Why is spending money so easy......

Snwps

RobM99 said:

This may have been mentioned before but are your teens old enough to get a Saturday job (if not already)? At least they could buy their own lunch!

Hi Rob, my oldest is yes. We're looking at the moment and have been asking around. Hes not too happy about it mind but need to get him off his lazy butt. I'm hoping once the restaurants and markets open back up we can find something. 

Snwps

Its been almost a week since my last post. Both cars have been into the garage and passed the MOT and had a service. I've already posted previously that the one car needed 4 new tyres and cost £172.80. The total cost for getting both cars serviced and MOT'd was £594 (inc the cost above for the 4 tyres). Due to this the debt figure has increased a little from £26,876.15 on 11th July to £27,512.89 today. I've also added the interest added on the 2 credit cards for this month so figure is up to date. There is about £710.53 worth of DDs to be paid by end of the month so we should be OK to get back into the £26k's by end of the month, but wont be in the £25k's as planned. Nevermind. 

House renovations due to start next week and we've already done a lot of prep. House is a mess and can already see an increase in original costs budget due to issues hidden before the prep work started (typical), for example the plaster boards are damp/rotten and need replacing and may have an issue with a part of the wiring. We're waiting for the electrician to come check. I've therefore moved the money from my job no 2 to the fund to cover any possible costs. If its not needed then I can pay off the card towards the car costs. I think I need to keep it aside for now just and case. 

Snwps

Well to say the last couple of months has been hectic will be an understatement!

House renovations are complete and all the work done is beyond expectations, we're really happy....BUT, as usual things didnt quite go to plan and its cost more than we had budgeted to get the work done. The work took a little longer and cost more. One of the issues was that the items I had bought to do the work didnt fit so we had to re-purchase some major items. We have the original items and we're looking to sell them ASAP to recoup some of the money.  

As of today the debt figure stands at £29,533.66. I'm a little disappointed with this as we we're doing so well and was on a roll until July. To be honest, as things were being done around the house I wasnt keep as keen an eye on the finances and things got a little slack. I was still completing YNAB on a daily basis so I hadn't completely gone back to my old ways but money was dribbling out of the bank on spends we didnt really need. A tenner here and there all mounts up. Never the less, I've drawn a line in the sand, checked all accounts and updated totals as of today so YNAB is right up to date. 

Looking forward to the end of the month, we still have £347.09 in DD's to come out of the bank, plus £484 which is a snowball, making £831.09. This means by the end of the month we should be around the £28,700 mark ready to go into October. 

Looking forward to the end of the year, I'd really like to get below the £20k mark. 

OK, now the positives - I have an emergency fund of £1307.15. The £1000 is the benchmark I'd planned to get and I'm saving any surplus fuel money paid from job no 2, which is the £307.15. Not bad since I started doing this in July. 

I've also got money set aside for Christmas so that's another check off the list. 

We had planned on going on holiday at the end of the year and had planned on paying this on the credit card. I know, I know, big no no. But I was saving my money from job no 2 pay to pay it in full but is seemed silly having that sat in a bank account while paying interest on the debt for the past 12 months until the due date so I was paying that off the debt, knowing that the debt would go back up in September. Anyhow, its been postponed to 2022. Gutted from our point of view, but happy that it's not effected my debt repayment journey. They say things happen for a reason. We're obviously meant to save the money instead.

So seen as things are slowly getting back to normal I want to keep more on the ball with our finances again and get back to updating MSE. I find it really helps me stay focused and on track. 

Just to finish, a few things I want to sort/work on before end of the month:
1) Check if we're in Sky contract still. See if we can get better deal. I'm sure it's due to end by December (if on 24 months)
2) See if can switch gas/electric. I definately know I can save here. I'm normally on the ball with this but slipped this year.
3) Reduce food/grocery shop spend (yup, still struggling with this one)
4) Reduce take away spend (yup, struggling with this one too)
5) Need to loose weight!

If you've got this far, well done, thanks for reading.

Snwps

I've had quite a productive couple of days MSE wise. Having read a few other diaries on here, I've been through all the debt repayments and rounded up to the nearest £10 so overpaying ever so slightly. I've then contacted each company and changed the DD's to this amount instead of just the minumum. This means I know each month what the payment amount will be and also the total debt DD's. This will be £800.17 ( the only one I couldnt change was the loan for £145.17 - its due to end in July anyway). As this amount will not changed its really helped me look better at the budget and overpayments. At the beginning of my diary, June 2019, my monthly payments were just shy of the £1000. Due to this I'm going to Snowball £200 per month. Then with my income from Job #2 at £450 and DHs income from Job #2 at £770 we're looking at clearing £2,220.17 per month.  

