Taking charge of debt

beanielou

Sorry to hear your news.
Take care of you.

enthusiasticsaver

Condolences on you losing your Dad.  Take care. 

sunshine_raincloud

Thanks for the nice messages everyone. 

So I have finally sat down and taken stock of my current finances.

Savings have definitely taken a hit.. and I have around £350 to live off for the month even after payday because of a huge 3 month electricity bill and holiday payment that I needed to pay for (had been saving money in pots for these but they were the first things to be raided when I was feeling sorry for myself!). Not sure what to do about spending for the month, it is my boyfriend's birthday and I have a wedding to go to, which doesn't help matters at all. Accommodation and travel to the wedding is sorted though, so that is one thing and I have a dress already so I think I will just limit my alcohol intake on the day to keep costs down as much as possible. Birthday present for my boyfriend needs some thinking about.. 

My main savings goals have been:
1) 3-6 month emergency fund, which I had set an initial target of £6000 for and have £2133 saved. £400/month regular savings sent to this. 
2) An extra £15000 to go towards my house deposit and costs, with £2603 saved. £200/month regular savings sent to this, but I have been trying to send an additional £300 on top of this. 
3) I also have smaller pots for holiday, Christmas, one off bills which all now have zero in! My aim had been £200/month to holiday, £50/month to Christmas and £100/month to bills. 

The money from my house sale is in an ISA, which will give around £1000 interest when it matures and another locked in savings account, which will give around £400 and then some in premium bonds but I haven't won anything yet!

I am paying a relatively small amount of rent at the moment, whilst my boyfriend and I plan to move in together, so I wanted to capitalise on this as much as possible but it all backfired when I started spending erratically again! 

I think I just need to really tighten my belt this month and live as frugally as possible, get back into the mindset of questioning every purchase. Had a NSD yesterday and made a meal in slow cooker with 2 portions frozen, need to do more of this! I have a couple of things I can sell on vinted, so will put those up today. Also been on prolific and have £4.58 approved with a further £5.10 to cash out. 

I will keep my regular payments of £600 going to savings this month but not put anything extra in until next payday. If I need to dip in it won't be the end of the world but I am going to try my hardest not to. I forgot to mention in my previous post that I paid off my student loan with some of the money from my house sale so I have around £250/month extra from my wage. Next payday I will see where I am up to and put a chunk away for my holiday in June and start saving for Christmas again. 

This post has been a ramble but feels good to have a plan down on paper. 

I think I should probably start a new diary somewhere.. might do that after this month is over as a fresh start!