Building Better Habits

notpropaganda73

Hi everyone, long time lurker and got some helpful advice from these boards back when I set up my DMP in 2019 (I wish I found this board sooner!). I came back recently because of some shenanigans from TSB and once again got great advice and decided I would set up a diary and tell my story, and also use this as a form of accountability going forward. 

I've been in debt for pretty much my entire adult life, so I would love to get to a situation where the only debt I have is a mortgage, and I use one credit card only for subscriptions and clear it off monthly. As I mentioned above, I went onto a DMP back in 2019. At their highest, my debts totalled £17k. Earlier this year, I had reached out to the remaining creditors to enquire around early settlement figures, and with a loan from my partner, I was able to clear off all of these debts. What is extraordinary to me is how quickly the debt can build up again, when I haven't followed all of the great advice in terms of not falling back into those traps etc. I can easily justify purchases at the time, emergency situations with my car etc., but at the end of the day I can see the pattern emerging again so want to get on top of it before I'm in a bad situation again. 

So here it all is! 

Debts

Monzo Flex Account - £266.04 - 0% interest, repayments of £57 over the next two months and then £32 until May.
Zopa Credit Card - £1,100.00 - 0% until January 2023. I only got 3 months at 0% balance transfer to Zopa, so I will try and move this to another 0% rate in January if I can. Paying £100 monthly at the moment. It will go to a 29.9% rate after the promotional period ends.
Aqua Credit Card - £122.75 - I clear this balance monthly, as I am using this card as I want to use credit cards in future, simply for some small purchases and then clearing it to build and maintain good credit!
Virgin Credit Card - £1,050.00 - 0% until August 2023, paying £50 monthly at the moment but will increase payments to this shortly, depending on how things go with the Zopa card.
Vanquis Credit Card - £100 - I am clearing this early next week, this was a balance transfer card. I am hoping the good behaviour and having cleared this balance will result in another 0% offer to transfer the Zopa balance from. 
Loan from Other Half! - £750 - As mentioned above I had a loan from my other half to settle my DMP earlier this year. I'm repaying her £250 per month which will end on my February payday 

Total - £3,388.79

I also have a phone contract with Tesco at £30 per month, this runs until February 2025. 

The final bit of debt which may rear its head is approximately £2,000 from TSB. This was the situation which brought me back to these forums, I started a thread (https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6406222/tsb-register-default-8-years-after-non-payment) if anyone is interested, but I will update this diary as and when I hear back from TSB. I sent a letter to them on Tuesday of this week outlining my complaint and the need for correcting my credit report, as well as pushing for confirmation that these debts will be written off. 

Savings
I know that a lot of advice tends towards clearing debts before saving, but psychologically I really want to work up a small savings pot in conjunction with clearing the debts. I may use the pot to clear debts depending how the balance transfer attempts go. We are also moving in January and I think we will need to buy some furniture, so I'm anticipating some big purchases in January/February unfortunately. 

Marcus - £603.56 - 2.5-% AER, I put £100 per month to this account. It's an easy access saver. 
Moneybox - £211.21 - this is a 95 day notice account which I've requested a withdrawal of this balance from. I think I'm still too early in building my financial habits to be comfortable not having immediate access to savings if required, so once this comes back into my bank account in late January I will either top up the Marcus account or use it to clear down some of the CC balances (again, depending how the Zopa balance transfer works out). 

In terms of cash flow, as mentioned above we will be moving in January. The rent will be slightly lower thankfully, and I'm hoping to get a good deal via Topcashback or somewhere on internet for example. The one change with our move is that I'll be a bit further away from the office (it's walking distance at the minute), so have to factor in public transport costs. 

Anyway, thanks for reading

notpropaganda73

I forgot to add in terms of tracking things, I have a countdown related to my defaults on my credit report! 

