The journey to debt neutrality

canaryfeather

Hi all!

This year I bought my first house, and after home improvements/an unexpected boiler replacement I now have a 0% CC with £2,919.76 on it. I'm keen to pay this off bit by bit and keep the rest of the cash in a regular saver until the 0% deal comes to an end.

So far I've saved £400, so had quite a long way to go. I'm hoping that some sensible lifestyle changes will help me save a bit faster and am hoping this diary will keep me accountable.

I would love to have the rest of the money saved in the savings account by July 2019. Its ambitious but I'll try my best.

Wish me luck, and if you have any simple money saving tips please let me know.

canaryfeather

Went to London to see a West end show. It was an incredible experience but wasn't cheap so I'm currently feeling a bit guilty. Hoping to have a thrifty rest of the week to make up for it.

pidge04

Hello. £400 is a great start! Well done! Do you have anything you can sell to generate some extra cash? I found that really motivating early on to have bits of money coming in which I could pay towards my debt.
Try not to feel guilty about your trip. Do you work out your budget every month? Maybe you could factor in money for some fun experiences? Save for them over a couple of months maybe?
Good luck - I've got lots of confidence that you will clear it within the time frame you have set!

canaryfeather

Payday was yesterday so I managed to shuffle some more money across to the savings account, as well as pay a small amount of the credit card off.

The savings to debt ratio now stands at £758.21/£2819.76

I'd love to get it to £800 by the end of January, but with it being 5 weeks until the next payday I think this is unlikely and that I'll actually need to dip into the savings at some point.

All the money needed for bill payments are in a current account, and I have £170 set aside for food/entertainment for the next 5 weeks. This should be manageable with a few small changes but with my current spending habits I'm a bit concerned. (I'm mainly thinking about getting coffee from Costa and buying food from my work canteen)

As a result, I'm going to try and limit myself to 5 take out coffees until next payday (That's one per week) and try and prep lunch for work each day.

Is everyone ready for Christmas?

pinknsparkly

canaryfeather wrote: »

The savings to debt ratio now stands at £758.21/£2819.76

As a result, I'm going to try and limit myself to 5 take out coffees until next payday (That's one per week) and try and prep lunch for work each day.

Is everyone ready for Christmas?

Congratulations on your savings!

And in terms of making lunch at home, it is INCREDIBLE how much difference it makes! I'm always shocked at the extra money we have left at the end of the month when I properly knuckle down and make us both lunches :eek: That said, I'm a bit lazy and don't like making sandwiches so I tend to take the more straight forward option of cooking extra dinner and taking it for lunch (e.g. I might do a pasta bake for dinner on Sunday and make enough to have it cold for lunches on Mon, Tue and Wed). That way "preparing lunches" involves nothing more than scooping a portion into a tupperwear :rotfl:

I also treated myself to some fancy coffee syrups a few months ago (£20 for 3) and I'm still only about 1/3rd the way through each bottle. I keep one at home and one at each work place. As a result of that, I can "treat" myself to fancy coffee at work and as a result, the only times I've bought coffee since then is when I've been doing long drives and need the caffeine! Colleagues of mine prefer milky coffees such as lattes, and they buy sachets of these in the supermarket. I have no idea if they're any good but they keep buying them so I assume they do the trick!!

enthusiasticsaver

Considering you have bought your first house you don't seem to have gone mad like many do with spending. A boiler is a necessity so replacing that and having almost £800 savings and less than £3k debt apart from mortgage I presume is really good. Taking lunch to work saves a fortune.

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary.

canaryfeather

So it's been a month or so since I last posted, and things have gone really well. I've managed to reduce to credit card to £2681.23 and my savings have gone in the right direction what with Quidco cashback, a current account switching bonus, and mindful spending throughout January.

Overall, the quest to debt neutrality now stands at £1600/£2681.23 and well ahead of the July schedule so I'm happy.

The priorities for this month are:
- Take lunch to work and reduce takeout coffees (Still struggling on this front)
- Get savings up to £1800 (I'll be booking flights to America for a wedding this month so saving is going to be a challenge!)

BabyStepper

You're doing really well, great! If you post your soa we can try and help cut your costs even lower.