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Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility
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Another WFH day today as I couldn't be bothered to battle the commute and I had no meetings anyway. Saves on time, fuel and packed lunch, so MSE friendly.
Going to work a wee bit latter tonight (DF is out for beers tonight instead of last night) so I have the luxury of doing What I Want this evening:). Need to catch up on some work and will reward myself with a takeaway. Not so MSE friendly but I need to motivate myself to get this particular piece of work boxed off sooner rather than later and I love food so much that it is a great motivator :rotfl: Bit behind on my schedule for the day (got up late, just about to have lunchand so working late fits perfectly
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Bought a family birthday present yesterday online and need to pick that up at some point. All within budget. I have £17 in my PA pot, so I've spent that on a new belt in the John Lewis sale as a treat (I use cashback as unexpected windfall and thus assign to treats - makes completing surveys more rewarding). At around £14 on One Poll but I'm just ticking that along. I don't do any other surveys as I'd rather spend the time it takes doing other stuff. Like eating
In the office tomorrow, maybe on Thursday (undecided on plans yet) and then out and about on a work visit on Friday, so spends all organised and planned. :T
DSL :j0 -
Oh, I almost forgot, I ate all the cream cakes :eek: so I'm feeling a bit fluffy. Must get back into sport. It seems to have been lost from my life in recent months. Its amazing how easy it is to lose the normalcy of doing regular exercise. Must try harder!0
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DrSpendLittle wrote: »So, I got a text from my home insurer yesterday saying my account was in arrears. :eek:
I bought buildings insurance in early December (paid upfront online) and then a week later added on contents insurance (paid upfront on the phone). Apparently the second payment didn't go through as for some reason I used my CC3 (I think to get points) and they rejected the transaction (not sure why, can't you not pay for insurance with a credit card..?). However, it turns out the insurance comany's system didn't register the declined payment until two days ago because of a technical glitch! :mad:
I rang them and went a bit mad at them as I was concerned about the 'arrears' status of my account but they said it was their fault and it wouldn't be registered externally and would be immediately removed from their system upon payment. Phew.
Anyway, I've had to take the payment (less than £100) from my EF as it's not in my budget. Funnily enough, my YNAB budget was up by a very similar amount at the end of December / early January (obviously because I had registered the payment in YNAB but it hadn't been taken out of my account). Now I know why!At the time, I though it was due to my xmas money / sale shopping / returns not been processed / lack of keeping up on transactions.
Here's to having an emergency fund :beer:
Good thing you had that emergency fund. Do you not reconcile your statement to YNAB or is that not how it works? I use the register function on clear checkbook to make sure that my bank balance agrees with the transactions registered on clear checkbook. You would then have spotted the transaction had not been taken.DrSpendLittle wrote: »forgot to add, I'm also hoping to add £463 into my emergency fund on payday, bringing it up to its target total of £1,000.
Still, my inner devil is shouting at me to use it the £1,000 to pay off CC2, but I shall resist!
I too think you should not pay it off CC2 but build the EF to £1000.
What are the plans for saving for fees etc for moving costs or do you intend to use some of the equity in your property?I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free Wannabe, Budgeting and Banking and Savings and Investment boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
The 365 Day 1p Challenge 2025 #1 £667.95/£162.90
Save £12k in 2025 #1 £12000/£70000 -
enthusiasticsaver wrote: »Good thing you had that emergency fund. Do you not reconcile your statement to YNAB or is that not how it works? I use the register function on clear checkbook to make sure that my bank balance agrees with the transactions registered on clear checkbook. You would then have spotted the transaction had not been taken.
I didn't keep a track of my spending in real terms, so I only registered my net spending for example once I had returned sales goods or spent my xmas money. I should have registered each spend as and when it occurred and then I would have noticed the error. However, some of my YNAB categories would have been red or amber and I didn't want that. Naughty me!!
I too think you should not pay it off CC2 but build the EF to £1000.
