Mimis money makeover

Mimismoney23

I am sharing my journey to become debt free to hopefully keep myself accountable. I have been in and out of debt for the last 15 years and although I can pay everything every month I don't want it hanging over my head anymore. 
I have in total £28509.95 in debt. Some of these are front loaded interest so if I can over pay those that will reduce the total considerably but it's easier said than done. 
I am always caught in the paying off a credit card with a loan and then spending on the card again.
I also basically spend all my money every month and spend on whatever I like. I know this is bad and I don't stick to a budget. 
So my plan is to pay extra each month off the front loaded debts to reduce them quicker. I am creating a weekly budget and making envelopes with money for each week for food, petrol etc. We have a lot of food in the freezers etc so I will be using that to try and reduce food costs. The costs of food have really had an impact on this decision to pay everything off as I want to make sure if anything happens to make the cost of living worse I will not be able to weather that with such high debts.

I am going to aim for as many no spend months as possible. I have already made a small emergency fund which I will be continuing to top up with small amounts over the year to help with emergency costs. I think this is important as I don't want any unexpected costs to end up going on a credit card if I can help it.

I am hoping to be debt free in 18 months. I know I need to change my whole way of spending and so this is the time. 

Today I have paid off £1504.91 with regular payments and over payments. That leaves £27005.04 to pay. 

Hope I can make it to my goal and not get back into debt again. Good luck to everyone else on their journeys too.

birdsfoottrefoil

Good luck on your journey Mimismoney23! I have only started a diary a few months ago but I’ve found it’s really helped keep me on track 

_Dolly_Rocker_

We can do this!!

I was reading your diary as you were posting on mine. 

Mimismoney23

birdsfoottrefoil said:

Good luck on your journey Mimismoney23! I have only started a diary a few months ago but I’ve found it’s really helped keep me on track 

Thank you, I am glad it's working for you, I hope for me too. I found it scary putting it out there but it's good to know it works. Good luck with your journey too. We will get there.

Mimismoney23

_Dolly_Rocker_ said:

We can do this!!

I was reading your diary as you were posting on mine. 

Haha I couldn't believe how similar your situation was to mine when I read it and then wished I had put all my goals in like you did not just the money. I look forward to reaching our goals side by side. 
We will smash it.

Mimismoney23

So day 2 and I have £75 in the bank to last until next Tuesday. I need petrol but other than that I am aiming to spend as little as possible of that money this week. 
I have started the keto diet so it's not the cheapest diet but the healthiest for me so I am going to try and work that at the lowest cost possible. 
I am hoping to have some left over at the end of the week that I can pay off something so will keep that updated. Bring on the no spend days.
I've chosen to use £5 of this week's budget upfront to pay a little bit off 2 of my smaller debts. So new debt balance is £27000.04.
I'm hoping these little bits will help eat away at it without too much effort.
I'm also getting started on vinted this week hoping to clear put and get some extra to snowball these smaller debts over the coming weeks.
Onwards and upwards

_Dolly_Rocker_

Mimismoney23 said:

_Dolly_Rocker_ said:

We can do this!!

I was reading your diary as you were posting on mine. 

Haha I couldn't believe how similar your situation was to mine when I read it and then wished I had put all my goals in like you did not just the money. I look forward to reaching our goals side by side. 
We will smash it.

Add them all in!

I'm an all or nothing - so it's the only way I do it. 

Cleared all the junk food out the house yesterday.........................I mean I ate it but hey - still marking it off the list!

Mimismoney23

_Dolly_Rocker_ said:

Mimismoney23 said:

_Dolly_Rocker_ said:

We can do this!!

I was reading your diary as you were posting on mine. 

Haha I couldn't believe how similar your situation was to mine when I read it and then wished I had put all my goals in like you did not just the money. I look forward to reaching our goals side by side. 
We will smash it.

Add them all in!

I'm an all or nothing - so it's the only way I do it. 

Cleared all the junk food out the house yesterday.........................I mean I ate it but hey - still marking it off the list!

Well done i count that as a win and no waste lol. I wish I could do that, I have a 15 year old so there is always a supply of junk in the house although I try to buy him things he likes and I don't so I won't be tempted. 

Mimismoney23

Apologies for anyone who's reading for the million updates a day.
I am trying to get everything written up so I feel I really know where every penny is going.
My debt minimum payments each month total £807.50.
Total income monthly is £2355.47
Other bills including rent, utilities etc total £812.88.
This leaves £735.09 for food, petrol, sundries and any additional payments.
I am aiming for £90 petrol and £250 for food and sundries. This is a squeeze on food but I am aiming to use a lot of food we have in the house this month. My daughter is gluten free so this adds to food costs although I have found a lot of alternatives which are accidentally gluten free so that helps. 
I also have 4 to 6 days a month where the kids are at their dads so I can reduce food costs those days. 
This would leave £395.09 to make extra payments and top up the emergency fund a little bit. I have my mot in August so I am hoping to have enough in there if there's a problem. I will hopefully add £50 to my emergency fund each month leaving £345.09 to reduce debt. 
My first goal is my car loan as it's £6500 with front loaded interest. I am hoping this should reduce quickly with this large extra payment each month any extra I can get from selling things I will pay off one of my smaller debts to get a quick win. 
I would love any extra tips you have that I could try.

londoner2019

Good luck on your journey! Have you got 5p to chuck at it to dip under 27k? Would be a little mental boost!

One piece of advice - don't get down with any setbacks - things will come up, some months might be slower than others, but any progress is ok!

_Dolly_Rocker_

I love the million updates a day - I do the same - my wee DFW twin.