Starting my diary again...

CandyCupcake

Feeling better today as I've sorted out the finances so everything's where it should be. I've managed to pay a little towards the family loan and also towards the EF. It's nice seeing the savings balance go up, it's building steadily so will hopefully reach the £1000 target fairly quickly

I like that my partner gets paid weekly, as it means I see things progressing on a weekly basis rather than monthly which is motivational for me.

Signature updated with new figures, now to go and get dressed

CandyCupcake

Is it just me, or is your budget never really complete?

I feel like I am constantly having to go in and tweak it due to either price changes, or things I've missed / didn't have a figure for until the event arose - like today's vet visit.

Hopefully I don't need to add anything for a while now, as I think I finally have everything covered!

findingthisdifficult

Welcome back to your diary CandyCupCake!

It definitely isn't just you, I'm tweaking my accounts all the time! Luckily I've found a really good app called Debit and Credit which I just reconcile every time I spend money, it can create reports to let me know where I spend money and what I spend money on, it's a real eye opener.

CandyCupcake

Thank you findingthisdifficult


I will have a look at that app, as I've tried YNAB and some others but not really liked them. So always willing to give something else a go. At the minute I'm just using the budget spreadsheet from MSE and one of my own. I suppose that's part of the reason to have an EF, so if you do miss something from your budget you will still have the funds to cover it and then can add it to your budget for the next time round.

CandyCupcake

I've just had a read through my original diary posts and feel I need to give a little update, as quite a bit has changed.


So, I am now a homeowner (as of November 2017) and feel extremely lucky to have been able to buy my dream home with my partner at the age of 27. My partner and I both have well paid jobs, so should be able to live and save comfortably. When we bought the house we cleared all other debts so life was great and stress free. But then silly me racked the debts up again So my current debts have only been accumulated in the last 12 months or so.


My aim is to get back to that debt free status ASAP, so that we can start having nice holidays again and treating ourselves without any guilt. Also, as mentioned previously, our mortgage is due for renewal in November this year. Our current mortgage isn't the best due to my partner having a CCJ when we applied. Luckily this drops off in Feb 2020, opening up a lot more mortgage lenders to us. We want to be in the best position possible for November so that we can get a better deal and reduce our mortgage payments. We currently pay £630 a month, when really we should be able to get a deal for about £100 a month less at least.


So that's my motivation! Wish me luck

CandyCupcake

Not much happening on the savings / debt repayments front until Friday. I realised that Feb and March are the 2 council tax free months, which I had forgotten about until I realised they hadn't taken February's direct debit. Anyway, I've decided to leave the extra money in the bills account as a buffer for anything I've forgotten to budget for instead of having to dip into the EF.

I've also been having a think about what to do with the money I make from my bet matching, and I'm thinking I might pay this to my partner for the savings I owe him. The profit I make varies, so instead of transferring the odd £s to the loan it's easier for me to transfer it into his savings account.

Wishing the days away until Friday so I can see those balances change!

CandyCupcake

Yay, the partner's payslip is up and he's picking up £96.11 more than budgeted for. So that will be £48.00 to the family loan and £48.11 to the EF on Friday.


I also have around £110 that I have made in the last few days bet matching, so when I withdraw this I will be adding this to my partner's savings nice like chunk off in one go! Hopefully I can continue to build this at such a good rate.


My partner also received an unexpected cheque from an old credit card for just under £50, but I've agreed he can keep this for some personal spends seeing as it's mainly his pay I'm using to pay the debts off

CandyCupcake

Woohoo weekly payday is here! Money allocated to the correct pots, it's so motivating seeing those balances go up / down accordingly

I changed my mind on where to put the funds from my bet matching, and instead of putting them towards my partners savings I've sent them to the family loan. So, after todays payments we only owe £163.65 to the family loan. So I'm hoping to have that cleared by my payday, which is mid Feb. Then onto the next one

Signatures all updated... roll on next Friday!

Choccygirl123

Hi candycup

Well done for the family loan, you'll have that smashed before you know it. I've had dairy's and lost track, given up and disappeared but I'm back abd finding daily posting really helpful. I waffle on, but find offloading it helps my planning.

You've made a great start abd I'm sure you'll be debt free with your new found motivation.

CandyCupcake

Thanks Choccygirl. It definitely helps writing everything down.

It's also a good way of keeping track of how far you've come. I know I only restarted my journey less than 2 weeks ago, but to see I've accumulated over £500 in this time to pay off debts and add to savings is amazing! It also makes me regret being in debt even more, as I could be using this money to go on holiday and buy nice things. It's all motivation to be debt free though I suppose!