The Mental Debt Struggle...

Keedie

I dunno how I missed these posts 🤦🏾‍♀️, sorry @beanielou and @AntoMac.

I think the number of accents we have in the UK is endlessly fascinating, especially considering that geographically, we're not very big. I mean the UK fits into the state of Texas in America, 2.8 times, yet people sound so different when you travel a short distance. I laughed at your cousin and Alexa AntoMac, I can imagine that went similar to the conversations my nephew used to have with Alex when he was younger and used to come up with his own words for things. Alexa just plain ignores me no matter how clearly I try to speak, so my son just took over that Christmas present. Maybe she's just used to his voice...? 🤔.

I've sat down and finalised my budget for April 2024, and I think I've done it correctly this time 😂. I've not included the double Barclaycard payment in the hopes that they just don't take the £300 direct debit on 2 April. The money is still in that Monzo pot, but it'd be nice if they just gloss over it. But if they do, then I'll move another £300 from the monthly budget accruals holding pot. 

Accumulating my budget throughout the month to spend on the following month is having its benefits. I earned £5.09 in interest this month from squirrelling away every money as it's come through. Not bad for doing nothing much, aside from developing spending willpower 🤗.

Keedie

THE SUNDAY SUMMARY

(Week 13 ~ 31 March 2024)

Debt Regrets

Goal 1 - 100% repayment to Bank of Mum 3 (school fees) - due 1 April 2024
Progress Checker = £3,800/£3,800 (100% repaid)
🎉 Achievement Date = 24 March 2024 🎉


Goal 2 - Clear Barclaycard Plan 1 (£6,330) - due by 31 December 2024
Progress checker = £178.43/£6,330 (2.82% repaid)
As I got my direct debit all messed up, the £300 I manually transferred earlier this week, cleared the remaining £121.57 of that 0% interest plan than ended on 1 April 2024. And cleared £178.43 of Plan 1. It's ahead of schedule and we'll see what happens with the direct debit on 2 April 2024 as that is still showing as £300 due to come out 🥴.

Goal 3 - Pay £6,750 off my overall debt balance in 2024 - due by 31 December 2024

Progress Checker = £1,680/£6,750 (24.89% repaid)

As Barclaycard Plan 1 has had a payment, this has increased the amount I've paid overall to my debt since 1 January 2024. I can't wait until I'm able to save £300 a month instead of spending it on debts.

Saving Grace

Goal 1 - Save £750 for my son's 18th birthday - due by 30 September 2024
Progress Checker = £100.08/£750 (13.34% saved)
No payment this week, but as April's budget starts tomorrow, 1 April, I'll be able to start paying more into this. The Chase round ups pot that will feed into this, currently has £139.31/£150 target which will go towards this pot when it matures in 89 days.

Goal 2 - Build a Buffer of £500 (homemade overdraft) - due by 31 December 2024
Progress Checker = £50/£500 (10% saved)
My first £5 a week savings for this pot starts tomorrow 1 April, so there's been no change this week. But I'm looking forward to seeing this growing. 

Goal 3 - Save £1,000 emergency fund - due by 31 December 2024
Progress Checker = £200.32/£1,000 (10.02% saved)
No payment this week, but from tomorrow 1 April, I'll start paying £20 a week and this will help me to reach the £1,000 goal by 31 December. 

Goal 4 - Complete 50 Envelope Challenge (£1,275) - due by 31 December 2024
Progress Checker = 6/50 Envelopes ~ £175/£1,275 (13.73% saved)
Not saved anything this week, but I'll be starting on £10 a week to set aside for this challenge from tomorrow 1 April and I'll be working on accumulating the £50 envelopes 3 and 47 of which I have £0/£50 so far. If I get the Build a Buffer completed ahead of schedule, then I'll add the extra into this challenge.

Cherryfudge

£5.09 in interest right at the beginning of squirreling is very good! 

