Little bit of Wales; living in sunny Surrey

catlady1990

My debt is down to £8774 wooophooo!!
Still struggling along and  because my rent is classed as benefit in kind I have had lots of tax taken out this month so only took home £850. This is a big cut of nearly £200 so been stressing about how I will cover everything. Hopefully this will sort itself out at the end of the year but in the mean time it will be a struggle.
Hopefully keep managing to pay things off and get to the point I am debt free. 

catlady1990

Debt is down to £8200
Really struggling with the extra tax I am paying at the moment but crossing my fingers and toes it will be easier next year.

catlady1990

So keeping fiddling with my budget as I can't decide what I am doing with it all. Currently owe £627 to a credit card, £6530 to a loan, £49 to another credit card and £1000 to my sister. 

I am earning overtime on payday for the first time in a long time and also getting a big lump sum bonus. I was just going to put this into debt. However, I have been struggling mentally for a while now and would really benefit from a weekend with the girls. So rightly or wrongly I am putting some of my bonus towards that and the rest is going into an emergency fund, as £50 is not going to help in a real emergency. Going forward any overtime I get (rarely gets paid) I will put into emergency fund to try and get that up to £1000. 

I am currently paying £325 a month to credit card and £223 to loan. I am hoping that now that I am giving myself £100 spending money I will have some left over to add to debt. As I was miserable having no spare money each month at all and as debt is a long term thing I still have to try and live a little. I am going to reassess everything at the end of the year or sooner if I feel it's not working. 


My date to pay off debt completely is 27/6/2023.  However I am hoping that paying an extra £5 /£10 a month will bring it down a bit sooner. 

I do think my debt is moving in the right direction so it will get there eventually.

catlady1990

So my loan is actually higher than I wrote last time. Think I got slightly muddled with my numbers. I owe £8519.65 to my loan. I am only paying the minimum amount at the moment as trying to save up for a year's gym membership and a year's car insurance instead of paying monthly. 
I also owe my sister £1000 so putting a token £1 into a savings pot. 

I have worked really hard at jiggling my finances and finally have £1002 saved towards my emergency fund. 

Once I have saved up another 3 months for the gym membership and car insurance  I will be putting all my extra money into paying off my debt. 

My sister doesn't want her money back until I have 6 months emergency fund saved so will just keep paying a token amount into each of those.
Once my debt and emergency fund is saved, I will be putting as much money into saving for a house as possible. 

Really hoping this will be the year for me financially as I can finally see the end in sight after so many years of just struggling. I think another 2 years and I may finally be a person with no lingering debt.

I still use my credit card but I pay it off as I go along each month and only spend what I actually need on it in order to get rewards. If I can't afford something, I just don't get it instead of putting it on my credit card and then worrying about the bill at the end of the month. 

It's taken me years but finally feel I am not overspending each month.

Hope everyone has a lovely new year. I went to bed early last night and spent the day defrosting and cleaning my fridge freezer. 

catlady1990

So been a few months, partner lost his job a few months ago, was suppoded to start a new job but managed to break himself. 
We have signed onto uc as my income is low and he is also signed onto jobseakers. He has not had a payment from either of them yet but hoping to at the end of this month. Thankfully partner had savings due to me nagging him so I'm not having to cover him yet. Really hope he gets a job my may / June time, as I don't think he will have any money left by then.

I managed to save up the full amount for my annual gym membership and almost saved enough for car insurance for the year.
Booked an 8 day holiday over Easter to see family which may seem extortionate but I have budgeted for it and my granny is very old and frail, so don't want to leave it any longer.

I have an emergency fund and every penny from my pay is allocated a job. 
I pay £6 a week into my lifetime isa so at least I am getting some money back for the free 25% and I pay £4 a week into a stocks and shares isa as I am trying to sort my pension out.

I owe £8179.37 to loan and £1000 to my sister
I have put a savings account of £1 a month to pay her back (£7 so far). But she is not letting me to pay her back until I have 6 months emergency fund and rest of debt paid. 

I have £1020.15 in emergency fund, any rare bonuses or rare overtime paid goes straight into this pot. 
I am currently paying off the minimum on debt. 
Once my car insurance pot is full, I am going to put the extra money into a pot. Every time I reach £1000 I will pay it off loan, as I get penalised for extra payments but only by a small amount. 

