2020 time to change

EchoB

Thank you Sarah! I will update how I get on with the BT! 

MidsHollie

Hey Echo, I came to sing by your diary when I saw your comment on mine. You are doing well! Things like batch cooking and planning shops can be hard - it is so easy to lose the rhythm with it. I'm trying to make sure I always have some bread in the freezer and eggs in the fridge. Eggs on toast is a pretty frugal meal!

browneyed_girl

Hi!  Just popping by to say hello and cheer you on!  Looks like you’ve made a fantastic start to your debt-busting journey!  Please don’t be disheartened by months when you feel you haven’t achieved the desired loan overpayments - I’m definitely guilty of feeling like this at times because I just want to be as active as possible in making all my debt disappear ASAP!  I just remind myself that every loan or credit card payment is one step closer to being debt-free, even if I only make the scheduled payments for that month.  At least you’re not increasing your debt or missing payments.  Celebrate every positive change and the new good habits that you are making which will see you succeed in the long run!  Best of luck! 

EchoB

A long overdue update! 

Loan 1 original balance £14,396 now £13,554 (I have made £190 overpayments in month)

loan 2 was £15,000 now £14,445 (no overpayments to date)

CC1  £900 was £4,022 the 0% expired on 29th Feb. 

I cleared all of the 0% balance but have spent £900 on my card to enable me to do that. I hope to clear the £900 next month.

CC2 £4,266 (was £4,397) this is all 0%

CC3 £1,045 0% sadly I had to take out a 0% card to clear the MBNA, this offer is for 9 months and I will clear it in full by then.

Total debt £34,465 was £37,816 

£3.3k down which is 8.9%

I was on the fence about adding the £900 balance on my MBNA as it is “current” but I did put a lot on my card so I could clear the expiring 0% balance.  I unfortunately had £500 unplanned emergency expenditure which is over half of this and my focus for March is to be as frugal as possible to clear it before it accrues interest.

sadly I had to get another card and I could only BT £1,045 but at least it isn’t costing me 25% interest.

i’m still rounding up all of my spends then when that reaches £5 I pay it off loan #1. I also paid the money I got for switching energy supplier off the loan.

 I am aiming for 4 NSDs a week and challenging every spend I make. 

savingholmes

Hi - keep posting, keep trying and it will get easier.
Have you done a money makeover where you work through all your regular bills to see if you can get them cheaper. I've saved £158 a year on utilities and £252 just on broadband. We've also made savings on the gym and other areas - dropping DH's bill and getting most of my new gym payment for only about £100 more per year than we were paying just on him before

EchoB

Thank you! I switched utilities and got £40 cash back plus £125 per year saving. Broadband is in contract but will look at what I can do in July. 

I do feel that I’ve saved a lot on groceries, eating down the freezer’s contents. I’ve still not bought any toiletries (am running down my stock of ones I’ve pinched from hotels when I travel for work). 

I do feel like I’ve made some progress and think I will feel better in may when I think I will have recovered from super frugal March and April!!!!

mark55man

well done you are making good progress and a bit of rebalancing is not the worst MSE thing you could do by a long way, just so long as you don't let £1k become £2k which wasmy downfall

bd80s

You are doing really well, remember you are only a few months into focusing on all this so shifts while you organise are expected.  
Not far off the 10%.....ready and waiting to give a big cheer

EchoB

Thanks guys for the comments 

Oh how times have changed in only a few weeks.  The positives in my life are working from home means I save £200 per month on commuting. Staying at home means more NSDs and no pubs/restaurants means no social expenditure. I’m going to cancel my gym membership saving £25 a month.

The negatives are staying at home is going to drive me nuts.

I appreciate I am lucky as I can still work from home, I really feel for the self employed at this time and my heart goes out to people in isolation who can’t see family/friends. 

Stay safe everyone x

bd80s

That's an excellent positive to take and a very good saving  
In reality this could be a 12 week period if everyone does as they are supposed to, which they are now having enforced as they couldn't be grown ups!, which will go so quickly in the bigger scheme of things. 
Glad you are ok though