2022 A Year of Change

BalanceBy50

I am totally useless!  I can't even manage a page of my diary so here goes me again.

Its been a tough few months - didn't get paid fully in January and February which had a massive knock on effect- then was paid very late in March (8th April as opposed to 20th March) so it has been a real struggle and i have felt very fed up over it all.  Then when you include all the price increases I have started having sleepless nights again so its head down and back to tackle the debt and my weight.  I am sure my over eating is linked to my over spending.  I have started a spending diary and an eating diary so we will see how I go,

I took @Sunshine_girl2 advice and managed to get a 0% balance transfer card which helped but then I ended up putting stuff back on the old credit card as I had raided all my pots.  5 new tyres for DH's car was one of them.

I have rejigged all my budgets and we still don't earn enough some months - we both work hard and if we didn't have any debt we would have enough money so plan is to pay down the debt as hard as I can.

Debt:

Credit Card 1:  £2987.17 

Credit Card 2:  £724.80

Store Card: £2122.07 

Family Loan - £6120 

Total: £11954.04

Mortgage: £129,489.28

Emergency Fund: £200/£1000 in PB's

Cash Buffer: £0/£500

I also need to find £39 from somewhere to pay this weeks direct debits so that's my first priority x

Aaleigha

I have read from the beginning and it all sure a big worry when you don't have enough to go around especially with food going up fuel electric gas etc 

Do you have your emergency fund in a bank account or at home 
And which credit card has the higher interest 

One way that helped to get us out of debt was a tiny change until we. Could afford more 
Twice a week we looked at the balance of current accounts then moved tiny payments off our highest interest card first 
And I do mean tiny payments 
On the. Necking the account days we moved everything that was right of the decimal point, eg the pence 
And slid that onto our credit card 

Every month we found we had slid ove just a couple of quid but then as we could we moved over the pence and the pound so the max we paid at any time was 9.99 if even that is hard just move over 1 pound extra 

I would however, make that emergency fund up to 1000 first 
Then when things you haven't budgeted for like 5 tyres could. One out of that and you build it up again 

Both my husband and myself put all of our coins into a pot daily 

I think your food budget is really good 
There are only the two of us now and we have had to increase our grocery budget from 200 a month to 240
Thank goodness we grow most of our own veg and make our own bread 

I really look forward to following your diary 

I remember how expensive kids can be 
Even though they have all left home they still love the the bank of mum and dad 

NeverendingDMP

Just to say we all have blips. Stick with it, everything going up makes us panick a bit but slow and steady wins the race.

jwil

Just saying hi, didn't realise you had a new diary!

Are you snowballing your debts?  Pay as much as you can to the highest interest debt and then just do minimum payments on the rest.  You might find it helps having a single target you can throw everything at and it will clear quicker and save more in interest.

BalanceBy50

jwil said:

Just saying hi, didn't realise you had a new diary!

Are you snowballing your debts?  Pay as much as you can to the highest interest debt and then just do minimum payments on the rest.  You might find it helps having a single target you can throw everything at and it will clear quicker and save more in interest.

Thanks jwil I really appreciate you dropping by and commenting 😊

BalanceBy50

So I am officially rubbish at posting on my diary.  Every day I write a post in my head but never type it out and I am an avid lurker so I just need to get on with it and become accountable.  I need to sort my finances out and my weight - the 2 things holding me back in life!  So today won't be a NSD as we have the dentist after school and work however we are with an NHS dentist and this is a planned spend.  BUT i have brought my breakfast and lunch to work with me and we don't have a canteen or vending machine on site so no reason to spend any more.  

Its a busy day with work, dentist, one son has sports training and I have a meeting for my volunteer role this evening (ironically i am treasurer and have no problems running those accounts!!) but I have prepped tea (3 different meals to fit in with timescales) so there should be no unplanned spending xx

BalanceBy50

Finance Update - 6th June 2022

I have only been paid fully once this year however i have brought some new work which should mean i get paid fully for the next 3 months and we should be able to pay ourselves back the missing amounts.  I intend to get my EF up to £1000 with the extra money and make sure i have enough to pay for childcare over the summer.  I need to look at my budget as it is unrealistic - we are not earning enough to cover what we spend so I need to make cutbacks somewhere.  I also need to stick to my plan!

My monthly budget is the 20th and I have enough money in my account or coming in to meet all my committments.  I have done next months and I am about $150 short so i need to make that up.  I have set myself a target of making £30 a week starting this week.

Debt:	11/04/2022	06/06/2022
Credit Card 1:	£2,987.17	£2,870.37
Credit Card 2:	£724.80	£782.52
Store Card:	£2,122.07	£2,500.11
Family Loan:	£6,120.00	£5,712.00
Total:	£11,954.04	£11,865.00
Mortgage:	£129,489.28	£128,398.06
Emergency Fund: Target £1000	£200.00	£200.00
Cash Buffer: Target £500	£0.00	£0.00

So my debt has decreased slightly overall but 2 out of 3 of my card balances have increased.  I am making a pledge to myself to not add to this debt.

xx

BalanceBy50

Final post from me for now so my action Plan.   Taking advice from those who have posted on my diary I am going to -

1. Change my payments slightly and focus on CC1 as this has a higher rate of interest so will change payment amounts to £175 and SC to £125 (slightly more than minimum payment), CC2 is currently 0% interest so leaving that alone and loan is a fixed payment amount. Hopefully snowballing like this will help.

2. Make a PAD - interest on CC1 last month was £62.52 so I am aiming for £2 a day just to cover the interest so that my monthly payment actually comes off of what I owe.

I am going to resurrect my daily goals - quite a few but hoping to keep me focused.

Health & Wellbeing

- Calorie count

- Close the rings on my smart watch

- Drink 2 litres of water

Financial

- Complete a spending diary and document on here

- At least 2 NSD’s a week

- One MSE activity a day

- Make a PAD a day

- Stick to budgets - need to start saying NO!

xx

jwil

It's great news that the debt has gone down overall - well done!

Loving the action plan too.  Good luck with it

BalanceBy50

jwil said:

It's great news that the debt has gone down overall - well done!

Loving the action plan too.  Good luck with it

Thanks @j@jwil really appreciate all your support!