This Duo's debt free journey

redofromstart wrote: »

Hi DFD,

It might be worth checking with your university to see what support they offer? I used to work in one and they did free counselling and support for students for example, which might help. keep an eye out for cycle events too - ours did security events with free and subsidised bits.

The biggest drain for me was buying anything at all on campus on the days when I failed to plan, or forgot to take something to eat. It was all so expensive, and not even very nice - apart from the chips.
Hope you get the locker sorted.

Thank you, I hadn't really thought about what the uni could offer, I'm not feeling great about uni at the moment, I feel like I learn more from vidoes found on the internet than I do from my leturers and I'm paying them £9k each year for the privilege but thats a whole other story.

I will definitely keep my eye on cycling events, I've only just started cycling so events will help keep me motivated I think which in turn will save me a good amount. I have everything crossed that I get that locker but I'm still waiting to hear anything back and its been over a week since I applied for it.

I've only bought food on campus once since, luckily I only have one full day there, every other day I can get away without eating whilst there, I usually pack something in my bag to eat right after cycling otherwise I get light headed and this generally keeps me going until I get back home.

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Great idea to use PA money for a car fund for the MoT Test - I wonder if you can keep up the focus on there whether you can use funds from that to pay a good chunk of your car costs over the year? It might be worth a thought - really depends on how you find the flow of studies is for you, along with how much time you have during the day to check in and find them. Bear in mind also that it does (as you'd expect) tend to go quiet over holiday times - we've all been bleating about the fact that August and September were pretty much dead on there, it's just starting to pick up again now.

Something else I've learned over the years is that with the good earners like PA - they don't necessarily last forever (I'm thinking here of the "free money" clicks we all used to do on TCB, and the free bingo/scratchcards sites that earned a few of us a nice little sum for a while) so once you get past this really tight few months you may for safety want to make sure you budget a set sum each month/term for car expenses. It'd be a nuisance if you had to raid the ISA to cover something otherwise wouldn't it!

One thought on the filling th car up with fuel thing - have you thought of just topping up top the half way mark if you don't do many long journeys in it? A lighter car (in theory at least) costs less to run...might gain you a few extra miles per gallon, you never know!

Great work on the cycling to and from Uni thing too - and such a good idea to keep a track of your savings! :T

That is a great idea on using PA to fund my car pot, that way I could stick to my original plan on the debt front, I'll see how I get on over the next few months, January will be impossible with exams but then I should be able to step it up again Feb - April. I have only just joined and I'm extremely impressed with PA. Maybe I could combine the two and set aside a smaller amount and then top it up with any earnings elsewhere.

Interesting theory on the fuel, I currently track my mileage so if I figure out how I can do this on half a tank rather than a full tank I will definitely try it, I will even know for absolute certainty whether or not it gains me any MPG. Will give it some thought before I top up in (hopefully) 6-8 weeks.

Thank you for stopping by, you have given me some great ideas to think on.

Ok so I have roughly worked out how the costs of paying of the loans in different orders:

Pay off loan and then car loan total = 3356.05

Pay off car loan and then loan = 3317.44

Therefore it would cost an extra £40 to allow myself the extra £350/400 as a pot for the car/gifts, so essentially paying 10% on that £400, I really don't think its worth it so I'm thinking I will stick to my original plan and then I can give myself the same pot but a few months later.

Total spends left to Jan: 340.59, the only money I have spent has been on 1 day of car parking. PA has come to a complete standstill for me, currently on £22.35 which I will take out once the pending amount has cleared.

Have been thinking a little about Christmas, I made a start on this with a couple of good deals from prime day a couple of months back so 5 presents are already sorted, the problem is the remaining 12. I'm trying to really cut down this year with how much I spend, I never went crazy before but it all adds up when there are so many people to buy for. I have reduced the budget for everyone this year which now tells me I have to find £165 for those who I haven't yet bought for, I have £81 in my amazon account from surveys which is included in the above total spends, I am hoping that I can somehow not spend any more than this.

For DS I have £40 in my spreadsheet (my limit previously has been £100), I'm considering reducing this completely and just getting him a couple of small bits to compliment the gifts that he will receive from others, I'm quite lucky that 2 of his grandparents always ask me what to buy and their budget is around £50 each so the bigger things he wants I can ask them to buy for him. I'm also lucky that hes an absolutely wonderful child who is extremely grateful for the things he receives no matter how big or small they are.

If I can get Christmas sorted for the £81 I have in vouchers and a further £10 from elsewhere and set aside £70 for my MOT that will leave me with £200 spends for food, fuel and car parking with half term to get through. Its going to be a challenge but as previously mentioned I do have an available overdraft at 0% and I will get christmas/birthday money. I think the biggest thing I need to be careful with is not to have a massive blow out in January, I can wait 9 months and have a huge guilt free blow out in September/October instead when I will be officially debt free!