(Happy Easter! )

Keedie

March 2024 Financial Summary

Starting Balance = £9,100 | Amount Repaid = £700 (2.96%) | Closing Balance = £8,400
Total Repaid to Date = £15,243.30 (64.47%)

Bank of Mum 3 (school fees)
Starting Balance = £400 | Amount Repaid = £400 (100% repaid) | Closing Balance = £0 | Total Repaid to Date = £3,800  🎉🎉🎉 (100% repaid) 🎉🎉🎉
Out of every single debt I've had, this one bothered me the most 🥺. I felt so guilty owing my mum money as she's a pensioner and I felt so sad about the circumstances that led to the debt in the first place. But to be DEBT FREE to my mum, is the best feeling in the world! I'll never borrow money from her again and I'm in a stronger position financially even though I don't have much savings. I've really had a mindset shift, and really, that's the majority of the battle. Just knowing that I cleared £3,800 in 18 months to my mum whilst also whittling down from 8 creditors to 1 during that time, just makes me do an internal happy dance. I'm absolutely buzzing, and having this achievement, despite still being over £8k in credit card debt, just makes me feel like everything is going to be okay. Thank you to you all for encouraging me, supporting me and reading my diary. It really does make a massive difference to have the companionship, the wisdom of your feedback and the personal accountability over my finances. 

Barclaycard
Starting Balance = £8,700 | Amount Repaid = £300 (3.45% repaid) | Closing Balance = £8,400 | Total Repaid to Date = £5,766.23 (40.70% repaid)
I didn't quite get the hang of reading my Barclaycard statements properly and my heart dropped when I saw that my direct debit was coming out on 2 April, when my 0% interest plan needed to be fully repaid before 1 April! Cue intense panic and quickly paying £300 earlier this week to cover the fixed direct debit. And I just realised that, the outstanding balance was £121.57, so I could have just paid £125 and left it at that. But, in a panic I sent the whole £300 to Barclaycard and the direct debit was too late to be cancelled and so it's most likely still coming out on 2 April. oh well, you live and learn. Once the payment clears, I'll see if I can move the direct debit to earlier in the month.

But all of that aside, knowing that this is my final debt is such a relief and now I can focus on ploughing through this one. I'll stick with a fixed direct debit of £300, and once I've met my savings goals for the year, I'll increase the intensity of this. I've made a savings tracker that will show this debt reducing from £9,000 to £0 and every time I've paid off 1% I'll colour in an icon. I'm looking forward to seeing that chart filling up. I'll be debt free by 31 December 2025.

Debt Reflection vs Savings Focus

We're 1/4 of the way through the year and so much has happened finance wise. I've worked out that I do not know much about dealing with HMRC and poor financial management led to an increase in debt. BUT, that mistake led to a money transfer I never would have otherwise done, and as a result I overpaid my mum and now I don't owe her a penny. Having an increased Barclaycard balance doesn't bother me, I'll still be chipping away at it. 

Doing weekly check-ins with myself via The Sunday Summary is very motivating and it's helped me to look at my budget in both a monthly capacity and on a weekly basis. I'm hoping that by saving little bits often, the consistency will build good habits and I'll have more motivation seeing my finances growing.

I've summarised my 2024 financial goals progress:

DEBTS
1. 100% repayment to the Bank of Mum 3 (school fees) - due by 1 April 2024 
(£3,800/£3,800 = 100% repaid) 🎉 Achieved 24 March 2024 🎉 

2. Clear Barclaycard Plan 1 of £6,330 via direct debits and a 0% money transfer - due 31 December 2024 (£178.43/£6,330 = 2.82% repaid)

3. Pay £6,750 off overall debt balance in 2024 - due by 31 December 2024
(£1,680/£6,750 = 24.89% repaid)

SAVINGS
1. Save £750 for my son's 18th birthday - due by 30 September 2024
(£100.08/£750 = 13.34% saved)

2. Build a Buffer of £500 (homemade overdraft) - due by 31 December 2024 (target date changed from 31 October 2024)
(£50/£500 = 10% saved)

3. Save £2,000 emergency fund - due by 31 December 2024 (target reduced this month from £2,000 to £1,000 to make it more achievable).
£200.32/£1,000 = 10.02% saved)

4. Complete 50 Envelope Challenge (£1,275) to establish 2025's sinking funds - due by 31 December 2024
(£175/£1,275 = 13.73% saved)

Keedie

Happy Easter @Cherryfudge, and yes £5.09 in interest is quite impressive. I'm hoping to do more freelancing soon, and then I can squirrel away even more money for May and hopefully beat the interest accrued. Doing things like that amuses my brain 😂, and it's also fun to get free money.

