Starting to budget after years of wishful thinking

moving_forward

What a fantastic turnaround! 

savingholmes

Completely get opting for security currently! Great turnaround though.

LegoHead

thanks, could not have done it without the support here

LegoHead

I have locked away my savings for the month and just checked my loan settlement figure. I am officially debt neutral!!! Yay me!

I have £27.80 more savings than the last remaining loan. Really wish I could clear it all but going to wait a few more months to build up the savings to a decent amount first. Lodgers money is paying the loan off weekly for now.

moving_forward

🥳🥳🥳🥳 fabulous news. How wonderful to be able to have the choice to pay off or not. As you say the lodgers money is there at the min so covers the payments.

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on being debt neutral.  Having a decent savings buffer makes sense in this uncertain climate. 

savingholmes

Fab position to be in. 

LegoHead

I am obsessed with looking at my bills spreadsheet now. Its getting too much and overwhelming for me.

Next month I plan on clearing the loan completely and changing my budgets.

The reason for this is I want to start buying myself nice things again. Summer is coming up and I do a lot of wild camping and like to be able to buy myself stuff when I want it. I have £30 per week disposable right now which goes in no time. With this in mind I know I want to increase my disposable spending. I spent out on some camping gear this weekend and felt pretty guilty because it was not really in any budget, It took £60 from my bills account to cover this.

Knowing that I want to start treating myself again I have decided its best the loan goes completely next month or the following month. I want to get rid of the loan as if I start buying treats again I will slip back over that debt neutral point and feel like I am making a step in the wrong direction.

So my new plan I think looks like:

1. Clear loan completely in April latest by May pay day. 
2. Leave myself £2000 for emergency fund initially. With a lodger this is 4 months bills, without it is 2 months.
3. Increase weekly disposable spending to allow myself a good budget for treats. I have a good wage so £100 a week wont cause issues.
4. Put away savings each month once loan is gone to build up emergency pot and yearly bills pot again. I only need to maintain this at about £4000 to have 3 months bill money and cover yearly bills.
5. Don't allocate every penny in my main account, leave a large buffer so I don't need to keep checking my balance. I was trying for zero balance every month which is too stressful and obsessive for me.
6. Move my bills spreadsheet offline somewhere so I cant view it at work or on my phone. I spend too much time looking at this.
7. Only check my bills on the first of the month from 1st April.

I have probably lost 2 hours this morning looking at the bills spreadsheet, tweaking things, figuring out if I can clear loan, trying to play with budgets. It is getting too much and affecting work and overwhelming me. I need a way to forget about it like I used to be able to bury my head in the sand...

LegoHead

Looks like I will have another £800 coming (minus eBay fee about £20) this evening as I have sold my rowing machine. I tried to use it regularly but just wasn't interested. Someone will be collecting this evening from my workplace and I will pay it all into my loan before I drive home.

LegoHead

Just figured out that 3 weeks from today I will be debt free

Need to wait till the 6th before my NS&I Bonds are cashed out to then pay that onto my loan.

21 days to go....