Lucifa goes all in on 2019

Lucifa73 · 14 January 2019 at 1:25PM

Apologies in advance for the essay. I kind of drifted through 2018 and I want to be more focussed and deliberate about how I spend my time, energy and cash. I have started a new journal (actually three!) at home and now I am kicking off a new DFW diary.

It is past time for full disclosure. I have been back here a few months but haven’t really properly updated our position since resurfacing. So here goes (deep breath).

We/I owe the following:

Credit cards:
Tesco MC 3629.26
Virgin 13876.59

Wescott 1400 (an old overdraft I had forgotten aboutL)

Of the MC, I am due £485 back in professional fees and have a scheduled payment of £150 which brings it down to just below £3k. I can’t get a 0% transfer card because my stupidity has wrecked my credit score so Hubs is going to pay this off in full from his savings and I will pay him back over the next 10 months. On a positive note, this debt was not added to over Xmas as we paid cash for everything (actually we used the CC for points and paid down everything we had put on it immediately).

Hubs is paying down Virgin which is on 0% until 29 Feb 2020. He is paying 300pcm so we should and I will contribute to this once I have paid him back so that will be 600 pcm from January 2020. We should both get decent bonus pay-outs before the 0% expires and we hope this will come down to c£6k before we have to move it to another card. We have an MBNA card with nothing on it that we can use at this stage, the offers are consistently good and with £600 a month available (assuming nothing changes) we should be free of this by end 2020.

I am currently paying Wescott £20 a month. When I change jobs I will review my income and look to put this up as much as possible. Ideally I want rid of this by end 2020 at the very latest.

We both earn good salaries and have a chunk saved against possible redundancy (3x Hubs’s salary). Hubs’s job is the least certain at the moment but we think if we get through the next 12 months he will be okay for a few years. He is well qualified with great CV though so if it came to it I don’t think he would be out of work for long. As anyone who was following me before Xmas knows, I will be changing jobs in a few months which brings a significant pay increase, which means we can manage on my salary, with some cuts, if OH was out of work for a longer period and without using the savings (largely because child care costs would evaporate, along with his petrol cost which would be best part of £1k reduction on monthly costs).

I think that is enough for one post. I will be back with an update of how we manage our income shortly J

Thanks for sticking with it if you read this far.
Luc

UncannyScot · 14 January 2019 at 3:47PM

Happy New Shiny Shiny Diary

[Deleted User] · 14 January 2019 at 3:54PM

Happy new diary

Starmummy · 14 January 2019 at 4:34PM

Happy new diary darling!

You've got this

SM
x

Lucifa73 · 14 January 2019 at 5:44PM

Thank you everyone. I feel good about what is to come this year! This diary will help with maintaining momentum. I know you lot will nudge when needed

So. Money management.
We still run three current accounts, a personal one each and a joint account for the household bills. I ‘manage’ the joint account and my own. Hubs manages his. He is brilliant at saving and has put away about £15k since we got the new house in 2015. That money now has 2 functions – 1 paying off the T MC (which I will pay back this year) and giving us a 3 month buffer should one of us be made redundant. (The reality is we could actually live off one pay on the basis there would be no childcare costs but it would be tight). Now we have this buffer he is more comfortable throwing all we have at the card debt. With his laser focus I anticipate ending 2020 debt free, all else remaining equal.

The joint account pays all the household bills – mortgage, insurance, groceries, kids, pets, utilities petrol etc. It does not cover holidays or Xmas although with good management it could make more of a contribution. In the past we have needed to top it up occasionally but that has not been needed since October which is when we started using YNAB. Like many households, groceries are the nemesis of our budget. In the run up to Christmas I had a food inventory and meal planned every week. This worked great and meant we reduced food waste, ate healthier and spent less per week in the supermarket. (For the record ‘groceries’ for us includes pet food and other household consumables like cleaning materials and bin bags.) Eating out and family fun days out are now paid from either my or Hubs’s spending money.

I have a £500 OD on my personal account. Whilst I did not add to the CC over Xmas, I did use all of my OD, (I actually used the CC then cleared out my account when I got paid last week. This is a massive improvement on previous years where I have done the pay on CC part and then failed to pay it off as I promised myself…).

The plan for January is to use as little of the OD as possible. YNAB currently says I will only use £50 but I think that might be ambitious. However, moving money out of the OD category on my budget is almost physically painful so I am keeping it there so I am aware of what I am doing.

In theory I have £700 every 4 weeks to spend on myself. At the moment my SOA looks like this:

Personal Income £700

Expenses:
T MC

£(200)
Wescot

£( 20)
Spotify family ---- £( 15)
Amazon subs ---- £( 24) (Prime, Kindle & Audible)
Personal care --- £(75) (Qtly hair and waxing, occasional manicure)
Driving lessons -- £( 135)hoping to pass before summer when I expect this will become car costs
Food at work ---- £(100) Yes, I know. Will get back on the packed lunch habit ASAP!
Gifts

£( 60) 1p a day challenge averages to roughly this which pays for all birthdays and my Xmas costs
Stuff

£( 71) basically anything left gets frittered away

I will revisit this on 8 Feb when I get paid and work out my surplus for Feb/Mar but, without changing food at work bad habits I work it out at £100. I need to be putting money to one side to get decent clothes for my new job. It is a much more formal workplace than where I am now (which has a Mon-Fri casual dress policy) and I don’t think their casual Friday will run to a band t-shirt, leathers and long boots…

Right, I think that is enough background info. Next post will be goals and plans!!!
10/10 for stamina if you read this far…
Luc x

beanielou · 14 January 2019 at 6:50PM

Happy shiny new diary

Buffythedebtslayer · 14 January 2019 at 7:36PM

OOOO New diary

Excellent. And you have a workable plan. Also Excellent

I am so !!!! with money I can't imagine saving 15000 in 3 years.

I so need to be more grown up..............

Any how I am here to cheer you on

glad you are here XXXXX

lonelyrat · 14 January 2019 at 11:46PM

Happy new diary

Think I will follow suit once I'm settled! Your plans look really well thought out - 2019 won't know what hit it

Lucifa73 · 15 January 2019 at 10:51AM

Thanks guys. Feeling a bit exposed but glad I finally took the plunge and got it all out there. I think I was a bit nervous because we do earn plenty and live well. I don't want people to think I am 'playing at MSE' when there are people on here in truly difficult circumstances making tough choices every day. I find these people really inspiring and feel like a bit of a spoiled brat in comparison if I am honest.

Buffythedebtslayer wrote: »

I am so !!!! with money I can't imagine saving 15000 in 3 years.

I hope you realise this had NOTHING to do with me... I have saved precisely nothing since we moved house (well I saved, but then spent it all at Xmas...)

Starmummy · 15 January 2019 at 11:04AM

Lucifa73 wrote: »

With his laser focus I anticipate ending 2020 debt free.

How absolutely amazing would that be!!!

I am completely in love with your new laser focus.

cheering you on from the sidelines

SM

[Deleted User] · 15 January 2019 at 12:21PM

Yay to the shiny new diary!

Dxxx

Lucifa goes all in on 2019

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