A Ditherer's Diary (again)

enthusiasticsaver

With regards to pots have you looked at clear checkbook money software? You can set up virtual envelopes within one account (so your Nat West) and monthly budgets. That way you can see at a glance how much of the money in the account is allocated and where.

Naomim

[You haven't posted an soa or the debt figures so I can't comment which route I would think is best but if you are unable to make minimum payments and are still spending on credit to make ends meet it sounds like a DMP would need to be considered. Bankruptcy is no good if you have equity in your house and need to protect that.]

Thanks for your post. We are meeting the minimum payments at the moment. It's just once the 0% deals end. I'm building up the courage to look at them properly.

I did complete Matin's budget spreadsheet but do need to do an SOA. It's daunting.

Naomim

Naomim

With regards to pots have you looked at clear checkbook money software? You can set up virtual envelopes within one account (so your Nat West) and monthly budgets. That way you can see at a glance how much of the money in the account is allocated and where.

I've not heard of this. I'll have a look. Thanks!

EssexHebridean

Alternatively what about switching to a bank or building society that DOES offer the linked savings accounts from a current account, and maybe get a switching incentive too? the main site has a bit about switching when you have an overdraft I think as this does complicate things a bit - it's not impossible though.

Great work on the NSD's and all the packed lunches! )And brie and tomato sarnies - yum! There is NOTHING not to like about that!

Naomim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Alternatively what about switching to a bank or building society that DOES offer the linked savings accounts from a current account, and maybe get a switching incentive too? the main site has a bit about switching when you have an overdraft I think as this does complicate things a bit - it's not impossible though.

Great work on the NSD's and all the packed lunches! )And brie and tomato sarnies - yum! There is NOTHING not to like about that!

I will have a look at this but our overdraft is HUGE although I'm trying to get it down. Once I've accounted for everything going out and leaving MrM and I both some personal cash for the month, we've usually only go about £80 to drop it down. I say usually as "usually" we max it out and the bank text us to put money in the account to avoid charges. It looks like this month for a change there will be some money left on the overdraft.:j

Once I've posted the credit card balances and interest rates it will become clearer what needs concentrating on first. Credit cards or overdraft.

Good news is I have a £431 tax rebate due. I've already saved for Christmas so again this can either go against the OD or a credit card.

More good news, day 12 of not smoking :T feeling ok although I'm not doing it alone as I'm taking champix which worked for me last time.

Extra good news: brought lunch in again today, ham & salad cream for MrM and I. Found some sour cream pringles in the snack cupboard at work so that's good.

Thanks for the support.

Naomim

EssexHebridean

Put the tax rebate against the OD - it's the higher risk debt isn't it. Plus, the more your reduce the OD, the greater your freedom to change banks should you want to.

So - if you have an £80 positive against the OD limit this month - what's the target for next month? £160 positive?

Naomim

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Put the tax rebate against the OD - it's the higher risk debt isn't it. Plus, the more your reduce the OD, the greater your freedom to change banks should you want to.

So - if you have an £80 positive against the OD limit this month - what's the target for next month? £160 positive?

Yes, I'd like to be. I mean, it will take 4.5 years to clear the OD at that rate but I'm sure there's more money to be found somewhere along the line.

I'm about to embark on a part time 2 year undergraduate study course, sponsored by my employers. I'm hoping this will increase my earning potential eventually. I've got another 20 years of work to go and I've hit a glass ceiling salary wise so it's kind of now or never. I've not studied since 1990 so this will be a challenge!

Naomim

Naomim

Good news is I have a £431 tax rebate due. I've already saved for Christmas so again this can either go against the OD or a credit card.

Gaah forgot MrM's car is in for a service, new brakes etc so £225 of the tax will pay for that. Win some lose some.

Naomim

Naomim

Yesterday and today have not been NSD's. I've spent a total of £7.00. I haven't set a limit on how many I plan to have a month. Just as many as possible. Tuesday is Cubs night for DD and I work an hour later on a Tuesday so I can leave work 15minutes early the other four days of the week. Normally I get to my in-laws in time to grab a quick poached egg on toast on a Tuesday but last night I was too late. I collected DD and bought a bag of chips to bring home for dinner. Today I have bought lunch as I work from a different office on a Wednesday and no snack freebies.

So I've been playing with my spreadsheet and splitting everything into categories of spending. I really like the idea of pots.

DD's including credit Card DD's - this will stay in the current account I have

DS's lunches - will go into the bank account my child benefit used to be paid into. It's not used very much but does have overdraft facility that I will have to remove if DS is going to have the card.

DS's pocket money - will go into an instant saver account I have currently sitting at 0. DD's pocket money goes through a GoHenry card so I pay £10 a month by DD to this.

Regular savings - already go into a savings account for Christmas/clothing/vets but I'm going to see if I can up what I save so we have an emergency fund. At the moment we have no emergency savings so if the car goes or anything needs repairing there's no fund or I have to use the Christmas money I've saved.

Other Expenditure - This will cover things like mine & MrM's personal monthly allowance, dog food, petrol & grocery shopping. - This will need to be a new current account with NO OVERDRAFT.

I was thinking abut a Monzo account . Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

Naomim

poppytattoo

Hey Naomim, I'm new to your diary and have been having a nose through and saw you mentioned Monzo pots, so thought I would let you know my thoughts on those:

I got a Monzo card a few months ago and have been overall enjoying it. I had pots for our wedding savings, honeymoon, my friends' hen do, birthday presents, and Christmas. It's a great feature. The customer service in-app is great, basically like instant messaging. You can set budgets and the app will tell you how you're doing. It won't count money in your pots in your available balance which is useful. You can also set pots not to open until a certain date which is brilliant.

However, I am not great with managing money and even with the best will in the world I have managed to find some "danger points" when using it. The first one is - the overdraft. Monzo offered me an overdraft. I thought "yeah that will be great for emergencies" - but then I managed to rack it up with little spends here and there very quickly. I am not disciplined enough - I wish I had not selected the overdraft option. It's not very expensive as overdrafts go - 50p a day with a max of £15 per month - but it's still more hundreds that I owe which I really shouldn't.

The other thing I did was get really excited about pots, and set up a load of rules so that they would build up quickly - rounding up to the nearest pound on spends and putting it into a pot, setting it to automatically put £1 a day in, or £2.55 on the 255th day of the year etc - I didn't stop to think how much this would actually add up to so then ended up putting way too much in my pots and ending up with no actual money to spend, so had to pull money back out of the pots. I had essentially got too overexcited and shot myself in the foot.

These are not faults with Monzo, it's faults with me, but I thought it would be worth warning you not to make my mistakes if you do go ahead.


Good luck with everything. Although in different situations, I'm also the sort of person who gets so het up with debt and go through phases where I feel like I'm drowning and I let it consume me. I'm rooting for you - sending lots of good vibes!