Debt Free By 2020

enthusiasticsaver

You seem to be doing quite well at the budgeting. Ideally the nicotine replacement would be going as I would class that as money for nothing but being a non smoker I have no idea how difficult it is to quit completely so if this is not ditchable that is your call.

Is that £7.99 for microsoft office a subscription? We downloaded a version from Amazon to each of our pcs for £15 each with no subscription each. I don't think it has all the ms office features but it has word, powerpoint and excel and a number of other features we don't use. Some are even cheaper I think.

As you say your mobile bill is expensive. Going sim only you could drop that to £10 which would mean a more than £50 saving. Even if you saved a certain amount towards a new phone I find that is cheaper so long as you don't go mad on buying the latest Iphone. £20 is not bad if you need more data.

I like M and S for underwear and they seem to last a long while.

Are you out of your overdraft now? I personally would up your Barclaycard to more than minimum and don't drop as the balance goes down. Maybe £80 a month?

MeenaM

debtfreeby2020 wrote: »

Hi everyone!

Thanks for your lovely comments as ever.

First things first, the budget meeting. I explained to my husband that I am paying at least £160 more than him toward the household expenses, and he was surprised. When I explained that in the past I have had to go into overdraft to buy tampons, while he squandered money on his model-making hobby, he was disgusted with himself. It is not his fault! When we moved house, we kept the budget the same as it was in our old place. We have decided the way forward. I am not going to take the full amount from him straightaway. I am going to up his contribution amount by £30 a month. He is currently in overdraft and I would like him out of that. So this month he is paying me £630, next month £660 and so on...I am not going to take any bull from him - he WILL up his payments or I will cut off essential services, like buying his food from the grocery budget. Then he will see how much things REALLY cost.

Budget

As promised here is my monthly budget:

Income
My income: £1486.44
Hubby input: £630
Re-selling: £100 estimate

Savings
Emergency Fund: £100
ISA: £12

Four Walls
Rent: £925
Council Tax: £137
Water: £0
Gas/Elec: £67
Groceries: £200

Entertainments
Mobile phone: £67.09
Netflix: £5.99
Microsoft Office: £7.99
Takeaways: £20

Personal
Clothing: £30
Nicotine Replacement: £28
Fun money: £80
Miscellaneous: £100

Debt Payments
Barclaycard: £73 minimum
Tesco Bank: £149.14 minimum
Overdraft: £0

I have £214.23 left to budget.

I have no birthdays this month. I hope to make an extra payment to the Barclaycard and to come in at £160 for groceries.

To clarify a few bits on there. The £12 going into the ISA is an estimate. I use an app, where you can round up your debit card expenses to the nearest pound. I only round those up which are 50p or less. It usually works out at around £12 a month. I have a little saved in there: £162.17

My mobile phone bill is high, I know. This month I can switch to a SIM-only contract - woohoo! I can't wait to get out of it. I have worked out it would be cheaper for me to go SIM-only rather than PAYG, as to unlock things such as good data, you need to spend in the region of £30. The plan I am looking at is £20.

I have allowed myself £30 for clothes this month. My knickers and socks have needed replacing for years. I am going to buy higher quality this time to see if they last longer. Any suggestions?

If you have any questions on my figures, please let me know. Don't be shy. It is good for me to be accountable.

well done for being firm on the budget! :T

I would recommend marks and spencer for undies

I would be looking to put extra money on the debts rather than paying minimum on all , our net flix is £7.99! is see yours is a bit cheaper ?

I am on Sim only with BT for£10 and would recommend it , unlimited calls, texts and 3 gb ? data

:money:

debtfreeby2020_3

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

You seem to be doing quite well at the budgeting. Ideally the nicotine replacement would be going as I would class that as money for nothing but being a non smoker I have no idea how difficult it is to quit completely so if this is not ditchable that is your call.

Is that £7.99 for microsoft office a subscription? We downloaded a version from Amazon to each of our pcs for £15 each with no subscription each. I don't think it has all the ms office features but it has word, powerpoint and excel and a number of other features we don't use. Some are even cheaper I think.

As you say your mobile bill is expensive. Going sim only you could drop that to £10 which would mean a more than £50 saving. Even if you saved a certain amount towards a new phone I find that is cheaper so long as you don't go mad on buying the latest Iphone. £20 is not bad if you need more data.

I like M and S for underwear and they seem to last a long while.

