The Debt Diary of a 20-something Spendaholic

BelleOfBilboa

lonelyrat wrote: »

Hahahaha!

Name aside it's a really good idea!! I've never hear of it before so I'm going to pretend you came up with it yourself :cool: Good luck with everything! Another 20-something spendaholic here (hopefully mostly reformed, but not quite sure!) so will be cheering you on

Thanks lonelyrat :j quite excited to get going with my journey and I have loved reading yours!

NeverendingDMP wrote: »

There is a thread on here called 1% challenge 100 ways to pay your debt. Or similar to that. That breaks your target down into 1% which seems manageable so in you case just over 100pounds. These are good mini targets to get to if your ebaying or selling.

Good luck.

I quite like the idea of viewing my debt as a percentage. Knowing that I regularly pay 5% off each month is quite comforting! I’ll definitely find the time to read up on that thread, thank you for sharing NeverendingDMP

katsoocam wrote: »

Love the idea about the marbles and the jar and will be stealing it for my mortgage :-).

So glad ‘Two debts, one jar’ has gone down well! Quite proud that you are going to do the same katsoocam good luck with the baby! How exciting!:A

BelleOfBilboa

Happy Tuesday! Couldn't be happier that Monday has been dealt with. Only 3 days til the weekend :T

I would quite like to do an SOA but I think I may have to wait a month or two until the household bills direct debits start moving. Currently I pay £120 into a joint account with my OH and he pays £180. I think we have budgeted correctly and the total sum is unlikely to change but even so, as we have only just moved I want to get to grips with our outgoings. Stay tuned for that one!

I’ve been researching ‘snowballing’ and I like the concept! I think my plan kind of puts it into practice anyway what with aiming to clear the balance of the Next account first – my smallest debt. I really do need to tackle the Natwest OD next though as it has started accruing interest and they could demand the full sum back at any time. Currently the bank are charging me £6 per month in arranged OD usage and £8 per month in unarranged OD usage. I vaguely remember a customer advisor telling me that after a certain amount of time, the first £1000 would be my arranged OD and the second £1000 would accrue charges. I’m going to call them and make sure I’m right and also make sure I am allowed to start paying bits of my OD off at a time. I’m not going to have large chunks of money to pay it off in the near future but if I can reduce it by a little bit every month then that will help. I think I can do that but I just need confirmation from them. Note to self: call bank.

I have a bout of cat and dog sitting coming up so I think I might be able to clear my Next balance by the end of August (maybe the end of September if eventualities occur). Quite excited at the thought of that!:j

I completed my first mystery shopping assignment last week and should have £10 coming my way if my review gets approved! That will be transferred straight to the Next account!

Off to see the horse tonight, he will feature in my SOA as a monthly outgoing but there is no way I’m giving him up. I’m pretty sure he is the only thing keeping me sane

redofromstart

Loving the two jars, one debt thing. Great for those who respond to visual input.

lonelyrat

I've done a few SOA's privately but not posted anything on here. I do plan to once I'm debt free and have a few months of tracked spends to use but at the moment it's all still a bit messy. I remember I did one last year and was adding up all the times I'd used the work vending machines to buy Diet Coke and coffee and it was something like £35 in a month :eek: I've banned myself from buying anything while I'm at work now

Snowballing is great! Even if you don't stick to what you originally plan it's a good starting point I think.

Is your account with Natwest a graduate account now? My student/ graduate one was with RBS and it's the same I think. Year 1 after graduation is up to £2000 interest free arranged od and year 2 is £1000 interest free and then above that you have to pay.

They have a calculator on their website I think which is quite handy (just google Natwest overdraft calculator) and you should find it. You pop in which account you have and what your balance is and it works out roughly what you'll be paying. Might be worth having a look as it definitely motivated me to clear mine! It can be a bit daunting ... Mine overdraft with RBS was up at £1998.70 and I genuinely never thought I'd manage to clear it, but once you get the bug it's really fun to see it decrease!

Overdrafts can be a bit scary as they can call it in if they feel like you can't manage it, BUT they need to give you notice before they do make any changes like that.

Good news on the mystery shopping and the pet sitting! And it's awesome that you're close to having Next paid off! Well done What's the horse called?

BelleOfBilboa

lonelyrat - you should have shares in Diet Coke for £35 a month! :eek: My work canteen have started buying in the most glorious chocolate muffins. They are huge, £1 each and are not only triple chocolate chip but they have a gooey chocolate centre they are sooooo good! Pretty sure my entire wage could be spent on them but alas I restrict myself to one or two a week ...probably more than I should be buying looking at my debt figure though!!

My Natwest account has gone past the graduate stage and is now a select account. I've just read your advice, checked out the OD calculator, panicked and called them! I read that they can charge up to £8 a day with a maximum of £80 and scared myself so I thought it best to call and ask a million questions. Luckily they said the £8 a day is if I go over my agreed OD and I shouldn't get charged any more than around £35 a month. Still money I don't want to be spending but much better than £80! They also asked me about my plans to repay so I explained to them that I would quite like to reduce in small chunks and they were so reassuring! As soon as the Next account is gone then I will throw all spare money at Natwest! They said the minimum I could pay was £1! £1 is more than £0 though so a good place to start I think

The horse is called Archie and he is such a dreamboat I share him so I pay £100 a month to his owner and I get to ride him as much as I like, I manage to get to the yard about 3x each week on average and we have the most beautiful hacks across Surrey! I feel so lucky!! :j (relatively close to Dorking lonelyrat)!

I've just signed up to Receipt Hog, Field Agent and YouGov too! Hopefully the £1s will start rolling in!:money:

BelleOfBilboa

I'm having a NSD and I managed to accrue £8 in surveys today! Double win!

BelleOfBilboa

Why is there always so much month and not enough money counting down the days til pay day! (14)

BelleOfBilboa

Yay to a NSD!

lonelyrat

BelleOfBilboa wrote: »

lonelyrat - you should have shares in Diet Coke for £35 a month! :eek:

I know right?! It's shocking... Banning myself from the vendies was the smartest decision I ever made :rotfl:
Well done on phoning Natwest... I'm really glad they were helpful. £8 a day is :eek: but glad that's only that for unarranged!! The main thing you want with your overdraft will be money moving through it to show that the account is active... When I was tackling mine I transferred my whole wage into it then just transferred out weekly money to spend on my Monzo. It didn't reduce super quickly, but I managed to get rid of it in the end by chipping away at it.

Archie does sound like a dreamboat very solid name When I was wee and living in Dorking (heehee) I used to go riding. I can vaguely remember there was this really gentle giant called William. He was very handsome and friendly and he was my fave. OH's niece has just started riding lessons up here and me and OH go with her sometimes.Brings back loads of memories for me! Sounds like a great hobby for £100 a month! :cool:

Well done on the NSD's!! 5 days since I got paid and I've only managed one :rotfl: Not long to go for you now!

Littlebirdie

Hello, we sound very similar so I've just commenting to say that I will be cheering you along - you sound like you have made a great start!