Spend Nowt, Buy Nowt, Owe Nowt

XSpender

Thanks everyone 

@badmemory I have just missed out on the perfect chair on face ache marketplace 
Mint condition and exactly what I had before for £20 so will keep looking.

@brizzlegirl I have a couple of beers to drink in the garden tonight to soak up the sun before the weather breaks tomorrow 🍺🍺

@apple_muncher I had bought a new planner to start in July but have been in limbo not knowing whether it was going to be used for job seeking or new job role so had lots of blank bits I can now fill in 😄 Pens and markers all ready to go ✍️

@f0xh0les the nature of my job means that I could go into consultation again at anytime so I will be ringing the mortgage company this week to see if we can fix for 5 years.  We are also mulling over whether we should have a bigger emergency fund now, before clearing all our debt, in case I do lose my job.  Otherwise it is another 3 years before we will have pulled together 3 months of my salary and ideally we want 6 months mortgage payments saved

WinterWarrior

That’s good. I’ve not been tempted with unlimited as I like to keep my books....even on kindle I’m a hoarder! I have Prime so take advantage of the free book a month from First Reads, along with some free ones and some purchases. Every so often I will re read an entire series, but I do still get tempted for more! 

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Amazing news on your job, what a relief for you!

Suffolk_lass

Oh congratulations on your job situation. 🍺🍺  What a relief.

If me, I would concentrate on reducing what I pay out - interest on debt is always top, with planned overpaying on debt. Then boost emergency fund with Tilly tidies - that's how ours got to more than six months of expenses - a daily check and actual sweep, rounding down to the nearest £10. I found it also made me averse to those little top up spends - £3 here became £10 and much more noticeable. I could always pull a bit back if I needed it but I grew to really resent using our "savings" for expenses - nevertheless a god-send when things actually go wrong (as they do).

I bought a gel rest that sits in front of the keyboard because neither chair or desk are perfect. One of the best home-office purchases and just over a tenner. This has improved the circulation to my hands that I thought might be arthritis but upon reflection, seemed to be where I was resting forearms on the table that has a hard edge and is at the wrong height really. I also rest my elbow on it and my thumb is getting better too. Worth considering.

XSpender

XSpender said:

APRIL 
SAVED - £1040
PAID OFF - £569.20
FOOD SPENDING - £620.09

MAY
SAVED - £450
PAID OFF - £1003.42
FOOD - £564.93

JUNE GOALS
SAVE - £1000
PAY OFF - £1000
FOOD - £360
BULK -£40

JUNE
SAVED - £900.20 - 24%
PAID OFF - £921.62 - 23%
FOOD - £392.03
BULK - £47

We didn’t quite hit our £1000 savings and debt pay off goals but I am pleased with what we achieved.  We also cash flowed £83 of vets bills, 2 second hand wardrobes for the new office/dressing room, some replacement make up, restarted the gardener who needed 4 hours to tidy the front garden 😱 (it is nearly the length of the back) and a birthday bird bath! If only we could continue living on 53% of our income after furlough 😂

We also reduced our food spending significantly and we can easily cut this further without too much difficulty or feeling deprived.

JULY GOALS
SAVE - £830 (mainly into sinking funds)
PAY OFF - £2315
FOOD - £450 (5 week month)
BULK - £40

We will achieve the £4000 savings target (excluding EF and sinking funds) I set at the beginning of furlough when we have both been paid. This will be used to clear the £1839 on the Ll0yds card which goes interest bearing from today.  I’m not sure yet what to do with the rest. I had planned to clear our next smallest debt too which is under £500 and 0% for the term but I am tempted to hang on to what’s left and build a more substantial emergency fund given the ongoing insecurity around my job. Adding to it every month will slow down the debt payoff but not by that much, I am still focussed on becoming debt free but losing my job, especially in the current climate, and having £6000 less debt isn’t going to help pay the massive mortgage.  I compare it to being mortgage free but having no pension/retirement income.  I have a goal of £6000 on top of my £1000 EF and sinking funds as a starting point.  Along with redundancy and PILON this would cover us for over 6 months.  Ideally I would like £12,000 and DH wants £25,000(!!) and we will continue to build this, as well as paying down the mortgage, once we are debt free.

