Counting Down from £15K

purplehippo276

So, hurtling towards 40 faster than I would like, so before I miss the boat last night I opened up a LISA account and deposited the grand sum of.... £1. No plans for adding to the LISA whilst still in debt, but thought it would be handy to have it as an option when I'm further along in the debt free journey.

Had a £5 pay out from Prolific so that went straight towards the Barclaycard. I also used their minimum payment calculator and next month's minimum payment will be £10 less than this month (I like to check in on these things in case some emergency should come up and I can only make a minimum payment. Also, progress!)

I also weighed myself and I was horrified to find I'm the heaviest I've ever been.  I've got 2 stone to lose, gained from having kids (pesky kids - major cause of my debt and weight gain!) and I've tried to shift it before without success, so I have signed up to an app called Noom. Apparently it's a more psychological approach to weight loss and I thought it was worth a try to see if it can work. It's £1 for a two week trial, and then horrifically it goes up to £30 a month. Going to see how it goes for the two weeks before deciding whether to budget this in or not. If I go for it, I'm going to have to reduce my debt repayments by £30 a month because there's no other space in the budget, which is a pain, but then so is lugging around an extra 2 stone! Will update my progress here to add some accountability.  

purplehippo276

Had a really nice four day weekend, where I didn't think about debt once. Think it was just the reset I needed, this has consumed me since January. Spent the time by the sea with my family, lots of picnics, and visiting family and friends. Fearing we might not be able to see people for some time or be able to travel anywhere (awaiting what Boris has to say tonight), so that has been the priority. 

As we took lunch, snacks and drinks with us from home, we didn't actually spend anything apart from on fuel. It has however meant I spend more on petrol than what September's budget allowed for. As a lot of my credit card spends were to cover the cost of living after I had ran out of money for the month, I set up a buffer account a few months ago that I could access in times like this. It only has £80 in it just now, but my aim is to get it up to £300. Anyway, I used £25 of the buffer account to fill up the car yesterday, but don't feel guilty as a) the money didn't come out of my actual emergency fund and b) it didn't go on the credit card.   

I also got paid today!  I've already send money to the Barclaycard, and I'm now sub £2K on that card (£1780 to be exact!) which deserves a little celebration.  As I've always been able to do 0% balance transfers to the Barclaycard as soon as I have available balance on it, normally by the time I'm at the £1K mark with the Barclaycard I've built up several K of debt on another card, and need to balance transfer again.  Looking forward to finally breaking that cycle.  

purplehippo276

In other non debt news, we've decided to cancel our holiday as it's looking unlikely, so currently doing a merry dance trying to get the money back. The owner won't refund us, even though I booked pre-covid. I've paid out several hundred already, and the remaining balance of another few hundred is due in a few days so there's no way I'm paying that now. Need to contact the bank to see if there is a way to stop the payment as it's a pre-authorised credit card payment.

In weight loss news, I've decided not to go ahead with Noom, so cancelling my trial period, and going to go it alone.  They're telling me I need to stick to 1200 calories.  Think that's actually starvation!  

ryanm8655

purplehippo276 said:

In other non debt news, we've decided to cancel our holiday as it's looking unlikely, so currently doing a merry dance trying to get the money back. The owner won't refund us, even though I booked pre-covid. I've paid out several hundred already, and the remaining balance of another few hundred is due in a few days so there's no way I'm paying that now. Need to contact the bank to see if there is a way to stop the payment as it's a pre-authorised credit card payment.

In weight loss news, I've decided not to go ahead with Noom, so cancelling my trial period, and going to go it alone.  They're telling me I need to stick to 1200 calories.  Think that's actually starvation!  

Might be worth going through your credit card company for the refund.

purplehippo276

I did try that @ryanm8655 but they were not helpful and advised me to go to citizens advice. Thankfully common sense prevailed with the owner and I managed to get a refund this afternoon. The refund isn’t go to go to debt - we’ve decided to sit on it and book a last minute trip closer to home at some undetermined point. Planning ahead too much just now is just too tricky! 

purplehippo276

Finally some movement on the unpaid invoices. One got paid yesterday (about 1/3 of what’s due) so after deductions I sent £130 to my Barclaycard. All being well, I think the Barclaycard could be paid off by the end of next month. 

I’ve also lost 2lbs! Thinking of paying an extra £1 off debt for every 1lb I lose as extra motivation. 

purplehippo276

Got given some money (£60) this week as a gift from a family member. I don’t want to use it to pay off debt, and would rather buy something for me with it. The problem is I’ve got to the stage where, because I’ve not bought myself anything all year, that i can’t bring myself to spend money on myself. Has anyone else on a DF journey experienced this? How do you ease the guilt?!

ryanm8655

purplehippo276 said:

Got given some money (£60) this week as a gift from a family member. I don’t want to use it to pay off debt, and would rather buy something for me with it. The problem is I’ve got to the stage where, because I’ve not bought myself anything all year, that i can’t bring myself to spend money on myself. Has anyone else on a DF journey experienced this? How do you ease the guilt?!

Haha, I know what you mean. Sitting on £100 of gift vouchers for this reason. I have been buying myself things though, just being prudent. My issue is I want to extract the most value out of them rather than just buy stuff for the sake of it so things I have bought I’ve got elsewhere...

Is there anything you’ve needed for a while and put off? Anything you’ve wanted but not bought out of guilt?

Personally I’d get yourself something. But make it something you really want rather than spending for the sake of it.

purplehippo276

Had a bit of an expensive time between updates. Realised a wall needed repointing really badly, so had to get someone out to do that before the winter. It’s already been frosty here. Didn’t have a sinking fund for that, and didn’t want to use the emergency fund because I’m saving for an actual emergency (e.g. potentially being out of a job once my contract ends) so that was a few £££ not budgeted for. Also decided to use the £60 to put towards a really good winter coat seeing as most of my socialising/leisure will now be done outdoors for the entire autumn and winter. It came to a bit more than £60 but it is the only item of clothing I have bought this year so justified it on those grounds. So yes, end of September has been a bit spendier than I would have liked/had budgeted for. At least I’ll be warm and my house won’t get damp though.

purplehippo276

Not much to report debt wise, but I have realised I need to rejig my budget as more things open up - swimming lessons for my kids have restarted after stopping in March which need paying for.  I've also not quite factored enough in for Christmas.  I had based my savings total on previous years spends - forgetting that as kids get older they ask for more expensive things...  We don't go nuts at Christmas by any means, but yes, I clearly need to save a little extra.  And definitely need to factor in more for home maintenance, after the pointing needed doing.  I live in an old house and it's unrealistic not to factor in repairs/maintenance.  

Going to sit down with my calculator and spreadsheet tonight, and see what is realistic whilst paying down debt, and see how it impacts my debt free date (currently 22nd May 2021).  The furthest back I want to push it is August 2021 as that is when my current contract is up, but psychologically the earlier the better, as this 10 months of paying off debt has been a battle,  May feels like light at the end of the tunnel whilst August feels like a lifetime away.

The good news is that the Barclaycard will be sub £1K at the end of this month.  I've been averaging around £600 or so towards it a month, but I think I am going to have to ease off a little on what I'm paying off on it, so that I'm not increasing spending elsewhere.  I had hoped to pay it off by the end of November, but it's 0% until April, so I have some leeway.