Yup, going to do that. I MAY use it in September to clear the debt a month early, as I'd only need to wait three weeks to refill it back up
What are the plans for saving for fees etc for moving costs or do you intend to use some of the equity in your property?
We are going to use DF's family money (a bit of early inheritance for tax reasons) to cover stamp duty, fees etc etc. There will be more than enough. We've got a good amount of equity in the property and this will be used to secure a 74.99% deposit to achieve a decent LTV for a lower interest rate. Thats the plan, anyway!
The rest of DF family money will be put away for the future and any expenses that will come when we (hopefully!!!!) have children. However, you'll be pleased to know I plan on saving my own rainy day fund of 3-6 of expenses (I've set it at £5,000) which I hope I'll have by this time next year.0 -
My plan of working into the evening is going well, though I may just have taken an extended break to read and comment on diaries :rotfl:
I think I'll plough on through till 8:30 and then get my dinner (will phone to order at 8) and enjoy some more Homeland on Netflix. I am binge re-watching it and have just started Season 4 again. I'm getting confused as the new season is currently being shown in Channel 4, though I didn't watch last weeks as I was too involved in Season 3 :rotfl:
Right, back to work!0 -
Morning my fellow debt slayers!
Been a week since I updated as I had The Busiest Week At Work Ever. And this week isn't much better. Must remember to stop booking in so many meetings in one day and forgetting about lunch :rotfl: Doh.
Finances are on track but I've had to do some fiddling around as I made some holiday-related purchases that weren't planned for this month. Whilst on a work visit last week, I took advantage of being in the vicinity of the only shop in the UK that seemed to stock the particular maps we need. So, £55 shunted from EF to cover that. Feels nice having the flexibility to be able to do that, rather than putting it on the CC and 'thinking about it later'. Look forward to that mentality when finally debt free.
I've decided to have a £500 EF instead of the full £1,000, since I'm impatient to start making biggish payments on CC2 this month. I've only ever made slightly above the minimum payments and I just can't wait to start paying big chunks off it and seeing them on my credit file. We all have one CC that is symbolic of us getting into debt and CC2 is mine. Ugh. Hate it. Can't wait to close the account. They sent me a new card through the post late last week and I immediately cut it up and binned it. Felt good.
Anyway, back to EF discussions. I've justified the £500 to myself as Dave Ramsey does suggest a £1000 per household and so my £500 represents my half. I can't say I'm 100% comfortable with it, as I was looking forward to having the £1,000. But, I'm getting impatient to pay this debt down in bigger chunks and I thought £500 was a nice compromiseGetting that new card through the post has annoyed me somewhat. It's resurfaced some of the frustrations I have with Being In Debt and being silly with money. Even more motivated to start paying big chunks off CC2. I may revisit next month and bung an extra £500 into the EF. Keeping it slightly open for now. But I think I'll get a taste for paying off big chunks and end up snowballing the hell out of CC2. Bring it on, Debt!!
I've got £73 pending in TCB (since bloody December!) and £26 in PA that I'm probably going to cash out tonight to make the Circle cashout deadline. PA will cover personal spends on a new leather belt (reduced in JL sale), a new makeup brush and some natural lip balm (to replace the one and only lip balm that I have ever run out of called Yes to Coconut, it's awesome!) with a few ££s to spare.
