Time to put my big girl pants on!

seriouslyunsurprising

I'm here too @dreambig19
I found your diary when I was searching for someone in similar circumstances last week, after finally having my lightbulb moment. My debt is more than yours, but I am inspired by your progress so far and will follow along and cheer you on! I am hoping to start my own DFD on Friday, but I have considerable debts and now am on Statutory Maternity Pay until September so also struggling to repay, but every little helps! We have just set up a joint Monzo account so we have our existing joint account for mortgage, bills etc and then our monthly allowance for groceries and petrol is now transferred to the new Monzo account so we can keep a closer eye on our spending. 

remote_control

Have you got a diary @seriouslyunsurprising?

seriouslyunsurprising

remote_control said:

Have you got a diary @seriouslyunsurprising?

I'm planning on setting mine up on Friday, if the baby lets me! Really wanting to get everything down in black and white and get some motivation to get rid of the debt - it's like a weight around my shoulders at the moment.

dreambig19

@seriouslyunsurprising thanks for the encouragement! Also congratulations on the arrival of your little one. It was definitely the arrival of baby/struggle with stat mat pay that gave me my lightbulb moment on both occasions!
Please be sure to let us know the link to your DFD (once baby co-operates!) so that we can cheer you on too.

@remote_control how are you doing? Do you have a DFD we can follow?

I'm doing pretty well with my extra earnings this month so far, which I'm really pleased with. I've also now contacted and set up repayment plans with all my creditors - a big step for me. I'm hoping I'll be able to make the minimum payments and then also continue paying larger amounts off using the snowball method.
Someone has suggested that as well as an emergency fund, I have savings/money set aside for 'occasional' spends - birthday gifts, potential vet bills, car maintenance etc. So I'm about to sit down this evening and decide what to set money aside for, and how much. It makes total sense, but it does leave me a little down as obviously every £ that goes into those pots is £1 less towards debt repayments.

I also need to set myself up as self employed so I can make sure I don't get into trouble with HMRC.

I've also made a list of all my pension providers from various jobs over the years, and need to get in touch with them to find out about transferring any funds. Not debt related, but another step towards gaining financial control.

Hope everyone is doing well!

remote_control

Hi dream big, sounds like you are getting things sorted. I have moved all my pensions into my current one. I researched if this was a good idea or not and I would recommend doing the same. The main point is if any of the pensions have any benefits with them, if so it is worth keeping them separate. 
I think the pots are a great idea. Ideal scenario this time next year you have less debt but I think a massive step is to have a year without adding to the debt or spending on credit. We last did in autumn 2019 so have been well over a year, I love that even if I don't make any overpayments it will go down every month. 
I do have a diary.... will post the link at some point.
I'm stuck in that middle of the month nothing to do phase but I have successfully balance transferred a card and so will close the old one next week.

seriouslyunsurprising

Finally put together my DFD, link is here 

seriouslyunsurprising

@dreambig19 How are you getting on? I realised I never replied to your post - I've moved my husband's pensions into the same fund as he's changed jobs over the years (I only ever had one workplace pension plan before becoming self employed, so it's not been an issue for me). I find it much easier to just have the one account to check pension-wise, but definitely check out the individual detail of each plan before deciding what to do, particularly the fee amounts (and if there's any charge for transferring out/in).
Hope you are having a good week and making good progress!

elbree

Hi @dreambig19, well done for getting started. For an EF I'd recommend a pot of £500 - someone on here suggested that as the likely amount if your car broke down the same week as your washing machine 🙄. Maybe you could use the 'Tilly Tidy' method or some other rounding down each day and alternate between debts and EF? Or if you and your partner have separate accounts one could pay towards the debts and the other the EF? Anyway, good luck! 

dreambig19

@seriouslyunsurprising I'm doing ok thanks! Managed to track down all my old pensions, just waiting on details of my new one from my new job and then will arrange to transfer. Hope you are ok?
@elbree thanks! I'll look up the Tilly Tidy method. I've been rounding down each day to make (very small) payments to the next debt on my list, but may alternate between EF and debts. 

I've had a slow few days on the 'earn £10 a day' front - the 8month olds sleep is basically non existent at this stage, so on the rare occasions that I actually get some time to myself in the evenings, I end up crashing too. Making a good go of it today though to get back on track.
Also after being messed around like nobodies business for a few weeks, I've cancelled Virgin and we're switching to sky. The bill is still higher than I'd like, but we're getting the same package for £30 a month less, plus it includes netflix so I'll be able to cancel that, saving another £14 a month, so I'm pretty pleased with that!

dreambig19

Nothing much been happening the last week or so, just waiting for the end of the month to hit so I can reconcile my budget etc! This is the first month I've fully tracked every expenditure so I'm a little excited (and a lot dreading - due to some home truths haha) sitting down and working out exactly where all my money is going. I set myself a budget at the beginning of this month based on what I thought I spent on things, so it will be interesting to find out how close I was, and adjust my budget accordingly.

DH gets paid on the 25th of every month while I get paid on the last Friday of every month, so I tend to run our financial month from the 25th to the 24th. 

Extra earnings were going really well at the start of the month but have slowed down a fair bit in the second half. Hoping it picks up again soon!