The next thing I'd like to do, now that my DD's are fixed, is to start rounding down the amounts on each of the debts. E.g. one of the cards is £798.44. So if we get any spare cash one week I'd like to pay off the £8.44 to round down to the nearest £10. To make everything nice and tidy on my spreadsheets/YNAB.

I also done a bit of credit card shuffling yesterday and done some balance transfers to 0% until April 2022. This should save us about £150 a month in interest, which I'm very happy with. 

I've been in touch with our gas & electric provider and we may be able to switch to a better deal with them and save £20 per month. I'm waiting to hear back. I've checked the MSE comparison site and they're up there with the cheapest so we'll stay put and switch tariffs. It also dont help that we owe a balance so at least this way we're paying off gradually instead of paying off in full and switching.

I've also checked with Sky and my phone/broadband is out of contract (ended July 2020) and they're offering £5 per month off TV if we renewed. I will phone them soon to see if we can haggle a better deal. I need to pshyc myself up for the battle of wills lol. Currently paying £56/month for Phone/Fibre/TV (Entertainment package and ultimate on demand package). I also need to check with them on my broadband quality as WFH with 2 teen gamers is causing some issues. 

I think that's it for now. Off to work later, hope if was busier than last night, it dragged.

Snwps

Forgot to mention, I'm waiting to go back to college to a) finish my AAT level 3 which we couldnt do before end of term due to covid and b) start my level 4 AAT to get qualified. So I have a lot to catch up on and get back into as Level 3 should be finishing by end of October and then straight onto Level 4 to hopefully finish by next summer. Half way through. 

Snwps

Just jumping on to give an update. 

The debt figure at 31/12/2020 was £27,545.13. However over the last month or so I've got into the habbit of keeping money in my bank account instead of paying off my debt. So on 4th December I bit the bullet and paid it all off - £3,916.02 in total.

Debt at todays date is £23,629.11 which means we've paid off £13,864.14 (37%). 

Things slowed down towards end of the year. I gave up my job no 2 which meant a slight reduction in my income but feel so much better in myself for it and it shouldnt make too much of a dent in the process. Also we spent a little more on Christmas than I would have liked and we had a short break away before Christmas which was needed. So I've accepted and drawn a line under spends in 2020 and moved on to 2021. I have a clear plan in place and all going well should be debt free end of the year or early 2022 at the latest.

We're down to just 6 credit cards and 1 loan (ending July) and money owed to HMRC. The snowball effect is really starting to make a dent now in clearing the balance as I wasnt seeing the benefit of this at the start of my journey. By paying minimums each month and the snowball we're clearing £1000/month plus DH 2nd job income is around another £1000 so we're clearing £2000/month. Theres just 2 cards accruing interest which we're focusing on. But all going well these will be cleared by July along with other cards which have 0% deals ending this year.

I cant wait to get into the teens. I never thought I'd get here when I first started it felt like such a stretch. 

Plan for 2021 Q1
-Get debt fig into Teens
-Look for cheaper home insurance (Do now)
-Look for cheaper car ins (April)
-Stick to food budget and meal prep, whilst trying to loose weight
-Stop unnecessary spends
-Dont leave extra money in the bank. Pay it off a debt as soon as it comes in. Be ruthless!

*the last point is also another reason the debt slowed down Q4 2020. I was getting comfortable having a few £k's in the bank account, instead of paying off a card. But I stopped this this week by paying off £5k and clearing 4 cards and I feel better for it. There's always something I can convince myself I need, when in fact if I'm honest I dont. This is a habit I need to shake. 

Snwps

Switched house insurance today, effective renewal next month. The renewal quote with current provider was £220 for the year (pay in full) and I found a cheaper provider through a comparison site at £135 so saved £85. I tried to go through a cash back website with the same new provider but the quote through them was £250 with possible £130 cash back, so I weighed up and didnt want to risk not getting the cashback (this has happened in the past) and be stuck paying the high premium so I've stuck with the £135. 

Still a bit too early to look for car insurance, its not due to renew until May.

