Keep calm and carry on....

debtfreeoneday

Awesome work on getting below £5k. Soooo goood. Well done on the horse win as well 

South_coast

Thanks DFOD 😀

South_coast

Right, pondering complete - and I am going ahead with my radical shake-up. For as far back as I can remember, I have put money aside each month for big expenditure which I know is coming (things like car insurance, gifts, holidays, car replacement etc). A few years ago I switched from doing small amounts for every type of expenditure every single month to focusing on one item at a time and making faster progress. I've now decided to extend that further and ditch that monthly amount altogether and roll it into whatever is the next priority (appreciate this isn't sounding particularly radical, but I've always treated that monthly saving figure as sacrosanct!)

I've written out an order of priority with amounts next to them and deadlines where they exist (ie I HAVE to pay for car insurance every March) and I can see that it's do-able, so have just scooped money I don't need yet out of the pots it was in and transferred £2058.18 to the mortgage 😱😱😱 as that's priority #1 (the random £8.18 was this week's free money earnings 🤣) EVERYTHING will now go towards that each month, then it's on to priority #2 - and so on!

Feels good to have made the decision, but there has been a LOT of time spent staring at the calculator today!

themadvix

Not sure I entirely understand, but that’sa good way to reduce your mortgage balance, clearly!

Cheery_Daff

Ooh, that sounds like an interesting way of doing things!

South_coast

themadvix said:

Not sure I entirely understand, but that’sa good way to reduce your mortgage balance, clearly!

Shame it was a one-off though, Vix! I can't scoop from an empty pot again 🤣 Essentially, the thinking is "Why am I putting money towards paying off the mortgage AND the money for my next car (the first time-bound priority), when I could use the money for both towards the mortgage THEN the money for both towards the car". It doesn't create more money, just changes the use to all and nothing from a bit of both 😀

greent

Similar principle to Martin's snowballing for debts..?

South_coast

Yep, that's how I'm seeing it 👍 

In truth, there were many more steps in the thought process (including doing the exact opposite 🤣), but thought I'd keep it succinct on here!

killerpeaty

With your little balance to go, I would also throw everything I had at it. The car will be tiddly compared (unless you have the urge for a supercar???)

South_coast

*Cough* I do have a weakness for German cars 😮 At least it cuts down on browsing/researching time to know that there are only 2 (possibly 3) brands I would consider 🤣 We all have our achilles heel....and at least I spend less on alcohol now!