Busting this debt before 40

Chocolatefund

End of the second week of September is here. A pretty boring week. But boring is good. Boring is money saving!

I've managed to achieve something I've never done before. At least...I think I haven't done before. 😂 A no spend week! Including today it will have been 7 days since I have spent anything.

Just goes to show how much useless sh** I was buying, that I don't actually need.

Still have £195 in the spending account to last me till payday. Two weeks tomorrow to go. 

Looking to next week, I'll be visiting family for an overnight stay and I have a friend's leaving due. So I'll probably have to do a top up petrol fill and a couple of drinks.  I'll do a small food shop probably Tue/Wed. Going to try and keep that under £40.

Had a good money week this week as I was able to pick up an extra shift at work and got £20 from V1nted coming. Mid week someone phoned in sick so picked up a few extra hours on top of the extra shift. It all helps.

In other mse news; Several months ago, I used the template on this site to see if my car finance that I had a few years ago had this Discretionary Commission Arrangement thing that's become a thing.  I got a letter in the post this week from the finance company which confirms that I DID have DCA on my car loan. Ooooooooo.......

Shame that resolution isn't untill next May. But hey-ho, one can dream...right?

Anyway, that's my money related ramblings for the week. Back to melting my brain via my PS5.

Chocolatefund

So my best laid plans have all been nothing. I am currently sat in my living room, curled up on the sofa due to a nasty cold. :-( 

Didnt end up going out this week at all, and I've cancelled plans to go visit family this weekend. 

Did the food shop earlier this week. I spectacularly failed in my quest to keep it under £40. Ended up spending £48. At least my cancelled plans mean that I should not have to fill up the petrol tank again this month. I'll call it 'Money Saving Lurgey'.

Have £147 left in the spending account. A planned meal out next weekend and a smaller food shop should see me through till end of the month payday.  I may use any leftover to order some more firewood, as the batch I ordered previously is no where near enough to see me through the next few cold months. Way underestimated that one.

Being home and lurgey bound has meant I've had waaaaay too much free time to think about money stuff.  I got my extra hours pay this week so I've moved some of that into the sinking fund. Currently my pots are as follows;

Xmas Fund - £91
Sinking Fund - £752
Emergency Fund - £1656

The Xmas fund I want to aim for £400 by December. It's the month where I spend the most time travelling all over to visit various friends and family and eating and drinking lots...all the fun expensive stuff we do at Xmas. Want to have plenty in this pot to not think too much about money saving.

The sinking fund I'm aiming for £1500 by next April. April-June is the expensive part of the year for me. All my big yearly hits: Car service /MOT/Insurance/Home Insurance/Car tax/TV licence, and three birthdays all fall into this period...eek...I wonder how I've managed it previously...
If I can put aside £100-150 per month for this then it should see me through nicely for next year.

Not sure how much I want to get my emergency fund to. I'll aim for £2000 and see how the money looks going into next year.

Whelp, that's a lot of money ramblings for anybody to read. haha. Feels good to get it out of my head and on paper.  A lot of diaries talk about a debt free date. Not worked this out yet, might have a play with some numbers later.

For now...back to fighting the lurgey with lemsip.

Sarahwithlove

Great news on the interest saving on the loan. 

Hope you feel better soon. 

Chocolatefund

Where has September gone??

August felt like it dragged. September flew by...

The lurgey went away, but now I'm surrounded by people brewing thier own cauldron of lurgey... can't win.

I just managed to stay in budget...went over in the food bill.  Spent £237. Did buy a lot of toiletries and household items this month around. I may have to up this budget to account for those a bit more. Did manage to come under budget in other categories which helped.

Payday has come and gone and so has the great money shuffle.

A good V1nted month and lots of extra hours have given me more to work with.  So my savings pots are now as follows;

£204 Xmas fund
£1005 Sinking Fund
£1810 Emergency Fund

I've attacked the loan with a vengeance and sent an overpayment of £1100. On top of the usual direct debit, this brings the total down to £17,091. I'm hoping the interest rebate will bring it down into the £16k mark.  

Some October plans got cancelled, so going to use the opportunity to bust out some more hours if I can. Aim is to get the loan into the 15k mark on next payday. Gogogo! 

Edit: Interest rebate came through. £336. Takes the loan down to £16,754. :-) 

Chocolatefund

Two weeks have flown by!