Otherwise just plodding along, nearly at the end of my studying for my veterinary nursing course. Got a couple of theory exams and one assignment. Then just got to get all the paperwork and portfolio sorted so I can do the professional discussion and the practical exams. 
As long as I continue to pass everything and get all the other bits sorted I may be a qualified Registered veterinary nurse by April next year. 

Its been a long time coming and I still have some hurdles to overcome but getting there now.

I made the decision before Christmas that I will pay an extra 3% into pension at every payrise and I am due the government min wage increase in April so going to up the amount I pay into my pension to 9% + the 3% that work pays. I am aiming to be putting 15% of wage away by April 2024. 
I'm really concerned that I could live OK now but struggle when I retire so feel this is really important for me. 

I know I need to pay debts off but this has been weighing heavily and by making a plan I feel in control. 

Once debts are paid, I am going to save up 6 months emergency fund (slowly getting there) and then I can chuck any extra money at house fund. 

My aim if everything goes to plan is:

Pay off debt by January 2025 at the absolute latest and hopefully much sooner.
Save 6 months emergency fund by April 2026
Save for deposit for house by May 2032

peb

Sorry to hear about your partner's job, hopefully he's no longer broken.  

LateNightHunter

I hear you about Surrey! So expensive!

Hope your bf is less broken now and things are better!

catlady1990

Thank you, he is fixed now and has an interview lined up so may have a job soon.

We have had many discussions in recent weeks and decided that once we have saved money for a deposit, we will be moving out of Surrey.

 In some ways, I am really sad as I love it being so close to London and Surrey has so much to offer.
But we need to be realistic about the future as my parents aren't getting any younger and we will never be able to buy in this area, unless my boyfriend becomes a millionaire because my job just doesn't pay very well.


On another note my debt is down to £9011. 
My emergency fund is at £1022
My lifetime isa is at £1700

I decided against going up to 9% to pay into my pension, as I felt that was too big a jump when trying to pay down debts. So I pushed it up to 7% instead, which I think is reasonable as still increasing my payments slowly.

MovingForwards

Wanted to stop by and give you some encouragement.

Do keep posting, even if it's just to provide a loose update on the debt going down and the savings going up a little.

When your OH has secured a new role, revisit your budgets and try to find a higher interest paying account for your savings. It does up bump them up.

It's good to pay annually for some bills eg insurance as it saves money.

Due to your financial circumstances have you looked into reduced / free medical costs for prescriptions? It all helps.

catlady1990

I was just about to update and saw your post moving forwards!!
Thank you for the encouragement.

My car insurance, gym membership and contents insurance for the house are paid annually. 

Our Internet and the cats insurance is the same whether we pay monthly or yearly so decided to leave that monthly for now.

My partner is starting a new job this week, which I am ecstatic about and he is glad that he will be earning some money.

I have had a woopsie month in terms of spending
So my debt has gone up instead of down, on the plus side my 0% credit card had a transfer offer so not had to pay any interest.

Currently owe £7837.25 to my loan
£991 to my sister
£574.92 on 0% credit card


I have saved £1482 towards emergency fund (that's well over one month of my salary) low interest rate of 0.65% but easy access
£466.92 at 3% interest (will use for my credit card when they are about the same amount). I can only put maximum of £150 a month into this though.
£22 at 1.2% interest which allows one withdrawal a month. 
My stocks and shares LISA is at £1710
My normal stocks and shares ISA has £166.34

My work informed me that I will be getting an additional pay increase of 3%, so not on minimum wage for the first time since moving to Surrey! Going to wait and see what it means for my take home pay but debating whether to up the percentage I pay into my pension each month to 9% and then the other 1% can go straight into savings.

I keep changing my mind on whether to pay my loan off sooner or just keep the extra money towards my savings goals. 
Just writing it down, I do actually have some money.
Going to keep chucking every extra penny I earn at work into emergency fund until I get to 3 months worth of fund. Then work on paying off loan early or adding extra into my LISA

My bf and I need to sit down and redo our joint account budgets.
We are definitely feeling the pinch with the cost of food and fuel going up.
We are trying to get to the supermarket at the time of reduced foods to buy meat cheap and stick it in the freezer. But it doesn't always happen
I have tried to introduce meat free days into our meals, but the meals aren't going down to well with the bf. 
We are definitely buying less snacks which is a good thing 
We also aren't spending as much on takeaways

Anyway that's my check in for now