Debt and Budget (Reset) plan

shell16

Keedie said:

What an inspirational and emotional journey @shell16 I've just read your diary from the start!

I am in absolute awe of your journey, dedication and how much you have achieved in less than a year 👍🏾. I'm so jealous of all of you Prolific people as I'm on a waitlist, but fingers crossed I'll get my foot in the door one day. I'm using Panelbase for surveys and seem to get screened out a lot, but I've earned £4.05 so far. 

What is the budget book that you use if you don't mind me asking? I like to work things out on pen and paper but I love a good spreadsheet as well. I'm trying to manage my finances differently so that I can build up a surplus of my bills and I can adjust my budgeting period as I have variable income dates and amounts across the month. So I think I need to set bills and debt repayments to a monthly budget, but daily living expenses to a weekly budget.

I'm sorry you've had such bad luck with cars, but thankfully your other half is a mechanic and can help to keep costs down. My car is making some groaning watery noise and I've got it booked in on Friday for a review and a repair. Fingers crossed it won't be too costly, but I'm 80% sure I'll be getting rid of it as I don't use it often enough and it's expensive to run.

Did you see the MSE article on school uniform? Not sure if you'd qualify, but it might be worth checking out https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2022/07/school-uniform-grants-low-income/.

I'm also very sorry to hear about your dad, it's really tough going isn't it? I lost my dad in the beginning of lockdown and it's still hard and Father's Day is still bittersweet, but it does slowly get easier.

Take care and keep up the great work, you'll be on the Debt Free Roll of Honour in no time! 🤗 x

@keedie

Thankyou for your lovely comments.  Again taking the time to read, its not all been plain sailing!

It does require alot of will power paying down debt but you need to remember that you need to live a little too, make sure fun money is budgeted and you can have those treats guilt free!

I actually ended up buying 2, as the first didnt really suit me  I bought the Cleverfox Budget planner first then I opted for the Cleverfox Budget Planner Pro which suits me nicely, purely due to having extra bits the other book didnt.  I do use a spreadsheet too kindly provided by @LittleMissDetermined to check weekly.  I think you would really benefit watching some youchoob vids of budgeters.  I will send you a message of the ones I watch that have helped me.  They use weekly budgets but when planning do a months worth at the outset, then weekly updates when they close off the weeks.  I really think they would benefit you.

My luck with cars is ridiculous, Ive always tried to budget around £200 for repairs with Hubby being a mechanic however the things that have gone wrong or need replacing are way above that so I need to re-evaluate my budget going forwards.

With regards school uniform, unfortunately I dont qualify  

Thanks for your comments about my dad.  It is incredibly tough without a parent regardless of what age they were.  It must have been so difficult for you at the start of lockdown and all the millions of others that would not have had the chance to be with them during that period.  At least I got to be with him at the end.

Thanks again Keedie 
Shell x

Keedie

shell16 said:

 I think you would really benefit watching some youchoob vids of budgeters.  I will send you a message of the ones I watch that have helped me.  They use weekly budgets but when planning do a months worth at the outset, then weekly updates when they close off the weeks.  I really think they would benefit you.

Thanks @shell16 I would definitely appreciate some pointers with regards videos please as that would really be helpful. I've seen a few on TikTok and YouTube, but there's so much stuff I really don't know where to start! I looked at the planner you have and it's literally everything I need, so I'm going to order it so that I can start afresh for August 2022. I've also got LMD's great spreadsheet, but because I'm so all over the place at the moment, I've not been able to properly focus on a set way of doing things . But now that I have a set date range in mind (calendar month), I can now working on a better approach to my budget. 

Car's are like a nemesis frenemy at times - very convenient and great when everything is running smoothly but they sometimes don't have your back, and often at the worst times!

I'll definitely be making space in my budget for family fun and I think I need a category to treat myself as well, as we do need to live. I've often been too debt focussed and this has made life unbearable so a balance is definitely the key to remaining motivated I think.

It was very hard during lockdown losing someone as the kids weren't allowed in the hospice and at first they refused to let me or my siblings see him. But we told them that we'd moved back to our family home to take care of our parents during the pandemic and they didn't really believe us, but they couldn't exactly dispute it, so we just kept turning up one in and one out and eventually they just backed off. On his last day, he had me and my siblings at his side, so they were lenient enough at the most crucial time and I will forever be grateful for that. I've been trying to live my best life so that I can make him proud. 

shell16

Morning All

What an uncomfortable couple of days we have had, last night was lovely and cool and I actually felt the temperature dropping by around 5pm when it became more breezy, it was very welcome though!

Been super busy with work so not really dedicated alot of time on here as I finish for my holidays on Friday afternoon.  Prolific also taken a bit of a back seat, but have completed 5 surveys already which total £3.03, nothing cleared yet and have a total of £8.15 pending.

Loan payment paid today and just have 4 more payments left, last one is November just in time for Christmas!  I will be £385 better off each month from then and I seriously cannot wait!

I mentioned I had re-evaluated my savings/sinking funds and I have started from this months pay Budget.  A total of £512 added to various pots, £537 for August, £562 September, £582 October, £507 November and finally £637 in December.  These should see my various pots at a very healthy level meaning from January 2023, these will reduce to approx £185 a month.  Obviously subject to change as this would assume those pots are not raided before the end of the year.  If thats the case I can easily top up in 2023.  

