PH Debt Free Wannabees 2018
Discussion
dieselgrunt said:
covmutley said:
Can I recommend that people watch dave ramsey videos on YouTube or listen to his podcast.
I found his simple straight talking message useful against the desire to want stuff.
Started one of his videos and he started talking about God. So I stopped. I found his simple straight talking message useful against the desire to want stuff.
I think a personal finance program is really helpful in managing expenditure.
I have no debts other than a relatively small mortgage, but I do have pretty chunky school fees to pay and it's helpful to keep on top of where money is to make sure there are no unexpected cashflow squeezes. I use a personal finance program called MoneyWiz which links to my various accounts and pulls down data automatically. You can also have a cash account which is helpful if you do spend cash a lot (i.e. actual physical notes and coins).
It's probably a bit of a surprise for many people when they first run off a spending report and see how all those rounds in the pub, takeaways and so on add up. The spreadsheet excerpt shown earlier is a great start but does miss out an awful lot of the smaller stuff. Once you know how much you are spending on those little items, it's a lot easier to walk past Starbucks and put that £3 towards debt repayment instead.
As an example, I've just run off a report from Moneywiz which shows that we spent £9,502.61 on groceries over the last year. I know we are family of four (plus dog) rather than an individual and we aren't currently looking to economise, but I look at that and can't help but think there must be quite a lot that could be shaved off it if I needed to.
I have no debts other than a relatively small mortgage, but I do have pretty chunky school fees to pay and it's helpful to keep on top of where money is to make sure there are no unexpected cashflow squeezes. I use a personal finance program called MoneyWiz which links to my various accounts and pulls down data automatically. You can also have a cash account which is helpful if you do spend cash a lot (i.e. actual physical notes and coins).
It's probably a bit of a surprise for many people when they first run off a spending report and see how all those rounds in the pub, takeaways and so on add up. The spreadsheet excerpt shown earlier is a great start but does miss out an awful lot of the smaller stuff. Once you know how much you are spending on those little items, it's a lot easier to walk past Starbucks and put that £3 towards debt repayment instead.
As an example, I've just run off a report from Moneywiz which shows that we spent £9,502.61 on groceries over the last year. I know we are family of four (plus dog) rather than an individual and we aren't currently looking to economise, but I look at that and can't help but think there must be quite a lot that could be shaved off it if I needed to.
Great idea, I’m the same. I found I was over spending by using a AMEX cashback card to get a piss poor 1% back, so I’ve cut that up and only use my debit card now.
I’ve got about 4K I plan to clear over this year, I started by cutting up all the physical cards so I can’t be tempted to use them. I’m also due a healthy tax rebate which will go a long way to cutting it.
You should always make sure you’re paying the least you need to for any utilities. I used the energy club on MSE and saved £800 a year and that’s with only 2 of us in the house!
I also plan to get a sim only contract when mine runs out and keep my current phone, no sky only Netflix etc
Have a look at money saving expert it’s a great website on the debt free forum. One woman cleared her £130k of debt ( not mortgage) in 8 years! That’s some good going.
I’ve got about 4K I plan to clear over this year, I started by cutting up all the physical cards so I can’t be tempted to use them. I’m also due a healthy tax rebate which will go a long way to cutting it.
You should always make sure you’re paying the least you need to for any utilities. I used the energy club on MSE and saved £800 a year and that’s with only 2 of us in the house!
I also plan to get a sim only contract when mine runs out and keep my current phone, no sky only Netflix etc
Have a look at money saving expert it’s a great website on the debt free forum. One woman cleared her £130k of debt ( not mortgage) in 8 years! That’s some good going.
Edited by Nickbrapp on Monday 29th January 10:49
superkartracer said:
bmwmike said:
So glad I didn't go uni it must be a pain having student debt hanging around in the background.
Why ? , you pay 9% on anything over 25k earnings ( 2018 new rules ) , earn below 25k you pay nothing , after 30 years it's written off.Even on 35k a year the repayments would hardly cover a new iPhone..
bmwmike said:
superkartracer said:
bmwmike said:
So glad I didn't go uni it must be a pain having student debt hanging around in the background.
Why ? , you pay 9% on anything over 25k earnings ( 2018 new rules ) , earn below 25k you pay nothing , after 30 years it's written off.Even on 35k a year the repayments would hardly cover a new iPhone..
bmwmike said:
superkartracer said:
bmwmike said:
So glad I didn't go uni it must be a pain having student debt hanging around in the background.
Why ? , you pay 9% on anything over 25k earnings ( 2018 new rules ) , earn below 25k you pay nothing , after 30 years it's written off.Even on 35k a year the repayments would hardly cover a new iPhone..
26k income - you pay £7.50p a month ( that could be 100k of debt ) .
So you could retire(semi) aged 50/55 and do a PHD and never pay a penny back
Edited by superkartracer on Monday 29th January 11:51
xeny said:
bmwmike said:
Yep, not buying it chaps, +9% income tax no thanks!
If the bit of paper gets you into a +10% salary career, it's not such a bad deal.Zigster said:
I think a personal finance program is really helpful in managing expenditure.
