Taking charge of debt

savingholmes

Good to get the saving.

Good luck with the house sale 

sunshine_raincloud

Just a quick update after working all weekend. £300 regular payment to CC today and I paid an extra £6 to push me to 80% of my debt paid and 20% remaining. I am going to have to reevaluate on the basis of recent expenditure and anticipated costs. Will get back with an updated DFD once numbers have been crunched!

beanielou

Woo hoo 

savingholmes

Amazing progress 😀

sunshine_raincloud

Thanks everyone! 

So I finally got paid for my extra shifts today. It was more than I expected and I suspect I might have been under taxed to be honest. I haven't received any sort of payslip to check as of yet. I have used the majority of the money to top up my EF and sinking funds back to healthy levels and to keep some back in case I do end up needing to pay more tax. I also want a bit more of a holiday buffer and still need to pick up a couple of things. The rest I have used for my envelope challenge, which means I have ended up sending £130 to my debt (45+16+25+43). This has brought me down to £1348 remaining debt. I have received a few pounds from both vinted and prolific today as well so just added that to my general spending account. If I get back from holiday with money left over will reassess and consider sending that to my debt! Like everyone else I'm wanting to be a bit more cautious at the moment! Feeling very fortunate and grateful to be in this position though. 

Still haven't done the maths for my debt free date, think I will wait until I get back from my holiday and make a plan then. 

Hope everyone is well!

sunshine_raincloud

Couldn't help but come up with a plan... 

I will aim to be debt free by end of October now. 

To pay off remaining £1348, I will have my regular payments for October and November, which will make £600 (I'll just pay the November payment early on payday end of October) and £669 from EF savings (currently have £519 in one account plus regular £150 payment for October). This will still leave me with a £500 EF. This leaves an additional £79 to find, which I will try to get from vinted and prolific or just take from my spending budget if needed. If I manage to put in more than £79 over the next month it just means I will use less savings or reduce the final amount taken from the November wage I get end of October. 

Hopefully the last stretch now unless some other big expenditure comes up! I'll hold off using my savings until the last minute I think. Pay day on 26th October will hopefully be the date but watch this space!

savingholmes

Sounds like fab progress to me. It will be lovely to get those debts cleared and then they are not hanging over you during this weird economy.

sunshine_raincloud

Thanks @savingholmes ! Yes I'll feel a lot better heading into winter with them gone. I haven't been as good at planning and preparing for winter especially energy costs as some people on here so will be good to have a bit of money freed up! 

£5 cashed out from prolific and sent to my card this evening. 

I have been feeling like other parts of my life could do with a bit of an overhaul as well, starting with my general health and fitness. I used to be relatively fit, doing 10k runs a few times a week but nowadays I get out of breath from a couple of flights of stairs! I had been blaming it on feeling tired and breathless after having covid but that has improved greatly so I am going to focus on getting some fitness back and hopefully losing a few pounds that I have gained in the process. I did the first run of the couch to 5k challenge today and honestly it was awful! I can't believe how hard it was for me to run for just 1 minute at a time! But it has made me more determined to try to stick with it and improve things! I am also wanting to cut down on the amount of meat I eat particularly red meat, for the planet, my wallet and my waistline so going to look up some veggie recipes. I have been doing better recently with drinking less alcohol but there is also room for improvement in that department. 

It is interesting how once you start sorting one area of your life out such as debt and finances, it spills over into you wanting to sort out other areas as well! 

sunshine_raincloud

Just a quick update from me...

Had a wonderful holiday but the budget went well and truly out of the window! Worth every penny though to have such a lovely adventure with my boyfriend. House has sold STC, so hoping that all goes through smoothly. Came back from holiday to find that HMRC have miscalculated my salary on the basis of the extra payments for the two shifts I did and have decided this month to over tax me massively! This means my wage this month is over £1000 less than it would be normally. They have corrected my tax code for next month but they have said nothing can be done for this month except they could refer me for hardship fund. I don't think that really applies to be honest and lots of people in worse off situations so I am thinking temporary loan from my savings and/or mum until next payday when I should be able to pay myself/her back. Luckily I have enough to cover my bills and have reduced my CC payment to £50 this month to try to help. Very frustrating but nothing that can be done! This will push my DFD back sorting out the mess but still hopeful to be debt free by Christmas! Going to try to use it as a challenge to live as frugally as I can for the month. 

Hope everyone is well!

Squirrelz92

Hii @sunshine_raincloud! Can I just say how remarkably well you are doing as always! You are beating the crap out of this debt and its awesome! Cannot wait for you to reach your DFD 🎉😆 So pleased you had a great holiday as we all need one to reboot and come back feeling fresh. Congrats regarding your house being STC! I bet this is a huge relief for you. It really sucks about HMRC taxing you so heavily on your wage. Over £1000 is madness! x