Starting to budget after years of wishful thinking

savingholmes

Well done on creating your own e-bike.

LegoHead

savingholmes said:

Well done on creating your own e-bike.

Thanks, fingers crossed it works! 

LegoHead

Most of my bills went out today so today is my review day. I think I have everything under control now.

I have been putting aside money each month to pay for the yearly bills. This is something I have never done before! I paid my car tax in full this morning out of this pot I have been saving and due to pay the car insurance also in full in next two weeks. Before I would just hope I had enough money in my account left from wages each month. I feel like a proper responsible grown up now!

No surprises this month in my accounts. I have decided to round my £262.16 loan payment each month up to £500 to get it gone quicker. Any spare cash I have will need to be hidden away which will probably be in NS&I bonds. 

Last year I managed to clear paypal debts, sainsburys credit card, sainsburys loan and cleared a huge chunk off my last remaining loan. I also sold my fancy car to free cash. I have no regrets and feel great.

In just over two months I will be debt neutral. Which essentially means to me debt free if I used all savings to clear the remaining loan, but having taken on board the advice have decided to slow down and keep a good emergency fund. I have a feeling my boiler is going to pack up soon so need to keep spare cash for that.

No later than October 2023 I will be completely debt free. I have some plans to speed this up, but this involves making some extra cash elsewhere so my budgets wont really change which I think is good for stability and mental health.

Debt HSBC Loan 3.2% = £9762.16

Debt Neutral Balance Now = -£1455.66 expected to be -£2053.59 at end of month

LegoHead

Nothing exciting to report apart from I am nearly debt neutral. Not going to report my savings anymore but they are close to my outstanding amount on the loan. I have settled on keeping £6k in my NS&I and £1500 in my yearly accounts. If the yearlies account drops below £1500 I will top it up each month if not then all my spare cash is going into the loan.

I looked at the numbers for next month and I will be about £343 away from being debt neutral. So my target by next month is to close this gap selling stuff on ebay. I already took advantage of the 70% fees offer last weekend so fingers crossed some stuff sells.

Also started thinking about decorating my bathroom. The toilet and sink in there are fairly new however the carpetted floor and creme bath have to go! I think they have been there since '81 when the house was built... Who has carpets in their bathroom?!

I need either 800, 1300 or 2000 to decorate the bathroom. It all depends on how far I want to go. £2k covers new everything with fancy lights and bluetooth speakers. 800 is enough to make the place look nice with new tiles, bath and shower enclosure. I will probably go for the cheapest option as I like keeping hold of my money nowadays

Hope everyone has a good friday

stymied

If you have an intact cream bath panel it might sell on eBay.

savingholmes

Well to savings and paying car tax in full. You are staying on track which is great

LegoHead

I get paid on monday so just calculated all the spare cash I have so my bank balance is zero just before I get paid.

Just paid another £46.73 off my loan and very very close to debt neutral now. This cash was spare money I had in my food and play money account. Those accounts get topped up again tomorrow with my weekly allowance so thought I might as well put the spare cash to good use. Have also sold some stuff on ebay this month so managed to overpay the loan by nearly £500 in Feb.

Hope everyone is having a good day

moving_forward

You have really turned it around. When you are debt neutral are you going to stop the savings for now while you hammer the debts or carry on with what your doing now? 

LegoHead

moving_forward said:

You have really turned it around. When you are debt neutral are you going to stop the savings for now while you hammer the debts or carry on with what your doing now? 

I am going to hammer the debt. I have got a decent pot of savings too which I am considering use most of to chuck at the loan and leave a much smaller emergency pot.

Technically I could be 100% debt free next month. I will carefully figure out a plan with the aim of getting rid of the debt as soon as possible.

LegoHead

If anyone was wondering about the ebike, I have been waiting for some seals to be delivered from China for over a month now before I took it out on a rainy day. Looks like the china parts are not arriving so found a cheaper UK supplier and will order tomorrow when I get my weekly allowance transferred.

Once the ebike is ready for the weather I will be aiming to ride to work once per week which will save me just under £5 each day I ride. Not a huge amount to save but it transfers the pounds from my belly to my wallet!

My cheaper car, the Citroen Berlingo, I went back to is plodding along nicely. Had to replace the CV joint and couple of engine mounts this month. Also stitched on a nice new leather steering wheel cover and feels like I am driving a sports car again . :-)

With the cost of utilities and fuel going up I am being mindful to try and reduce my usage in these areas