Debt and Budget (Reset) plan

EssexHebridean

Oh Shell what a shame - hopefully your DH won't be too bad with it and you'll manage to have a lovely Christmas regardless. We're still playing test roulette every morning - so far so good but I'm convinced the winning streak is going to run out for one of us! 

shell16

And the (unwanted) gift that just keeps giving! I've now got covid! That's twice in 3 months 

shell16

Morning All

Thought I would check in.  Been a quiet Christmas after DH caught Covid, so our plans to get away on Christmas Eve scuppered.  Now I have it too, which is 2nd time in 3 months.  Also planned to get away for New Year so those plans have had to be postponed too.  Not exactly how we planned everything, but it is what it is.  We made the most of Christmas, watched films and played board games with 2 DD's.

My budget taken a bit of a battering on Grocery due to having to do a trolley dash round Ald! as we were no longer going away, BUT I have allocated some of my budget to Work Travel and also School Lunches for DD's.  I'm not convinced I will be going back to work anytime soon and I'm guessing schools also will be back to remote learning come New Year too.  DD1 was back to remote learning for the last week of term due to a lack of teachers.  So I've got around £100 in those pots I can chuck to the Grocery Budget pot if needs be until Im paid again In January. 

Been making regular PAD payments everyday though, even Christmas Day, so my DFW ways didn't desert me! Been waiting since Christmas Eve for my Lloyds PAD payments to show up but haven't yet updated my total, this is the card with split interest so I'm just deducting PADS and will adjust once my next statement comes through with Interest applied, next payment due 6th January. My Virgin payment also comes out on 5th January.

I have been thinking about New Year Goals I want to make, I've joined Pay all your debt off by Christmas 2022 thread and set myself an £8K target, made payments of just over £535 already.  By next Christmas my Virgin CC will be gone and also my Loan, so that's £5171.77 that will disappear.  The extra £2800 ish will come from overpayments during 2022.

I would love to set some other goals too, so I'm going to keep an eye on the challenges Thread and see if there are anymore I can join.   Does anyone have any ideas?  Which ones are you going to set yourself?

Shellx

shell16

Morning

Im having to check back again a day early as DH birthday tomorrow and also im not working so most likely unable to update.

To summarise my week:

• Been feeling a bit ugh after catching covid for the 2nd time in 3 months.  Nothing much gone on as unable to go out!
• Im just working the 1 day this week (today) and then off again until Tuesday 4th January
• Continuing my PAD payments so building up nicely and making little chips into my Lloyds CC balance
• My grocery budget blown due to having to spend at Christmas.  DH had covid so was unable to get away as we planned
• Im going to 'sign up' for the NSD challenge in January and aim for 10 days, this is in addition to already joined Pay all debt by Christmas 2022 and Saving for Christmas 2022 threads
• My totals and progress over the last 7 days....not too much of a dent, but its still a reduction, paid £23.61 from CC2 Lloyds balance with 25.5% interest
• New year will show more progress as my Virgin and Lloyds payments come out on 4th and 6th January

Total at LBM August 2021 - £13801.67
Virgin CC1 - £2641.94/£999 (62.2% reduction)
a) 26.55% - £495 Paid off 04/10/21
b) 0% - £2146.94 now £999 
Lloyds CC2 - £5654.40/£5582.20 (1.2% reduction)
a) 25.55% - £1178.62 now £1033.39
b) 3.9% - £4548.81
Loan - £6001.33/£4172.77 (30.5%  reduction)

Total = £10753.97 paid £3047.70 off debt)
22% Reduction since LBM

DFD - October 2023

🎄#18 Saving for Christmas 2022 🎄 - £162.18/£1000
Pay all your debt off by Xmas 2022 - £537.84/£8000

PAD started 06/10/21 - £642.59 Extra paid off debt

GeorgianaCavendish

So sorry to hear you’ve got Covid, hope you are not feeling too bad and that DH recovers quickly. 

I like the NSD challenges, even 1 year ago I would have found the idea of not spending for 10 days a month to be beyond me (!) but it has really helped me shift my mindset about spending. 

Your 2022 goals sound great, you’ve got a good plan in place and will be able to smash them 😊 

shell16

GeorgianaCavendish said:

So sorry to hear you’ve got Covid, hope you are not feeling too bad and that DH recovers quickly. 

I like the NSD challenges, even 1 year ago I would have found the idea of not spending for 10 days a month to be beyond me (!) but it has really helped me shift my mindset about spending. 

Your 2022 goals sound great, you’ve got a good plan in place and will be able to smash them 😊 

Thanks @GeorgianaCavendish
My hubby tested negative on days 6 and 7 and so was out and about since Boris announced new Covid Isolation rules.  We were meant to go away New Year too as his birthday tomorrow but as I have it now, thats those plans gone too.  Im not feeling too bad tbh.

I really wanted to go with challenges in the new year, I want to be in the best possible position with debt and my saving goals for next Christmas.  Since starting in August on my DF journey my mindset has definitely changed for the better.  I just wish to add to the good practices I have now going into 2022. 

shell16

Morning 

I felt I needed to post something today with it being the final day of 2021. 

Just been sat here with a cuppa and reflecting on my debt journey so far. Although this started in August,  I've been in debt for as long as I've been working.  It really started to get bad when I got married back in 1994 (my first marriage). My hubby then lived way beyond our means, everything went on credit, new sofa, new furniture,  decorating  and even a holiday to Florida all on my card as 2nd card holder! I was young, naive,  stupid!  I'm not exactly sure how much debt I ended up in but it was alot! Even when we divorced, he had raided our account too. 

