Taking charge of debt

beanielou

So pleased for you    x

sunshine_raincloud

Thanks again everyone! 

I'm not sure what to do now.. whether I can keep using this diary? 

I successfully bought around 95% of my christmas presents yesterday, some of them with a discount because of black friday, so I was pleased with that as they were things I was going to buy anyway. As suggested, I set up a regular saver yesterday specifically for christmas next year, which I will pay £50/month into plus any extra money from prolific and vinted. I already have two other regular savers (which I haven't been adding to regularly) that I can save a total of £350/month combined in so I have set up standing orders for those. So that is a total of £400/month to go into savings for now. I will see how I get on with that and adjust accordingly over the next few months. I might head over and see if I can join a savings challenge! 

Edit: Just joined the 3-6 months EF challenge and set myself an initial target of £6000 for December next year. Ambitious but good to have something to work towards to keep me motivated!

FreedomBringsPeace

Had to come over here and give you a proper well done your diary has been an interesting read!

I love how you have a plan for your money going forward. 
Well done! 

[Deleted User]

I'm sooo pleased for you. Huge congratulations on becoming debt free. You're wise to put plans in motion to build an emergency fund and starting up sinking funds. Xx

sunshine_raincloud

Thank you both! I appreciate you stopping by and commenting. 

Congratulations @FreedomBringsPeace on recently becoming debt free as well! 

And @Deleted_User it really won't be long until that last bit is gone! You have done so well clearing so much in such a short amount of time 

enthusiasticsaver

You have done brilliantly to get rid of over £7k of debt in less than a year.  Looking forward to seeing how you get on with savings etc going forward if you decide to keep the diary going. There are savings challenges too if you want to get on board with one of those.  The regular saver for Christmas is a great idea. 

synth1983

Congratulations! You have done an amazing job, your diary inspired me to take charge of my debt and start my own diary. 

sunshine_raincloud

Thank you both @enthusiasticsaver and @synth1983 ! 

I really appreciate you stopping by and commenting. 

It all feels a bit strange not having any debt payments to update on now.. there are still lots of MSE things I can improve on though for sure. 

My week is shaping up to be quite sociable with a gig tonight and then I am visiting friends at the weekend. I will plan and set a budget to make sure that being debt free doesn't go to my head and I end up spending a load of money! 

I had a few things to sort today for the house sale so I am hoping we are moving closer to completion with that. It will be a little while before my boyfriend and I are in a position to buy together so that is another good incentive to save as much as possible. 

On that note £150 came out into my regular savings account today. 

Not much else to report but I hope everyone is well 

sunshine_raincloud

Can't believe it has been nearly 4 months since I last posted. 

A lot has happened in that time. Unfortunately the big thing is that my Dad passed away last month, which was a terrible shock and something I still don't think has fully sunk in yet.  Things have been very difficult for me emotionally as you can expect.. as a consequence I have been falling back into bad habits with spending. I have spent so much money the last month, some of it necessary on the funeral etc but some of it just to try to cheer myself up. I haven't got back into debt, but my savings are very depleted. I had been doing really well with them but I have definitely taken a huge backwards step. I'm just waiting to get paid next week and then I'm going to get organised and get a plan in place to get back on track. 

Other news.. I sold my house and the money from that for my next deposit is luckily secured away so I haven't reached the point of doing anything silly and spending that. I also have got a new job starting in August that I am looking forward to. 

I think I just need to be kind to myself about what has happened and start to get back into good habits. 

I'm not sure if anyone will even read this after I have been away for so long, but posting here really helped me be accountable so I will come back with a plan and try to post more often. 

Debsnewbudget

So sorry to hear about your dad.
Be kind to yourself, but not by spending money. 

Get back on track next week. 

Hugs x