Starting to budget after years of wishful thinking

LegoHead

thanks I will not go back, it was hard getting to this point and I dont want to do it again.

I still don't think it is real. It may take some time to sink in.

moving_forward

Whoop whoop 🥳🥳🥳🥳

Humdinger1

Marvellous @LegoHead! When I'd paid off my debt, it took a while to sink in.  There was a void but I wasn't going to fill it by conjuring up another dragon of debt and neither will you.  I now have savings that I'm reluctant to use.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Drawingaline

Fantastic news!

I use the Sant credit card with cashback because we have our mortgage with them. With ynab I can ensure all purchases go on the cc and are paid off without any interest. I normally get between 8-10 a month, even with a £3 monthly fee I make money. A couple of months I have made over £20 when I ordered expensive items with it. 

savingholmes

Well done on paying the debt - must be a fab feeling - especially once it sinks in that your debt is gone and more of your money is your own to do with as you please. What a huge turnaround you've had and in such a short time. 

Fortune_Smiles

Well done!  Amazing news.

Fortune x

LegoHead

Thanks all. Just setup all my standing orders and budgets going forward. If I can resist the urge there is no reason for me to check my bank accounts more than once per month as everything is now automated with a decent buffer in the main account.

All I have to worry about is keeping to £50 per week for food, £50 per week play money and £30 per week for fuel. Everything else will look after itself.

savingholmes

Sounds a lovely position to be in. Well done for making it happen.

LegoHead

Had a bit of a splurge last weekend. Havent bought myself some nice clothes for a very long time so went to a couple of designer outlet stores and picked up a couple of really nice jeans and t-shirts. I spent about £200 on these which was taken from my yearly fund. Not strictly sticking to the budgetting, but thought why not I deserve it.

Going to have to think about how I give myself an allowance for new clothes, will probably just buy the same t-shirts and jeans again as I like to keep things simple. 

Had the most stressful weekend I have ever had in my life and my doctors asked me if finance was one of the things i was stressed about. Told the doc the details and was told I should be proud of myself. It was probably this achievement of getting out the debt that gave me the pat on the back i need to pick myself up again following this weekends craziness.

As this is still my debt free diary, I can report I am still debt free.

Will keep reporting back occasionally to let everyone know how things are going. 

I have wondered this weekend if hitting a huge milestone like I have can in itself be a massive cause of stress. The result of becoming debt free is a huge positive, but now this has caused a massive change in my life too as the focus and energy I had used on becoming debt free is not now being used on this. I did recall reading something a while back about this but cant remember what it was called.

moving_forward

You have done well but still have the guilt of being in debt and wondering if your spending will put you back in debt. It's probally that which is causing stress. When you are a few months into being debt free and living to a budget it will hopefully pass.