Its been a struggle over the years, and even though I remarried 17 years ago, my spending carried on but mainly for other people. I'm a people pleaser, I love making others happy. So everything really got chucked onto credit cards,  my everyday life lived by credit.  

I've had various LBM over the years, but I've never stuck with it. I'm hoping this time it's for keeps. I'm hopeful this time,  I didn't have this forum to keep me accountable, didn't have support. 

I'm happy with my journey so far, I'm going into 2022 determined to kick debts butt once and for all 💪2022 will definitely mark the end to my Virgin credit card by September 2022, and my Loan by November 2022. That just leaves my Lloyds credit card which I have already started to tackle.  My DF date is October 2023 but I'm hopeful I can get a good chunk of this Lloyds credit card paid during 2022. 

So they are my reflections, challenging yes, but so looking forward to continuing my journey 😀 

Have a great NYE guys!

shell16

Afternoon, and my first check in of the New Year!

Christmas and New year didn't go as planned.  My youngest got covid in the last week of term, passed to my OH just before Christmas and then to top it all off I got it (again!) just before new year.  We had made plans but they had to be shelved!

Ive over spent my grocery budget for December (get paid again 18th January) in view we didn't end up going to family at Christmas so had to do a mad rush to the supermarket and buy the food we needed up to NYE.  As we were meant to go away I had not budgeted enough!

2022 is definitely going to be a challenging one, more so in view of the energy crisis.  Its really worrying to be honest, on top of the debt I have now and what I have been able to put towards the debt reduction since my LBM is most likely to cease.  Every spare penny and pound will likely have to go towards this monthly payment once the Price cap is sorted.  I have been steadily increasing my DD last couple of months now I'm out of my fixed deal.  I was paying £150, then I upped to £175 and I've just upped that to £200 from next pay.  Its likely this will still not be enough 

My OH has a small Pay increase due from next Pay which is due on 19th January so whatever this amounts to will likely use that too to increase my energy DD 

Here are my figures as of today

Total at LBM August 2021 - £14370.70
Virgin CC1 - £2641.94/£888 (66.4% reduction)
a) 26.55% - £495 Paid off 04/10/21 
b) 0% - £2146.94 now £888
Lloyds CC2 - £5727.43/£5552.50 (3.1% reduction)
a) 25.55% - £1178.62 now £1003.69
b) 3.9% - £4548.81
Loan - £6001.33/£4172.77 (30.5%  reduction)

Total = £10613.27, paid £3757.43 off debt)
26% Reduction since LBM
DFD - October 2023

MSE 1p Savings Challenge 2022 #19: Jan £14.98, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec = £14.98/£667.95
PAD Started 06/10/21 - £672.79 Extra paid off Debt
🎄#18 Saving for Christmas 2022 🎄 - £165.98/£1000
Pay all your debt off by Xmas 2022 - £679.04/£8000
NSD January - 5/10
08/2021 Starting Debt Total - £14370.70
2022 Starting Debt Total - £10752.40

So to summarise my progress since last time.....

• Paid £140.70 from my total debt since 30/12.  I have also paid my DD to Lloyds CC of £100, but have not yet included this as Interest needs to be added so will reduce my balance further once I know how much interest I have paid, Lloyds take ages issuing a statement!
• Debt Reduction has increased by 4%

I'm really hoping that the energy crisis will be short lived and the government will step in.  I appreciate there will be others much more worse off than me.  We shouldn't have to decide whether to eat or heat!

Until next time!

EssexHebridean

oh Shell, so sorry to hear that the dreaded lurgy scuppered your Christmas and NY plans - there has just been waaaay too much of that about hasn't there!  On the overspend on the groceries budget - sometimes and particularly with isolation etc being thrown into the mix you just have to do what you have to do, so try not to beat yourself up too much about that. Hopefully you're feeling back to normal now. 

You made such amazing progress since you started your diary here - I can't see the rising energy costs stopping you to be honest! Realistically there is precisely nothing we can do about it - not right now anyway - and a lot can happen between now and when the new cap is fixed. I'd say you're being sensible by bolstering your DD but again, try not to stress about it too much - plan ahead as far as you can, we're doing something similar by stashing an amount aside each month against the potential for needing to increase use if we have a very cold February & March, for example. I'm hanging on to that though rather than giving it to the energy company until we need to! 

shell16

@EssexHebridean
Thanks for your comment.  I understand about the budget but I so wanted to be in good place and an overspend of nearly £150 is going some but it was Christmas and New Year and we also fed Father in Law too so I suppose not too bad???

Ive made a decision today and applied for a new CC, I checked eligibility first on here and was pre approved.  Its a Sainsburys one and its 0% for 21 months and no fee.  The reason I applied is that I paid my usual Payment to my Lloyds CC and with it being on 2 different rates at the moment, all the payment less interest is going to the higher rate first.  The bigger balance on 3.9% has gone up which I knew would happen.  I didnt know how much Sainsburys would offer me in terms of credit limit (Its turned out its actually quite a high limit ) so I opted for half my balance on 3.9% - £2300.  So I think when this is sent to my Lloyds card, I would assume the 25.5% balance will be paid plus a good amount of the 3.9% balance also.  Method in madness - a good chunk on 0% for 21 months, remaining balance is on 3.9% until 2024.

Im hoping I have done the right thing, it feels the right thing to do?