Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

DrSpendLittle · 23 August 2017 at 9:17PM

redofromstart wrote: »

It's all relative - I just voluntarily cleared the final balance of my last loan - taken out in 1994

Congrats!! :beer: Yeah, you're right, it is all relative. And since repayment is all done via HMRC, I'm ignoring it for now. The interest rate is pittance at the moment, much less that today's graduates.

DrSpendLittle · 23 August 2017 at 9:42PM

Okay, here goes. Lets see what spending I've put on the credit card (CC2) this year...

January
- £135 on work related travel. I may have paid this back when I got my expenses through, but I very much doubt that.....

February
- £6 on contactless London Underground travel (whilst on a work visit)
- £55 on records (whilst on a work visit)
- £200 on my sport hobby
- £35 Ferry reservation for holiday

March
- About £100 on sport hobby. Difficult to say as I ordered a few sizes of a few different clothes online and then returned the sizes that didn't fit. The returns take time to process...

April
- £30 on sport hobby. :eek:
- £150 on work expenses. See January.

May
- £1.30 on a coffee that I remember buying! In the middle of nowhere.
- £465 on ferry final payment I was good and paid straight off

June
- £38 on work expenses. No comment.
- £170 on train tickets for visiting family.

July
- £272 on balance transfer fees

Four things that stand out to me from that little exercise...

1. I use my CC to pay for upfront work expenses. I don't travel that often for work but have been increasingly paying visits to London and elsewhere. Normally I'd get work to prepay my expenses, but it doesn't always happen so I tend to bung it on the CC and then forget to pay off when I get my expenses back in my salary the month (or two or three) later. Also, when I'm in London, I tend to 'take advantage' and seek out some shopping opportunities. These are obviously unplanned and therefore go on the CC too.

2. I've spent more than I thought on my sport hobby this year. Way more than I realised. In many ways, I didn't make extravagant purchases, I just got all the things I needed to participate. But I did this in the space of a few months. I didn't plan or save up for my purchases.

3. I go through phases and get really into things and then throw all my time, effort and very clearly my money

into them. I've always been like this though. My sport hobby has been one over the past few years. Hopefully MSE and DFW can be my new 'thing'.

4. I need to stop the CC spending all together but I'm loathed to pay for work expenses upfront out of my current account. Sometimes it can be up to £200, most cases its £50 - £80. What do you do? What would you recommend?

DSL :j

DrSpendLittle · 23 August 2017 at 9:52PM

Today has been a work at home day and I've spent some of that time going through my spending patterns for this year. Its been revealing but not hugely surprising. We all know when we're overspending. But the effects are that of a chronic illness, not an acute illness- they aren't immediately visible but appear overtime, often when its too late to prevent. We're left with treating the problem. But we can do that. It just takes a little longer and there are some consequences (short, medium and long term) that we have to accept.

However, this is all part of the DFW journey and I'm sure there are many of you who have been through this process already. For those of you who are still avoiding looking at the CC statements and totting up the damage - take a breath and just open them. You won't regret it. Its the first step. Its always going to be the hardest. But you will look back in 5 years time and be thankful you did. That's the motivation. And, that's the reward. Deferred gratification.

So, today has been a NSD and we used up leftovers to eat. Tomorrow will be another NSD - the third in a row! I need to make a batch of soup for lunches for tomorrow and Friday and will get something of out the freezer for dinner. Bosh.

Not sure on my weekend plans. I'd forgotten it was bank holiday. Doh.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

DSL :j

enthusiasticsaver · 23 August 2017 at 11:16PM

Excellent work on analysing your spends and seeing where your weak spots are on spending. Hopefully this will help you budget going forward.

I would put all the work expenses on one empty credit card and pay it off when the expenses come in (not wait for the bill). As you pay off the John Lewis one each month (which is only used for food

) then you could combine it on there until you clear one of the other two cards. The Bank of Scotland one should hopefully be gone by the end of the year.

DrSpendLittle · 24 August 2017 at 1:10PM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Excellent work on analysing your spends and seeing where your weak spots are on spending. Hopefully this will help you budget going forward.

I would put all the work expenses on one empty credit card and pay it off when the expenses come in (not wait for the bill). As you pay off the John Lewis one each month (which is only used for food ) then you could combine it on there until you clear one of the other two cards. The Bank of Scotland one should hopefully be gone by the end of the year.

Good idea - I will use the BoS CC for work expenses when it's cleared, probably just in time for a work trip in Jan but maybe not for the few visits I have planned to London over the next 2 months (will try super hard to get train tickets booked in advance!). Will keep a track of them using YNAB and mobile app (the JL one doesn't have online banking). I can always shift money around to avoid interest charges if need be.

