Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

Naomim

Hi GC,

At least you recognised the splurge for what it was and have returned things. Would the old you have done this?

Well done for paying off the student loan. Its a huge achievement and you should be proud of yourself.

Naomim

GeorgianaCavendish

Naomim wrote: »

Hi GC,

At least you recognised the splurge for what it was and have returned things. Would the old you have done this?

Well done for paying off the student loan. Its a huge achievement and you should be proud of yourself.

Naomim

You are right, it is a bit of progress. The old me would definitely not have done it! She would probably be vaguely promising to sell some of the items on eBay in the future but never get round to it. I'm still waiting for the refunds to hit my account so this is a good lesson!

GeorgianaCavendish

I'm counting down the days until payday because I'll be able to launch my first snowball at the Lloyds debt!

I've nearly finished all my Christmas shopping & prep (phew!), I've got two presents left to buy and advance purchase of train tickets for visiting relatives the weekend before Christmas.
There are so many financial stresses around Christmas and it is so easy for me to get swept along in the feeling of "I must buy XYZ" . This year, I feel much more aware of how much my stress fuels my spending habits (which then creates more stress!) One of my stress triggers is the amount of shopping that I "need" to do at this time of year, so I'm trying to find ways round it.
Getting my husband to do more of the shopping has been good for me, I'm still contributing financially but having someone else take care of the logistics is such a gift!

EssexHebridean

Oh Wow GC that is SO much progress - both on the student loan AND on the returning the items - well done you!

Right there with you on the Christmas shopping thing too - I used to get ridiculously stressed about MrEH's family's presents, for the last few years though I've worried about my Mum and Dad, and left him to worry about his, plus his older brother. (his younger brothers both have kids so we just do presents for the niece & nephews not the families as well - and we pretty much sort those out between us. My only proviso is that present buying is done ahead of Christmas as I refuse to be running around in the gap between Christmas/new year getting presents sorted for people.

GeorgianaCavendish

Thank you EH!
I completely agree re: OH's family, I've left him to it this year and it has taken a lot of stress off! Hope you have a nice relaxing break

GeorgianaCavendish

Quick question - is there a snowball calculator where you can input one-off bonus income in addition to setting the regular amount of debt repayment? I'm sure I used one a couple of years ago but I can't find it now.

astrocytic_kitten

The lemonfool one here does: https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/snowball-calculator.php

(Not sure if I’ve ever said hi, but I’m a lurker who can also be a massive shopper and I’m so inspired by your progress!)

GeorgianaCavendish

astrocytic_kitten wrote: »

The lemonfool one here does: https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/snowball-calculator.php

(Not sure if I’ve ever said hi, but I’m a lurker who can also be a massive shopper and I’m so inspired by your progress!)

Thank you so much for stopping by! That calculator seems to be exactly what I was looking for!

GeorgianaCavendish

I'm getting ready for 2020. I've just started a new spreadsheet; another! free trial of YNAB and ran my figures through a snowball calculator (thank you astrocytic kitten for the recommendation!) As I'm in the last few days before payday and my bill cycle starts at the end of the month, I feel like I've been able to do YNAB properly for the first time. I find it difficult to use their budget when I'm in the middle of a payday cycle but this time I'm starting from zero and planning my Dec/Jan budget in advance.

Earlier this year I realised that looking at my balances and spreadsheet too often made me stressed and pulled my focus in a dozen different directions, which ultimately undermines my debt busting goals. I'm going to try to address this in 2020 in the following ways:

1. 1. Dedicated bank account for debt repayments (and nothing else). I'm too late to do it this month, but I will change the bank details after the direct debits go out in the next 14 days.
2. 2. Transferring my planned debt repayment amount into this account each month and then ignoring it!
3. 3. Only checking my balances 1 or 2 times a month and keeping my overpayments to the priority debt instead of obsessively rounding down everywhere

I'm undecided about applying for more 0% deals in 2020. I've got a good plan (thanks to the snowball calculator) for prioritising my debt repayments that will see me debt free in August 2021. Although I won't pay everything off before the promotional rates expire, I'm not sure about transferring the debts again to short term 0% deals with high balance transfer fees. That just delays the deadline panic for a few months down the road and adds transfer fees to the mix. I guess I will see if I am offered something more favourable and make a decision nearer to the time, taking into account the balance transfer fee vs interest incurred on leaving it on an interest rate.

I'll have a think about my Making More Money plans for 2020 too (borrowing a term from Confessions of a Shopaholic!) I would like to get back into doing surveys and focus groups, as well doing another Spring Clean / eBay session, but I need to balance this so that they don't come at the expense of other goals. I have more exams in 2020 which is a big time and financial commitment, I've budgeted in my financial plans but I need to make sure I'm doing this in my time planning too. If anyone has MMM plans for 2020, please let me know!

One thing that we did really well in 2019 was stealth budgeting and getting more comfortable with not-so-stealthy budgeting too. We recently spent a weekend with a group of friends who were keen to arrange a number of expensive group trips for next year but instead of feeling pressured to say yes, we were both quite upfront with our financial plans for next year (we are moving home and need to prioritise that) and said that we can't do any of these holidays, but if anyone is planning to be close to us or would like to stay when we are in the new place we can do that. When I started this diary I really struggled with the thought of saying no to something because I couldn't afford it (or I couldn't afford everything and had other priorities for my money) so this is a big step for me!

PositiveBalance

Learning to say no publicly in a nice way is a good thing so well done on that!


Which debt are you tackling first then?