31k is a scary number

Waywardgirl3

So it’s payday today!

my pay packet was quite good this month with overtime  so I was torn between sending a chunk to my debt or putting aside a small emergency fund. I’ve decided to place to one side a small emergency fund just to kickstart the journey and protect against unexpected expenses I might have to use a credit card for. 

January total pay - £3070

So, January budget;

• Bills -850 (sent to a joint account, covers my half of mortgage, utilities, house bills, groceries and pet food)

•Monzo plus - 5 (worth it for the interest we make on wedding savings)

•Apple Music - 10

•Phone contract - 50 (this is up in February and I am sooooooo excited to move to a sim only deal)

•Emergency fund - 500

•MBNA CC 1 - 165

•MBNA CC 2 - 70

•Monzo loan - 200

•HSBC Loan - 200

•joint cc - 50 (not included in my debt total as not in my name, used to purchase our kitchen so I send a nominal amount each month). 

•calorie counter app - 5 (considering deleting but I do need to lose weight this year?)

•prescription - 10 (antidepressants to keep me on the straight and narrow yay)

•Christmas 2024 sinking fund - 50

•Partners birthday sinking fund - 25

•wedding savings - 100

•vets - 300 (really high this month as have expensive bloods/med review for one of the fluffies, should be lower in future). 

•gifts sinking fund - 25

•personal spends - 125 (25 pounds a week pocket money to stop me going crazy - will try and save it to throw towards debt but there for my sanity)

•Diesel - 80

•misc horse costs - 100

•home repairs - 50 (leaky gutter :-( )

•dental plan - 14.50 (no nhs dentists in area and I need my teeth) 

•holiday 2024 - 100 (dont ask I’ve tried to get out of it - I can’t) 


soooooo every penny accounted for!

goal for this month is to just stay in budget. Got round ups on my Monzo for debt overpayments and clearly need to sell a SHED LOAD on vinted. 

That can all be thrown at debts. 

Got a few high payments this month but my livery bill kicks in again at the end of Jan for ponio so that is going to hurt (I had a windfall in autumn and had the foresight to pre pay a couple of months)

, lots of overtime needed

only doing 7 hours that they had available this weekend but better than nothing and a NSD today - aiming for as many of those as possible! 

On that note I am absolutely exhausted from writing that and I’m up early to do the horses so I’m off to bed! 

katsu

As you are saving for the wedding, could you and your partner have smaller gifts for each other? You are planning to spend £250 on them in 2024. 

Also the £25 a month for miscellaneous gifting, can you reduce that or cover your partner and whomever else from the same pot?

Do you really need £600 for Christmas? What if you spent only half of that? How would it change your plans? 

 I realise you might think you need to XYZ but a lightbulb moment is about a change of mindset, moving away from what you think you need to do for other people (you talk in your first post about keeping up with people/ letting them down) when truly how important is it to your enjoyment of life that so and so from work or a neighbour thinks you are doing well financially or is impressed at your gift buying for example? Maybe you can come to no longer mind what you think they might think? 

katsu

For your £25 weekly allowance, keep a good record of what you spend it on then look at how you can reduce the cost. Eg can you make coffee at home and take it in a great quality thermos for drinking on the morning train? Buy a bunch of bananas at the supermarket instead of getting 1 in Pret with the coffee for eg?

I would cancel the apple music or try and offset it with survey vouchers/ cashback etc. 

Is your prescription a prepayment certificate? Does that save you any money? 

Then have a look at the 1700 you both spend on joint expenses: can you reduce any of those? Savings you make there can help fund the wedding or go towards house savings. 

zedonk

I too can relate very much to having grown up with a scarcity mindset and then going to the opposite extreme. It sometimes feels like spending money on myself is the only way I know to be kind to myself. Need better options going forwards! Good luck with your debt-free journey.

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Good luck. 

I think you are totally right to go for the promotion.  It doesn’t really matter at this stage if you get it or not - it’s about showing that you are interested in progressing and in your own development.  That can bring other opportunities.  

My parents were excellent with money but I can relate to the “I deserve it” mentality.  For me that kicked in when I started earning well but also worked longer hours and had more responsibilities.   

