The Journey to being debt free, hopefully

ryandotdee

So I am bad at following through on things.  And I have an impulsive nature.  The impulsive nature is probably what has made me start this thread, and it is going to rely on me actually following through to keep it updated.  I have just set a bi daily calendar reminder to update thhis post, we will see how it goes.

I am feeling mildly terrified as I type this, as I have decided to list out all of my debts, here in this post.  I know roughly what they are but have a feeling the actual total is going to be worse.

I am not going to go into massive detail on how I got here, I just want to focus on how I get out.  Although I am happy to answer any questions people might have.

General plan is :

1. Aim for as many NSD per month as possible
2. Batch cook religiously, I am actually a very good cook and have done well with batch cooking in the past, need to get back on it 
3. Have money left over each month, and split the leftover between overpayments / emergency fund / sinking funds.
4. Most important one, no more money on credit

Here we go :

1. Halifax CC - £2591.41 - Interest bearing, top priority
2. Virgin CC - £6094.33 - 0%
3. Barclaycard CC - £7991.29 - 0%
4. Santander CC - £6333.91 - 0%
5. M&S CC - £3868.42 - 0%
6. Natwest CC - £723.43 - Interest bearing
7. Natwest CC - 4115.00 - 0%

TOTAL : £31,717,79

Yeah, thats a bit worse than i thought, but, it is what it is.  I am paying approx £500 a month currently on these, all minimum payments.  I have a pre approved offer from Virgin for another CC with a limit of 15k, which I think I am going to take so thhat I can move the 2 interest bearing card balances over.  it will cost me about £90 in fees, but that is less than 2 months of interest payments on the Halifax card so it seems like the right call to make in the short term, I will simply make the monthly payment the same as I am currently paying on the interest bearing cards currently.

So here goes nothing, I know that whilst I still have debt trying to build an emergency fund seems silly, but, I would like to try and get 1-2k saved in cash so that when the inevitable emergency arises, I dont end up using credit again.

Wish me luck!

joedenise

Not silly at all to save an Emergency Fund, I'd actually say it is extremely important.  I would start with £1,000 EF.  If you have an EF then you shouldn't need to use credit if there is an emergency.

It's good that you have most of it on 0% and you have the option of shifting the interest bearing amounts onto a new 0% card.  Seems sensible to me.

Good luck with paying it all off.

ryandotdee

joedenise said:

Not silly at all to save an Emergency Fund, I'd actually say it is extremely important.  I would start with £1,000 EF.  If you have an EF then you shouldn't need to use credit if there is an emergency.

It's good that you have most of it on 0% and you have the option of shifting the interest bearing amounts onto a new 0% card.  Seems sensible to me.

Good luck with paying it all off.

Thank you, that was exactly my line of thinking.  I am lucky to be in a position where I am not trying to make ends meet, and have a reasonable budget each month for discretionary spending etc, so am hoping that with a bit of accountability and some better habit building I can break the back of this over the next 12-18 months and start putting those CC repayments towards something more worthwhile, like holidays with my kids etc.

Sarahwithlove

An emergency fund is never a bad idea, its highly recommended. I would suggest doing a budget for yourself rather than working on basis of whatever you have leftover at end of month otherwise it becomes too easy to either say yes to everything or go all guns blazing and say no to everything. You need a good balance of the two to make ot sustainable long term. 

ryandotdee

@Sarahwithlove

Yeah, I know what you mean.  I think its the general conundrum of feeling like having savings is not savings when you have debt, but, as long as I can keep all the balances going down and on 0% then having a bit of a buffer can only be a good thing.  I just need to work out how much I try to divert in each direction over the coming months.

I am in the middle of negotiating a new position / salary at work so hopefully that is successful and will accelerate matters a bit.

ryandotdee

First proper diary entry 

So its Monday, and I am thinking about the plan.  Friday is payday, which kinda sucks as its early, and will make the stretch between Xmas and January pay day quite long (41 days!!!)