All of the above effectively means I will have alot more of my pay to direct towards debt.  I am quietly confident I can be debt free by June 2023 or earlier, but will keep my DFD as it is for the time being as I well know, life likes to direct those curve balls into my debt free path!

I actually read my whole diary yesterday evening.  I have come along way... my loan in November 2017 was £20762, and so I have been approximately in debt by the tune of at least £30,000 when credit card debt and overdrafts  are taken into account.  Unfortunately I cant see exactly how much I was in debt back in November 2017 as my credit files do not go back that far but I know I had alot of debt!

Its important to keep adding posts as you can see your journey and the hiccups experienced and learn from them as best you can.  At the very start of my journey I had never in my life budgeted, it was an alien thing to me, I didnt know where to start, what to include, or how to even record what I needed to.  Being on here and also some self help watching youchoob people recording their budget and debt free journeys inspired me and gave me the right tools to manage my journey.  As I said, there has been numerous hiccups but never have i truly fallen off the wagon, I remain as ever motivated now as I was at the start In August 2021.  

You will eventually start to see light at the end of the tunnel as I am beginning to see.  Back in August, I literally couldnt see the wood for the trees, it was all so overwhelming!  Persevere, stick at it, cut back but also remember to live, allocate fun money in budgets so life can be enjoyed too.

Sorry for the long post here but I felt I had to write this to remind myself of what I have achieved in 11 months, that I had been burying my head in the sand previously!

Shell x 

LittleMissDetermined

It's always motivating to read back isn't it and see just what you've accomplished?

shell16

It certainly is @LittleMissDetermined

I think we do need to remind ourselves exactly how far we have come, sometimes it feels you are making no progress at all or very little progress or just remind ourselves of those issues we have experienced and how to deal with them again in the future by learning how you responded. 

Enjoy the festivals!  Where are you going and who is headlining?  We have just had Beat Herder on locally I believe Nile Rodgers and Chic were there last weekend!  Would have loved to have seen them, saw them performing at the Isle of Wight festival on TV they were fantastic!  Didnt actually realise how many songs he had written for other artists.

Shell x

Sarahwithlove

Its always good to look back and reflect as long as you focus on positives. You have made such good progress and hopefully developing new habits for life. 

shell16

Thanks @Sarahwithlove Its absolutely a learning requirement.  Even when I am out of debt I am very sure I will continue these practices to enable savings to accumulate and likely direct towards mortgage overpayments!  Its all very exciting what you can do when debt free!

Shell x

shell16

Oooh forgot to mention this from my previous post about school uniform.  Managed to get everything for £163.49 with a £5 voucher if spending over £30.  I had £159 already saved up and so I didnt need to find the extra after all!  I am starting with my saving of school uniform again in October at £20 per month so I have a buffer in case my youngest has another growth spurt!  I decided to direct the £91 towards Christmas - £75 (double payment so now £750 saved) and the remaining £21 to my youngest daughters savings pot for her birthday in February.  Win, win!

LittleMissDetermined

Nice work on the uniforms!

sunshine_raincloud

shell16 said:

Morning All

What an uncomfortable couple of days we have had, last night was lovely and cool and I actually felt the temperature dropping by around 5pm when it became more breezy, it was very welcome though!

Been super busy with work so not really dedicated alot of time on here as I finish for my holidays on Friday afternoon.  Prolific also taken a bit of a back seat, but have completed 5 surveys already which total £3.03, nothing cleared yet and have a total of £8.15 pending.

Loan payment paid today and just have 4 more payments left, last one is November just in time for Christmas!  I will be £385 better off each month from then and I seriously cannot wait!

I mentioned I had re-evaluated my savings/sinking funds and I have started from this months pay Budget.  A total of £512 added to various pots, £537 for August, £562 September, £582 October, £507 November and finally £637 in December.  These should see my various pots at a very healthy level meaning from January 2023, these will reduce to approx £185 a month.  Obviously subject to change as this would assume those pots are not raided before the end of the year.  If thats the case I can easily top up in 2023.  

All of the above effectively means I will have alot more of my pay to direct towards debt.  I am quietly confident I can be debt free by June 2023 or earlier, but will keep my DFD as it is for the time being as I well know, life likes to direct those curve balls into my debt free path!

I actually read my whole diary yesterday evening.  I have come along way... my loan in November 2017 was £20762, and so I have been approximately in debt by the tune of at least £30,000 when credit card debt and overdrafts  are taken into account.  Unfortunately I cant see exactly how much I was in debt back in November 2017 as my credit files do not go back that far but I know I had alot of debt!

Its important to keep adding posts as you can see your journey and the hiccups experienced and learn from them as best you can.  At the very start of my journey I had never in my life budgeted, it was an alien thing to me, I didnt know where to start, what to include, or how to even record what I needed to.  Being on here and also some self help watching youchoob people recording their budget and debt free journeys inspired me and gave me the right tools to manage my journey.  As I said, there has been numerous hiccups but never have i truly fallen off the wagon, I remain as ever motivated now as I was at the start In August 2021.  

You will eventually start to see light at the end of the tunnel as I am beginning to see.  Back in August, I literally couldnt see the wood for the trees, it was all so overwhelming!  Persevere, stick at it, cut back but also remember to live, allocate fun money in budgets so life can be enjoyed too.

Sorry for the long post here but I felt I had to write this to remind myself of what I have achieved in 11 months, that I had been burying my head in the sand previously!

Shell x 

You've done so incredibly well! Hadn't realised your total debt had been that amount initially so even more in awe of your progress! On the final stretch now..