Facing reality

Sarahwithlove

ryanm8655 said:

Sarahwithlove said:

Had a very productive day today. Been and done a big food shop so hopefully next week shouldn't ever too much as only have about £80 for the month left in the budget oops.
Set up mortgage overpayments on my online banking. Made a £1 tester overpayment. Worked out if can manage £75 a month then would bring my mortgage below £100k by end of December 2021. So that's my aim. 
Also cancelled two of my empty credit cards and sent an online message about closing the 3rd. That will leave me with my virgin one which is 0% purchase until October and my credit card which is 0% until May 2022 on current balance transfer. Both always send me new offers as well so handy ones to keep open in case of emergency in future. I want to say i will never use one again but I'm also realistic enough to realise that sometimes unexpected situations happen. I am saving up my sinking funds and I have an EF of £1k so hopefully it won't be needed but I'm just being realistic.
I am still musing over my goals financially for next year. I know I want my card paid off by end of it but I'm debating between going hard at it and clearing it or just setting up regular payment and using remainder for my sinking funds. Right now I'm leaning towards that a I'm aware that I have a lot of car stuff that needs doing in next 6 months and odd jobs I'd like to get done around the flat. 

Plan for 2021
- £125 pm on credit card. Cleared December 2021.
-£100 pm to Dad loan - just keep this ticking over as is. Dad is in no rush for the money and I can always save extra after sinking funds are saved up.
-£350 pm minimum to sinking funds.
-split remaining between increasing emergency fund and mortgage overpayments.
-minimum of £75 a month mortgage overpayment.

At the moment I have small amount of personal spends money which I will need to consider increasing next year as things go back to normal a bit more. Or just be better with it. Think might go back through my banking and ynab to get idea of what i am spending it on. Amazon I think. I have removed the app from my phone so have to go through Internet explorer which makes it bit more difficult. I have about £50 left for this month, not sure what will need to spend it in. Hoping i might get chance to meet up with my bestie once I have got rid of this cold. Which actually a lot of my money is going on, about £10 a week along with cost@ and M@ccyDs. Also need to stop buying so much sweets and chocolate and fizzy drinks. Not good for my health, bad for the diet and bad for the bank balance. OK maybe I don't need to go through my bank statements. 

Sounds a solid plan. I also had similar debates re: priorities and changed my mind several times haha. I personally think it’s a good idea to regularly review, helps maintain the motivation and interest.

I agree. It's usually when I get close to a barrier or a goal that I start juggling the figures about. But it is all about keeping motivated with it all. 

Lookafterthepennies2020

Just had a good catch up, you have done really well paying everything down whilst still having an emergency fund to fall back on x 

Sarahwithlove

Lookafterthepennies2020 said:

Just had a good catch up, you have done really well paying everything down whilst still having an emergency fund to fall back on x 

Thank you I think it's important to have an emergency fund otherwise you just end up back in the cycle of debt. 

Sarahwithlove

Got a text from bank today to say I was going in my overdraft. Turns out that my direct debit for my credit card still came out despite the payment I made. Doh. So did some shifting around of funds. Took £150 from sinking fund and then £50 from my save the change fund. I've paid my car tax on my credit card that's in credit and will then pay my block massages on it as well and make the difference up by jiggling some funds and paying slightly less next month. It's good job I have some wiggle room really. Off to adjust next months budget on YNAB! 

ryanm8655

Sarahwithlove said:

Got a text from bank today to say I was going in my overdraft. Turns out that my direct debit for my credit card still came out despite the payment I made. Doh. So did some shifting around of funds. Took £150 from sinking fund and then £50 from my save the change fund. I've paid my car tax on my credit card that's in credit and will then pay my block massages on it as well and make the difference up by jiggling some funds and paying slightly less next month. It's good job I have some wiggle room really. Off to adjust next months budget on YNAB! 

Annoying about the CC. I need to make sure that doesn’t happen with mine. I assume the DD would just stop, even though I’ve set the payment to fixed.

alt80

@Sarahwithlove Rid of the card by end 2021, great news. Looks like you have a solid plan for next year too. 

Know what you mean re maccys/ costa/ Starbucks type places, I'm terrible for buying coffee etc luckily for me vast majority is expensed so doesn't really affect my personal finances, claim the VAT and comes off the business tax ha. Still buy (not expensed) coffee at the weekend too but 100 not guilty about it. Think a few on here have criticised but tbh not something I particularly want to cut to any extent. 

Sarahwithlove

ryanm8655 said:

Sarahwithlove said:

Got a text from bank today to say I was going in my overdraft. Turns out that my direct debit for my credit card still came out despite the payment I made. Doh. So did some shifting around of funds. Took £150 from sinking fund and then £50 from my save the change fund. I've paid my car tax on my credit card that's in credit and will then pay my block massages on it as well and make the difference up by jiggling some funds and paying slightly less next month. It's good job I have some wiggle room really. Off to adjust next months budget on YNAB! 

Annoying about the CC. I need to make sure that doesn’t happen with mine. I assume the DD would just stop, even though I’ve set the payment to fixed.

Not sure as its a fixed payment. Think they may still take it. Just change it to min payment DD so that if you ever need to use it again or a unexpected subscription renews or something you are still covered. 

Sarahwithlove

alt80 said:

@Sarahwithlove Rid of the card by end 2021, great news. Looks like you have a solid plan for next year too. 

Know what you mean re maccys/ costa/ Starbucks type places, I'm terrible for buying coffee etc luckily for me vast majority is expensed so doesn't really affect my personal finances, claim the VAT and comes off the business tax ha. Still buy (not expensed) coffee at the weekend too but 100 not guilty about it. Think a few on here have criticised but tbh not something I particularly want to cut to any extent. 

I'm trying to be organised. Found my notebook today with my list of goals for 2020. A lot were very unrealistic, such as no takeaways. I find having an allowance and keeping in it works for me. 
I think you need to have some luxuries in life that's what I give myself a spending allowance each month to use. 

alt80

@Sarahwithlove I could manage no takeaways but no restaurants / pub meals (well when we can ha), absolutely no chance. I know a lot of people have took the !!!!!! on my diary about running my RR and the champagne too but not likely to give up either. Aware it probably sounds bad but I earn well and can't do the whole knitting my own yoghurt stuff, just not for me so 100 get where you're coming from.

The addictive spending is a massive problem for me - I would 100 see a say £500/m personal spends fund as a min target so not at the stage of chilling out more about that side of things. 

ryanm8655

Sarahwithlove said:

alt80 said:

@Sarahwithlove Rid of the card by end 2021, great news. Looks like you have a solid plan for next year too. 

Know what you mean re maccys/ costa/ Starbucks type places, I'm terrible for buying coffee etc luckily for me vast majority is expensed so doesn't really affect my personal finances, claim the VAT and comes off the business tax ha. Still buy (not expensed) coffee at the weekend too but 100 not guilty about it. Think a few on here have criticised but tbh not something I particularly want to cut to any extent. 

I'm trying to be organised. Found my notebook today with my list of goals for 2020. A lot were very unrealistic, such as no takeaways. I find having an allowance and keeping in it works for me. 
I think you need to have some luxuries in life that's what I give myself a spending allowance each month to use. 

Haha. Have to agree. It’s like dieting. You still need to eat stuff you enjoy every now and then but ultimately it’s about balance.

I probably will try to avoid takeaways. Used to eat a lot to avoid kitchen in crappy flatshares so that would be a good habit to avoid getting back into. I enjoy cooking and should add some structure. I love my food and socialising though so will likely do dinners/lunches out on weekends, head to borough market etc. But not to the same extent I used to.