Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

DrSpendLittle

My poor neglected diary!

I'm still here, I just got super busy with work after coming back from our summer holiday and I lost the habit of coming on here.

I've been catching up on some diaries and I'm glad to be back.

Quick summary of finances (signature updated):

- All is good

- Over a 1/4 of the way towards my savings goal though I'm currently waiting on £150 of expenses to come in so savings should be £1,270 in a few days.

- Debt down to £4,299.99

- I've managed to cash flow a HUGE amount of expenses since we last spoke: holiday, building work (a necessary evil of home ownership), plumber, more dental work, car insurance, house insurance, birthdays, Christmas (all shopping now done!), a short week away with my mummy, a new winter coat and a new handbag, health supplies (baby making stuff ). That kind of explains why I haven't cleared the debt as quickly as I'd hoped. I reckon that all adds up to around £3,000. I could probably have been debt free by now. But, that's not the way to look at these things.

Still avidly using ynab. From Janauary, I will be filling all categories rather than doing scorched earth. Money will accrue in each of my categories like car, fuel, household misc., clothes, health, hairdressers etc etc and I will spend from them as and when I need to. I won't be throwing unspent monies at debt at the end of each month like I have been doing. I may do a sweep into savings every 2/3 months if I'm really over budgeted (likely for fuel).

I intend to be debt neutral (my savings equal my interest free debt) by February 28th. Eeeek!

I will clear CC2 by 31st May for sure as 0% ends in June. By then I should also have £4,700 saved but that may be spent on moving costs before then.

Thereafter, I will focus on making sure I maintain a decent savings pot (3-6 months of expenses) and put any extra money at my student loan -I'm hoping it'll be paid off by this time next year.

Good to be back.

DSL :j

ChasingSunshine

Welcome back, good to see things are going in the right direction for you. I'm trying to do the same with YNAB as had been putting so many categories back to 0 every month and then having to do lots of moving around to cover bumpy months when if I had just left a little buffer there would have been no issue. Oh well, I guess that is all part of finding out what works best on a personal level.

DrSpendLittle

Agree, Chasing. I've decided in recent months to be a wee bit more relaxed about clearing my debt asap.

I think this boils down to having confidence in my new 'money focused' way of life.

I feel completely in control of my money and I'm a bit more confident with building a savings pot whilst leaving the CC balance to run its natural interest free course.

Its also nice as you say having a wee buffer to cover bumpy months, esp. broken fillings and boilers!!

DrSpendLittle

I think I might pay £300 off CC2 with January's salary so I can finally be out of the £4ks and into the £3ks!

Eeek! It's a psychological move that I can't wait to play when Jan's salary hits my account this week!

I'll be honest. I was tempted to pay off even more so I could get my Total Debt Repayment % up to 70% but that would require an £800 payment. I feel the need to keep those ££s in my savings for now.

I've had an expensive few days with car insurance, house insurance and a boiler service. I am now about £370 lighter, but all payments have all been cash flowed and insurances paid for annually, so no complaints from me!

I was looking at my sums today and I have averaged about £606 per month in debt repayments since September 2017. This is just over 1/4 of my net monthly take home pay (I pay an additional £158 in student loan repayments and 9% into my pension from my gross pay).

I can't believe that before my LBM I used to spend everything I earned every month.

I'm so glad I've been on this journey and learned these valuable lessons now before starting a family. Who knows where I'd be if I'd had the financial pressure of kids to deal with too!

DSL :j

DrSpendLittle

Long time no see, STIF List

Okay, here is my STIF List December Paydown

[URL="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5698502Things, Interest and Fees'[/URL] (post #310) from CC2 spends throughout 2015, 2016 & 2017:

2016-2017 Sport-related hobbies (equipment, nutrition, event fees): £2,015.83
2017 Summer Holiday: £80
2017 Music (equipment, gigs, records): £831.94
2017 Furniture: £581.30
2016 Xmas: £254.33
2016 Summer Holiday: £921.41 - £433.78 (December Paydown) = £487.63
[STRIKE]2016 Short break to a foreign city: £165.18 remaining (Original amount £207.68)[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]2015 Car service: £107.50[/STRIKE]

£598.96 pays off: 2016 short break to a foreign city and £583.78 from 2016 summer holiday

Previous Balance: £4,999.99
New Balance: £4,251.03
14.97% cleared

enthusiasticsaver

Good to see you posting again and well done on gaining financial control. Less than £5k debt is great.

DrSpendLittle

I couldn't resist making an additional payment...

ADDENDUM - STIF List December Paydown

[URL="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5698502Things, Interest and Fees'[/URL] (post #310) from CC2 spends throughout 2015, 2016 & 2017:

2016-2017 Sport-related hobbies (equipment, nutrition, event fees): £2,015.83
2017 Summer Holiday: £80
2017 Music (equipment, gigs, records): £831.94
2017 Furniture: £581.30
2016 Xmas: £254.33
2016 Summer Holiday: £487.63 remaining - £58.39 (December Paydown 2) = £429.24
[STRIKE]2016 Short break to a foreign city: £207.68[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]2015 Car service: £107.50[/STRIKE]

£58.39 pays more off the 2016 summer holiday

Previous Balance: £4,999.99
New Balance: £4,192.64
16.14% cleared

DrSpendLittle

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Good to see you posting again and well done on gaining financial control. Less than £5k debt is great.

Thanks Enthusiastic! Good to be back after a few expensive months and a wee bit of frustration at not being able to build my house move savings as quickly as I'd liked.

Hoping to stick with it more regularly now through to February 28th when I'm hoping to be debt neutral' :cool:

DrSpendLittle

Managed another NSD today. That must be about 3 days in a row. Yay for WFH and a store cupboard.

Money has been on my mind of late. My DFD is so close I can taste it. When January’s salary hits my bank account at midnight, my bank balance will be the highest and healthiest it’s ever been. It’s fairly momentous. I can’t wait to indulge myself in checking my online banking app and seeing all my hard earned ££s. Don’t worry, I spend to my YNAB categories not my bank balance

I’m looking forward to running a full budget in January - each YNAB category will be getting some ££s rather than my previous approach of scorched earth. I’m entering a new phase in my money management and I’m complerly at peace with it.

I converted my old group personal pension into a private personal pension (when i changed jobs years ago I couldn’t transfer it to my current pension). There’s less than £500 in there (only about 3 months worth of contributions) but I may start putting £500 per year (roughly £41 per month) into it when I’m debt free. I want to retire early so building a separate pension pot is an important medium / long term financial goal for me. When I finish paying off my student loan next year, I’ll be in a position to put about £160 further away. That’s my plan anyway

DSL

DrSpendLittle

2019. You will be my year.

I've updated and simplified my signature to reflect my current financial status. It includes figures from my LBM (August 2017). I had previously been using figures from September 2017.

I've now paid nearly £11,000 off my debt and have less than £3,000 to go. Still shocked at this.

I'm running a full budget and have sinking funds for various annual expenses. Currently around £320 assigned to various categories.

No significant changes in circumstances since I last updated. We will likely put moving house on hold (again!) due to Brexit. Nothing certain though. We're so conflicted.

That all means that I've decided to keep around £1,300 in savings and just chuck the rest of my 'spare income' at the debt rather than saving a house move fund.

I'm planning on 31st March being my debt free date. Really focused on this now. I might dip into some of my savings for redecoration at some point over the next few months.

Just before xmas, I opened a stocks and shares ISA. I'm depositing £50 per month going forward. My plan is to forget about it for the next 6 years. Current balance is £100.51.

Enjoyed catching up on diaries over the last 2 days.

Really motivated to slay this debt.

DSL