DrSpendLittle · 24 August 2017 at 1:21PM

Another sale on e£ay today, bring in another £29 after fees

Was tempted to put it straight into my emergency fund as I've been reading a few diaries of people who do this and it does seem to help. It's nice to see the incremental change.

But.... I've got a post-holiday cost coming out of my account on 'around the 31st' - not terribly helpful when companies don't specify direct debit dates! It's for £140 for toll road payments.

I've budgeted for this already in Septs YNAB and I'm fairly sure my salary will hit my account in time, but I want to avoid any unexpected early direct debits which may take my account into the red. I'm determined never to go in my overdraft again!

So, the £29 will stay in my current account for now as a buffer but I will transfer it to my emergency fund when toll tag is settled.

DrSpendLittle · 24 August 2017 at 6:48PM

Just doing some sums - such is the life of a debt free wannabeer - and looking over my ebay income this month.

On 10th August (post LBM moment), I found myself with £52 in my current account, £30 in my purse, a weekend in London ahead of me and the rest of the month to go

I'd already decided the overdraft had to go - if I was to demonstrate good money management in order to secure a decent mortgage in 2018, I had stop dipping in to it and start getting my financial act together.

So, eb4y was my solution. I had a bunch of bike parts I'd been meaning to sell since March and had a few bits and pieces of clothes / shoes that I didn't wear. 14 items in total. I knew I could make at least £100 from it all and maybe, just maybe, it would get me through the month.

The following Monday, I unexpectedly received £75 for a work thing I'd invoiced for yonks ago. Relief! Fate! Joy! That set me on an even more determined, if somewhat dogged, drive to achieve my ambition of staying out of my overdraft in August.

I listed the 14 items for auction, some 4 day, some 7 day - it's all about cash flow isn't it? :rotfl: - and had a more successful time than anticipated!

Items listed: 14
Total Sales: £295.73
eB4y Fees: £26.89
Postage: £36.75
Net Income: £232.09 :T Smashed it!

Next month, I will start with a pre-salary positive bank balance for the first time since March 2017. :T Up to then, I had been overdrawn at the end of every month since 30th August 2012, which itself was an anomaly since I was payed for 2 months work in one go. Prior to August 2012, well, I got bored looking back by May 2011 and can safely assume that I'd been overdrawn since the account was taken out in 1999. Save for the consolidation loan hitting my account in 2004. And quickly leaving it :rotfl:

DSL :j

DrSpendLittle · 24 August 2017 at 8:44PM

A few things achieved today in MSE land for DrSL worth reporting on.

Firstly, I emailed DF (he's in the office today) and told him I wanted to get a joint account and start paying 50% of all bills and the mortgage. I probably need to tame my inner MSE beast since he's going to soon become curious as to all this meal planning, bread making and sudden desire to share our living costs!! Shhh, I'm keeping my DFW journey a secret from him :cool:

Anyway, so I rang the bank to see what to process was since I don't want us to be credit checked before applying for a mortgage in the new year but didn't get a clear answer and was told I'd need a branch apoojntment. Grrr. I have a dormant account with no overdraft facility that I could add his name too - would this require a credit check? Its with the same bank where we already have our current accounts. Or would you recommend a proper joint account? It's only going to be bills account, not a spending account.

So, my plan is to try and get all that set up shortly so I can complete my YNAB for September.

Jeez, I just want it to be payday so I can get started with all this!

Second, I had another NSD - the third one in a row :T

I think I'll need to have a spend day tomorrow as I need to post some eB4y stuff, send my niece a congrats card (outstanding GCSE results) and pick up a prescription. I probably need to get out of the house too!

DSL :j

enthusiasticsaver · 25 August 2017 at 12:24AM

I think even if you add your DF to an existing account there would still be a credit check but presumably his credit record is ok so that should not be a problem. As it is with your current bank they may not even do one but it depends on the banks policy. You don't need an overdraft.

Good that your overdraft is gone.

DrSpendLittle · 25 August 2017 at 5:43PM

So far, today has been a LSD and has involved working at home (there will surely be cobwebs in my office when I finally head in next week!) and spending a grand total of £6.75 on eB£y postage and a card/stamp for my very clever niece who did super well in her GCSE results yesterday.

Also, just got my payslip in and discovered that I now get paid £30.67 more per month than before. Whoop whoop :j:j. Its due to some random August salary adjustment that my work place does every year that I that always forget about. This equates to a £689 annual payrise. Yipeee!

I'm thinking of creating a standing order of £30.67 to go into my emergency fund on the first of every month so I don't 'see' this nice extra. If I keep my salary as is the current one in my SOA, that would allow me to top up my EF quicker whilst still achieving my repayment targets. Good idea?

Got stuff out of the freezer for our dinner. Using up leftovers - going to make DFs into meat and potato pie and mine into some random concoction that is only acceptable on a Friday night and with a bad case of lazyitis.

Reducing Debt - being accountable and taking responsibility

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