The Money Diet

Lauralozzle

So, I did have a thread but I've not updated it for a long time and things have now changed somewhat! So, I thought it best to start again. Fresh start, and all that jazz!

A little about me: Hi :j I'm Laura :beer:

So, my last diary was mainly about saving for my wedding. Whilst we saved a good amount in a year, The diary went a little to the way side. However, as of bonfire night, I'm now a married woman!

The last year has resulted in me and Mr Lauralozzle saving for our wedding. I now realise how hard saving is!! It left with without much on anything for a year. Even with all of our hard saving, things ended up costing a little more than we had initially budgeted for and has left us in a little debt. This is partly down to my unrealistic budget, but also because we moved the wedding forward by a year as my grandad was ill and we didn't think he'd make November 2018. Luckily, we were very lucky with the gifts we received and the leftover debt is definitely a manageable amount, but I'd like it to be cleared as soon as possible so we can focus on decorating/renovating our house once our honeymoon is over.

We've lived in our house for nearly two years. The plan was initially to do a room a year, as the house, although liveable, is terribly dated. Think artex on every wall and you'll get the picture. The wedding meant the house went on the back burner and the only rooms we have (partially) decorated are the living room/dining room. They are not finished though. I'd like for us to get in the position next year to focus on finally sorting out the house, even if that is just plan of what room we tackle next and starting to save towards it.

I'll know the true state of our finances better come pay day (end of the month) and exactly where we are. At the moment everything looks very tight but November has been unusually expensive with the wedding and our little mini-moon to Bruges which cost more than we had expected.

In preparation I have managed to get our mortgage payments down now from £504 to £398 which will start in a January 2018. That extra £100 will help considerably with clearing extra debt and saving! I've moved our fixed term mortgage at 3.99% to a new fixed term of 2 years at 2.79% - the mortgage length remains the same, I'm assuming we've moved down into the next LTV bracket although I'm not 100% sure as I just did it online through Santander (who we have our mortgage with). The term is exactly the same. We are both very happy at the money we will be saving in our mortgage payments alone. One day, we will try and make overpayments but I don't see that happening for a while, to be honest.

So... a brief statement of our affairs. I'm aware this is not a proper, full SOA.

My wage - £1,200
Mr wage - £1,300
Total = £2,500

We both put £850 each into the joint account every month. This covers the following:

Mortgage - £392 (Since January 2018)
Council Tax - £135 (over ten months)
Water rates - £45
Gas/electric- £89
House phone/broadband/sky - £45.00
TV licence - £12.37
My car - £187
His car - £151
Wedding Rings - £0.00 (this ends in July - on 0% finance deal)
Vet/dog - £46.50 - covers dogs daily tablets, flea stuff, 6 monthly vet check-up
My phone - £35
His phone - £36 - we are both in contracts
Food shopping - £250 - I know we can get this down! Includes alcohol

I have a spreadsheet all set up for this so I can keep track of each spend!

The money we have left in our accounts will cover our personal petrol, personal spends etc... pocket money I suppose. I have a MBNA credit card I pay off alone (0%)
Mr Lauralozzle has car insurance and tax monthly that he pays for out of his own account. I put all mine on 0% credit card that I'm paying off alone - £25 min payment - will start overpaying an extra £25 from pay-day.

We have both been saving £200 a month from our leftover personal money for the wedding - our plan is to hit the following Credit Cards with this now, although Mr doesn't want to put away £200 anymore - it left us quite tight and we both need some new clothes as all Of ours have holes/don't fit properly anymore!! I currently own two pairs of jeans and most of my tops have holes in through years of wear and tear!!! A good rummage through is required at some point.

So - this is the plan for now.

Santander Credit Card 1 - £2,256.06 0% for 24 months (his) (min payment £22.56)
Santander Credit Card 2 - £787.60 (mine) (min payment £7.87) 0% 25 month
MBNA - £195 - (mine) (min payment £25) 0% needs clearing by May

I will over pay MBNA by £25 each month. That should then be cleared by May easily.
We wil overpay Santander by £100-£150 a month (together - not each) - starting in January as we need to sort out Christmas.
Min pay Santander Credit Card 2 until credit card 1 is paid off and then start on this one.

We also need to save about £500 for spending money for our honeymoon in May - we're off to Sorrento for 2 weeks. £575 is already in the kitty for this. I'm not sure exactly how much we'll need, but we're hoping that £1,000 (ish) will cover it. We want to enjoy or time there and take trips so we'll save as much as possible (at least £1,000). We're going half board so hopefully won't have to spend too much on food - just lunches really. I want it to be a holiday we remember so I don't want to scrimp when we are there, just be sensible about our spends (nothing too extravagant).

Current Debt/Savings Progress

MBNA: Gone
Santander Credit Card 1: Gone
Santander Credit Card 2: Gone

So, hurry up payday (last day of the month - Thursday) so we can get The ball rolling and start making progress.

