Busting this debt before 40

Middle_Aged_Guy · 2 July at 1:24AM

What a fantastic achievement this is. You have been extremely focused throughout the debt busting "journey" and smashed it to bits - extremely inspirational.

Congratulations

Enjoy this new freedom you have worked for.

I cant wait to be in your position one day!

M.A.G.

Cara_ · 2 July at 5:51AM

Congratulations. The Southern Comfort and sushi are throughly deserved.

Chocolatefund · 2 July at 8:17PM

LzzyIsGod said:

Massive congratulations! I look forward to seeing your name on that DF Role of Honour!

I love seeing people achieve their goals - never underestimate how inspiring you are to others on here ✨️

*Gasp* I totally forgot that DF Role of Honour existed! Thank you! I will wait till my last direct debit comes out on 1st August when it’s properly gone.

Chocolatefund · 2 July at 9:00PM

Thank you to everyone who’s commented and taken the time out of their day to read my money ramblings.

I really appreciate it.

In the excitement, I haven’t gotten around to posting my end of month spends for June, so here it comes.

Food £111 Yay!
Petrol £ 67 Yay!
Eating Out £46 Yay!
Misc £113…Meh…still Yay!

Total spends £337. This is far less than I thought it would be considering it’s a 5 weekend month. Definitely helped by the fact that I did a big food shop at the end of May and I didn’t have to fill up the petrol tank for a while. I had quite a few coffees and lunches out, but no restaurants or big meals out. The miscellaneous spend was majority birthday present so still pleased with that. No takeaways and I managed not to buy lunch at work.

However, I lost track of the no spend days. Not sure how many I’ve had. I’m guesstimating 15. Was away at the beginning of June and forgot to mark my spends on my calendar when I got back, and I let it slack. I’m back on track now for July and I need to make sure I keep on top of it.

In other money news. Forgot to mention the F1rst Direct bank switch offer came through a couple of weeks ago. That’s £175. Which is going to be put towards…the TV licence which comes out on the 8th this month which is also…£175. Haha, can’t win sometimes. I do watch normal TV though, so have no bug bear paying this really. Cheaper than other subscriptions.

My NaffWest digital regular saver has been doing a fab job of creeping that emergency fund up. It now stands at £3292. Going to continue this till it hits its max at 5K. Will take another year unless I start busting out some multiple round ups.

Need to have a good think about my next step. To finish the house renos while at the same time, get some sinking funds back up, cause right now that is empty. Starting small with the redecoration of my little study (which got recked while the carpet went in plus moving furniture around upstairs)

Will have a good play around with some numbers tonight as I need a financial plan for the rest of this year. Got too many goals, so need to have good old number crunch.

Chocolatefund · 5 July at 12:37AM

Time for financial brain dump #5

So I’ve been playing around with some numbers goals for the rest of the year.

I have a SIPP and a Stocks and Shares ISA that I would like to restart contributions for some proper wealth building. Currently got £500 in the ISA and £3400 in the SIPP. I’ve settled on getting the SIPP to £5000 and the ISA to £1000 by end of December.

As I’ve earnt a lot more this year into the higher rate tax bracket, I’d ideally like to get as much as possible into the SIPP so I can claim tax relief for it next April.

So I’ve gone ahead and set up a direct debit of £300 a month to the SIPP and £100 a month to the ISA to achieve this. Settled on £300 a month for the SIPP as that is similar to my loans direct debit and it will keep my outgoings similar. Pay rise coming this month (wohoo!) will be used mostly by the £100 a month for the ISA. This way, not all the extra monies will be swallowed up by the money sucking black hole of a house reno.

There has also been a development in the family. One of my close relatives is going through a nasty divorce in which there is a big solicitor cost. Myself and two other family parities are going to put our money pools together to help pay for this. Don’t have the final figure yet, but we reckon in the region of 4-5K, so about 1.3 to 1.7k each. Estimated needed in about 3 to 4 months time.

This means next months pay will go into a family pot to be put aside for this. Going to aim get it up to 2k in the next two paychecks. If it turns out that I wont need all of it, I can always use it for other things later in the year. This has to be my priority now if I want to preserve my emergency fund.

Will start up some smaller house projects round the house in the meanwhile.

I’ve decided to no longer use the Ch@se account for spending, now they have nerfed the cash back and saving interest. Also can’t be faffed with transferring money in and out every month to trigger said cash back. Will be going back to using my AmEx. I miss using it, and the avios points are my travel inspiration. The places that don’t take AmEx I will use my NaffWest debit card as I’ll be able to build up that digital saver quicker with round ups.

Going to up my monthly budget to £500 for a bit of extra spending money and see how this goes.

So after all that money malarkey, the savings pots currently stand at;

Emergency Fund £3292
Sinking Fund £10
Family Fund £0
S&S ISA £520
SIPP £3476

Hoping by recording it like this, it will keep me on track for the rest of the year.

Phew!

honeybee1234 · 5 July at 7:45AM

Having such specific goals really helps with planning and focus, you're definitely setting yourself up well for the rest of the year.

I totally get the Chase cashback decision as well, I was disappointed when they reduced what you can get cashback on as I did all my spending on it. Love the idea of the Amex for 'travel inspiration!'

Chocolatefund · 5 July at 5:52PM

honeybee1234 said:

Having such specific goals really helps with planning and focus, you're definitely setting yourself up well for the rest of the year.

I totally get the Chase cashback decision as well, I was disappointed when they reduced what you can get cashback on as I did all my spending on it. Love the idea of the Amex for 'travel inspiration!'

Same. Was gutted when they did that. Made it an excellent everyday spending card. But I reckon cashback debit cards just aren’t a very profitable business model.