My overhauling journey to debt freedom

Aimingforthegoodlife

Hi @overhauler sounds like you are making some good plans, will pop back soon to check in on progress!

overhauler

Thank you very much @Aimingforthegoodlife I am hoping that keeping the diary will make me see where I might be going wrong and keep me more accountable 

first day back in the office today so it was an early start, I did not plan well so have brought nothing for lunch which means I spent £2.50 in the staff canteen. I need to prepare better, being celiac means my only option is a salad or chips and the salad looked past its best so I had chips, cheese and beans which isn’t exactly bursting with nutrients

Good news is that it’s payday tomorrow. My Feb round-up isn’t actually too bad given I came to my LBM half way through the month. 

Positives are that I have set up a DMP moving forwards that should see all debts cleared in just over 2 years.
I paid all household bills this month
I ended the month with £6.45 in savings which is the first time i have any money in saving the day before payday 
I have £130 in my driving lessons/car fund. Test is next week so fingers crossed it goes well and I can relabel my savings space as just car fund 

Aims for the coming month:
pay all household bills
Put £50 into savings and aim to not have to withdraw
try and put some money into holiday fund
put some money into birthday present fund 

My youngest needs new trainers and is also going on holiday soon so will need to see what he needs for that and buy it this month but I will aim to spend as little as possible and make do with the clothes he has where we can

i will sit down and allocate money to pots on Wednesday evening as I’m working from home that day so will have more time 

enthusiasticsaver

I would definitely focus on saving up for emergencies.  We tend to advise people do that before setting up the DMP.  Have all the debts defaulted? 

overhauler

Yes they have all defaulted now, I will look at increasing my EF. I have never had any kind of savings before so have been quite lucky that nothing has gone drastically wrong so I am looking forward to seeing a savings pot start to grow even if it is quite slowly 

Payday today, i have so far bought my monthly rail ticket and this weeks bus pass plus transferred some money to my son for his weekly college needs 

i don’t class expenses such as that and bills as spends when assessing whether I have a NSD so was just about to say today would be one but I have just remembered I need to go to the shops on the way home from work, I need the butchers for the meat for a stew tomorrow and supermarket for fabric softener, bananas, melon and toothpaste but won’t be buying anything that is not on my list 

overhauler

Good morning

yesterdays top up shop came to £17 but that included meat from the butchers for a stew tonight that will have enough left overs for my work lunch tomorrow and stew and chips tomorrow night 

WFH day today so no spends as I won’t be going anywhere and no online shopping will be done. I don’t really spend online for none essentials only buy for birthdays/christmas. I did buy my son’s main 18th birthday present yesterday. He had asked for an item of jewelry and it was 40% off so I saved myself just over £50 by ordering last night. It’s something I would have purchased anyway so may as well do it during the sale as his birthday is in around 7 weeks 

my aim is to have NSD today and tomorrow and then it will be the start of a new month and the first full month of me being financially responsible. I really want to put good habits in place so I will be allocating money to pots today and seeing what I have left to play with when all bills are accounted for 

enthusiasticsaver

Good start..I love the pots system. Enjoy your stew tonight. 

overhauler

Just a quick check in, been a very long day at work and I spent £4.50 at lunch. I will make sure from this weeks food shop that I’m accounting for office day lunches which will help increase NSDs and reduce weekly money spent as most of my spending is on food when out and about or calling at shops for chocolate on my way home 

I saved £9 this week by buying a city student bus pass rather than a county one. It means I have to walk from the train station to work rather than bus and same at the end of the day. I’ve actually really enjoyed the fresh air, have managed to up my daily steps on office days from under 1k to around 10k which I’m sure will help me lose some weight. My legs are really aching so clearly not used to this much movement 

overhauler

Accidental WFH day today, did attempt to get to the office but train strikes out an end to it 

I was surprised by how low my bank balance was today so soon after pay day so did some quick calculations and I have spent £126.74 so far since pay day on Tuesday that was not allocated spend. In fairness £81.60 of that was on a gift for my sons 18th but that means I have spent £45.14 on top up shopping 

I guess the positive of that is that as I am trying to be more financially aware I have caught it early and can put plans in place to make sure it doesn’t continue but I am annoyed with myself as that could have gone into savings

i will be sitting down later to allocated the rest of my money to bills/pots and will see if it leaves anything left over to start building some savings with 

if not I think I am going to have to see what else could be cut back on. 

I did input everything into step change when setting up my DMP and they suggested I had enough in my budget to cover everything so hopefully I am worrying over nothing.

also first DMP payment went out today so I have officially started clearing my debt, 26 more months to go 

stymied

Have you checked if any of the recipe box introductory offers are suitable to get your shopping bill down for a week? Gousto looks to have gluten free options.

overhauler

I have looked at recipe boxes before but for the most part, they just wouldn’t work as not everyone would eat the same thing. Me and the eldest eat the same meals all the time and that tends to be the normal home cooked meals such as curry, lasagne, roast dinners, pasta dishes etc 

my youngest son eats very little that isn’t processed chicken and my partner is pretty similar and often opts for pizza or something simple over the meals I cook. I will add it’s not my cooking as I am a pretty decent cook (if I say so myself)

apart from the days I am working late so it’s more convenience food this week, today is the only day I only have to cook just the one meal, I am doing a roast pork dinner and everyone will eat some element of it 

it’s budget day today, a little later than planned and I’m already worrying there is more budget needed than money available so will see how it goes later when I sit and work it all out