My debt free diary

Willing2Learn

DF2020 wrote: »

...what's the snowball?

There are two differing methods of snowballing your debt. You have the Dave Ramsey method and the MSE 'debt stacking' method. Have a read of the article linked below so that you can understand the difference:
https://www.thebalance.com/debt-snowball-vs-debt-stacking-453633

Once that is done, if you feel a snowball could work for you, then you can play around with the numbers, using the snowball calculator linked below:
http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx


Definitely agree with the others, in that it is advisable to keep a spending diary, so that you can ascertain where your money is going.

DF2020

Working from home today so will be a no spend day. Have been very good this week so far (even though only Wednesday) and have packed lunches and coffee.

Had a fairly low key weekend, worked from home Friday and did an Aldi shop (£35 which has covered us for meals for the week) and went out for a friend's birthday dinner and drinks. There were ten of us and the bill came to about £18 each which was very affordable. Had a drink at the pub afterward but was shouted by BF's friend who we were putting up on the couch for the night who was visiting from out of town. We then went out for breakfast before saying goodbye which was about £15. No spends for the rest of the weekend so was generally a cheap weekend overall and within budget. A roast chicken on Sunday has set me up for lunches the last three days and dinner after netball on Monday.

Pay day tomorrow!!

DF2020

Pay day was on Thursday and I've moved all my money into their budgeted pots and have been recording everything I'm spending so far in Monzo and onto my budget spreadsheet. A number of bills have already come out and every dollar has a job for the month.

Went out for dinner and a film on Saturday night. A reward I get through my phone plan is 2 cinema tickets for £7 so we used those. A massive saving as usually this would cost £25 which I think is ridiculous. We brought in our own sweets from the supermarket which were £1 per bag - they were £3.99 per bag equivalent at the cinema! Boyfriend insisted on buying himself a post mix coke there which cost £4.70! Unbelievable but it's his money! I brought in a bottle of water to have with my M&M's. Dinner was a really nice thai and was £17.40 each.

Yesterday I went to M&S and got a £15 Christmas tree and spent £15 on some bits from the shop and stuff for a roast chicken dinner which will give us lunch/dinner for the next couple of days with the leftover chicken.

I do find that tracking everything I spend is really helping. Even a couple of weeks ago I likely would have spent twice as much as I did this weekend and not even know where the money went.

Have sent over £650 onto debt. Will pay another £200 later in the month once direct debits come out. Looking forward to seeing those balances just continually decrease, with no more increases!! Have deleted all card details from google chrome, saved safari fill ins and off accounts like Asos etc so it's not easy for me to just one click buy online.

db2016

DF2020 wrote: »

Have deleted all card details from google chrome, saved safari fill ins and off accounts like Asos etc so it's not easy for me to just one click buy online.

well done so far and have subb'ed!

as an IT guy this bit makes sense for two reasons, one budgeting and goals! but also its not advisable to keep them in browser for security.
always better to type in fresh everytime, its only an extra 10s surely.

you can however use a password "vault" or manager where one (and make it strong) password then lets you manage all the others under it. and then you can "autofill" from that, but as you have logged into that first its very secure (my vault eg is 15 characters) and then when a new site comes up it'll ask you to save them details in the vault - or and this is the best bit, it will generate new passwords for you (you tell it how many characters and to use numbers or symbols etc), and then itll be nonsense to us to remember but itll be saved by the manager

theres also have i been pwned (yes thats spelt right) put in ya email address on that site and it tells you if your email was compromised by any data breaches recently.

good luck with journey, and also well done for putting up with our winters lol

DF2020

Thanks everyone for your words of encouragement so far!

Just wanted to log in and say I've done a bit of moving funds around and moved some of my CC debt onto the Virgin Money 0% transfer however I didn't realise they don't take Amex transfers. I cleared the balance off my MBNA onto the 0% and have now transferred the Amex balance onto the MBNA as I had a 0% offer on that card. So I won't be paying any interest until December 2020 (for a % of the Barclaycard) and much longer for the remaining cards.

Balances with debt now stand at:
Barclaycard: £8,685
MBNA: £2,229
VirginMoney: £2,890
Total: £13,804

This is the debt I'm going to track here. The overseas debt is too complicated with currency conversions etc so I will just track this separately in my spreadsheet.

The good news is I've been interviewing for a potential new job and they've made it very clear they're very keen to have me on board so I have quoted a salary I am seeking as £15,000 more than what I am earning now. Will be meeting with them later on this week to discuss details, fingers crossed they want me enough to pay me that!! Will be so handy to have the extra £ per month to put toward debt and savings. I know I am extremely lucky to be in this position and after LBM drives me crazy that all this extra money will be going toward debt and not toward saving for a house!

DF2020

Arghh, just went to Coop and spent £14.35 completely on stuff I didn't need, only wanted. Sabotage! And I need to do a shop tomorrow. The grocery budget is shrinking but at least I get paid on the 19th this month, then I'm off to Australia for 2 weeks on the 28th but I've already got my spending money saved for that so technically will be 2 weeks no spend! In £ terms)

DF2020

Was about to write and say yesterday was a NSD and be proud, however just remembered I bought mulled wine yesterday (£5.95!!) after walking the dog. It was very blustery and cold along the river and after our walk we called into a pub with a roaring fire and I had some time to kill. Oh well, it was thoroughly enjoyable and felt very Christmassy with the fire and the tree.

Spent £10 this morning on my way into work - got some smoked salmon on special (£3.99) to have with my scrambled eggs I brought in with me in my Foodpod, some bubble bath and some nuts to snack on. Shouldn't spend anything else today as have food in at home and am holding off eating eggs until around lunchtime. Am trying some intermittent fasting and keto at the moment as want to lose about a stone or so. Has been relatively easy so far and intermittent fasting is very budget friendly!

Work Christmas party tomorrow so should be NSD and I'm off on Friday!

db2016

keto works,



lost 6st from march april ish 2018-december 2018 - i stopped for xmas.

2019 i may have put some back on, but a net of around 4.5st loss.



dan

DF2020

Quick update - pay day was yesterday and for the first time in I can't remember how long, I did not have to use a credit card to carry me over to pay day! I know it was an early pay day, but I literally have £100's left from last pay sitting in different pots and in an emergency fund I started which I *could* have used if I'd run out of spending money. I know that's not what I'm supposed to do and I certainly won't be doing it but just the fact I had back up money that's NOT credit to carry me over is amazing!!

So I've portioned all my money into my pots for the next 6 weeks to get me by to end of January. It's really great to see those pots start to fill up. Last month I had no money saved away for anything and now I've got little pots with £40, £50 in them for things like car MOT and water bill which will grow over time. Usually I would just put expenses like these on credit card when they came up, and never budget. So I'm v proud of myself.

Re debt payments, I'm going to just pay the minimums this month, plus the full amount I've spent on expenses on the CC I use for expenses. So my debt is only going to reduce by £465 for the January period instead of the usual £1000. This is actually a good thing for two reasons:

One: my debt hasn't grown this month! By not using my cards willy nilly I've not added anything to my debt.
Two: by paying just the minimums (and thanks to a nice Christmas bonus from work) I now have a full £1,000 in an emergency fund!

Back to paying more than the minimums following January pay.

Everything is bought for Christmas, just need some food to take to my OH's parents on Christmas day (I'm making rum balls and making sausage meatball pigs in blankets from a recipe I saw on BBC Good Food).

Off to Australia then a few days after Christmas for 2 weeks and that's fully funded.

Merry Christmas!