Food planning is going well so far. I have a food shop coming tomorrow but its a whopping £120. I needed loads so should be good for a while. Seem to be averaging £100 a week but thats not bad 4 adults to feed plus cleaning and bathroom products and dog. I know this can be a little less if I go to a budget supermarket but atm I hate going out so if I can get a delivery slot I'm taking it. 

Another £135 off the debt today as a DD come out. Signature updated. £23,494.11 balance. Cleared £13,999.14 - 37.34%

Snwps

Feeling a bit rubbish today if I'm honest. I've been updating my spreadsheets and figures etc and looking back on my diary and feeling a little disheartened that I should have got further in my journey than I have. I've realised I started my diary about 19 months ago and cleared around £14k. The issue I have is that I could have done better and my focus has been up and down. I know theres nothing I can do about past spending now I'm just having a hard time refocusing my efforts. DH is great reassuring me we're better now than we were 2 years ago, which I know deep down is true (sigh). 

I'm going to go back to basics and have a look to see if theres any savings I can make or extra money I can find/make to refocus. I done this a lot at the start, cutting bills and selling things I no longer use but after a while the bills are as cheap as possible and there's nothing worthwhile here to sell. So I'm going to have a think. 

Snwps

OK so I've picked my self up and dusted myself off, ready to get back to it.

Payday is in 2 days. Its a little more this month as I've had a 2% payrise plus my tax code changed in November as I put through the working from home allowance. The allowance is not much but anything helps. Im looking forward to sorting YNAB and my spreadsheets. However I'm guilty of doing this before I actually get paid so YNAB is looking all red and angry as I've allocated funds I've not yet received. Does anyone else do this? I'm such an impatient person lol

The one thing Ive been working on lately with YNAB and my spreadsheets is the fact that DH gets paid weekly and the amount varies according to his hours worked so theres no consistancy. Originally my SOA used an average of 6 months of his income to calculate the average monthly salary however it aint as easy as that when funding my outgoings on YNAB, some months there wasnt enough money. So I've had a change of heart and used his weekly pay at the lowest amount to complete my SOA for a 4 week period, with the plan of any extra above this amount to go towards debt/savings etc. Also the weeks wheres theres 5 pays in that month on the 5th week, pay the weekly food shop and petrol then the rest can go to debt/savings. This adjustment is going to take some time to get to grips with. 

Does anyone have any insight on weekly pay on YNAB like this?

I think for the first few weeks I'll put any income above his basic into a savings account to make sure there isnt any issues later on in the month and I've already paid the cash to the credit card. 

Ive been catching up on other diaries on here getting tips. Always interesting to see how others are getting on.

Snwps

1 Day to payday, YNAB all ready.

I couldnt sleep last night thinking about budgets. So I've given it a complete overhaul today following a lot of thought and list making last night. I've come to the conclusion that I overstretch my budget and put too much to debt not leaving enough to save or as a slush fund for any unplanned costs. Lets face it, we could have the best plan in place but theres always an unplanned cost, right?

So here's my plan (sorry this is a long one):
Seen as I get paid monthly I'm paying all the monthly bills and 4 of the debts. I'm going to redirect the surplus (inc payrise) of £295.75, which used to include the snowball and move this to a new Monzo account where it's going to be split into pots to cover Christmas, Birthdays, Home Insurance, Car Insurance Tax & Maintenance, Clothing, Haircuts and Emergency Fund. 

I've budgetted £300 per week income from DH. As explained yesterday his income differs from week to week depending on hours and shifts. I'll use £170 per week to cover groceries, fuel, fags and pocket money. Leaving £130 per week to cover 1 credit card per week for the 4 unbudgetted for so far. Any weeks where DH pay is more than £300 I'm going to put into a slush fund, as well as the 4th week where the credit card DD is only £30, £100 to go to slush and any months where theres 5 pays in the month the £130 will go into slush. I want to keep this slush until the end of the following month in case there is any unplanned costs or weeks where DH income falls below £300 (usually cancelled shifts). 

DH 2nd job to be paid straight to Debt.

When the car insurance renews in May will use money in Monzo to pay in full, then the money we were paying monthly by DD will be redirected to Monzo to go towards EF.

So I'm going to give this a go see if it works over the next 2/3 months then review and see how I've done. The only thing I havent included/budgeted for is take aways. We could say we'll only have one on the weeks where DH gets paid more than £300 per week. It'll be £30 per week approx. I know a lot of people dont think this should be OK when paying off debt but this is the one thing we do as a family each week, have food and have movie night. So it's a family spend lol.