Starting to budget after years of wishful thinking

LegoHead

My car has now officially gone. One less thing to stress about knowing I can clear some more debt. Just waiting on settlement figure from sainsburys loan and will pay off tonight.

Might hold off paying into the other loans just yet as I have been offered a new job and if I do take it will need to cover bills if there is a gap in pay. Will do a check on finances tonight to see what the cashflow is going to be like as I would prefer to not have the money sat in my account tempting me to spend.

enthusiasticsaver

Congratulations on getting the car money and the new job.  If you will be tempted to spend it move it out of your current account into savings until you have done a cashflow forecast to take into account new payday.  Surely if there is no gap between jobs it will only be if your first salary is delayed due to what date of month you start that you will have a problem as  you will have your pay as normal from your current job up to date of leaving?  It should be hundreds rather than thousands anyway. 

LegoHead

enthusiasticsaver said:

Congratulations on getting the car money and the new job.  If you will be tempted to spend it move it out of your current account into savings until you have done a cashflow forecast to take into account new payday.  Surely if there is no gap between jobs it will only be if your first salary is delayed due to what date of month you start that you will have a problem as  you will have your pay as normal from your current job up to date of leaving?  It should be hundreds rather than thousands anyway. 

Yes should not be too much, will calculate best estimate and add a bit of a safety margin.

I left the money to pay my credit card and loan in my current account and will be paying off when i get home. Would have done it now, but I leave the main bank card at home so I cant use it.
The rest I have already transferred into my savings pot.

LegoHead

That was tough to do. Just paid off £6140.13 and cleared my Sainsburys loan and cleared the last £1000 off my sainsburys credit card about 10 minutes ago.

Toying with the idea of keeping the credit card for emergencies or probably not, but it is late and going to make that decision another day.

Have moved every penny left over from selling the car straight into my savings. 

Still sticking to my budgets and will do a full checkup tomorrow morning.

Feel a great weight lifted. I think without this forum to talk to I would have not made the commitment to get rid of the car. Most people in my family dont really care when I do something positive like this so I appreciate the help and support.

enthusiasticsaver

Excellent on clearing the Sainsburys loan and £1k off the credit card.  I think when the credit card is cleared it is a good idea to keep it for emergencies (just one card)  and use it occasionally then pay it off in full each month to keep a good credit record. 

savingholmes

Fantastic news. You are doing well. I bet you will sleep better too

LegoHead

Debt Now Total = £12059.36

Paypal Pay In 3 = 60.58x 2 months = £121.16 PAID 8th November 2021

Sainsburys Credit Card 0% till January = £1000 PAID 18th November 2021

Sainsburys Loan 9.2% = £6032.90 PAID 18th November 2021

HSBC Loan 3.2% = £12059.36

Should have done this yesterday, but completely forgot. 

Fuel, Food and Disposable budget

I have been sticking to budgets this week although only just managing and still spending very little on food. Had to fill my one remaining car with diesel yesterday so that took most of my food and fuel budget for the week. I I will transfer some from savings to account for this extra £24.45 I spent. I try and fill the car every friday on way home so I can get a good idea what my fuel costs are. With the car I sold I knew pretty well what it cost, now with my older car back on road need to figure this out again. I think it is cheaper to run and will find out next friday exactly how much.

Plan

Next month -  rent into savings
Now - transfer some savings to top emergency pot to £1000 then forget about it!

Increase disposable income to £50 per week. It has been a bit too tight.

Checks

Surprises in Main bank account? - Yes, cost of posting ebay item, but that was covered by sale cost.

Updated spending diary - added to spreadsheet

Review paypal, google for subscriptions - None

All bills correctly debited? - yes

Yearly bills and budget- changed monthlies amount as now savings over £100 from not having expensive car to maintain

Fuel, food and disposable budgets still ok - having issues. might need to split fuel and food accounts.

Estimated main bank balance end of month = £2.45 (aiming for £100+ to leave buffer)

Not exactly sure why I now have a wildly different end balance at end of month compared to last month. I must have missed something or calculated something wrong. For next month all my weekly outgoings are individually listed in my spreadsheet with dates so hoping this is where i messed up. Actually now I look at my bank I think it was because my lodger hasnt paid todays rent yet. Have asked for them to start paying it into my savings so going forward I dont rely on the rent money to pay my bills.

savingholmes

Good progress update. Hope you have fun tomorrow. You have made phenomenal progress. 

EssexHebridean

You're doing so well - and it's great that you've cleared the loan!

On the credit card, I think you need to be VERY honest with yourself. If you trust yourself to genuinely keep it for emergencies, and not use it apart from that, then fair plan to hang on to it. If you can't be absolutely sure you won't get tempted to use it though, I would, at least in the short term, get rid and close the account. An alternative is to keep the card account open, but to shred the card and remove the details from any payment apps etc you may have it stored on. that way if you did need to spend on it again you'd have a short delay while you waited for a replacement card to be sent, but you would still have access to it.  Ultimately, we can all offer you viewpoints on what "might be best" but only you can really get to the bottom of what actually is best for you. 

LegoHead

Had a chat with someone regarding credit rating and need for credit cards. As I have a mortgage I dont think I need to keep a credit card to keep a good credit rating, time will tell. I should not need to remortgage for another 5 years so have plenty of time to plan. I also never plan on having finance for anything ever again. Based on this information I cancelled my credit card a couple of days ago.

My fuel spend weekly is a little variable and so I have now started paying this out of my main account. I shouldnt put a budgetry constraint on fuel spending. Having my fuel and food allowance on one card also put strains on food shopping if I spent too much on fuel. So now all my food money is handled by halifax, play money by monzo and fuel from main account. 

Slowly getting a system that is working well for me.

Have been looking at getting a new job. Good news is I got a payrise when I told my boss. Even better news is the other company wont take no for an answer and keep trying to offer me more money to leave! Things are going well.