So I have given myself a budget of £40 to last me the rest of the week, I had £190 left in my spending account, so I have moved £150 into my cash ISA, it will earn a couple of pennies while in there, and the aim is to try and not take it out, but, its nice to know I have some buffer there for the long pay gap if I need it.

Have done an inventory of the kitchen freezer, and thrown a bit of a chicken curry type concoction together from a load of bits that were in there, looks like enough for 4 servings, so thats dinner tonight plus a few more meals sorted.  No need to goto the shops for anything, so it looks like a NSD for today ( first of many I hope! )

ryandotdee

Yesterday turned out to be a NSD, which has made me happy.  Although, alongside my plan to have better spending habbits going forward, I also wanted to be better at keeping the house tidy.  The plan for last night was to clean the kitchen, but, I ended up drinking a bottle of wine on account of a difficult conversation with an ex partner which ended up making me feel quite down.

But, today is a new day ( albeit one starting with a sore head! ) The chicken curry last night was a lot nicer than i expected, given that it was for the most part a mystery curry   I had a later start with work today, so I decided to inventory my 2 freezers.  I have a fridge / freezer in the kitchen, and a chest freezer outside.  Back in the days when I was good at batch cooking, the kitchen freezer only contained batch cooked meals, with the chest freezer containing all the ingredients etc.  I want to get back to that, so thought I should go through what I have, with the goal of reclaiming the kitchen freezer for meals.  Shockingly I have enough in both freezers to make approx 60 servings of various types of meals.  So the goal over the next week is to start batch cooking!  I have a few recopies in mind but am open to suggestions!

Aiming for another NSD today, I do need to buy some milk, but I have a few quid in coins lying around so will use that instead of the bank card, does that still count as a NSD? I guess in reality I should be paying all my change into the bank.

Condensed goals for the day :
1. Goto the shop, and only buy milk
2. Tidy the kitchen
3. Do something nice for me, that I dont normally do.  i.e have a bath, listen to a podcast

RedLipstick

Good luck with your journey! I know exactly what you mean, I'm getting paid on Thursday and it's going to be a long one until January pay day so I feel your pain! Did all my socials already though and I have a friend coming over just after new year so I am hoping for this to be a quiet and not too speedy month, fingers crossed!

I too try to batch cook but I'm not consistent and after a long day at work I sometimes just head to the shop to buy something ready to go to microwave. Looking forward to hear your stories, and good luck with getting the new position, sounds exciting! 

ryandotdee

Thanks @RedLipstick, I remember when I used to do batch cooking properly, the point where it became easier was when you built up a big enough variety of things in the freezer so that you could have different things every day of the week, eating the same meal for 3-4 nights in a row is a bit un-inspiring, and can be a bit of a downer.  But getting to the point where you have cooked that much take s a bit of effort!

ryandotdee

I know I already posted today,. but, I have been sat here thinking about things and wanted to share some of those thoughts ( am actually finding just typing this stuff out quite cathartic, regardless of whether anyone reads / responds etc )

When I look at the total figure of my debt, it makes me feel a number of things, sadness, guilt, fear etc.  I feel quite embarrassed that I have gotten into this state, but, while I was going through my budget for the coming month, I think I have managed to frame some of the debt in a positive light, I know I wont be able to do this for all of it, but, it has at least made me feel  a bit better in that some of it was an investment, and will end up  helping me in the future.

My electricity bill for this month was £98, and that has made me feel pretty happy. I dont have gas, and I have an electric car, so my combined electricity, heating, hot water and car fuel + heat pump service costs have come in at under £100 for this month.  Yes I should not have done these green upgrades on credit, but, in a few years the debt will be gone and I will continue to get the benefits.

Its a small thing, but, it made me feel slightly better about the situation tonight.  I also got the kitchen tidy, hoovered the stairs ( unheard of for me in the week ) and spent some time watching youtube with a cup of tea, and not a glass of wine

in_need_of_direction

With the reduced Christmas veg prices, would homemade soup for the freezer be an option?