Lauralozzle

So, I've updated my signature today and checked the balance of my car finance and the mortgage. I'm nearly at £7,999 which is exciting - I love when it jumps down to the next thousand pound. I'm aware we are currently spending a lot on our cars at the moment, but a car is necessary for work as public transport is irregular and very expensive. Plus, I'd feel very isolated without my own vehicle. It's nice to know that I can just get up and whenever I need to. We could probably get away with having just one, but last time we did that the other half hated it so we'll be a two car household for the foreseeable future.

I'm not sure on the current balance of Mr Lauralozzle's car finance but it is definitely lower than mine as 1) his car was cheaper than mine and 2) he's been paying off his roughly a year longer! They are both on five year hire purchase agreements.

Lauralozzle

Not much to report today - we went shopping yesterday and managed to keep it under £50. We have a lot in the freezer but the fridge was bare - I plan on batch cooking some bits tonight for lunches to take to work. I'm currently on Slimming World but it's taken a bit of a back burner at the moment. I'll plan to get back on track tomorrow and I always find preparation is the key to making it work. I need to be organised, which can be difficult, as I'm not feeling particularly well today.

I also need to make sure we are getting through the freezer stuff before we buy more to replace it. I'd like to clear as much as possible, so that I can give it a good clean before we fill it up again. That should help on the shopping/spending money side of things. Just need to get inventive!

I have £25 to last me now until Thursday so need to keep an eye on the purse strings.

I'm hoping December won't be so tight as I've only got 3.5 weeks left at work until I break up for ten days so that should help our expenses as we won't be out traveling to work, so that's some petrol saved.

starting_again_in_the_sun

Congratulations on your marriage
Looking forward to reading your progress.

Sorrento is beautiful, Naples is worth a visit too. X

Lauralozzle

Thank you

Oh, yes, we will definitely have to take a trip to Naples whilst we are there!

I'm very excited about it! I've worked out that we can scrape together an extra £400-ish towards it too as I'm pretty sure we won't have to pay any more water rates until April now and February/March won't have any council Tax payments! So I'll squirrel that money straight into the Honeymoon fund!

Futuregoals

Congrats on your marriage! After almost ten years together we finally tied the knot a few weeks ago too.

Good luck on your journey xx :j

mummytogirls

Congrats on the wedding LL

Im sure you will have that debt paid off in no time at all xx

Lauralozzle

Today ended up being spendy. Not ideal, but I needed lady things and I had ran out of e liquid. I'm trying very hard to quit smoking again (I started again in October like an idiot) so I'm trying to make sure I stock up on my favourite e-liquid to avoid any temptation of the real thing. Still, £15 I could have really done without spending. I have plenty to last now though, enough for at least 2 weeks.

Dinner from freezer and cupboards today - chopped sweet potato and tomato fish bake.

I've got an early day ahead tomorrow- the OH has to leave early as he's traveling to Birmingham for work and stopping the night. It'll be the first night apart since the night before the wedding! My plan is to get to work early and keep busy. I have a lot of work to get through tomorrow on-top of training for the day. I don't mind though - I'll keep busy and build up my flexi. It needs building up anyway as I would like my birthday off but don't have any spare holidays so it'll have to go down as a flexi day!

Lauralozzle

Thursday 30 November

Today was pay day and I've transferred the £850 straight into the joint account, this will cover the bills going out as the OH has also transferred the same amount.

I've worked out my budgets for the month and allocated myself £10 spending money. I've also got some Christmas parties to attend and have allocated a budget for each occasion separately. I will withdraw the money and not take my card, when the money is spent, it is spent, and I will try to ensure I don't spend it all.

My first Christmas Do is tomorrow. It's the work Christmas party, although I don't intend to spend too much, I have allocated myself £50 for the night. That should more than cover the night. That will also include some money to be spent on food as I am going to a friends striaght from work so will have to buy dinner out. Drinking on an empty stomach is not something I plan to do as it always ends up much worse!

I have made the additional £50 payment towards the MBNA credit card and will update the balances on Saturday morning. November has been wonderful but I really do need to get things under control with our spending in December. It's difficult to tighten belts round Christmas but we really do need to do this so Christmas presents will be small and to be honest, where we can get away with not spending on someone, we will. I feel bad about it as I love Christmas and giving but we just cannot afford it this year. I've agreed with my sister that we won't get each other presents as we can't afford it, so that will help, and we might have to forgo getting nieces nephews presents on both sides. I think all we can realistically afford is perhaps a selection box, which although is not a lot, is better than nothing I suppose.

SnowBallBunny

Congratulations on your wedding! Look forward to following your debt-free journey.

Lauralozzle

Thank you SnowBall

So, It's now December - time to get serious. I've updated my signature to reflect MBNA Card for December with overpayment. Mortgage payment has gone out too so updated that.

Need to make sure I clean the house today. Might try and get away with putting the Christmas tree up! We will see, it'll be a battle with Mr. I hate Christmas! Need to get stamps today - must post the thank you cards.

I'm going to try and keep on top of the house this month - making sure It's clean, tidy, pots are washed/in dishwasher. Basically not a mess and I must take lunch to work every day. I won't sit down to relax until it's done and lunch is ready. It irritates me when it's messy, not the OH, he'd happily live in the mess/clutter so I'm the one who will have to sort it out.