From depression and debt to happiness and control

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

I've started a shiny new diary. The old one started off very negative really and I also ended up with a couple of large bills to pay that I ended up putting some on the CC and using the rest of my expendable income for the month.

Goal
Be debt free by Christmas 2020!

This is very ambitious but would put me in really good stead for trying for a baby in 2021

Steps I've taken so far

I decided to do a money transfer to my bank account to pay off my overdraft. I could then downgrade my account to a standard reward one which pays me £2 a month rather than costing me £15. It cost me a £10 fee but it seemed worth it as in a month I'll have made that and more back.

I've done a BT to a new card which gave me a really long 0% period (35 months) with a 0.5% fee so my current debt situation is as follows;

CC1 - £7,043.33
CC2 - £2,025.75
Loan - £5,489.20
Total £14,558.28
:eek:

Plan is to pay minimums on CC1 and focus on CC2 to get rid of that as soon as possible.

Minimum payment for CC1 is 2.25% apposed to the 1% it was previously which I'm pleases about as it will mean I'm actually making a bit of a dent in the balance.

I've budgeted £30 for week to go into my Monzo account to use for everyday spends and I'm putting a little aside for savings.

I'll be setting myself challenges of not spending on food/clothes/toiletries which will hopefully help me throw more at the debt.

I don't have a huge amount of disposable income as half of my salary gets paid into our joint account. Our joint finances are fine, we have healthy savings but we could do even better so I'm going to try in that respect too.

Lets slay this debt!

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

So yesterday was a no spend day! :j

Monzo top up has gone in but I'll need to take out £10 for a deposit for our works xmas do.

I sold one of my larger items on eBay after the extortionate fees and postage I was left with £111.75 to pay off the card. I've paid this off already as I don't trust myself to leave it in my PayPal account.

I've brought my lunch to work today and plan on yet another NSD!

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Thought I'd update my totals

My BT fee interest has been refunded and with the paypal payment and my latest loan payment things are already starting to look a little better.

CC1 - £6,994.44
CC2 - £1,923.05
Loan - £5,269.62
Total £14,187.11

I'm sure I'll be able to get that figure to under 14k before the end of the month!

pidge04

That will be an important milestone! Good luck with everything!

Debtnomoreplease

Wishing you luck on your journey.

What an amazing achievement it will be if you can get that figure under £14,000 by the end of the month-fingers crossed for you! That feeling of achievement will stand you in good sted for the rest of your debt free mission.

Good luck-you can do it!

Scott-Weiland

Good luck on your journey, my first port of call would be do an SOA

Next thing get signed up with topcashback.

Next thing have a read of this

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/make-money/

beanielou

You can do it
Great start!

lonelyrat

Well done so far! Sounds like you have a solid plan in place awesome reduction already! Don't get disheartened if it slows down a bit (you'll run out of things to sell - I know I did!)

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Well I had a no spend weekend on a personal level. We had our usual Saturday night takeaway and a bottle of wine that came out of the joint account.

Paid for my monthly train pass this morning out of my Monzo travel pot! I love Monzo

Had a small work expenses claim paid back and had a bit of cash to pay back in Quidco. That's £13 going into back into the account.

Realised my car's MOT is due early September and there is definitely a couple of things I think it will fail on.

Going to hold off paying any further cash off the CC for the moment. I want to have a buffer so I don't have to put car repairs on the CC.

Fingers crossed it will pass and I can just pay that off but I'm preparing for the worst!

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

Had such a busy couple of days.

I ended up eating lunch out yesterday and will need to again today

I really need to get organised and prep up a couple of lunches for the next two days. This isn't doing the budget or my waistline any good!

We have resisted takeaways for the last two nights, even though we have both come home from work shattered!

Just messaged OH and reminded him to get some meat out of the freezer for tea tonight and tomorrow night. I'll tell him to get some chicken out that can have for our lunches.

moneycantbuyyouhappiness

I'm so fed up today.

Work is getting super busy

I think realistically the car is going to need £150-£200 of work to get through the MOT.

Was due to have my hair cut and coloured next weekend but I've had to postpone until after payday because I just don't have the money at the moment. I would have just put it on CC and not batted an eyelid before and whilst I'm happy that I don't want to do that anymore but by the same token I fell frumpy and fat and could really do with the confidence boost.

OH is being about as useful as a chocolate fire guard with the wedding planning and is leaving the majority of the stuff to me!

After my lunches out, my Christmas do deposit and paying for my Avon I have grand total of £2.87 left in my Monzo pot. I'll pop that over to my savings so I'm not tempted to roll it into next weeks allowance.