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

Snwps

Each to their own I suppose. I've done that before, cut the budget back to the absolute bone with no spending other than bills and debts, it didnt work! It wasnt sustainable, the budget and motivation broke. We ended up with more debt than what we began with. This time I waned a realistic budget. With the amount of debt we had, I knew it was going to take a few years to clear and to get my family living on rice and beans, as you say, for those years was a no for me. I've only got my kids living with me for another few years, they're growing fast. If we cant enjoy the odd movie night and take away whats the point! But I do agree that there needs to be a limit.

My spending and budget is working for us at the moment. We're not living on the breadline and the debt is coming down. It may take a little while longer to clear but I'm living my life at the same time and I'm happy with that. I will get there, the debt will be gone. 

I'm not planning on new cars or holidays, I know these are wants not needs. I do still enjoy looking and dreaming, no harm in that. I love looking at new houses too but we're never moving. I love my home and no need to move. We've done a lot of work on the house the last few years to get it as we want. New kitchen & bathroom, new windows & doors, new facias and guttering, refelted the roof, new carpets. 

Snwps

OMG a house I would love to buy has just come back on the market. Just checked rightmove and it's increased its value by £85k since 2017!!!! Theres no way I'd pay the monthly mortgage payments of over £1k per month. I cant believe how much house prices have increased lately and they're selling like hot cakes at these crazy prices. Makes me wonder what mine is worth now after having all the work done to it. 

enthusiasticsaver

Everyone has their own approach to clearing debt.  Some take the scenic route and others go gazelle intense to get rid of it as quickly as possible.  The only issue with the scenic route is that if anything happens like a job loss the debt could be the thing that pushes you into a debt plan rather  than you being able to manage. House prices in my area have gone through the roof over the last year. 

Snwps

Morning all,

DH bank account switch went through fine yesterday, mine is on Friday. 

Logged onto Nat West Rewards and cashed out the £40 due. It will be in my bank in the next 5 working days so putting that the the focus credit card. I've paid off a little more and it is now sitting at £128.80. This card will be gone in the next week. Then we're down to the last 6 credit cards (3 mine, 3 DH). 

Focus card then moves to the next one which is currently sitting at £3,130.24. Plan is to clear this one by Jan 2022. 

Total debt figure is £21,920.01 at today. 

Weather has been lovely last few days. DH been busy up the allotment. He's been getting a lot off fb marketplace for free and making up things for the allotment. For example making up flower boxes out of old decking boards and sanding down and varnishing. They look lovely. All ready for next spring. He's getting really into it and making me happy it's not costing us a penny. We've been quite fortunate in getting stuff for free.

Dentist later. I think I need my wisdom teeth out. I really hope not.

Snwps

Well dentist took out the one wisdom tooth and I'm going back in few weeks to have the other one out. Had to pay £47 for the privilige. Good thing, is that both extractions are classed as same course of treatment so wont have to pay for the second one out.

Snwps

I'm pretty chuffed at how we're doing this month. Just checked YNAB and we've made £439.04 in overpayments just this month alone, it's only the 9th. This is from selling, spare money from DH's weekly pay, my Nat West Rewards and DHs bank account switch incentive. 

Total debt figure at today is £21,610.97. Still lots of payments left to come out and another 3 weeks of DH's weekly pay.

My bank account switch goes through tomorrow. DH got his payment on the switch day. However they've only paid £100 but it should have been £125. I'm going to see how mine goes tomorrow then phone them to check. I'm hoping they can pay the difference to get what we should have. 

The last £128.80 has been paid off the focus card so thats now cleared. We've moved onto the next card which did have a balance of £3,130.24 but we've already paid £80 DD and £100.24 from the bank switch. Makes this cards new balance £2,950.

Snwps

Im having a bit of a panic at the moment. My current energy supplier (PFP Engery) has gone bust and I'm being switched to British Gas. I had an email earlier today and this is the first I heard. I need to wait for the switch to complete before I can switch providers (thats if BG are too expensive, which I'm assuming they will be). 

Ive just gone onto MSE Energy Club to get a comparison. I had a fixed rate which was due to end at the end of November anyway. I know my usage is really high and we pay approx £1900 a year for gas & electricity. The next cheapest is £2730 a year based on the same usage OMG thats an increase of over £800 a year. My direct debits will go from £158 to £230-240 a month. Thats a massive increase. 

I have no idea how Im going to be able to afford that increase. 

I know I can look at reducing my usage but I work from home, kids are both on their computers/consoles when theyre not asleep/in school. I've already got energy efficient bulbs etc. I need to look into this more. I'm off to do some research.

Snwps

Contacted Nationwide to check DH's switch inventive payment. They confirmed he was entitled to £125 so they're putting through the £25 credit difference. Once that goes through it'll go to the cards. 

Still waiting for mine to clear, I've not heard but it may be due to the weekend. I'll leave till Monday.

Snwps

Been a little quiet on here recently. September started off a good month and was really getting somewhere. Then DH had a massive reduction in hours which had a massive impact on income so it's not been a good month. I'm still using YNAB and tracking spends. It could be better, I'm not going to lie. Its something Im working on. So fixed my tiara and off we go again, back in control. 

You will see from my previous post that I've been stressing about the gas/electricity situation (I know I'm not alone here) and the news of PFP Energy going bust and being switched to BG has been on my mind a lot. Today is switch day but so far only electricity is showing. I had a massive panic when I had my welcome letter from BG as it showed our projected usage as being 23,340kwh for the year = £5034 per year just for electricity - thats £420 per month!!!!!!! I know my electricity usage is high but that is more than twice what my actual annual usage is,and is showing on my bills. 

So I spent some time this morning on a chat with BG to ask whats happening with the gas. Its in the process of moving over. We then had a look to see if I could get cheaper a cheaper deal. Based on my actual usage on the tariff I was moved to from PFP my monthly bill was approx £257/month. I've now switched to a new fixed tariff until Sept 2022 with BG and based on actual usage by bill will be £177/month - saving £80/month. So this is only £18/month more than I was paying with PFP. I'm so releaved. I'm still working on getting my usage down, its hard with 2 teens and me WFH.

TheAble

Computers, consoles etc don't take up huge amounts of power. 

23,340 kwh/yr doesn't sound right, that's insanely high. £177/month sounds much more reasonable!