcare expenses?


If you budget accurately for all these things then you can confidently overpay on your debts at the beginning of the month then you are not tempted to spend the whole surplus leaving you nothing to snowball. I appreciate you are working hard at this so don't mean to undermine you. I was a debt counsellor previously so have some experience of helping people to reduce their debts.


Also doing your own packed lunches is really good and will save you a fortune. Undoubtedly I think a lot of your surplus has been going on cash withdrawals which most people forget about and this is probably spent on odds and ends which all add up over the month. I would suggest you and your DW budget for just one cash withdrawal each week and try to keep within that.

Firstly, I don't feel like you're undermining me at all and I appreciate your time and responses.

Secondly, you make some very shrewd observations.

I was just looking at the SOA again and, for certain, clothes needs to be budgeted for. Some of the money definitely gets spent on clothes each month as my wife will usually pick things up here and there. Probably need to have a chat about that and set a budget.

The gas and electric is correct in terms of our fixed monthly outgoing however I did do some maths on our actual usage and I believe we're probably underpaying. In our old house we used to get charged pretty much exactly what we used as I used to track it very closely but since being in the new house I haven't git a full annual consumption yet. I think saving a bit extra for the inevitable extra that we'll owe would be sensible.

DD14 does a couple of clubs which we should budget for but currently don't. Guess it's one of those "have you got a quid dad?" situations but over a month equals around £15 or so I bet.

We do take packed lunches everyday so that's one good thing!

And I think the fewer cash withdrawals we make the better. I'm convinced this is where we squander a lot of cash. When I analyse the bank statements I'll note how many and how much our withdrawals were!

Orange_Ena

ShiftThisDebt wrote: »

And finally I called Barclaycard. I balanced transferred the £1200 I had on that card to a new Halifax card which is 0% until next February. I had a balance remaining of £47. The guy on the other end of the phone did his best to stop me closing the account down, making me a coupleof offersincluding 6 months 0% on purchases (Errrr no thanks!!!) but I absolutely insisted that I was closing it.

Anyway, he then made a 3rd offer. "Okay, I see you have paid a lot of interest over the years (Yeah no s*** Sherlock!) so today I can offer you £50 to spend on your account"

After checking this would besimply £50 added to my account with no hidden rules, I took it. Because this in effect pays my account off now, so I've saved £50! I wasn't expecting that, so that's a bonus £50 I bagged today. I know it's a drop in the ocean compared to what I have paid but hey, it's better than a kick in the teeth!

Oh man! I called them the other day to close my account down but I fell for the 0% on purchases for 6 months line! Darn it :rotfl: I knew I should have insisted and they might have offered me £50