Life threw a curve ball at me and I've ended up being away for work.  Good news is all my expenses are pretty much paid for. It's a big money saving win, as long as I can keep saying no to my co workers on nights out.  I've spent a whopping £36 in two weeks. Had 10 NSD since October began.

We even had a work due meal which got paid for, blimey. All the signs are telling me to not waste this opportunity!

Not much else to talk about money wise. But this is a good thing. My friends think I'm strange for not wanting to go out.  Which is also a good thing. Means I'm doing it right, haha.

Can't wait to see what the end of this month pay slip is going to look like. Hopefully should know by the end of next week. I've been running debt overpayment numbers in my head too much. Still not figured out a debt free date yet. Might wait to see how much the extra work monies will make a dent in it.

There's a good chance I'll be able to throw a big amount of overpayment on the loan come end of the month.  Am I the only one wishing the month away for the next payday? 😄 

Chocolatefund

Some end of week musings...

Very little spends this week. £18 on a friends birthday meal out. Have managed to say no to a lot of work related nights out this week. Lord knows how much my co-worker friends have spent this week alone...

As October didn't go as expected, and several events didn't happen, it's left me with a fair bit of extra sitting in my bills account.  So I've moved £250 into the sinking fund. I've also moved £100 from my spending account into the Xmas pot. This way I won't be so tempted to spend it. This leaves my savings pots as follows;

£300 Xmas fund
£1250 Sinking Fund 
£1800 Emergency Fund

This end of month pay slip is out and it's slightly more then expected. Part of me wants to throw everything including the kitchen sink at the debt come payday as I've already now topped up the savings for this month.  The other part of me wants to get the savings to thier targets. That way, I can throw November and beyonds spare income at the loan. Hmm.

I'm spending far too much time on debt payoff calculators...it's addictive.

Chocolatefund

Gosh, where has the time gone? Time flies when life happens.

So I'm back home now after being away overseas for work. Because most of my expenses were paid for, I've used the opportunity to manage a low spend month. A total of £142 spend for the whole of October. Which consists of £70 eating out (slightly over budget) £48 for overseas data (grrr) and £24 mini food shop when I got back as my fridge was empty..

October payday came and went and so another great money shuffle.  In the end I decided to top up the savings pots to thier targets. So now my savings are as follows;

Xmas Fund £504
Sinking Fund £1502
Emergency Fund £1973

I took a sledgehammer to the loan and sent an overpayment of £1500. This along with the usual £285 direct debit and an interest rebate adjustment of £401 (wow) my loan now sits at £14,567 :-) 

Phew! Now my savings pots are where I want them to be, the next few months can be focused on the debt. I will still be sending the £150 a month to the emergency fund and slowly building that up over time.

November is going to be full of temptation as it's my birthday month. There's about £200 spare in my main bills account, so I may give myself a birthday gift if I see something I'd like. I have a feeling that I'm not going to stick to budget this month.

Overall, super happy with my efforts in October. I wish every month could be a super low spend month, but I guess that would make the debt busting too easy!  I'm now 25% of the way there. Next milestone will be 50% debt paid off.  Can't wait to get into the 10k figures.

londoner2019

Excellent progress. You're like me - looking at the calculators and numbers in spreadsheets gets a bit obsessive, but it keeps me on track!

And you sound super motivated to clear it and continue. Just think - when the loan is gone (and you've cleared a quarter of it already in such a short space of time), that monthly amount is YOURS. To do what you like with. Save, pension, spend on yourself...

Chocolatefund

Thank you londoner2019  

Oh, the things I could do with that money! But thats okay, I got an awesome kitchen and bathroom out of it that I’m loving everyday. Keeps the motivation going.

I’ve been trying to work out a debt free date, but I can’t seem to work it out exactly due to the interest rebate adjustments.  I’m sure there’s some better calculation I can use to work it out, but here’s what I’ve gone with.

Current £14,567 divided by 11 more payments is £1,324. My direct debit is £285, so as long as I can overpay by 1039 each month, and treat the rebate adjustments as a bonus, I reckon I can be debt free in 10-11 months. So I’ll take October 2025 as my debt free date.

Someone can totally come and correct me on this. Maths isn’t my strong point.   

Sarahwithlove

I don't think anyone can predict it as the interest rebate will vary each month as the debt gets smaller. So I'd just focus on overpaying what you can and know that by end of 2025 you'll be debt free and be able to treat yourself for your birthday and Xmas.