This time I'm sticking to it!
rdone
Forumite 568 Posts
My OH and I have just under £15,000 worth of debt on credit cards. Luckily the three of them are at 0%.
We have very good jobs and bring in just over £4,000 a month but can't seem to kick our spending habit - and this spending is mainly on holidays. Now we're in lock down we keep saying "So glad we got to experience so much of the world before this has happened" as our memories are helping us through it. However now that we can't go anywhere and our petrol has significantly dropped (both wfh with full pay), I want to curb that spending and throw some serious cash at the cards. We're over paying on each of them and the smaller one should be gone by the end of the year if we carry on paying what we are.
With the extra surplus we're going to have at least for the next two months I'm trying to decide whether I throw it at the smaller card to get it gone or one of the bigger ones as we know we won't pay them off before the 0% term ends. My OH has the attitude of "that's what 0% CC are for, we'll just move the balance then" however I don't like having this much unpaid.
I've done a SOA and it doesn't look that bad - I think this is mainly to do with the fact that we've bought rubbish houses, done them up and so have a lot of equity to buy the next one with. Our current house has increased by over 25% of what we purchased it for. We're locked into a 5 year deal and I think we're only 18 months into it.
So, this is me committing to decreasing significantly over the next couple of months and taking advantage of lock down. If anyone has any tips on how they curbed their spending habits please let me know!
We have very good jobs and bring in just over £4,000 a month but can't seem to kick our spending habit - and this spending is mainly on holidays. Now we're in lock down we keep saying "So glad we got to experience so much of the world before this has happened" as our memories are helping us through it. However now that we can't go anywhere and our petrol has significantly dropped (both wfh with full pay), I want to curb that spending and throw some serious cash at the cards. We're over paying on each of them and the smaller one should be gone by the end of the year if we carry on paying what we are.
With the extra surplus we're going to have at least for the next two months I'm trying to decide whether I throw it at the smaller card to get it gone or one of the bigger ones as we know we won't pay them off before the 0% term ends. My OH has the attitude of "that's what 0% CC are for, we'll just move the balance then" however I don't like having this much unpaid.
I've done a SOA and it doesn't look that bad - I think this is mainly to do with the fact that we've bought rubbish houses, done them up and so have a lot of equity to buy the next one with. Our current house has increased by over 25% of what we purchased it for. We're locked into a 5 year deal and I think we're only 18 months into it.
So, this is me committing to decreasing significantly over the next couple of months and taking advantage of lock down. If anyone has any tips on how they curbed their spending habits please let me know!
My debt free diary
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6348513/large-renovation-tiny-budget-lets-go/p1?new=1
Debt: £14,896.33 @ 21/04/2020.
Down to: £4,982.12 @08/06/2022
Today: £14,524.28
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6348513/large-renovation-tiny-budget-lets-go/p1?new=1
Debt: £14,896.33 @ 21/04/2020.
Down to: £4,982.12 @08/06/2022
Today: £14,524.28
4
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https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6348513/large-renovation-tiny-budget-lets-go/p1?new=1
Debt: £14,896.33 @ 21/04/2020.
Down to: £4,982.12 @08/06/2022
Today: £14,524.28
The health insurance is for two reasons: my husband does Ironman regularly and is swimming the English Channel in July - we need to keep him healthy. It's also because there's been so much cancer in both our families at a young age we've seen the differences between those with health insurance and those without it so I'm not willing to give that up.
The last payment to the channel swim savings account will be July so that money will be split between the Sainsbury's and Virgin CC from August.
I switched gas and elec last month which helped and phoned Virgin last week and our bill has gone from £90 a month to £50 (the £5.99 is netflix).
We spend a lot more than what's above a month but I had no idea how to categorise it or know how much to put. We're pretty much living pay check to pay check though.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6348513/large-renovation-tiny-budget-lets-go/p1?new=1
Debt: £14,896.33 @ 21/04/2020.