Right, back to work. My early meeting rearranged for later today so its been a more leisurely start to the day that planned0 -
As there are two of you I think a £500 EF is ok to start with. It will be great to see that CC2 come down now the other two have gone. Good luck.I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free Wannabe, Budgeting and Banking and Savings and Investment boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com. All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
The 365 Day 1p Challenge 2025 #1 £667.95/£162.90
Save £12k in 2025 #1 £12000/£70000 -
Alrighty, plans for April are as follows:
Salary: £2287.02 (net after tax & NI, student loan, 9% pension and 1 strike day deduction)
Other Income: £48.33 (£24.23 from TCB and £24.10 from expenses rebate)
Debt Payments: £1,128.14
Monthly Spends:
Groceries: £219.25
Fuel: £80.00 (need to save some for new parking book)
Toiletries: £39.99 (mascara, serum)
Household Misc: £150 (saving for decoration)
Fun Fund: £60 (eating out, family get together)
Immediate Obligations inc. mortgage & bills: £392.62
Yearly Spends and Savings:
Health: £8.80 (prescription)
Emergency Fund: £256.54 (total stands at £329.81)
Going to be a bit tight this month as I accidentally overpaid CC2 by £170.19. Doh :rotfl: The minimum (£170.19) went out and I planned to make an additional payment which should have brought the overall payment to £800.04 but I paid an additional £800.04 - I read the budgeted amount instead of the available amount in YNAB! Oops. I took the additional spend from my Emergency Fund, hence it not quite hitting £500 this month.
Ive put aside £60 for a Fun Fund as Ive a few social events planned this month with family and friends
Immediate obligations are slightly down on the normal amount as DF owed my £35 for a food shop.
I think Ive left groceries a wee bit tight this month. Might have to shuffle some from Fuel.
I need to keep an eye on toiletries - I seem to have gone a bit mad recently with revamping my facial skincare routine which has also coincided with running out of makeup
Pssst CC2 is now below £7k!!! Current balance is £6,594.16 and Ive £631.64 left to pay off my Car Finance.
Total debt payments since starting the diary are £5,359.34.
Debt free Date is planned to be 30th September. Cant wait!0 -
Thought I'd write a second post to provide a bit of an overview of where I am financially.
March was a fairly decent month. I made £337.14 in debt repayments, which is quite low for me. I had some unexpected household payments to make - house insurance and freehold management company fee. Plus, I put some cash aside for my EF, had two family birthdays and a few social events, spend some ££s on toiletries and clothes. The latter generally came from cashback but I did cover a small shortfall.
So, not a brilliant MSE month, but the debt still went down. Just not at the speed I am accustomed too.
Upcoming spends that need to be covered mostly related to our annual holiday. I've ferry and gite balances to pay in July of approx £800, plus I need to put aside about £300 for fuel and camp fees. Then there is spending money but that tends to just be daily living expenses (we're self catering).
I've a small weekend away in May with family to cover too, but the flights are paid for so its just spending money and some contribution to fuel whilst were there.
All the above spends are budgeted and accounted for in the months leading up to my planned debt free date of 30th September. My original aim last summer was to be debt free by July 1st. But that didn't account for boiler, teeth and holiday expenses so it was fairly unrealistic.
Right, onwards and upwards. Need to keep my grocery spends down as they have crept up over the past few months and I've been lazy in not taking packed lunches in to work. DF and I have also started going out to eat a few times a month. Its something we never do as we like to cook, but we've found a couple of local places that we adore so I've factored that it too.
DSL :j0 -
There are 180 days to go until my planned debt free date of 30th September.
And £7,225.80 to clear.
That's roughly £40:14 per day.
Or £1,204.30 per month.
And I have £13,828.14 of salary payments (6 x net £2,304.69) to use.
Can it be done..? You bet!!
It will be tight in September, but I will have my Emergency Fund to cover any unforeseen expenses and will have just come back from a 3 week holiday so hopefully I will be refreshed and driven for Scorched Earth September.
In other news, today has been a WFH day and we've had homemade soup for lunch. Going to cook from the cupboards and fridge with things we already have, which in think will result in a chicken curry. DF not feeling well so going to have a cosy night in watching some Sherlock with homemade popcorn.
Tomorrow is a WFH day again with more soup for lunch! I'm WFH all this week and most of next week, so it's good to be saving on fuel and parking costs. I need to buy a book of parking scratch cards at some point, which is £40. I've assigned some money in this month's budget to cover it, but I do have enough scratch cards left until May. Gives me some flexibility to cover a possible groceries overspend as £219 normally isn't enough for my contribution (yes, we spend Quite A Bit on food as its our 'thing')
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