Overhauling for the second (and last) time

overhauler

i have been looking at my debt free date 

when I started this journey in September, with my minimum payments I calculate the DFD as 12/2028 - I realised this is different to what I previously calculated as I didn’t do it using my starting debt total

Today my debt free date stands at 11/2028 so I’ve managed to pull it forward by a month 

that is also not taking the current overpayments into account which should bring it forward even further but I appreciate these are not guaranteed, 

I am going to do a 3 monthly summary as I go through my journey so I can see how my DFD changes based on overpayments. First 3 month summary will be 16/12 so just over 3 weeks away, I would also like to have one less debt on my list by that point which I think will be achievable 

it’s like a bit of a fixation for me at the minute which I guess is a good thing, I don’t speak about my debts to anyone in real life so it’s so nice to get my thoughts down here even if they are mainly to myself 

I have made a small payment since my last update to another debt just to round it off so a little payment of £3.26 made today 

overhauler

Payday tomorrow, 

end of month update:

all bills were paid on time 
£50 was added to EF 
spaces ended with £63.85 to spare which will be rolled over and used for Christmas budget 

debts wise:
all agreed repayments, totaling £101.50 have been paid 
overpayments £38.57
my mini goal of having debt 1 cleared by the end of the year is on track with £70 left on the balance 

surveys:
I am new to surveys but have made £10 so far this week, I’m not sure if they will stay consistent but if they do I should be able to use them to make an additional step each month

 100 steps to debt freedom challenge: 
current 6/100 steps completed 

observations:
I am not great at keeping on top of my spreadsheet, particularly with food shop spends so I want to try and be more consistent with filling it in each day that I spend, same with personal spends… I tend to be good at staying in budget but not at logging it on my spreadsheet so I will try and do this better over the next month 

first thing for next months wages is to allocate the budget to each saving space and then finish off my Christmas shopping, we are quite busy throughout December with plans most weekends so I will need to be careful not to overspend and leave myself short elsewhere 

overhauler

Payday 🙂🙂🙂

first thing on the list is to complete Christmas shopping, I have made a good start this morning as have most of my lists written 

I have some wiggle room in my budget and also have my EF which I did initially say I would use towards Christmas if needed this year since I hadn’t budgeted for it 

I think the main thing I need to remember is that 3 months ago I wasn’t managing to pay all my bills each month and now I am paying everything on time, overpaying debt and still affording to buy the gifts I want for everyone this Christmas so if that means this year using some of the EF than I am happy with that 

I considered paying off debt 1 today but am going to stick to my plan of paying it off by the end of the year although I  going to make a payment of £20 to it today which will bring it down to £50 remaining 

overhauler

Gosh, what a busy week and weekend I have had 

not in a speedy way which is good but I haven’t had a minute so I am feeling rather tired this afternoon

ive not yet finished doing the money shuffle from payday but almost all the direct debits go out tomorrow so I will let those clear the bank and figure out what then needs to go where and what I have left 

definitely going to be a tight month as we have lots of plans but I’m very much looking forward to Christmas. I’ve already started thinking about my financial aims for the next year and hope to continue the good work I’ve managed to do over the past couple of months 

Chocolatefund

You’re doing brilliantly!  Keep up the great work. 

As you mentioned, keep thinking about where you were a few months ago, and where you are now.

Financial skill takes time to build on.  You’ll find as the months go on that you’ll be more ‘consciously aware’ of your spending, and not wondering where it went.

You could try using a physical notebook to write down your daily spends.  I have a spreadsheet that adds up all my usual bills, but I’ll only touch it rarely.  There’s something still about a physical pen and paper.  I guess it’s because I stare at spreadsheets a lot at work, so it’s the last thing my brain wants to do when I get home.

If you can budget Christmas, you can get through any month.  

overhauler

Thank you for the kind words @Chocolatefund

I love your username 🙂 I often think digital works best for me as I always have my phone with me/ipad at home but will consider an actual notebook as an alternative option 

big news today, I’ve done my money shuffling and allocated everything I need to 

I made the set payments I needed to the debts and then have made an additional payment bring debt #1 down to a balance of ZERO

i have officially cleared my first debt 🥳🥳🥳

I am 9/100 steps through my 100 steps to debt freedom challenge 

I had originally said I was going to do the snowball method which would mean moving on to debt #3 which has a balance of £246.47 however I’ve been looking a lot at my credit score and there are two debts which are severely impacting it as are showing I’m over my agreed credit limit 

I am in repayment plans for all the debts and am not being charged interest but I think I am going to focus instead on the debts which are over the previously agreed limit so mini goal #2 is to clear debt #9 which currently stands at £862 - this is my second largest balance so I’m going to set myself the target of trying to clear it by the end of April 

I am continuing with the surveys and will use any additional money made from these to the debts too, so far I have only cash out once at £8 but am at 735 points so may cash out again today if I can try and get up to 800 

overhauler

Withdrew £7 from CC survey site and paid to debt #9 balance now £855/£893

Sarahwithlove

I think that's a good idea focusing on the ones causing most damage. Hopefully you're credit score will increase. 

overhauler

Quick update:

Made a £25 payment to debt #9 today, brought the balance down to £830

Means I have cleared step 10 on my 100 steps to debt freedom challenge 

overhauler

£35 to debt #9 today, took the debt down into the next set of hundreds - £795 remaining 

my monthly debt repayments total £101.50 per month and so far this month I have managed to pay £234.71 - hopefully I can keep the momentum going and nothing unexpected pops up