Are you out of your overdraft now? I personally would up your Barclaycard to more than minimum and don't drop as the balance goes down. Maybe £80 a month?

Hi there. Thanks for your comment.

The nicotine replacement is staying put for now. £28 is so much cheaper than smoking which would cost me around £40 a week with today’s prices.

THe MS Office is a subscription. I needed it when I was a doctoral student but all I need is word and excel now. Looking to get rid of it. Just need to figure out how.

I am definitely going Sim Only. I use a lot of data so the £20 a month plan was the best I could find. I am going to look into other providers to see how they stack up. I want to keep my own number which can be a bit of a faff if I shift. Getting quotes may give me more bargaining power with Vodafone.

I am out of overdraft. I plan to overpay the Barclaycard at the end of the month, with the leftover money from the budget. I am scared to do it right now, as I don’t want to accidentally go back into overdraft if I take my eye off the ball.

Thanks for your advice

debtfreeby2020_3

indigowarrior wrote: »

Oh no! I hate when that happens. Hope you manage to get out. Well done on budget.

Thanks Indigo! I hope your challenges are going well

debtfreeby2020_3

MeenaM wrote: »

well done for being firm on the budget! :T

I would recommend marks and spencer for undies

I would be looking to put extra money on the debts rather than paying minimum on all , our net flix is £7.99! is see yours is a bit cheaper ?

I am on Sim only with BT for£10 and would recommend it , unlimited calls, texts and 3 gb ? data

:money:

Hi Meena

I will look into the BT sim only deals. I am looking for a lot of data - like 15gb. I watch Dave Ramsey at work and we don’t have WiFi! Netflix can be sneaky. I left them and they came to me with the £5.99 offer. May be worth a try?

I will be making an overpayment to the Barclaycard at the end of the month, with money leftover from the budget. I’m still quite new to budgeting. I am scared that I will mess up and go back into overdraft. Once I am a bit more settled I will do it at the start of the month.

debtfreeby2020_3

Today is officially a no spend day. After my aborted trip to the shops, I decided I wasn!!!8217;t going back out. Still sticking to my meal plan though. I am going to make Mac and cheese. I have lots of Cathedral City in the fridge, white sauce mix in the cupboard, diced pancetta in the freezer, and a tub of dried breadcrumbs. I may add some onions to add a different flavour.

What are you guys having?

Lilith1980

A few years back I downloaded Open Office which was free...I don't know if it's still about and if it's still free so it might be worth checking. I don't know if this would be compatible for what you need (for example, if you send Open Office documents to people with Office I'm not sure they can open them and vice versa).

I just checked Giff Gaff for SIM only deals and looks like their best plan is £20 for "Always on" data which looks like it's unlimited by after you've used 9GB the speed reduces.

MeenaM

debtfreeby2020 wrote: »

Today is officially a no spend day. After my aborted trip to the shops, I decided I wasn!!!8217;t going back out. Still sticking to my meal plan though. I am going to make Mac and cheese. I have lots of Cathedral City in the fridge, white sauce mix in the cupboard, diced pancetta in the freezer, and a tub of dried breadcrumbs. I may add some onions to add a different flavour.

What are you guys having?

Oh that sounds lovely!

tonight is chicken breasts , sliced, with mozzarella cheese inside and wrapped in parma ham then baked in oven, all from Aldi so not wildly expensive i will do these with frozen sweet potato fries and green beans again from Aldi

debtfreeby2020_3

MeenaM wrote: »

Oh that sounds lovely!

tonight is chicken breasts , sliced, with mozzarella cheese inside and wrapped in parma ham then baked in oven, all from Aldi so not wildly expensive i will do these with frozen sweet potato fries and green beans again from Aldi

Oh my goodness that sounds AMAZING! I must admit that I woke up at 3 am dying of thirst. I think it was the saltiness of the pancetta. The mac and cheese was delicious though. Will definitely make it again.

debtfreeby2020_3

RANT ALERT

As you know, I plan to go to switch to a 12 month SIM-Only contract. For that reason, I thought I should overhaul my iPhone 6s. Any iPhone user will tell you that the battery life is shocking. Apple recently reduced the price of a replacement battery to £25 or thereabouts. I contacted Apple support to book an appointment and they told me that I could go to my appointment (next week) but the battery would take 5 WEEKS to come through. Urgh!!! I am happy with the 6s, it does what I need it to do, but seriously Apple?! Have a word with yourself!