Barclaycard - Defaulted January 2019 - 2 more years
Tesco Credit Card - Defaulted April 2019 - 2.5 more years (ish)
Capital One Credit Card - Defaulted February 2019 - 2 more years

TSB - Defaulted October 2022 (!!!!) - this is the previously mentioned shenanigans, I am pushing for this to be cleared and my record corrected. If not, I am looking at resetting the clock for so much more time  

All being well with that TSB default, this timeline is marrying up with my partner and I planning on trying to buy our own place in a few years time. 

notpropaganda73

Frustrated with myself today as I was at my football Christmas dinner on Friday and got way too spendy, and don't remember much of the night after a certain point Looking at my bank balance today I'm really annoyed at myself as I've basically blown my Christmas party budget on one night, with a work do and my partners' 30th birthday party all coming up over the next couple of weeks. I am thinking I will avoid drinking at the work do (I've already paid for the meal) and leave early, and then hopefully by being thrifty in other areas over the next few weeks I'll be fine. 

It's just annoying on my part, I'm not as bad as I used to be when it comes to drinking and blowing money like that, so while it's the first time in a while that I've done something like that I'm just annoyed that my drunken self decided to do so at this time of year! 

Anyway, the plan for today is to study (I have my final accounting exams in February - yes yes, an accountant who is bad with money!) and then in the evening time we'll cook together which should result in some leftovers for tomorrow and possibly Tuesday lunchtime. 

Friday spending: £135
Saturday spending: £50 (I got a takeaway in my hungover state as well as filling up the car - I was taximan for my partner at her Christmas work do last night)

Sarahwithlove

Can you take £10 cash with you to work do so you can only buy say 2/3 soft drinks and after that have to have water if you want more. Or just dont take your cards with you. Problem I have is I can pay for everything on phone now so becomes too easy but cash may be way forward. 

notpropaganda73

Sarahwithlove said:

Can you take £10 cash with you to work do so you can only buy say 2/3 soft drinks and after that have to have water if you want more. Or just dont take your cards with you. Problem I have is I can pay for everything on phone now so becomes too easy but cash may be way forward. 

That's a good idea thanks @Sarahwithlove, as I mentioned above as well I'm currently living walking distance to the office so I don't really need my wallet with me for bus fare or anything like that, so realistically I can definitely do what you've suggested! 

notpropaganda73

Happy Monday everyone

Yesterday went as planned, I got a good chunk of studying done thankfully and then shut down the laptop around 4ish and started cooking a shepherd's pie. I've gotten pretty good at the mash now, and my girlfriend makes an incredible sauce for the mince, she throws all sorts into it (red wine, stock, Worcestershire sauce) - Maybe not traditional but it works ha!So we had that for dinner and leftovers for lunch today and tomorrow as well, means I won't be popping out for any lunch bits which always inevitably ends up being a coffee and a treat as well.

I have a little spare cash after my final direct debits and standing orders going out today, so put in some additional payments (taking into account silly season budget):

Debts

Monzo Flex Account - £266.04 
Zopa Credit Card - £1,000.00 - £100 payment today
Aqua Credit Card - £50 - £72.75 payment today - statement renews on the 14th so plan is to leave this card until then and have a £50 bill to clear it 
Virgin Credit Card - £1,000.00 - £50 DD taken today
Vanquis Credit Card - £0 - £100 DD taken today - as I hoped, I now have a balance transfer offer for this card, the offer ends on New Years Eve. 0% for 6 months (with a 3.8% fee) - I will more than likely transfer the Zopa balance after Christmas to maximise the timeframe.
Loan from Other Half - £750 

Total - £3,066.04

notpropaganda73

Hi everyone So it's been a crazy busy week since the last update! As mentioned before I had the office Christmas do on Thursday, I followed the great advice from Sarahwithlove above and I just took £10 cash with me for the whole day. There were drinks provided by the office but I only had one with the lunch and hung around a little while for the party itself before being home by 8, all in all a big success money-wise!

Then on Saturday it was my girlfriend's 30th birthday party, it's been a big event I've planned over the past couple of months and I had one specific big spend for Saturday night earmarked for the Monzo flex 6 month interest free offer I had (a very swanky hotel stay as a treat, and also because our own house was full with guests!). £170 for one night is a lot but it was a corner suite, lovely breakfast and they knew it was the other half's 30th so had a welcome bottle of prosecco and chocolates in the room as well as complementary cocktails in the hotel bar! So while it's probably seen as an unnecessary spend in the grand scheme, I'm happy with it being able to spread it out over the next half year. 