I rang the mortgage company and they confirmed I cannot apply to secure a 5 year fixed deal until 90 days before my current deal expires. I will see what deal they can offer then but will also ring L&C and find out what is available.

DH has been paid today and they have corrected last month’s errors and as I am on furlough I know what I am receiving so the new month’s budget has been done ready for our budget meeting tomorrow 😄

HairyHandofDartmoor

Great news on you keeping your job .

XSpender

I paid £1839 off the Ll0yds card this morning to clear the chunk with the 0% deal ending.   We have paid off £6339.44 so far this year and have not used a credit card since Christmas Eve last year. 

DH and I had our monthly budget meeting and DH has requested we have a quick catch up weekly.  We have decided to keep the rest of the furlough savings to kick start the first part of our fully funded emergency fund in light of my job always being a bit dodgy. 

We have agreed some goals for the next 6 months and set some challenges for July 

July to December

• Clear £1030 remaining on Ll0yds card (ideally I would like to clear this by November so I can BT another card on to it when it's 0% deal expires and not have 2 deals running on it)
• Clear £493.43 remaining on Cre@tion finance (only need an extra £70 to do this on top of FCPs)
• Save an additional £2900 towards our fully funded emergency fund (this is a challenging target!!)
• Continue to fund our sinking funds 

July Challenges

• Save £2/day from any of my spending pots to be used towards debt or savings goals at end of July
• Downshift grocery challenge (aiming to save at least £50 of the grocery budget and £20 from the booze budget)
• 'Make it work' meal plan week w/c 6th July where I don't buy anything extra for 5 evening meals in the weekly shop and use up what I have

Today we have rearranged one of the bedrooms into a home office/dressing room and I will finish cleaning the carpet and skirting tomorrow as well as relocate a pile of books to a cupboard downstairs.  We need to get rid of the king sized mattress which is not fit for anyone to use and the bed frame.  I may have to pay someone to take it away as neither will fit in the car.  I have ordered the doggle a 2nd bed for upstairs as he will want to be in the office with me so needs to keep his old bones comfortable.  I did look in Pundstretcher but they were as much as the ones in Pets @ Home but no where near the quality so I have ordered the same one he already has in a different colour as well as enough dog food for the rest of the month.  I am shattered from carrying the new wardrobes upstairs with the delivery driver on Friday and then humping furniture around all afternoon.  I will be as stiff as a post tomorrow!

I found a lovely desk chair on line but it is 16 weeks delivery and my back will be crippled by then!

DH has also stocked up on beer at L1dl today for the next couple of weeks and the cost is much lower than he usually spends so we will save a fair bit there.  We are over the £90/week budget for food but have stocked up on a lot of items we had run out of so it will even itself out especially with our 'Make it Work' meal plan challenge next week.

DH has also sent off his broken and shattered phone and will get over £30 for it!  He is also selling a game that has a high value but he does not think he will play again.  He has been very tempted by some new, much reduced trainers but as we have no where to go has decided against them.  He really has changed his tune over the last few months 

I am looking forward to going back to work on Wednesday although I am sure it will feel a bit weird.  I have a 'meeting' tomorrow and 2 training sessions on Tuesday so it feels like I am going back tomorrow.  DH has to leave for work at 6am tomorrow so we will all be having an early start and an early night tonight.

Honeysucklelou2

Good news on the job front. Well done on the amazing debt reduction too.

enthusiasticsaver

Great news on clearing the Lloyds balance which has gone interest bearing and for getting to grips with saving.  

Suffolk_lass

Well done you. Really getting a grip (to quote someone...)