New Life Pending.....

[Deleted User]

I'm saving EF at £100 a month as well, works for me!

Moneywhizz

Sounds like a sensible plan. I would keep your emergency fund to a minimum though, maybe £300, and get your credit card paid off as soon as you can to save interest. When you are debt free you can build up a much larger EF so that you never have the need to get into debt again.

enthusiasticsaver

Iwantanewlife wrote: »

So budget has just been re looked at to try and find the money to complete my mission this month. Bare with my ramblings!!!

To be able to pay off CC3 and PayPal I need £398.73 plus my £47 for my minimum payment on my CC. After re doing my budget about 1000 times, i have managed to get it as close as being just £26.44 short. Now i think i can get this from my food budget, but again i have really cut things as tight as i cant get it. My figures also include £25 odd waiting to be released after my pay day. So i think what i will do is pay the credit card off in full on pay day and close that account, and then pay £200 to my pay pal account, then i will pay the remainder £27 odd off the next week when ive managed to skim my food budget again.

Then from next month, im going to only have one creditor left which is my main CC. To tackle this one, i need to be able to build an EF. Im going to allocate £300 per month for the CC then any extra skim from my pots to add as i go, along with the ebay sales, surveys, TCB etc. Im just wondering your thoughts - if i go with the £300 to the CC it will leave £100 per month for the EF, do you think i have this ratio wrong? Remember i havnt used my CC since my lightbulb moment.

I think that sounds like a really good plan. You are giving priority to the CC which is a good idea but not ignoring the fact your EF is depleted. I think you will find it easier from then on having just the one creditor and putting all the odds and ends you earn or savings from monthly budgets will add up fairly quickly. It will soon be gone. It will be great to get rid of CC3 and hopefully payplan too this month if you can manage to find the extra savings. Well done and keep going. You are so close now.

Iwantanewlife

**UPDATE**

I’ve got to be honest, today, I felt really down. I felt like a house deposit was so far off, I felt old and I felt so much regret by leaving it this long to sort my life out. I’d spent the last few days going over and over my budget to see what else I could squeeze to no real avail. I then read someone else’s diary ** jealousy warning** this person, with 3 kids, 10 years younger than me, 14k more debt than me and earning 15k less than me, cleared their debt and then brought a house in 2 years made me feel really sh**ty to be honest. Although so impressed with them, it just made me feel like it was so far off for me.

Anyway, after sulking, feeling sorry for myself and then guilty for feeling jealous of someone else’s hard work, I got an email. My TCB and PayPal funds cleared. Fate ey? So straight away, I called CC3, cleared the balance and closed the account.

Time to get a grip and remember this is not a competition nor is it a race, and also remember how far I’ve come.

So, 2 creditors left, 1 to be cleared next week. Payday 6 days and counting.......

Have a nice evening all x

Moneywhizz

You are right, it's not a competition. We can always compare ourselves with people who are in a better position than us while forgetting about others who are in a much worse position. Everyone has different priorities and different circumstances. You have done remarkably well since you started your diary and will be debt free much sooner than you originally thought. You are still young enough to turn this all around. Even on your current income you will be able to build up an emergency fund and a house deposit and there is always the possibility of a better paid job coming along which could make a huge difference. You should be proud of all that you have achieved so far. Just keep focused and it won't be long before you are busy making plans for the future rather than paying off your debt.

enthusiasticsaver

If you consider you only started this journey just over 2 months ago you have come a remarkably long way. Just 2 debts to go then you will be debt free and you are on a good income. You are early thirties so you have time to set yourself some savings targets and get yourself on a much brighter financial footing. Yes you can have regrets you did not start this process 10 years ago but you are a lot younger than some on this forum who did not have their LBM until their 40s or 50s. No point in comparing yourself to others as everyone has their own different circumstances and priorities.

You also have to remember you live in London, one of the most expensive cities in the world so it is unsurprising if it is more difficult to buy there. On the plus side you are paying high rent so when you have a deposit together you may well find that buying is actually cheaper than renting. If you have no debt and continue to budget as you have been doing I think you could raise a decent deposit in 2 years too.

PurpleFairy26

You could have also not had your light bulb moment, be still using your CC and have that horrible loan. You haven't as you've been really focused since you started this journey and made huge progress. As others have said, no reason why you shouldn't smash the deposit saving process over the next couple of years and it may work out cheaper than current rent

Well done on getting rid of CC3 :T

Iwantanewlife

New day

Firstly i just want to say thank you for all the encouragement ive received over the evening and this morning. It really is appreciated. When i started this diary i promised i would be honest and so although its quite shaming writing for people to see, my green eyed monster feelings, it was the truth and i think its important to document that this debt busting is not all roses and delight!

So as i said last night, CC3 is gone, which leaves a remaining debt balance of - £ 1998.46 Finally under the £2k mark.

I will do a proper round up next week when pay day hits.

Funds for the remained of the week is extremely tight! I have £9.50 in the food budget and £40 left in the fuel budget. Tight, but doable! ive stretched last weeks fuel to today, maybe at an extreme push tomorrow, which is amazing considering the weekend trip! What i may well do is put £30 in tomorrow and then put a tenner over to the food budget, just to make sure we get through the weekend ok!

Iwantanewlife

frago wrote: »

Everyone's story is different... and there will always be people who are better off or they seem they have their s__t together and we don't... no point in comparing, IMO. I do it too, and then I get anxious and angry with myself for doing that.

You will get there! just keep up doing what you're doing now. Who knows, house prices might go down post brexit and you might even benefit from buying low in a couple of years.

I was actually thinking that about house prices. Amazingly my rent is really low as its owned by my family so i just pay the mortgage. The rent for my house is supposed to be £2.2 k per month. For what i pay in rent i could not even get a studio flat, no exaggeration!

[Deleted User]

I think it's normal to get jealous from time to time. I'm jealous of you for having had your LBM at a time where you can still sort your debt out reasonably quickly - it's a really long slog for me, and I haven't got anything to show for my debts, or anyone to blame but myself.
But the thing is, we can only do better if we know better. No matter the mistakes we've made in the past, if we make changes now, our lives will be infinitely better in the future than if we hadn't.