The Four D's

FootyFanDan

DancingInTheRain wrote: »

All sounding good Dan, well deserved :T you've certainly put the work in so it's great to see your budget's working for you x

Thank you DITR Hope you are well....i am sucking at keeping up with diaries atm(must do better):rotfl:

Yeah everything is seeming okay as we are, still working out how hard to hit the debt. I worked out based on current figures which i do need to go over, if i can somehow push my budget a bit and pay extra £250 on top of my already planned £250 i could actually be debt free by Aug/Sept. Or if i can stretch to just £400 this takes me to November time. Realistically the budget suggests i can allow this much to be paid but we are also in process of trying to do a few small things to our current home to make it feel more like an home ( I know that sounds crazy) So i just want to strike a balance i guess.

FootyFanDan

Dear Diary - Thank god its my Friday (hehe least in work terms) 5 or so hours left of my last shift before 4 days off :T.

My Monday was low key and a NSD day, finished my night shift and then went to Gym, omg i never realized how unfit i had become :rotfl::rotfl: i mean i had an idea but god the reality! haha. I did feel really happy to be back in the gym though.

I have not got a massive amount planned with my days off, i do have job interview on Wednesday though so got some prep to do for that. Also a few more tip runs to complete of operation declutter.

I must admit i am feeling a lot better in myself too so that is good, been a really rough few weeks mind wise but getting there.

I am kinda questioning the way i am doing stuff re debts and savings a little bit now so got to think about that. I am currently paying a fair bit to debt and also keeping some back to go in emergency fund and savings in Help To Buy but not sure if i should just whack as much as possible to debt and forget the EF & H2B until debt is cleared or put a little less to the debt and put a few extra months on the DF date in order to build up EF and H2B pots..advice welcome....and defo needed! :rotfl:

No gym today after work, straight home and then ready to sort out the remaining bits to go to the tip. Hope you all have a lovely day and i will check in again later. Also got to catch up on diaries.

bd80s

Hi


You sound so happy and positive at the moment, it's great. You've also reminded me I have to get a tip run done this weekend.......


If it was me I would definately build up the emergency fund (I'm trying at the moment and it should get easier for me in March) as the similar theme I've seen through diaries (as have you no doubt) is that something always crops up and makes life hard/credit having to be used. My target is £500 and then just build at a slower rate and divert extra monies to debts but at least I'll have a cushion for when things
inevitably go wrong.......


Maybe you can split it so that you spend a couple of months building up the emergency fund to what you feel comfortable with and then split any extra between topping up the fund, more into the H2B and some extra onto debts?

[Deleted User]

I'd probably build up your EF then throw it all at the debt once you've got the built up as your safety buffer.

Just a thought, have you looked at HTB vs LISA? X

[Deleted User]

When I was paying off my debt I was also adding to savings, when my savings got to the same level as my debt I used it to pay everything off.

For me at that time it just felt like the right thing to do for me.

FootyFanDan

bd80s wrote: »

Hi


You sound so happy and positive at the moment, it's great. You've also reminded me I have to get a tip run done this weekend.......


If it was me I would definately build up the emergency fund (I'm trying at the moment and it should get easier for me in March) as the similar theme I've seen through diaries (as have you no doubt) is that something always crops up and makes life hard/credit having to be used. My target is £500 and then just build at a slower rate and divert extra monies to debts but at least I'll have a cushion for when things
inevitably go wrong.......


Maybe you can split it so that you spend a couple of months building up the emergency fund to what you feel comfortable with and then split any extra between topping up the fund, more into the H2B and some extra onto debts?

Thank you bd80s, yeah overall I am feeling in a good place at the moment. I do think I don't need a massive starter EF I think if I could build maybe £300-£500 I could then start just adding less amount to it and maybe splitting it 50/50 with the H2B so that the EF is still building without impacting my debt payments. I think I am going to put £100 a month away and put this to EF for 3 months and then split it from April. Hopefully this means I can also pay a little more to debt too so win/win really.

FootyFanDan

SSDD23 wrote: »

I'd probably build up your EF then throw it all at the debt once you've got the built up as your safety buffer.

Just a thought, have you looked at HTB vs LISA? X

yeah I tend to agree, I think going to build up small EF enough to cover most things that could go wrong (fridge/washer/cooker fault or car repair) and then once I have this I will split the £100 across both until Debt Free. Realistically its going to be a while before I can even think of owning my home, however a situation at work where one of colleagues has been told they have to find new house ASAP due to change in Landlords circumstances really highlighted how crap renting can be,

Honestly no:( I had decided that I wanted to do the H2B then left it right til the last day it could be done without much other research which isn't ideal of course. I just needed somewhere I could build up and liked the idea of the gov bonus. Is LISA a better option?

FootyFanDan

Deleted_User wrote: »

When I was paying off my debt I was also adding to savings, when my savings got to the same level as my debt I used it to pay everything off.

For me at that time it just felt like the right thing to do for me.

Dolly, this makes really good sense, I am unsure if my savings would get that high but I guess if I can save and not impact debt payments that can only be good. I just worry that I am getting this all wrong and should just hammer ever spare penny at debt then worry about savings. I do feel more comfortable knowing that if I can spread my expense across EF/Debt/H2B I would have bases covered

As it stands if I was going to really hammer debts payment would be aprox £400-£500. So how I split that is possibly more the decision I need to make

[Deleted User]

Honestly it’s obviously all personal choice but I opted for the LISA as the maximum property value you can use it for is a lot higher, and it can be used towards the house deposit as well, I believe

This is what I read up on it with x

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2016/04/the-help-to-buy-isa-v-lifetime-isa-which-should-first-time-buyers-get/

FootyFanDan

SSDD23 wrote: »

Honestly it’s obviously all personal choice but I opted for the LISA as the maximum property value you can use it for is a lot higher, and it can be used towards the house deposit as well, I believe

This is what I read up on it with x

https://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2016/04/the-help-to-buy-isa-v-lifetime-isa-which-should-first-time-buyers-get/

Thank you I will have a read up on this, I think I just panicked and signed up to H2B as I did the usual thing and left it to the last minute :rotfl:. Owning my own home dream is pretty much a new thing