Feel the rhythm! Feel the rhyme! Get on up! It's debt-busting time!

Cool_Runnings

Hi everyone, I'm a long-time lurker turned diarist. I probably should have joined sooner, but I needed a great username and catchy title first!

I’ve read some good stories on here, and the support you give each other is wonderful to see as so many try to reach a common goal. I have the same goal – I’ve been in debt for several years and I’ve had enough!

The odd thing is I’ve long tracked every penny I’ve spent, but just watched the debt build-up. This peaked at £9,900 in September 2013 and was steady for a couple of years. I had my first lightbulb moment in June 2015 and while I have successfully managed and reduced the debt since then, I still feel I can do more.

The debt consisted of a loan and credit cards. I have now moved everything over to a single credit card, which is currently at 0% interest. At the end of October 2016, this had a balance of £7,000, so I’m declaring this as my debt figure for the start of this diary.

I’ll put up a bit more info about me, my targets and my (lack of) money over the next few days. Hopefully regular posting here will help keep me focused on the icy track ahead. :cool:

sourcrates

Welcome to MSE cool runnings !!

Huskyrunner

Good luck with your journey love the cool runnings reference my cousin would murder me for saying that mind.

My cousin is well on the gb bobsled team straight up

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/other-sport/british-bobsleigh-driver-mica-mcneill-12175849

Bobarella

Good luck Cool Runnings

Cool_Runnings

Thanks for the welcome everyone! Huskyrunner, your cousin is awesome! But slightly nuts too, haha.

A bit more on my finances - as above, the debt is £7,000 on a single 0% credit card. For the coming few months I’m only going to pay the monthly minimum on this - £170. Other than Christmas there are no big bills on the way, so I’m hoping to build up a bit of a safety net in my current account before increasing the card payments to beat the interest dates. The card debt consists of a few transfers, each having a different finish date for the interest-free period - need to make sure I keep on top of them. I'd like to avoid having to transfer the debt to another card, and it gives me a bit of a target to get it clear that way.

I have another credit card which I use for my day-to-day spending, and am now in a position where I can pay this off in full each month without waiting for pay day to come around, so I’m not including this in the debt. I’ll only start including this should I not be able to pay each bill in full.

My task for the weekend coming is to put together a budget spreadsheet, which I'll trial through December and then extend for the whole of 2017, and also check all the dates and amounts the interest will kick in on the credit card.

Cool_Runnings

Well it's not been a very exciting start to my diary so far, but maybe that's a good thing! :rotfl:

Today I've paid the monthly minimum to my credit card, which is actually now £160 down from £170. The debt balance now stands at £6,840.00. I've also fully paid off the balance on my spending credit card, which has left me with around £200 in the current account even before pay days comes around. This should mean I'm covered for the Christmas spending in December without having to carry anything over to January. I've not started on my budgeting yet though.

Day off work today, and it's been riveting so far - washing, cleaning and sorting! I'll spend a bit of time browsing around here this afternoon though. In my lurking days I spotted a few threads I want to join in on, I've just not done so yet.

Cool_Runnings

Oh, how I'm failing at keeping this diary going!

The first Christmas online shop has been done, and unfortunately I fell in to my usual trap of spending as much money on myself as I did on everyone else! I was actually fairly restrained though (a measure of how bad this problem has been in the past!), more than a few things were added to the basket then removed. What I did buy were a few bits and pieces for home that I've had on my list for a while, and a bullet journal (see Tinkerbelle2000's Bullet Journal topic here in the diary section - can't post links yet!).

I had an expensive food shop this weekend too. I generally go once a week, and usually aim for £25-£30, which is only for myself. With a few long-lasting things and some frozen goods, I ended up at £45, but at least had £7.50 worth of vouchers to soften the blow a bit. I'm fairly well stocked now though so should be good for the rest of the month.

basketcase

Cool_Runnings wrote: »

Oh, how I'm failing at keeping this diary going!

The first Christmas online shop has been done, and unfortunately I fell in to my usual trap of spending as much money on myself as I did on everyone else! I was actually fairly restrained though (a measure of how bad this problem has been in the past!), more than a few things were added to the basket then removed. What I did buy were a few bits and pieces for home that I've had on my list for a while, and a bullet journal (see Tinkerbelle2000's Bullet Journal topic here in the diary section - can't post links yet!).

I had an expensive food shop this weekend too. I generally go once a week, and usually aim for £25-£30, which is only for myself. With a few long-lasting things and some frozen goods, I ended up at £45, but at least had £7.50 worth of vouchers to soften the blow a bit. I'm fairly well stocked now though so should be good for the rest of the month.

Hi Cool Runnings - love that film! Will subscribe, if I may?

You sound a bit like me. I've just treated myself to a proper bullet journal (yellow - love yellow!), even though I know any notebook would do. I've been using an old notebook for about a week now and will use it all this month. but I feel I want to 'get serious' in the New Year IYKWIM.

Your grocery shop sounds as if it may cost a lot less in the long run. Do you think so? I've quite deliberately gone back to a monthly delivery of no more than £70 with an allowance of £80/month for top-ups. I think this will work out cheaper overall.

Are you squirrelling the extra monthly amount for your credit card away in a high interest account or anything?

Look forward to reading about your debt-busting exploits.:D

Cool_Runnings

Thanks basketcase, you're more than welcome to take a seat on the bobsleigh!

My food shopping is a bit of an odd one at the moment. I've generally been fairly consistent in terms of cost since cutting back earlier this year. There is the odd bigger shop, as this one was, when I stock up a bit and buy frozen items too, which I typically do all at once. The cost is consistent because I tend to buy the same stuff every week! I want to add a bit more adventure to my meals, so I'm starting to try out a few new things, but want to do so without putting the cost up too much. I'll be able to counter this though with another goal of mine, which is to cut back on snacking. So the money I save by not buying chocolate bars, biscuits etc will allow me to buy a few new 'proper' food items instead.

I'm not putting any money in to a savings account just yet. This will be something for early next year, once Christmas is out of the way and paid off. I'm going to make it a challenge too, based on a weekly transfer to the savings account. I'll list out all whole amounts from £1 to £52, and each week I'll transfer one of these amounts to savings until the list is complete - this will add up to £1,378 over the year. All of this will of course be recorded in my bullet journal!

doingitanyway

basketcase wrote: »

Your grocery shop sounds as if it may cost a lot less in the long run. Do you think so? I've quite deliberately gone back to a monthly delivery of no more than £70 with an allowance of £80/month for top-ups. I think this will work out cheaper overall.

I second this approach. I've tried so many different things and this way is cheapest and works best...

Tinkerbelle2000

Hi Cool Runnings. Thanks for mentioning my thread and good to see you over there. Hopefully as you use your journal more you can give us ideas as you go. Im by far no expert at it but just hoped it would help others.

I too am subscribing and along for the ride.

Good luck.

Tink xx