Small Steps Out Of Massive Debt!

GeorgianaCavendish

wishingthemortgaheaway wrote: »

Thank you, it really has been good and ynab itself is very motivating. I often see people on the fb group say that they have emailed the ynab customer services team and they have had their free trial extended to 3 months.

That is worth a try! I'll email them and see if there is any possibility of extending the free trial - I would be happy to pay for it but I need to budget for it first!

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

Also another who can't praise ynab enough. I wouldn't be without it. I have categories for everything and know exactly how much I have to spend at any time.

I love Dame Ramsey as well! He's not everyone's cup of tea but I'm a big fan of his no nonsense approach and tune in regularly to his radio shows.

I've read a lot about Dave Ramsey on other people's diaries, but it would be good to go straight to the horse's mouth! I see that he has a podcast on Apple Podcasts, so I will give that a go I also have The Soul of Money by Lynne Twist downloaded (I got a free Audible credit :T before Christmas) but haven't started listening to that yet - have you come across that one before?

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Also a fan here of building up at least some sort of emergency fund before throwing everything spare at debt - if emergency hits things can escalate so fast, just even a small buffer - £500 if renting for example - can make a massive difference to a "well you get the new fridge sorted and we'll take it from your next rent payment" scenario for example.

Also loving the idea of "financial FOMO" though and absolutely get where you're coming from on this!

YNAB etc are great BUT you need to understand the practise and be able to do it all manually as well - because it's only that way you can pick up if something has gone wrong. Just letting an app "do it all for you" can be a highway to trouble for some folk.

I really agree about the emergency fund. That lesson has been driven home over the past year
You are right about learning the lessons from YNAB and not just relying on the app to do it all for me, I think that as a tool it is useful but I also need to learn the skill of budgeting! At the moment, I'm finding that the tutorials are so useful in helping to shift my perspective about many financial hang ups. I feel a bit stupid to be only learning these things now, but then I think there must be a lot of other people in the same boat for YNAB to be so successful!
Glad you like the Financial FOMO phrase I was trying to think of a way to describe the feelings I get when trying to decide on a course of action, and sometimes, from reading the other diaries on here. Even though I know that everyone has a different situation and that there isn't a one-size-fits-all debt solution, I do find that I'm second-guessing myself a lot.

GeorgianaCavendish

savesummore wrote: »

Hi there,
Long time lurker here!
Glad to see you back on here and sorry that you have been having such a difficult time.
I'm another fan of Dave Ramsey, his way of doing things just makes sense to me, build up some savings (£500-£1000) then he says to pay off your smallest debt first whatever the interest rate as its good for your moral.
I also like him as you can down load his app and listen to his regular radio shows or find him on you tube it helps me to have a constant reminder.
I'm trying to pay off my debt and have been hit with £900 worth of car repair bills in the last 4 months! So frustrating but if we keep heading in the right direction hopefully we will all win in the end.

Oh great news about the app, I will download that! Sorry to hear about your car repair bills :mad: but you are right, as long as we are heading in the right direction we will get there in the end!

kindofagilr wrote: »

I've been a spreadsheeter for years, then decided to give YNAB a go (6th Jan I started it) and I am in love already I hope you fall in love too

Thank you I'm learning my way around YNAB and loving it so far. Do you have any favourite features?

kindofagilr

GeorgianaCavendish wrote: »

Thank you I'm learning my way around YNAB and loving it so far. Do you have any favourite features?

Honestly at the minute just all of it lol

I do love how it can actually all just stay in one bank account if you want to and you have virtual pots to "move" it too, that's good, before I had YNAB I used to have 3 separate current accounts and was always having to move money all the time, so I do like that the most at the minute

How about you? xx

WannabeFree

I really couldn't work YNAB out, I just couldn't do it

Hope you've had a good day

x

Seasidegal58

kindofagilr wrote: »

I do love how it can actually all just stay in one bank account if you want to and you have virtual pots to "move" it too, that's good, before I had YNAB I used to have 3 separate current accounts and was always having to move money all the time, so I do like that the most at the minute.

I have a Santander 123 current account that pays Cashback and interest and I keep all my pots there, which includes my emergency fund so everything is in one place. But ynab shows me exactly where everything is and I can move things around within it so I never need separate bank accounts. The interest on the current account is good for an easy access account as I don't want to tie my pots up in fixed accounts.

GeorgianaCavendish

kindofagilr wrote: »

Honestly at the minute just all of it lol

I do love how it can actually all just stay in one bank account if you want to and you have virtual pots to "move" it too, that's good, before I had YNAB I used to have 3 separate current accounts and was always having to move money all the time, so I do like that the most at the minute

How about you? xx

I really like the pots too. I actually loved changing them when I cancelled a couple of direct debits so much, I felt so geeky :rotfl:
I'm still baby-stepping through YNAB, but at the moment the biggest revelation to me is the idea of purposely putting money in the "Things I Forgot To Budget For" category in advance, instead of sheepishly doing it after the fact. Probably this is not so ground breaking for everyone else, but it is really helping shift my viewpoint about money!

GeorgianaCavendish

Seasidegal58 wrote: »

I have a Santander 123 current account that pays Cashback and interest and I keep all my pots there, which includes my emergency fund so everything is in one place. But ynab shows me exactly where everything is and I can move things around within it so I never need separate bank accounts. The interest on the current account is good for an easy access account as I don't want to tie my pots up in fixed accounts.

I've looked at the Santander 123 account in the past but I couldn't quite get my head round it. Maybe I should do some more research. I've been with HSBC for years and the idea of changing bank used to make me feel panicky because basically everything about personal finance was this impenetrable scary fog that I was convinced I'd be unable to navigate on my own. I feel a lot more confident that I understand my finances now so I should try again and see if there are benefits to switching.

GeorgianaCavendish

It's one week to payday and for the first time (in perhaps ever!) I'm not stressing out about running out of money before January payday, even though I got paid early in December. OK, the bank balance is looking pretty lean at the moment but I know that we've covered all our expenses.

My main focus for the rest of this month is to get my season ticket loan sorted out. My current season ticket expires on 1st Feb and even though I put all the paperwork for the loan agreement in good time, something has gone awry because it hasn't been processed yet. So I'm going to track down the right person in the office and ask them what I need to do to sort it out.

GeorgianaCavendish

WannabeFree wrote: »

I really couldn't work YNAB out, I just couldn't do it

Hope you've had a good day

x

You are so organised anyway Wannabe, even without YNAB! Hope your day is getting better x

Homegrown0

GeorgianaCavendish wrote: »

I've looked at the Santander 123 account in the past but I couldn't quite get my head round it. Maybe I should do some more research. I've been with HSBC for years and the idea of changing bank used to make me feel panicky because basically everything about personal finance was this impenetrable scary fog that I was convinced I'd be unable to navigate on my own. I feel a lot more confident that I understand my finances now so I should try again and see if there are benefits to switching.

I also have a 123 Lite bank account and i get around £9 cashback per month just for paying certain DDs from there. I chose the Lite account because it's £1 per month fee (as opposed to £3) and I don't keep enough money in the account long enough to benefit from the decent interest rate on balances above £X. The lite one does me just fine!

Worth taking a look at. Also, most banks now will do the donkey work with moving all your DDs over to get you to switch so stress from your end should be minimal.

On a side note, must be a lovely feeling to not be worrying about money for the first January ever! :beer: