It's the final countdown...£10k to go

t2rry

All done, I plumped for £1,000 for the sake of keeping things nice and rounded!  Shame of course because that £50 would have taken me over £12k paid off, but I will pay another chunk off when December's pay comes through and bank some more too, so it'll be over £12k for the year when I total things up anyway.

t2rry

PS: I'm definitely going to keep pushing to find the extra pennies this month, usually this time of year I let things slip but that'll be the difference this time, and I'll keep chipping little by little to keep us within budgets so it doesn't get forgotten about for a week or two like it usually does.  I also still have xmas gifts to buy so still scope for savings there and also still scope for savings on other budgets too and every little really will help me end the year well

t2rry

Another £17.25 saved on the xmas budget thanks to OH.  That pushes me past £200, which was originally the target to meet to get myself savings/debt neutral against My CC, but with budget stretches it's now £50 off.  Still scope for a little more but naturally coming to the end of all xmas spends now, just 3.5 people left to buy for so not enough to find £50, but will see what we can do.

t2rry

Well this is it, the last payday of the year.  What a year it has been.  I could say lots about it and send out my well wishes to everyone else but to keep things short and focused, I'm going to concentrate on moneysaving....!

I am, of course, immediately moving money out of sight.  Going into my banked funds are:

• £200 from the christmas savings

• £50 from this month's budget for my CC 'minimum' payment

• £2000 additional savings from this month's income 

That brings my banked funds up to £5250

I think £2,000 is a healthy pot to have banked, and small enough that I will work hard to get it back up again ASAP, so I'm going to pay off my CC.  A christmas gift to myself, in lieu of any actual gifts as I've sworn OH to not spend anything on ourselves this year.  We're on the same page, for the greater good.  This time next year, hopefully we will be in a better place in so many respects.

That brings my end of year summary as follows:
My Credit Card was £10,307.08 now PAID OFF
OH Credit Card was £10,140.00 now £5,570.00
Total as at 01/01/20 £20,447.08 now £5,570.00
paid off £14,877.08 plus £2,000 banked

 

Happy Christmas forumites!

t2rry

Ok so I had kind of signed off with that last update hadn't I? BUT more MSEing has taken place so wanted to note it:
Of my remaining xmas gifting, I managed to save another £35.30 (this was out of a budget of £105 left to spend so a big saving).  I also sold a couple of bits, so that's £30 extra in my purse.  Then finally I got paid from a bit of freelance work I did at the end of November, totalling net £137.60.  I haven't taken that into account in the budget - I never do before it's in my pocket - so that's extra.  I am going to bank £100 and leave the rest in the usual spending account for back up incidentials/food through Jan, bearing in mind it's now a 5 week month because if we can stick to january budgets and have not touched what will then be £2,100 of our months income, then that's a very good start to 2021 indeed.  

t2rry

I’m just sat watching my kids play in the snow, I’m grateful they have something to get them outdoors to be honest. 

We’ve not spent anything since Xmas and it’s been quite lovely just being present at home with them.  We’ve been home a lot this year but there is always something to distract me/us: work, housework, planning.... I found myself at a bit of a loss yesterday with nothing specific that I *needed* to do. I need to embrace that more, it’s finite after all. 

The tier scenario has honestly helped us I think too in terms of limiting our spending over Xmas. We’re still working our way through leftovers, probably only just starting to need to top up certain fresh things now. 

As for being MSE, my budgets are all set for the extra long january, we have:

£500 for food
£50 for petrol
£70 for gifts (birthdays)
£60 for OH CC ‘minimum’ payment 
£50 for incidentals. 

This should be more than enough in each individual pot and overall, but I do have a buffer of around £50 just in case. I have cut out spends I have started budgeting for including clothes/house/entertainment because we have enough in terms of entertainment for the kids thanks to Xmas gifts, same goes for clothes for all of us and then I had a little spending money for Xmas for me that I will use for any house things I might decide we need this month. That will satisfy my buying itch without touching budgets so that’s brilliant. 

At current budgets, hoping there is nothing unexpected comes up, we will be £850 short of being debt-neutral come January payday, which means we’ll be debt-neutral AND SOME come February’s. 

That is if a little something that should happen in January doesn’t happen. If it does, we‘ll be in an even better position but I don’t want to count (or type) my chickens until they’ve hatched. Still, I can cross my fingers. 

mark55man

so close now - well done

I hope your new year surprise comes in for you.  but even if it doesn't you got this - so near already 

ceremony

Happy new year to you! You've made amazing progress this year. Whether you get the best case scenario in January or not you're so close. Hope things work out for you!

t2rry

Happy New Year MSE!!! Thanks so much for everyone's wise words through this little diary, it's really helped to keep me mostly on track!

I will lay out the thing I've been reticent to talk about because I am on tenterhooks waiting to find out if it will actually go through...
Long story short I should be getting a payrise this month.  It's quite a decent one, and should be backdated to the start of the financial year.  I have been trying to work out what that means I *should* see in my salary at the end of the month and whilst the payrise part is easy to work out, I can't quite figure out the backpay.  The difference monthly (net) is just over £200.  Which means the back pay, had I been getting that salary all along, would equal just shy of £2,000 (also net).  But I know it won't be that much in my pocket because of increased pension contributions and student loan payments.  I know I will get back any additional tax taken, but it would just be really nice to have a good idea ahead of time as to how much will come through into my pocket.  My payslips rarely find their way to me before payday, I just can't stop myself trying to work it out because I'm just desperate to know where that will put me, but also to have an idea ahead of time so if it's wrong when it comes through, I'll know!

EDITED TO ASK THIS: Is it as simple as putting into a salary calculator an annual salary that gives me the 'right' monthly income for this one month, as in my new monthly salary, plus the gross backdated amount...then it will take out pension/student loan/tax as though I earn that amount every month?  That would obviously take tax at 40%, which I still won't fall into with the payrise, so I know I'd get that portion back, hopefully the following month?  Or would I have to wait until the end of the tax year?  I don't think I'd get anything from the increased pension or student loan payments back but I guess both of those are still benefitting me, so that's fine.  

Anyway, it's still good news for the start of the year and with everything going on.  It's definitely a nice problem to have, albeit has been a tough slog to get here (touch wood of course, I'm still not sure I'll believe it until the money hits my account!)

mark55man

It mainly depends on your company payroll system rather than HMRC, but I would expect the following
* You would pay NI on most of the amount at 12.5% (anything that is over the Higher earning limit - £962 pw £4167 pm will be charged at 2%) - so you might benefit from that 
* if your normal annual salary + the lump sum is not in excess of the Higher rate band, I don't believe they would charge you any higher rate tax on a monthly one-off basis (if they do you can claim it back, but I don't expect they would charge you)
* Pension is likely to be pro-rata so a larger amount
* I don't know about student loan (I'm old) but I believe its 10% flat rate over the lower limit for that

I think the one most likely to make an unpredictable difference is the NI, and I think just using a normal salary calculator will give misleading results.  I would do the following - start with your normal payslip then
* NI - knock 12.5% off the gross amount for the amount of the lump sum that takes you up to £4167 and 2% over that
* Income tax - knock 20% off the gross amount of the lump sum
* Pension Contribution - knock x% off the gross amount of the lump sum 
* Student loan - knock 10% (??) if the gross amount of the lump sum

Then add this to the net amount from your previous pay slip - that should do