Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

DrSpendLittle

Thanks Enthusiastic.

No word yet so we'll see what happens.

I forgot it was payday on Friday! That's never happened!! I hope I'm not getting complacent! Funny thing is, I did YNAB yesterday and it never crossed my mind :rotfl:No idea where the time has gone this month.

I've already done my budget for December and January, though without knowing what is happening, I've no clue whether they will materialise fully or not. Plan for the worse, hope for the best

Either way, I have some big spends coming up...

- Car insurance, which I bought yesterday and got £35 cash back on meaning it only cost £150 for the year:T:T

- Building / contents insurance is renewing just before xmas so I might take that only a monthly contract so I can cancel it when we do eventually move, rather than paying it up front like I usually do.

- Xmas presses and the usual festive expenses have been budgeted

I am still hoping to save £1300 from my salary in December and a further £1700 in January.

However

I miiiiiight spend some of my savings on an item I've been wanting to buy for 2 years :o I'm so fed up with waiting to move that I might just placate myself with a big treat! We were going to buy it in January anyway, but I'll discuss it with DF and see what he says - he can use it too!

Back on Friday for a round up of the figures

DSL :j

DrSpendLittle

Just got a £100 refund into my current account from some returns that I thought would be going back onto my credit card. Turns out the spends on my CC were from a different order (same retailer) and so I have an extra £100 unaccounted for in my budget! :D I don't know how I got confused BUT I did have to do a random negative £80 balance reconciliation on YNAB as I couldn't balance my transactions with my bank balance, so this must have been the reason. In any case, thats £100 extra into savings!

Just off to the supermarket on the way home from work to pick up some supplies. Hoping for a frugal end to the month. Its payday tomorrow at midnight and I'm looking forward to it!

DSL

DrSpendLittle

I should say...

I've only use my credit card for online purchases over the past month or so as I'm a bit nervous about having actual money in my bank account that might be at risk of fraud. Probably worrying over nothing but I would rather be safe than sorry. I haven't transferred my savings into a separate account yet because, quite frankly, I enjoy seeing my bank balance whenever I log onto my banking app! Years of an overdraft and -£000's balance does this!!

I will at some point transfer it over but I am enjoying the comfort right now

redofromstart

Two posts that may help, from my original OS account that show how fast things can move:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/289274/the-race-to-be-in-for-christmas&page=30#588

and this one

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/289274/the-race-to-be-in-for-christmas&page=30#599

a few days apart but a good demonstration of how fast things can move. We actually moved a day or two before Christmas.

DrSpendLittle

Thanks Redo! Its nice to read those!

"I have lost the ability to respond reasonably to anything" :rotfl: That's me down to a tee right now!. I just am not in the mood to socialise, put up with pleasantries, or deal with anything! No xmas parties for me! Scrooooooooge.

I think our issue might need the land registry involved, so that will delay things as any enquiry takes 10 days to be looked into and if necessary, a further 10 days to action.

I'm not sure our buyers solicitors are happy with an indemnity work around, which our solicitor is pushing for. Let's see what comes of the next few days.

In terms of timescales, the only way we could be in before xmas is if we can exchange in the next two weeks and the have just 1 week between exchange and completion. It would be crazy but I'd do anything right now just to be there!

DrSpendLittle

Did a bit of xmas shopping last night. Managed to get a few items off my xmas list. There was an unexpected discount on one particular item so I added in an additional item (also discounted) to top up the planned spends for that family member. I just have one person to think about and three people to buy the items for that I've already got sitting in my basket. Other than that, I think I'm done.

This is my first debt free Christmas since I was 18 years old!

I'm going to celebrate by buying nice wrapping paper with nice ribbons and tags. Its something I've always scrimped on but this year, I am going to splash out!

We need to order a bird at some point and perhaps some meat for NYE but I don't quite know what our NYE plans are at the moment.

My expenses have been approved so I should get that in the mid December payroll which will be nice.

Payday is midnight tonight - my credit cards are all at £0 now, with refunds processed. My YNAB is up to date and I've done okay on spends. I went to the supermarket last night and was £10 over budget but I did an unanticipated stock up on expensive store cupboard items whilst I was there.

DrSpendLittle

Indeed, you're probably as shocked as I am!

It's been quite a rollercoaster over the past 5 days!

The nuts and bolts of it are that the chain collapsed at our vendors end - they no longer wished to sell their house. I think they just got fed up. We took the hard decision to remove our house from the market at the end of last week - we didn't want to be forced to move into rental accommodation over xmas and we didn't see anything else we'd be interested in buying. We're also running on empty emotionally and need some time to just settle back into normal life. We're both a bit disappointed but it is what it is. It's strange, as we sorted out all the legal issues at our end fairly swiftly but there are always two ends to a chain.

We've spoken quite a lot about what we will do in the immediate future and have decided to do some renovations on our current home. We're going to stay here for the foreseeable future. I'm actually looking forward to planning these and getting started in the new year.

For now, we're going to recuperate over xmas and indulge ourselves.

Financially speaking, this does put us in a very good position as our mortgage payment is only 10% of our take home pay, so we will be able to cash flow renovations without touching the 'big savings'. We'll use our 'house move savings' - herewith renamed 'renovations fund' - to make a head start on some things. We need some new windows (not for the entire house thankfully) and I've already got someone coming to give us a quote this week, so the funds are there already for that.

What does this all mean? I might begin to refocus my diary towards mortgage pay down / budgeting for renovations etc. We need to look at remortgaging after xmas. Once that is all sorted, we will look at overpayments and perhaps I'll start tracking that here.

We will also join our finances together in January and create a joint account. We're both looking forward to that. I'll have to create a new YNAB budget for joint spends and personal spends.

So, onwards and upwards. Bit of a whirlwind few days but I'm feeling positive for the next few years in this house and I'm really looking forward to renovating. I've got the renovations bug big time so I will be putting that to good use in the new year!

DSL

wishingthemortgaheaway

Hi DSL, I was wondering how you were getting on, with visions of you moving on Christmas Eve or something ridiculous like that.

What a nightmare with the vendors though - fancy getting that far and changing your mind??

Renovating could be fun - although I am fed up of it now (we'll, actually, I'm fed up of a dithering husband who can't crack on with getting stuff done.)
We are sooooo close to finishing the living room and dining room. It could have been done this week if he'd pulled his finger out grrrr. Now I've either got to wait until the new year for the dining room floor to be done, or hubby will do it at some point (and probably make a half arsed effort at it as usual) - sorry, I shouldn't winge in your diary. I'm sure yours will be fine.

redofromstart

Sounds like a sensible focus to me. Since we cleared the short term debt I have focused on clearing the long term debt aka mortgage, even just a small rounding down payment each month is a step in the right direction. Sounds like you are in a position to do far more than that too.

Renovations - excitement! If you are looking for inspiration remember your library card will give you free access via an App to most of the 'house' magazines, with the added advantage that you can screen shot your inspiration pictures, rather than have a dirty great stash of magazines gathering dust.

PositiveBalance

I'm sorry about the house falling through, but given all the messing around I can't help but feel it is a blessing in disguise . I wish you could claim back your expenses, though. :mad:

Enjoying where you are and paying down the mortgage seems like a sensible thing to do and will mean more equity when you do find the next house.
Merry Christmas if we don't bump into each other before then! :beer:
P. S. Whatever the big treat you wanted is, is is worth waiting until the January sales to get it?