misstara's debt diary 2020

misstara

Was debating whether to start a new diary with it being a new year but have decided to stick with this one instead.

Have had a good week although work has been very busy.  Was off yesterday and today, back on the late shift tomorrow.  

Budget for January - £1900
- £1050 usual bills

- £150 car

- £200 food/cleaning/toiletries

- £70 presents 
- £50 petrol

- £150 car fund

- £100 emergency fund

- £10 ynab

- £50 home

- £20 social

- £50 flat deposit

I have £3377.86 left to pay off on my car and would love to pay it off by the end of the year.  £1761.84 will be paid off by the monthly direct debit leaving £1616.02 or £134.67 extra to pay each month.  Seems doable but then I would have to pay less into savings or really trim the budget for other things.  Hmm something to think about.

Boodedoo

Happy New Year to you misstara
I am sure you will work out what's best, but unless you are actually going to save (?pay less interest) on the car loan perhaps building up your emergency fund would take precedence.
Whichever you choose, you are in a really good position to start this new year, looking forward to watching you go onwards and upwards.

Sarahwithlove

Could you maybe do £100 from savings and then aim to find remainder from surveys and selling etc? 

misstara

Happy New Year Boodedoo and Sarah, thanks for your posts.  I do want to get the emergency fund to £1000 and we would love to get some new furniture for the flat which we would need to save up for.  All our furniture is stuff we either got free from family and friends or bought from charity shops/gum tree etc so none of it really goes together and most of it is now looking really tired.  I need to find out if paying off the car loan early will save anything, it will be paid off in just under 2 years anyway from the monthly repayments.  First priority is definitely the emergency fund, cashed out £25 from 0nepoll earlier so will add that to it once it hits my bank account.

Spent £7.75 today on fruit, veg, milk, bread and toothpaste.  Best get off to bed as on an early tomorrow.

misstara

Not much to report from today but trying to get back into the habit of posting every day.  It's been a NSD, I managed to get out for a quick walk in between finishing work and it getting dark.  Spent a couple of hours prepping all my meals for the week - made soup, a veg curry, tattie wedges, chicken fajitas and apple compote.  Work has been manic recently and I very rarely get finished on time so having food ready to heat up will hopefully stop the grabbing a pizza/ready meal on the way home habit I was getting into.  It will also hopefully help with weight loss as I put on almost half a stone during December.

misstara

Finished work late again so very glad of the prepped meal, I really can't see work letting up any time soon so must make a habit of prepping meals when I have time.  Really busy at work so managed 11,000 steps just at work, didn't bother going out for a walk after.  A NSD today

Got a parking ticket through from when my car battery was flat just before Christmas so have appealed it, hopefully won't have to pay.

misstara

£2 bank account reward went in today so added it to the emergency fund.  Did a shop after work - £32.07 on food and £6 on toiletries.

misstara

Car wouldn't start again this morning so had to get a taxi to work (£10.40) and get someone out to look at the car after work (£30).  The battery is done so the guy is going to come out again on Friday to fit a new one.

Sarahwithlove

Do you not have breakdown cover? Might be worth looking into. I had similiar issue and they came out to look at it for me and was covered under that so just the battery to pay for. It costs me £35 for the year on compare the breakdown cover just be sure to get one that includes home start 

Sarahwithlove

Do you not have breakdown cover? Might be worth looking into. I had similiar issue and they came out to look at it for me and was covered under that so just the battery to pay for. It costs me £35 for the year on compare the breakdown cover just be sure to get one that includes home start