Journey to £0 by 2020, with a few bumps along the way

enthusiasticsaver · 19 September 2017 at 7:17PM

chelseablue wrote: »

Thank you so much

Yes I'm glad I increased the direct debit, at least now I know that they will both be clear before the 0% ends.
Cards were cut up as soon as they arrived so cant be spent on.
I have a Barclaycard that I use and pay in full when I do.

When the wedding is all saved for, its onto the car next and then Australia. I'm exhausted just thinking about it all!

When 2018 is 'out of the way' then the next focus will be overpaying the mortgage and doing up the house.

Big things our house needs is a new driveway, bathroom and fence and patio in the back garden, the rest is just redecoration

You can see though in spite of all of these things being expensive (wedding, car and long haul holiday) you are able to save for them only because very little of your disposable income is needed to repay unsecured debt. If you had numerous loans for things you had bought or even for one of the three things you are spending out for next year saving for things you want would take so much longer. You are also in a much better position should one of you lose your job or you have a maternity leave to cover or a new roof to pay for.

Saving for things you want rather than borrowing is the key to a secure financial future.

enthusiasticsaver · 19 September 2017 at 7:23PM

Re Australia are you doing a package or organising it yourselves? We did a month in Australia/Asia in the late nineties when our daughters were in primary school. We did it over March/April and did the east coast of Australia, Queensland and Great Barrier Reef, Sydney and Blue mountains and Melbourne. We did Singapore stop off on the way out and Bali on the way back. It was a fantastic experience and luckily our daughters were fantastic travellers. What made you decide to do it now?

chelseablue · 20 September 2017 at 7:50AM

For Australia we are organising ourselves, partner has family near Sydney so we are going to stay with them for a few days and then do a bit of travelling, staying in hotels then go back and stay with them.

Not sure whether to go for 3 or 4 weeks, our son is coming with us so I don't want him to miss too much school.
Although we are going in December so 2 weeks of it will be school Christmas holidays.

He will be 4 so in Reception year, not sure how much work they actually do in Reception class

chelseablue · 21 September 2017 at 8:57AM

Direct debit to Lloyds came out today and I was surprised to see it only being for the previous amount of £40, not the £110 I increased it to.

Rang them this morning and they said its because I made the change after a certain point in the statement cycle, but that it will be £110 from the next payment.

Oh well

Savertobe · 21 September 2017 at 9:19AM

You can always make an additional payment as you intended! No time like the present to put new plans into practice.

Good luck

enthusiasticsaver · 21 September 2017 at 1:22PM

chelseablue wrote: »

For Australia we are organising ourselves, partner has family near Sydney so we are going to stay with them for a few days and then do a bit of travelling, staying in hotels then go back and stay with them.

Not sure whether to go for 3 or 4 weeks, our son is coming with us so I don't want him to miss too much school.
Although we are going in December so 2 weeks of it will be school Christmas holidays.

He will be 4 so in Reception year, not sure how much work they actually do in Reception class

I think it is much harder now taking them out of school but as he is in reception I am not sure if they make as much fuss about him having to miss school due to a holiday. When we went the schools were more relaxed about term time holidays but I went in and saw the Head and asked for the curriculum my daughters would miss due to our "holiday of a lifetime" and arranged for a tutor to tutor them before we went and after we came back. I also made them do a daily travelling diary about the things they had seen and done from snorkelling in the Barrier Reef to panning for gold along the Melbourne coast. They were a bit older than your son though.

Sydney is lovely so I am sure you will have a great time. The Blue Mountains are well worth seeing too. We rented a house in Batemans Bay on the coast between Sydney and Melbourne and drove down the coast road. Magnificent.

enthusiasticsaver · 21 September 2017 at 1:26PM

chelseablue wrote: »

Direct debit to Lloyds came out today and I was surprised to see it only being for the previous amount of £40, not the £110 I increased it to.

Rang them this morning and they said its because I made the change after a certain point in the statement cycle, but that it will be £110 from the next payment.

Oh well

You can make an additional payment but not sure if they take that off the next due payment - ie if you pay £70 will they take that off next months £110? Very confusing the way these banks take the direct debit payments and how making mid month payments tend to confuse them. I would stick it in your savings account.

chelseablue · 22 September 2017 at 11:50AM

Yes confusing! Will leave it for now as I don't want to decrease the DD, I'll just look forward to the £110 coming off the balance next time.

I've been doing tilly tidies this month into an account I don't use, balance in there today was £15.78 so I've paid that off the Sainsbury's card.

New balances are:

Lloyds: £3,142
Sainsbury's: £1,297

I mentioned before about this being our best month for ages, our 'month' starts this Monday when partner gets paid and there is still £1,450 in the bank.

Going to transfer £1,300 to savings today and leave £150 in the bank for fuel and food. Shouldn't need to buy much I'll just get enough to last until Monday.

Have a good weekend all x

chelseablue · 28 September 2017 at 4:28PM

Been a quiet week so far, no major spends which is good!

Its our nephews birthday tomorrow so went into town during my lunch break to get him a present. Found a Disney art set reduced from £10 down to £5, so snapped that up!

I sound like a right tight wad but he's only going to be 3 tomorrow, they seem to be happy with anything at that age :rotfl:

Tuesday was our 5 year anniversary so going out Saturday night for a meal, its quite a nice restaurant so I'm expecting about a £60 spend at least.

Then next Saturday we're going to a friends wedding, it's quite local but with drinks and taxi's I'm expecting to spend about £100 (we're invited for the whole day)

Think I need to hibernate for the next 6 months and not spend anything!

chelseablue · 3 October 2017 at 9:32AM

Meal out on Saturday was very nice but.........£97 :eek: paid on my debit card though not credit card.

£40 direct debit to the Sainsbury's card went out today, brings the balance down to £1,257

Current Totals:

DEBT
Lloyds: £3,142
Sainsbury's: £1,257

SAVINGS
Wedding + Car: £10,260
S&S ISA: £5,158

Journey to £0 by 2020, with a few bumps along the way

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