I have about the same level of debt as you so will be cheering you on as I move forward on my own journey. 

L x 

Waywardgirl3

Less_Talk_and_More_Action said:

Good luck. 

I think you are totally right to go for the promotion.  It doesn’t really matter at this stage if you get it or not - it’s about showing that you are interested in progressing and in your own development.  That can bring other opportunities.  

My parents were excellent with money but I can relate to the “I deserve it” mentality.  For me that kicked in when I started earning well but also worked longer hours and had more responsibilities.   

I have about the same level of debt as you so will be cheering you on as I move forward on my own journey. 

L x 

Thankyou! Do you have a diary I can follow? Xx

Waywardgirl3

katsu said:

As you are saving for the wedding, could you and your partner have smaller gifts for each other? You are planning to spend £250 on them in 2024. 

Also the £25 a month for miscellaneous gifting, can you reduce that or cover your partner and whomever else from the same pot?

Do you really need £600 for Christmas? What if you spent only half of that? How would it change your plans? 

 I realise you might think you need to XYZ but a lightbulb moment is about a change of mindset, moving away from what you think you need to do for other people (you talk in your first post about keeping up with people/ letting them down) when truly how important is it to your enjoyment of life that so and so from work or a neighbour thinks you are doing well financially or is impressed at your gift buying for example? Maybe you can come to no longer mind what you think they might think? 

Thankyou for this! It gave me food for thought today, I love giving gifts but I need to realise I don’t love the people around me because of the gifts they give me so I shouldn’t have to spend loads of money to show my love. 

I’ve let a few close friends know I’m on a debt free journey and they have been really supportive which has taken the pressure off a little bit to ‘keep up’ appearances. 

I’m going to merge partners gift pot with my misc one and just have one sinking fund for it which I’ll send 25 pounds to a month. So I’ve sent that extra 25 pounds straight to my smallest debt (Mbna 2) today! 

I have a big family with a lot of lovely kids in so keeping Christmas sinking fund as it is for now but going to have a think about that one as it is a lot of money whilst I’m in so much debt! 

Total overpayments to debt so far (above the minimum in my budget above are £25.94 so far for Jan - it’s Jan in my head already as I’ve been paid haha)

Waywardgirl3

katsu said:

For your £25 weekly allowance, keep a good record of what you spend it on then look at how you can reduce the cost. Eg can you make coffee at home and take it in a great quality thermos for drinking on the morning train? Buy a bunch of bananas at the supermarket instead of getting 1 in Pret with the coffee for eg?

I would cancel the apple music or try and offset it with survey vouchers/ cashback etc. 

Is your prescription a prepayment certificate? Does that save you any money? 

Then have a look at the 1700 you both spend on joint expenses: can you reduce any of those? Savings you make there can help fund the wedding or go towards house savings. 

Some good suggestions here Thankyou! 

I feel so so anxious today just in general and then when I remember my current financial situation much worse and panicky. But reading back over this thread has given me a bit of comfort. Slow and steady 

another personal NSD today with just a few groceries picked up from joint account but used Tesco clubcard vouchers for 16 pounds off! 

Also used a gift card to get us coffees so that was a nice free treat. 

Time for cuddles with the cats and bed I think 

CRANKY40

You need to start getting your dopamine hits from saving not spending. Honestly, the money my ADHD and me have wasted over the years but...who knew that saving could be fun too? You'll also be surprised by how reluctant you will be to spend any of your savings. Give yourself some mini targets that you stand a chance of hitting - you wouldn't miss £1 a week from your allowance so start low and make your own "treat pot" savings £5 for January maybe?

Less_Talk_and_More_Action

Hi @Waywardgirl3. I do have a diary. Sorry, not sure how to link you.  It’s called My Intentional Journey to Debt Freedom.  I only started a few days ago and just  posting my thoughts and initial actions and plans.  

I totally agree with Katsu that a LBM is about a mindset and change of attitude. I have been there before using sheer willpower and existing on no money for short periods of time but it doesn’t work - just changing small things and sticking to it is the best way for me. 

L x