NEW BLOG. Featuring tips and pics from pet owners of the MSE Forum, we present to you Homemade pet toy ideas. Take a look
Limping Along - Debt Free Diary
Latest MSE News and Guides
MoneySavingExpert
Chair, Martin Lewis · Editor, Marcus Herbert
Replies
The goals look sensible. I know some say you should not save while you have debt but as most of yours is 0%. That car HP at 10% would be the problem for me. Is the car worth £40k now? I guess you are looking at it as £750 to rent and maintain it which presumably you are comfortable with. Good work on starting the EF.
I’m a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Debt free Wannabe, Budgeting and Banking and Savings and Investment boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing [email protected] All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
Save £12k in 2023 Challenge #8 £12,000/£7500
The 365 day 1p Challenge 2023 #1 £667.95.00/£205.00
The 365 £1 a day Challenge for Christmas 2023 #43 £1000/£600
Yes the car HP is expensive. I'm comfortable with it, we have never had a car on lease before always had old cars we saved and bought outright. Maybe by the time the next one rolls around I'll decide I don't want to do it again. But just for now, while it's affordable to us, we'll enjoy the car and see how we go. We'd like to go electric on our next car which I suspect will also mean a HP because I doubt we'll have the cash to buy an EV outright, but that's a decision for 4 years time!
In the office today. Train ticket purchased out of my pot set aside for exactly as many commutes as I need! Got a coffee and a croissant on the way to work with OH (he dropped me off at the station) £8 out of our "snacks" pot. Will get lunch in the canteen which is to pay for but subsidised so shouldn't be too expensive for a decent meal.
Last pet insurance payment came out for my policy which I'm cancelling. I tried to cancel the other day but she said it cancels immediately so best for me to go and purchase the new policy before cancelling and she also advised that I leave a 14 day or so overlap to keep myself protected while the new insurer policy kicks in in full. So I agreed and have it in my calendar to cancel next week. But at least the last payment is done and I'll get a mid-month refund. Saving 50% on the policy by going with my car insurer as they give me a previous customer discount.
Tomorrow
I should get a £440 refund from EasyJet tomorrow (it's showing on Monzo as landing tomorrow). Going to spend part of it on the flights for my OH's birthday trip in the summer and put the rest in EF.
Future
Trying to work out where in my budget I can slot in getting some new doors... lol! We had to have our upstairs doors removed when we had the new carpets put in before Christmas as they wouldn't fit on anymore. Unfortunately they also can't be cut down any further as they're hollow. So we've lived without upstairs doors for 2 months now! New doors £600 plus fitting. Might spread the cost by buying the doors at the end of the month and then hoping my OH gets a refund he's due for some payments he paid that were work expenses and using that.
So on Friday I got some amazing news. I got a 13% pay rise! I was hoping for one above inflation and expecting a bit less. But apparently I've been boosted up as they've done realignment with the rest of the business. I presume (from discussing with my manager) that I had slipped to being on the low end of my salary band as I've been at my company almost six years. He explained it's likely that new hires who have come in since I joined have been on a higher salary. He also said that there has been rebalancing in the company for women, and people of colour, to make sure that we (I say as a woman, not a person of colour) are getting paid equally to all our other colleagues. This explains why the boost is so high.
My base salary, plus my flexible allowances, plus my regular overtime (I've got it consistently for the past 6 years) would make my new salary around £81k. Likely higher as I don't count the more one-off overtime I do each year, though it usually equals out to around £1-£2k extra. I'm so chuffed. I decided to up my pension contribution to 6% from 5%, just a small bump. I'd like to do even more at some point, but not right now when we need more cash for our debts and home improvements.
Anyway, my new take-home comes in at £4,380.79. I only have 3 more payments left on my student loan at £332 which means I'll still be over £4k per month with the student loans, and get my whole salary in a few months to myself!
Anyway onto normal stuff.
Today
I need to go through our weekend spends and categorise them in YNAB, move some money around. Bought a gift for my friend who is just starting maternity leave so I need to get that wrapped and posted. It was budgeted for.
Tomorrow
Was meant to be going into the office tomorrow. They moved the office day to Thursday this week which I can't attend. Sounds like no one else from my team will be in tomorrow so I may skip it. Saves me £40 at least!
The future
I need to set aside some money coming up shortly for our builder to fit new doors upstairs. We haven't had doors on our bedrooms since December due to having carpets fitted. Doors have been ordered, all the door furniture arrived last week. I just need to get him booked in once the doors arrive in a few weeks.
Annoyingly made a mistake on my budget. I thought my British Gas payment had gone out on the 1st for the whole month now I realise that it's only my electric that went out and my gas bill didn't come out until today. I had changed one direct debit to the 1st but not the second. Oops.
I pulled the extra cash from our house reno pot because our doors aren't set to arrive until 24th Feb so by the time our builder comes round we'd have been paid anyway.
Also have managed to sell two computer parts for £32 and £225! I have been clearing out the spare room in preparation for redecorating it and these boxed items were just waiting to go.
Today's last job is going to be to hassle the boyfriend to finally sort out selling his old gaming monitor. The box is huge, I want it out of the house! Not going to sell it on eBay but might list it on Facebook Marketplace. If it doesn't sell, CEX will take it but obviously not for the best cost.
Tomorrow
Not got anything planned except getting back on my yoga course I'm taking with Peloton.
The future
Looking at DIY fitting a new garage side door. With clearing out the spare room, a lot of stuff needs to be relocated to the garage which is not secure due to a rotted door frame. Have worked out we can buy a door for £580 and fit it ourselves. Hoping the budget next months allows me to make this purchase, or at least set aside half of it. We also need to do the garage roof and get a new garage front door. Hoping my boyfriend's bonus comes in with enough cash for us to do the whole refurb.
Credit Card 2 - £13,481.47 £12,985
Total debt - £19,731.46 £17,885
Emergency fund £930
Money came in from eBay, I love how quick it is these days! Awaiting the parcel being picked up now.
Going to do a tip run at lunch time. Getting rid of our old old dining room chairs. I am SO happy to see them gone. I bought a set of 4 of them for £5 from someone about 7 years ago. That's not £5 each... £5 for the set of 4. They're faux leather and they're gross. They were much better back then but the faux leather has cracked and flaked over the years. Recently the kittens took a liking to them and completely clawed the faux leather leaving tiny flakes of plastic all over our kitchen. So they were relegated to the box room and are now finally leaving the house. I'm so happy!
We currently have one dining bench bought new, and one oak chair I bought from Dunelm which was quite expensive. I plan to buy a second next month so we have 4 chairs. And at some point in the future I will buy two decent quality folding chairs so we can seat 6 at the table, as we do sometimes have guests.
I shuffled some money around including the eBay money and managed to fill our emergency fund up to £792! My first target is £1,000. I should definitely be able to complete that next payday and then I will likely leave the EF for a little while and focus instead on some much needed projects around the house and paying off interest-accruing debt.
OH has his pay review conversation later today. Wondering how much he'll get... His boss (who is also a friend of his) seemed to hint that his pay rise might be fairly middling but that he might be getting a bonus. At least that's what we've inferred from what he's said. Could be totally wrong. Find out at 1pm!
I also paid another payment to my student loan so I believe I have two payments left. £26k + interest paid off almost!
Tomorrow
Nothing planned for tomorrow and probably no money incoming so I may not post!
The future
Just want to get this EF filled to £1,000, get the garage sorted out and pay off the instalment we have that is 9% APR (luckily it's only a few hundred pounds).