Living frugally in 2025......

Justcrackingonwithit

@Sun_Addict @MFWannabe @Doris17 thank you, I know you’re all right, I need to build up the EF, and that should be my priority, especially when the cards are on 0%. I’ll make that my priority xx

Seasidegal58

When I was paying down my debt several years ago I followed Dave Ramsey, the US money guru. He has written several books over the years and has a radio programme/podcast. He's not everyone's cup of tea and doesn't take prisoners, but I found his advice very useful.  He would always prioritise getting a $1,000 (£1,000 in my U.K. case!) emergency fund in place before you even started on paying down any credit card debt. His thinking was if you didn't have an EF and, say, your car/washing machine, etc, broke down then you'd automatically load the cost back onto the card - which would be true in most cases. 

Justcrackingonwithit

Hi @Seasidegal58 I've heard of Dave Ramsey but not read/listened to any of his work.  
So, I have decided (been persuaded!!) to save towards my EF first, I just need to make sure that I don't go over on the 0% time on the CC because I don't want to pay any interest on it, I'd rather have a bit less in the EF and pay the CC's off, to off set the interest.  So something I'll be keeping a close eye on.....
Hope you are well and enjoying your family time in Scotland. 

Justcrackingonwithit

Afternoon everyone, hope you're well and having a good day.  Thursday already, love it when it's a nice short week at work! 

So, things are going to plan so far, I know it's only 2 days in, but I'm okay with that!!

Another NSD today, so that's 2 on the bounce.  I had to nip into the supermarket for supplies for work today and I saw  a lovely wax burner, candle and oil set which was £7.00.....it was lovely, and I really, really liked it, I would have loved it, really loved it. I love anything like that candles, wax melts, but I thought about my budget and walked away.... Second alcohol free day today and second day of meditation and french practice, so my 25 in 25 challenges are going well.  

No plans for tonight, The Traitors is back on BB1 so I'm going to watch that and have an early night. 

Got no spend activities planned for the weekend, so hopefully my bank account will stay as it is and I'll keep busy.

Have a good rest of the week everyone

jwil

Well done on the NSD and the challenges

MFWannabe

Justcrackingonwithit said:

Happy New Year!  Hope you're all well.  I've not had the best nights sleep, lots of fireworks that kept me awake and it was so windy and rainy.  Not looking like the best day weatherwise, so likely will be a day tucked up at home. 

Thought I'd do my scores on the doors debt wise, and then I'll do this on the first of every month to track my progress:

CC1 - 3,356.00 - 0% util November 2025
CC2 - 1,597.00 - 0% until April 2026
Loan - 7,000 - 31 months left to run
EF - 350.00
Spare change account - 63.04

The plan is to pay CC1 in full before the 0% ends, so I'll plan to pay 300.00 per month to that, and 200.00 to CC2 and add 250.00 to my EF every month. I'll leave the loan to run as it is and then can think about over paying that once CC1 and 2 are paid off. 

I've been thinking a lot about not burning myself out and trying to pay it all off really quickly, and have given myself the wiggle room to pay a bit less on CC2 if I need to as the 0% doesn't run out until next year.....but we'll see how that mind set goes!!

I'm also toying with doing Payment a Day - and might put the money into my "spare change" account and then transfer that to CC1 as an additional payment. 

I know building an emergency fund is important, and I've also been wondering about increasing that payment rather than paying as much off CC2....but I'll see how that goes. 

Thinking about getting up but my cat is curled up fast asleep at the side of me and I really don't want to disturb him, so I might have to stay in bed a bit longer!

Payments to credit cards as follows: 
CC1 - £350 per month to clear by November 
CC2 - £100 per month to clear by April 26

£300 per month to EF - once you are comfortable with X amount in EF / savings you could always pay a bit more off the cc’s and finish them earlier 

Cara_

A little late - happy New Year.

Well done on resisting the candle set - there will be another one. The 25 in 25 activities have got off to a great start. I am still thinking about mine!

Justcrackingonwithit

Thanks @jwil not doing so well on the walking or dieting, but small steps, I don’t want to overload myself!!!

MeandO

Well done on resisting the candle set, why not now pay that £7 you 'saved' over to one of the CC's as a little extra payment instead.

Justcrackingonwithit

That’s a good idea @MeandO, I’ll do that now…..