Fixing Today for a Brighter Tomorrow!

ImpulseSpender

Congrats on the new job!! :j

SavingAFuture

Why is Christmas so expensive?
I was more organised than ever this year and had started a Christmas saving pot a few months back.
All I can say is I didn't start early enough!!
I've been so restrained but somehow STILL spent £100 more than I meant to. It feels like I've hardly got any gifts to give out. Makes me feel a bit sick about how much I must have spent in previous years…
I never used to think about it - just bunged it all on a credit card.
That is my biggest success this Christmas. I haven't reached for the credit card once.
I've just got the food shop to do (which my Dad is contributing to) and I'm only allocating our normal weekly food shop budget to this, so £50 plus whatever my Dad puts in.
All my fun activities are already budgeted for so as long as I don't go wild we'll make it to the New Year
Hope you're all having a lovely, festive December!

ImpulseSpender

Huge success not putting it onto credit card! I never save in advance for Christmas, just try to pay with October and November’s pay which is a stupid idea. I’ve made a promise that from Jan 2019, I’ll put away £30 each month in order to save.

SavingAFuture

Today marks 100 days until I'll be making my final credit card payment!
Bring on 2019.

SavingAFuture

88 days until I have no credit card debt. Woohoo!!
I'm not sure whether to start a new diary for the New Year. Clean slates, fresh starts and all that…
What's the usual etiquette? Part of me wants to keep all my progress in one place so I can look back on it.
Perhaps I'll just carry on in here…

I have achieved many of my goals for the year: paid off CC1, reduced CC2 under £1000, saved like crazy for the wedding and kept Christmas in budget!

So goals for 2019:

• Pay off CC2
• Pay for wedding in full
• Clear overdraft (£1400)

Likely in this order. I hadn’t really written about my overdraft yet because I find it mentally more difficult to tackle. It's on my main current account so I have become reliant on it and treat it like "my money". I am not sure how I'll solve this one without opening a new account which I don't really want to do. But I'll clear it somehow. Watch this space!

And wishing you all a very happy New Year!! :beer:

enthusiasticsaver

Great goals and well done on not using credit for Xmas. 88 days is no time at all until you are rid of the credit card.

I am not sure when you are starting to tackle the overdraft but a good way of doing it is to reduce the amount you go overdrawn each month until you are at 0. So if you have a £1400 limit you reduce that monthly by a set figure say £200 so that would take 7 months to clear. You can ask the bank to reduce the limit as you go so you are not tempted. It is important to realise an overdraft is not your money. Just as bad as credit cards if not worse because the bank can recall at any time and often the6 are expensive.

No need to start a new diary.

SavingAFuture

Hi All!
I can't believe it's the 24th January and I haven't posted yet this year. Oops.
I've just been over here quietly trying not to spend any unneccessary/unbudgeted money.
It's now only 64 days until I can make that last pesky credit card payment. I can't flippin' wait.

I've been working really hard in my new job. It's exhausting but I love it. I'm sure it'll get easier as I settle in and don't have to think so hard about every tiny decision.

Hope everyone is having a positive MSE January!
SaF x

SavingAFuture

So - my first payslip has come in and it was a little better than I thought! Also bumped up by some expenses that I claimed and a few days of leftover holiday paid in from my old job - I actually ended up better off this month than usual! So that's a result for the first month of the year.
I've made my usual credit card payments and I'm leaving the extra cash in my current account as a start of tackling the dreaded overdraft...

Just 49 more days to go and I'll have cleared that last credit card. But it's also only 141 days until the wedding! The savings pot is looking healthy so we shouldn't have any trouble with goal no.2 - pay off the wedding in full. No more debt for me! Not EVER!

SavingAFuture

I've been away for a while. Nothing much to report.
This last month I've not been able to pay off as much as usual from my credit card.
I could only manage £40 with all the saving we are trying to do for the wedding.
Not long to go at all now - down to just 4 months! I think I'll need to reduce my repayments just while I get the wedding saving done, then pay off the rest after. It's annoying but it makes sense.

Ultimately, the wedding and debt will both be paid off this year.
Maybe even the overdraft too… if I keep motivated!

SavingAFuture

Guys!! Check out my signature!!
I have cleared all of my credit card debts!! So grateful to MSE for keeping me on track all this time.
It's been a long road since July 2017 but here I am, proof it can be done. All whilst saving for a wedding. I also got a bit of a bonus this month too so I've even cleared my overdraft. It's quite a spectactular feeling.
The only thing remaining is the payment on my car. This is £266 per month (ouch) and I have another 31 months to go on it... but OH and I have decided to keep making the payments so we have one realiable car and then buy it at the end. So...now onto saving the money to buy the car in 31 months!
I always like a challenge!!