Down to: £4,982.12 @08/06/2022
Today: £14,524.28
is council tax over 10 or 12 months?
is contents insurance in with buildings?
you can crack this, good luck.
Well done on doing your SOA. You might find that you get more comments on the DFW board, as things can get hidden in the diary section pretty quickly. So you could create a thread there too.
It's great that you are already thinking of ways to cut your spending with your utilities, virgin etc. You might find that when it comes time to renew next time you cut your virgin package even more. There are probably a few more savings you could make from your SOA: reducing your mobile bill, not spending on clothes for a few months, getting rid of Spotify. But the most important thing to do is to work out where all the extra is going. Either go back through bank statements and allocate things out to categories, or if that is impossible, then start a spending diary from today.
There are probably quite a few things missing. Eating out? House Maintenance? Once you have worked out exactly what you spend, you can then have a good look at a zero based budget
Good luck!
<a rel="nofollow" href="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6086606/debt-free-by-23/p1">https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6086606/debt-free-by-23/p1</a>True LBM, December 2019 = £32934. Current Debt = £12762. 1% Challenge = 61.1%. #51 3-6 Month EF Challenge = £1200/£6000
Council tax is over 12 months.
We have combined contents and buildings insurance.
House maintenance is quite minimal as we've recently moved into our house where we did a massive renovation project (we lived with my parents for 6 months) so it's mostly done. Should probably start a new saving pot for it though.
I'll get cracking on that spending diary and will look in the dfw board too, thanks
Pay day today so £150 went off the HSBC card, with DDs for the other two on the 1st. I really want to increase the amounts paid to them.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6348513/large-renovation-tiny-budget-lets-go/p1?new=1
Debt: £14,896.33 @ 21/04/2020.
Down to: £4,982.12 @08/06/2022
Today: £14,524.28
I also set up a few savings accounts and set up DDs from next month. We normally just take the hit each month when we need to pay insurance or something but we decided it would be easier to pay a bit into an account each month to level it all out.
From our lack of spending this month (and hopefully next month) I'm confident we can add more than we normally would towards our CCs. We're not paying out loads of money on petrol nor are we able to pick things up when out and about. I have two things I want to buy but now that I have to track them on my new spending spread sheet I don't want to buy them - I wonder how long that'll last!
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6348513/large-renovation-tiny-budget-lets-go/p1?new=1
Debt: £14,896.33 @ 21/04/2020.
Down to: £4,982.12 @08/06/2022
Today: £14,524.28
We've done what you've said Purps and we've split any big outgoings up and from May pay days will be putting them into different savings accounts so we don't have big overwhelming payments every now and then. I've also listed them all in my "death book" (more on this below if you want to know). I have no idea when the deals on the 0% CC are up (horrific I know) so I shall investigate and see if we can afford it, even if we could up the payment on one to get it paid off it'll reduce the fee. Fab idea
Virgin media messed up our DD this month so I'm on hold with them in hope that I'll get a refund and not credit - we really need the cash this month... let's hope!
I feel so much better in myself now I've sorted this and know what's where, how much and have taken control of our spending. I didn't realise how bad it was making me feel. So if you're here reading this and hiding from what you have just do it. Our debt was higher than I expected but now it's in control I feel so much better.
Death book: A couple of years ago I was in a serious car crash (not my fault) and nearly lost my life. I realised that my DH wouldn't even know where to start with anything if I wasn't here so decided to write it all down and then it gets updated. It's in our "big pink important folder" that has all our house documents etc. He knows the folder exists but not the book, hopefully it'll never be used but at least he won't be screwed, my BF knows about it so can direct him if he doesn't find it.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6348513/large-renovation-tiny-budget-lets-go/p1?new=1
Debt: £14,896.33 @ 21/04/2020.
Down to: £4,982.12 @08/06/2022
Today: £14,524.28
hit by a bus anyone can step in and run my house.