The quicker I can raise the balance at the beginning of each month, the longer it sits there and compounds before I allocate everything at the end of every month. I'm hoping to get to the point where I'm very strict and don't touch it at all, and I get to the point where my budget including savings and debt overpayments is no more than 90% of any month's income. That will then allow me to always have money sitting there that will start to generate interest before I've even earned anything and begin accumulating the next month's money. My Build a Buffer money will go into this pot once it reaches the target of £500.

beanielou

How awesome. You are doing amazingly well. 

Be proud. 

Keedie

beanielou said:

How awesome. You are doing amazingly well. 

Be proud. 

Thank you so much xx

Keedie

I had a good sort out of my budget this morning, and I think things are coming together. I've also got a better understanding of my spending habits and how to stretch my budget better based on tracking all of my expenses over the last 3 months. It's actually become a habit now. And it's helped me to see which categories I need to cut back on and the ones that I just didn't think through properly.

I've paid another £50 off the Argos Card so that's down to £300 and my son has been taking more pictures of things he wants to sell. So that I don't stress myself about his timeline for clearing this, I've just been paying £50 a month and incorporated it into the budget, and as the money comes through when he's sold something, I set it aside. Once I have the total amount from his sales and earnings once he starts working etc, then I'll decide what to do with that money. It'll be £350 in total. I'm most likely to put it towards the 50 envelope challenge as that's lagging behind.

I sent £20 to the emergency fund and it made £0.67 interest, so the balance there is now £220.99. I need to go to the bank tomorrow so that I can take out the money I need to deal with the rest of the budget and for me to do my savings challenges. 

I'm hoping to not be over budget this month, but I need to do my MOT so fingers crossed there's no issues. I've got brake pads for life with Halfords, so I need to book a brake check before I do the MOT. The brakes seem fine, but I'd rather they get checked and replaced for free, rather than waiting until the MOT and if there is an issue, it fails. I've got the MOT money saved, but not much extra, so hoping it doesn't have issues.

I'm going to the cemetery today to visit my dad and I'm really hoping that Lidl is open on Easter Monday as they have such nice flowers. 

Keedie

I forgot to say that I earned £0.34 interest on the pot that holds the money for my son's 18th birthday. So that's nice and handy. I'm hoping that the interest will help push me towards the £750 goal, a few pennies at a time lol.

Also, the final savings for my budget accruals pot was £5.20 and not £5.09 as I was looking at it yesterday, 31 March, not realising that this is the interest shown for the previous day's balance. So as we're now on 1 April, the total interest was £5.20. Not too shabby.

Keedie

The £300 for Barclaycard came out today as I suspected, so that's all added up to an overpayment I hadn't really budgeted for, but will work around. It's not anyone's fault but my own. And getting rid of debt isn't a bad thing. I've moved £300 from May's budget accrual's pot into this month's budget, so that I can take care of the normal direct debit at the end of the month. 

My Help to Save payment of £50 came out and my coin challenges are going well. I had £4.70 in spare change to go into the different challenges. The 50p and £2 bee jar now has a solid layer at the bottom, and my little Leftover Lenny is nearly full! 

I'm going to have fun tipping all of that into the coin machines at Natwest. The money from Lenny will go into my treat fund, along with the day to day cashback from Chase. And I'll use that money to splurge on something, 'just because' without feeling guilty and having to budget every little thing.

I've not had the impulse to buy or do anything, but at least I know that it will there if I don't have enough spending money to accommodate an activity or purchase. I would still like to do the Japanese kintsugi workshop and repair a bowl with the gold, but I don't have the same burning desire to do it as I did a few months ago, as there has been so many changes in life recently, that it's just something I will do one day.