Debt free diary starts today at £16,763.08

Sarahwithlove

I have pots for everything, I use st@rling bank but there are lots of banks that do them now. its about what works for you and if you think of something dont be afraid to add another one. 

Squirrelz92

St@rling bank has been a god send for me! I do love my pots. Have been with H@lifax for soooo long but the idea of physically being able to move money into individual pots for every bill I have is pure bliss! 

You are doing so well! Keep it up and I'll be bookmarking you to cheer you on! x

tagliatelle

Oops, haven’t been on for a while! Still working hard and finding everything a bit demoralising with the price of everything else going up at the same time  

Things that have gone well the past couple of weeks: 
- Switched my sole current account to Nationwide for £125 cash back. Going to be using this as my bills account. 

- Opened a Monzo account for my spending. Intrigued in how the pots work… not really got my head around the app yet. 

- Downloaded Vinted and made £60 in the first couple of days - yay. Borrowing the printer off my parents for a while to make this a bit easier with labels. 

- Sold my camera for £300. Paying off the finance loan which frees up about £19 per month. After eBay fees and paying this off doesn’t really leave much  
- Had my hair cut and coloured (big expense so a bit of a luxury) but have gone much more natural so I don’t need to keep going. Hoping this will save money in the long run. 
- Transferred a big bulk of my credit card balance to an interest free card. Had to pay the transfer fee though of about 4%. 
- First month down and I coloured one 2% on my square chart - £491.52 down. 

Things that haven’t gone so well:
- Giving into takeaways.

- Not meal planning - doesn’t help with the above. 

- Bot budgeting enough at the start of the month/not planning ahead. 

- Money left over just doesn’t seem to go very far :’( Finding that even Aldi shopping is getting expensive! Nearly all bills have gone up recently - water is ridiculous!! Trying to find out if we have a leak. It’s over £100 a month at the moment!!! Thought of utilities going up again later this year is crippling me. 

Debt has gone down but feel like I’m mentally really struggling this week. Really hard to feel positive.

vampirotoothus

You are doing really well. Crikey to the water though!! Get the lids of your toilet cisterns and visually check that they stop filling after being flushed. It seems to be a relatively new plumbing thing that the overflows for toilets are now plumbed straight into the waste so you don't see it. Such a bad idea. 
Good luck on your journey, it will get eaisier V x

tagliatelle

Keedie said:

Your laser focus is admirable @tagliatelle and you'll be debt free before you know it. I'm also going to be having a clear out and will list items for sale online. It's mainly my son's clothes, his dad gives him designer hand me downs that never fit him, so I'll make the most of this!

I'm going to try and get to grips with meal planning and batch cooking to help with my debt free journey as well. I think with regards to your camera, if you brought it as a passion or a hobby, would you not miss it when it's gone? Or was it one of those purchases where it was a good idea at the time, but you've not come to use it? Good luck with all. I've subscribed to cheer on your progress. We have a fairly similar amount to clear as well. x

Thank you for your message. I am feeling very focussed but kicking myself that I didn’t have this mindset sooner. Sounds like you have a good plan with your sons clothes - what are you using to sell? I’ve had a lot of success on Vinted since the weekend  

The camera has now gone. It used to be a bit of a hobby but fizzled out during lockdowns etc and since just gathered dust. Not feeling too down about it going. 

Thank you for subscribing. Have you started with the meal planning/batch cooking? Would love some tips! x

Squirrelz92

Glad to hear things are still moving in the right direction @tagliatelle! Amazing going with your £60 Vinted sales and selling your camera! Brilliant news regarding the switch money related to Nationwide too! 

£491 is a massive amount to pay off debts so don't be too hard on yourself! It takes so long to be able to find a budget that works for us all so just keep going!

I feel your pain with the bills but your water sounds awful! £100 a month? Are you on a meter? x

tagliatelle

AntoMac said:

Stuff that I know is coming up, such as dentistry and the cost of Christmas I save ahead for in separate accounts. I have another separate account for saving for car expenses having found out the hard way. None of these things are really ‘unexpected’ so why was I always surprised when they came up? I also save for my football season ticket so that it’s paid for in advance. 

There is often some unexpected cost or bill that crops up, but I try to plan for as much as possible whilst still being far from perfect. Holiday is another one I save regularly for, as well as overpaying bits on the mortgage whenever I can.
Nothing really groundbreaking or earth shattering here really, other than to say I have found putting money aside for these various forthcoming costs has been a good habit to form. 

Sounds like you are doing great with the saving!! I’m really trying to get something similar in place. Our joint savings is the main focus because this is the car fund/household fund etc. My next focus is a saving pot for myself for days out (the nice things - so this journey doesn’t have to be complete doom and gloom) and also a pot for birthdays/Christmas/etc - like you said, these come around the same time every year so why do they have to feel a bit of a pain?! 

Have the best intentions but the money I’m left over with really isn’t a lot, so these pots may take some time to build up… 

AntoMac

You have done lots of positive things so try not to beat yourself up too much. Of the things you didn’t do too well at, the meal planning is something you can work on. The resultant reduction in spending on takeaways will give you a bit more money to play with. You of course already know that and these things are often easier said than done.
The current level of inflation is very hard on our budgets, but it shouldn’t last forever. 

£500 knocked off your debt is a significant amount. 

Hope you are able to get to the bottom of your high water bill. That will be a big saving.
Is it possible to start saving the £19 per month you have saved off your Finance loan into one of your savings pots? You’ll still be able to access it if you really need it.
You did the most difficult part by facing up to your debts and committing to tackle them. You absolutely can do this.

tagliatelle

Squirrelz92 said:

Glad to hear things are still moving in the right direction @tagliatelle! Amazing going with your £60 Vinted sales and selling your camera! Brilliant news regarding the switch money related to Nationwide too! 

£491 is a massive amount to pay off debts so don't be too hard on yourself! It takes so long to be able to find a budget that works for us all so just keep going!

I feel your pain with the bills but your water sounds awful! £100 a month? Are you on a meter? x

Thank you Yes we are on a meter. Both myself and my husband work from home so we expect it to be higher than average but the current amount is ridiculous. Our supplier have been in touch as they spotted straight away that something isn’t right. Just trying to get to the bottom of it x

tagliatelle

Signed up to the anytime Tesco delivery saver last night which is £6.99 a month. Hoping this will help with meal planning and getting a regular weekly shop in - something we don’t do at the moment which always ends up buying from our loco shop which is more expensive or getting a takeaway. Tesco do so many Aldi price matches now as well as the club card prices and was quite impressed with the overall cost. First delivery arrives next Monday and have a meal plan for the week. This includes lunches to take to the office so hopefully I’ll stop spending when I’m in work as well.