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

Orange_Ena

ShiftThisDebt wrote: »

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!

I budget for lots of little things, anything that I know I will have to pay. For example, I have loads of little online savings account which can be renamed and I've got one for 3 smallish yearly outgoings which are about £24 / £65 / £85 so I put £14 per month away to cover towards these. Individually it might not seem much but I know I'll have to pay them so I budget for them in YNAB and save the money separately. Maybe allocating cash amounts or a small miscellaneous fund will help. Personally I hardly ever use cash so I can at least see where I've spent it when I check online, but I do keep receipts too. I've never been so organised :rotfl:

note3

Orange ena where do you get online savings accounts as my bank (tsb) appears to only let me have one esavings account and I like your idea of putting the money for things like car maintenance budget in separate place

ShiftThisDebt

I have a YNAB trial right now. I think I'll have a go at using it and seeing if this helps me account for every penny like it's supposed to!

ShiftThisDebt

Orange_Ena wrote: »

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

Oh no! I bet they would have offered that next!! :rotfl:

12_month_challenge

ShiftThisDebt wrote: »

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

That a great idea. I am going to hunt the house today for something similar

Thanks for the tip

ShiftThisDebt

Well, had a productive morning already. I have started the process of switching my bank account after cancelling my overdraft on Friday.

In the end I have decided to switch to First Direct and will recieve £150 for doing so. The reason I selected them and not the Halifax was because they offer a savings account which I want to use to build my new emergency fund up in. It also pays 6% interest on anything upto £3000 so seemed like a sensible choice right now. I've been with Santander all my life but I won't miss them, they've done very little for me over the years.

After having some discussions with enthusiasticsaver last night it has been really thought provoking. So here is my action plan;

• Analyse bank statements and really try to group 'spare' expenditure into categories, such as cash withdrawals, clothes etc.
• Make a list of all the little things that we currently don't budget for (eg, sports clubs) andadd them to the budget
• Setup YNAB properly (i think I need to make this work)

12_month_challenge

I too have just joined YNAB. I need to get my head round it. I watched a webinar on there yesterday and need to watch more to be able to really get to grips with it.

Well done on your progress so far

ShiftThisDebt

12_month_challenge wrote: »

I too have just joined YNAB. I need to get my head round it. I watched a webinar on there yesterday and need to watch more to be able to really get to grips with it.

Well done on your progress so far

Thanks!

Yes I agree it's not the simplest to begin with but I'm sure once it's up and running it'll make sense.

What I like is the budgeting of every penny to have a job. This is exactly what I need to do!

How long have you had it for?

12_month_challenge

ShiftThisDebt wrote: »

Thanks!

Yes I agree it's not the simplest to begin with but I'm sure once it's up and running it'll make sense.

What I like is the budgeting of every penny to have a job. This is exactly what I need to do!

How long have you had it for?

I've had it for a whole day :rotfl:

Joined yesterday

ShiftThisDebt

12_month_challenge wrote: »

I've had it for a whole day :rotfl:

Joined yesterday

Even less time than me :rotfl: