Debt and Budget (Reset) plan

LittleMissDetermined

Hi Shell16,
Just catching up after being away from full use of the site for a few weeks... I think there are lots of people who will be looking to re-evaluate their repayment plans (myself included) and whether the DFD needs to be nudged on a bit. Not sure what will happen to mine yet as hubby is looking at maybe moving to a lower paid job but closer to home.

I think at this point those of us who are still Ok with the new cap announcement are thankful it's frozen and we can breath a sigh of relief, but it's still going to be tough for a lot of families that it's still unaffordable for. And who knows what will happen to food and service prices as we don't know what they are suggesting for businesses yet. 

I will be looking at  my plan later this weekend and seeing what I can do. 

Totally agree about Prolific ramping up, I've done loads!
LMD x

shell16

Hi @LittleMissDetermined thanks for stopping by.  Hope you are feeling better?

Yes I really do feel for those families who are really struggling.  I know the fear I felt when nothing had been announced by the PM, its really frightening.

Budgets and payment plans have to re-evaluated in these circumstances as they were set up in not so frugal times.  Im really thankful I hit debt as hard as I have in the last 12 months.  Ive mentioned if I was just starting out this would be a whole different story for me.

Hope your plans work out too.

Shell x

shell16

Afternoon

I havent updated in a while, as I have been resetting the budget and trying to get my head round things going forwards.  

Payday for me last Friday and I have now funded EF1 to £360/£500 and EF2 to £60/£500.  Im pretty happy with this going forwards, tackling 1 sinking fund at a time, keeping my focus rather than the drip feeding of several funds.  My EF2 is from a monthly saving challenge where I'm putting £50 a month in there plus anything left from my cash budget envelopes in the form of notes to be used for unplanned spends like Half term or anything else for that matter!  

Balances still coming down nicely, PAD today is my loan (plus some other bits going to various places) and only 2 payments more to go before that is finely paid off , its been a long near 5 year slog with that which started with a balance of £20763 .  My focus is still on with reducing CC's and hitting my DFD as soon as I can.  Ive thought this is a marathon not a race, but when we have huge increases to cost of living, my mindset changes you start thinking (well I do!) that the debt needs gone so I can concentrate on the other issues.  When my loan is finished, I need to re-evaluate again with the debt payments.  In all fairness I haven't missed £385 a month for a long time so those payments have never been included as available......but I will look at that in a another couple of months.

My total paid off has now crept over £10K in just over 12 months, my total left will be so very close at the end of this pay check period to breaking into the £4K figures, something I didn't even think would be possible once upon a time, but it certainly is!

Prolific surveys dried up again, managed a £6 cash out on Friday but only 17p cleared    Will keep on with these as and when they pop up.

Started to look at Christmas gifts already and have bought my first 2, which has come from a fully funded Christmas fund.  I always attempt to follow the TOMM method at Christmas, start well then it filters off, I think Im about 2 weeks behind already, so need to get on with this!  

Thats about all for now, will try to get better with the updates.
Shell x

Squirrelz92

Wow you have come sooooo far! It's truly incredible and inspiring. Great plan regarding your rejuggling of sinking funds Sounds like you will be able to see money going in and progress being made much easier with larger chunks in fewer pots. x

shell16

Hi @Squirrelz92 thanks for stopping by.

Yes thats the plan, but life does have a way of derailing!!  Just need to be as focused as I can be. It's a good plan for me and one I'm certainly hoping will work well in the long term 😀 

Shell x

shell16

Morning

Very quick update as super busy at work!!

Made a £13 PAD to Sainsburys CC yesterday which was the savings from train travel by not going into work.  Today I have made a £30 payment to the EF which now sits at £390, this is the left over notes.  Plus a small amount of change to my Penny challenge of £1.18 from my cash envelope budget which resets tomorrow, no further spending planned so completed this today.  Cash fully stuffed for my new mini cash budget tomorrow.

Thats about all for now.

Shell x

LittleMissDetermined

I love the idea of cash envelope methods but I just never use cash. So much so that I have to go to the cashpoint to get money for the bloody window cleaner when he comes.  
Seems to be working for you though, well done!
LMD x

shell16

LittleMissDetermined said:

I love the idea of cash envelope methods but I just never use cash. So much so that I have to go to the cashpoint to get money for the bloody window cleaner when he comes.  
Seems to be working for you though, well done!
LMD x

@LittleMissDetermined

I have only been using cash envelopes for a couple of months and moved to them initially for the penny challenge!  Not all of my budget is cash though just Grocery and Fuel for the cars but I must admit its keeping me more focussed seeing the actual cash there and even better that I can continue to add to my 'Focus' Fund which at the moment is my EF.  I can understand having to go to cashpoints but if you are filling the car up with fuel anyway is there not a cash machine at the petrol station you could use? Maybe give it a try??

Shell x

shell16

Morning

Happy Friday and its a beautiful sunny morning yet extremely cold outside with some low lying mist fog over the fields, but still resisting putting on the heating for now!

£1 PAD payment today to Lloyds CC, have £3.02 cleared in Prolific and £1.55 pending, so need to do more surveys today to try and get to cashout of at least £5.  Since joining last August I have made £515.02! This has definitely helped towards my debt free journey and would have been money I would have had to find elsewhere and im averaging around £1 per survey.

I have usual payments to CC's coming up this pay check period which will see me dip below £5K balance which im super excited about.  From December I have decided to give my debt payments a huge boost and use what I would have paid to my loan for 3 months.  By end of February, my balance should be under £3k by then, hopefully nothing will crop up in between!

Not much more going on today except work, no plans this weekend either except relaxing in front of TV with a few cheeky G&T's!

Shell x 

shell16

Happy Friday, and finished for weekend!!

On with my G&T already and just thought I would double check what payments I will be making to the CC's from this month to end of Feb 2023.  In addition to the usual overpayments I make now with the CC's I will also be using the £385 payment from December I would have paid to the loan (This will be cleared by 20th November....Yippee!!).  I should be under £2K not under £3K by the end of Feb 2023 so thats put a lovely great big smile on my face!  The DFD is very close I can feel it!

Shell x