Unfortunately I did have another unexpected expense on the car, the battery died this morning and needed emergency replaced. It's crap timing as we were hoping to keep this motor going without big expenses until the MOT next year, and then replace both of our smaller cars with one slightly bigger car (as it's needed, but we probably don't need both full time - it's just the time of year/driving home for Christmas etc that this one is definitely needed) - but anyway. So that was another £240 added onto the Monzo flex. I'm hopeful of getting a bonus in the New Year from my work which will clear out a lot of this as well but not relying on it.

This coming week should be very quiet spending wise, we are moving to a new rental in January (slightly lower rent!) so this weekend is going to be spent packing.

Debts

Monzo Flex Account - £675.17 (additional £240 & £170). 
Zopa Credit Card - £1,000.00 
Aqua Credit Card - £50 
Virgin Credit Card - £1,000.00 
Vanquis Credit Card - £0 
Loan from Other Half - £750 

Total - £3,475.17

LittleMissDetermined

Cars can be really costly! I had my windscreen crack on Thursday so I can relate to unexpected expenses

The key will be to set yourself a budget and plan and then try to manage everything life throws at you. That's certainly what I am trying to do. 

Happy birthday to your girlfriend, I hope she had a lovely time and you enjoyed the celebrations. 

Good luck on clearing your debts, I prioritised the ones which were due to run out of 0% first and that seems to work well, although if you have been lurking you will no doubt be aware of what works for different forumites.

I will subscribe to cheer you along your journey.
LMD x

notpropaganda73

Ah thank you LMD! She had a ball, though she was suffering on Sunday  

Yes I'm going to try and focus on any that have promotional 0% periods running out soon as priority. I think I'll need to reevaluate in January once we're settled down after the move and everything but I'm hopeful I can get this all cleared by next year! 

notpropaganda73

Welp, it's been a crazy 2 months to say the least. We moved house and all the expenses (especially furniture) that come with that has driven my debt up, but on the plus side I have been given a promotion and payrise at work as well as confirmation of a nice little bonus to be paid out in March which will go a long way to clearing these out

One app we've discovered since the New Year is Splitwise, I don't know if anyone else uses something similar, but I've found it brilliant. Because of my debt issues and negative credit file, I haven't wanted to have any joint accounts with my partner until everything is cleared so that she's not financially associated with me. But then when it comes to the household stuff it's been hard to keep eachother right in terms of who has paid their fair share etc. So a friend recommended Splitwise, you just put in the expenses and it calculates who owes what. I think there are similar apps and tools like it but we've found it brilliant!

Anyway, the debt has gone up overall due to putting things like a new mattress on the credit card and doing a balance transfer so getting 0%. We paid £800 for it but my god it's the best investment we've ever made, our sleep is so so good. Honestly I can't even remember all of the big expenses but we had to buy wardrobes, chest of drawers, bookcase, kitchen unit etc etc. So it builds up very very quickly even if you're going 50/50 with someone! 

Debts

Monzo Flex Account - £662.17
Zopa Credit Card - £900
Aqua Credit Card - £99.27 
Virgin Credit Card - £900 
Vanquis Credit Card - £1,500 
Loan from Other Half - £0! 

Total - £4,061.44

The Zopa card is now charging interest since 15th February, so I think I will use my current savings to clear that down to reduce interest charges. The others are all 0%, Vanquis until July and Virgin until August. So I was then going to use my bonus in March to get the balances down £500 and £400 respectively, so that I can pay both £100 a month interest free to clear them to zero by the end of the balance transfer promotional rate. And anything leftover from the bonus will go back into my savings. 

That's the plan, I'm hoping at this rate to be completely debt free by end of summer but we will see - the MOT is due on my car in April and car tax as well so sometimes they can throw a spanner in the works, the bonus won't cover everything but it really is a big help! 

Thanks for reading