Busting this debt before 42

Middle_Aged_Guy

Good luck @Chocolatefund i just know you are going to absolutely smash this..

You seriously inspired me on the last diary, i have no doubt you will do the same on this new one.

Will be following closely!

M.A.G.

Honeysucklelou2

@Chocolatefund that is a great motivational chart 🥳

Chocolatefund

Payday is here! Going to wait till Monday once all the bills has come out before I commence the great monthly money shuffle.

So I’ve had a very successful low-ish spend month. I’ve totalled up my spends for the month and Ive come in quite under budget.

Food: £167

Petrol: £150

Eating Out/Fun: £80

Miscellaneous: £31

Total is £438. Pretty good. Very happy with this.

Looking ahead to March, It’s going to be a spendy month. Mother’s Day plus a relatives big birthday and a couple of catch ups with friends I haven’t seen in a very long time. Gonna have a careful look at the calendar and figure out how much it might all cost.

In a not so MSE move I’ve finally ordered a new smartphone. I’ve taken £500 out of the Shiny Fund to put towards it. Was able to resist upgrading last year, but now is the time while Ive got the extra funds. Been saving up for this for a while and I’m glad that I can pay for the handset outright. I’m also still on track to overpay the loan by £700 come Monday.

My broadband and sim only contracts have also come to an end this month, but I’m going to wait till those pesky April price increases have come and gone. Seriously, that hot garbage should be illegal.

Need to post my first financial brain dump of the thread.

Chocolatefund

Financial brain dump #1

So my new loan works a bit differently than my previous one.

My previous loan with Te$co, added the total interest on initially, then gave me interest refunds as I made overpayments.

This new NaffWest loan, shows the original amount. Then, it calculates the interest daily and adds it to the original amount at the end of the month. So for example;

Original amount: £23,000. Interest added at the end of Jan was £84. Taking it up to £23,084. Then the direct debit comes out, then the overpayment. So it’s now £21,933. NaffWest charge for overpayments (boo!) this one was £8, but the app does tell me that I’m still saving £300 in interest, and has brought forward the end date. It is what it is. Ultimately the end result is the same. Just worked out differently it seems.

I can see in the app today that it has added on £125 in interest for the end of Feb. Will update the new amount on Monday after the direct debit and overpayment.

Cherryfudge

Happy new diary! Thanks for linking from you previous one. 😊

If you have any underspends, what's the plan for them?

Chocolatefund

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81904184#Comment_81904184

Happy new debt! 🤣

As long as my math is mathing, I’ll be putting £300 into the sinking fund. As much as I would love to add the leftovers to the loan, my car insurance renewal and my London trip are both happening in May.

Chocolatefund

How dare busy work keep me from my great monthly money shuffle.

£300 has gone to the sinking fund, £350 to the SIPP and £100 to the ISA. So the totals are now as follows;

Sinking Fund £550

Emergency Fund £2515

Shiny Fund £1500

The SIPP payment hasnt been processed yet, but once that and the tax relief has gone through it should be pass the £7000 mark. The ISA now has £1550.

The direct debit has come out for the loan and I’ve made the overpayment of £700. The balance now sits at £20,900. Next month it should be down under the 20k mark.

20 payments to go!

I’ve got a bank switch going through which should give me £175. Will have to send £1000 from the shiny fund to get it (N@tionwide) but I’ll transfer it back once that switch bonus comes through. This will top up the sinking fund to £725 which should cover my car insurance in May. Since I made a total loss claim last year I’m expecting my insurance renewal to not be pretty…

Need to do some more pricing out for my London trip also.

Cherryfudge

This is sounding like good progress!

Chocolatefund

Mid month update,

Oh boy, have I spent a lot this month. Knew it was gonna be costly but daaaayyyuuumm.

So far I‘ve spent £73 on food. £133 on Eating out/Fun and £82 on miscellaneous made mostly of Mother’s Day. The figures are actually decent, but…

OmigodIhavespentsomuchonpetrol

The petrol! I vastly underestimated how much driving I’d be doing this month. Total spend on just petrol alone is £309! The rising petrol prices at the moment are certainly not helping. I’m doing a course over the next couple of months which also involves a lot of travelling, though I do have some allowance claims coming my way which will soften the blow a bit.

The rest of this month is still going to be spendy. Got a close relatives big milestone birthday to buy for yet and lots more driving.

In more money positive news, the bank switch was a success and I’ve got the £175. Transfered the bonus back to to main account. My money saving win. Though it will be probably be gobbled up by my cars bottomless pit of a fuel tank.

Payslip is out for the end of this month and it’s looking good. Despite the overspend I’ll still be able to overpay the loan and put a decent chunk in the sinking fund. Though that chunk will have to shrink a bit now.

Quite addictive playing with the figures in my monthly money spreadsheet.

Chocolatefund

So I'm in a bit of a pondering mind.

I'm shooting for a promotion at work which I'm very excited about. The actual selection process doesn't happen till this October, but in the meantime I have to jump through a few paperwork hoops and pass a VERY important online interview.

I don't have the date of the interview yet, but I reckon the timeline will be about in 4-6 weeks. Here's the problem. Work have told me the interview can't be done on our work laptops, nor will the software work on iPads. Hmmm.

My desktop gaming pc is fritzzing up. It randomly shuts off and some component is corrupt somewhere. It is seven years old now, so has done very well in the terms of longevity, but since I'm gaming on mostly my PS5 now, Im not fussed on building another one anytime soon. I don't trust it to not shut down on me during an important interview. That would make too anxious.

I'm going to see if I can maybe borrow someones laptop to do the interview. If not, I may have to buy a new laptop. Perhaps I could get a refurbished one or at least something on 0% finance. Not something I wanted to do, but needs might be must.

Got time yet to have a think about it and do some number crunching.