I have no debts other than a relatively small mortgage, but I do have pretty chunky school fees to pay and it's helpful to keep on top of where money is to make sure there are no unexpected cashflow squeezes. I use a personal finance program called MoneyWiz which links to my various accounts and pulls down data automatically. You can also have a cash account which is helpful if you do spend cash a lot (i.e. actual physical notes and coins).
It's probably a bit of a surprise for many people when they first run off a spending report and see how all those rounds in the pub, takeaways and so on add up. The spreadsheet excerpt shown earlier is a great start but does miss out an awful lot of the smaller stuff. Once you know how much you are spending on those little items, it's a lot easier to walk past Starbucks and put that £3 towards debt repayment instead.
As an example, I've just run off a report from Moneywiz which shows that we spent £9,502.61 on groceries over the last year. I know we are family of four (plus dog) rather than an individual and we aren't currently looking to economise, but I look at that and can't help but think there must be quite a lot that could be shaved off it if I needed to.
You could probably get that food bill down to ~£3k a year with a bit of effort and save ~£60k over a decade and retire 5-10 years early.I have no debts other than a relatively small mortgage, but I do have pretty chunky school fees to pay and it's helpful to keep on top of where money is to make sure there are no unexpected cashflow squeezes. I use a personal finance program called MoneyWiz which links to my various accounts and pulls down data automatically. You can also have a cash account which is helpful if you do spend cash a lot (i.e. actual physical notes and coins).
It's probably a bit of a surprise for many people when they first run off a spending report and see how all those rounds in the pub, takeaways and so on add up. The spreadsheet excerpt shown earlier is a great start but does miss out an awful lot of the smaller stuff. Once you know how much you are spending on those little items, it's a lot easier to walk past Starbucks and put that £3 towards debt repayment instead.
As an example, I've just run off a report from Moneywiz which shows that we spent £9,502.61 on groceries over the last year. I know we are family of four (plus dog) rather than an individual and we aren't currently looking to economise, but I look at that and can't help but think there must be quite a lot that could be shaved off it if I needed to.
bmwmike said:
xeny said:
bmwmike said:
Yep, not buying it chaps, +9% income tax no thanks!
If the bit of paper gets you into a +10% salary career, it's not such a bad deal.Can work both ways i reckon but i'll be traveling in more (far) luxury than when i was 19 ha ! .
PS. SD only worth doing if a decent degree that leads to a professional career IMO .
Something I find useful is to use a pre-paid card for day to day expenditure, I used to use Monzo but I've moved over to Revolut now. They have good analytics in their apps so you can see if you're spending too much on Pret flat whites. I've got into the habit of giving myself pocket money for the week every Friday now.
I used to 'piggybank' with a savings account separate to the one my debit card was attached to, but I found that this required a bit too much admin as you've got to also account for direct debits and recurring payments.
I used to 'piggybank' with a savings account separate to the one my debit card was attached to, but I found that this required a bit too much admin as you've got to also account for direct debits and recurring payments.
I know its debt free 2018 in the title, but don't think its going to be possible for me to be debt free this year...but going to give it a bloody good go. I'll be pleased if I half it.
2013-2015 I got in a bad relationship. She lived 40 miles away and didn't drive. At the time I had a BMW 528...cost me a fortune in fuel. Rather than say no I can't come up I would drive up a number of times a week. I was spending £400/£450 on fuel a month (I was only earning £1,000 a month at the time). I had a credit card with a £2,000 limit on that I used to buy my motorbike lessons and kit with. I found some paperwork for this recently and got this down to around £250...that seems like a life time ago now!
Relationship went on, credit card got used...a lot. Ended up getting a balance transfer one that they gave me a £8,000 limit. Of course I didn't use it for what it was meant for and before long I was at the limit. I was paying close to £300 a month just to cover the min payments. I then decided to sell the BMW and get a car on finance that would save me money (I know...). Ended up with a Corsa costing me £140 a month. Two months later we broke up for good.
End of the relationship I had close to £10k of debt on credit cards and a car on finance for five years plus an overdraft of £1k.
Got a loan of £10,000 from Tesco, with interest I was paying back £12,xxx. This was October 2015. My repayments are £215 a month which was doable.
December 2016 I decided that I couldn't afford my car anymore and decided to sell it (I was thinking of VT it). I still live with my parents and my mum wanted a new car so instead of paying her rent she has the car and I pay the finance still (I get very cheap rent anyway). I also pay the tax for it and put fuel in as and when I use it a lot). My bike is used mainly. In a couple of months my phone contact ends and I'll be going to a sim only. Currently paying £60 a month for it.
I have taken on a part time job that gets me around £250 a month, this gets paid into a separate account that another voluntary job expenses get paid into. Both of these jobs cover my loan repayment and car payments, then transferring £150 over as well as a buffer and savings. Then at the end of the year, whatever I have left pay off a big lump.
My loan finishes getting paid in October 2020, I've got £7060.02 left to pay. If things go well I should get that down to around £3,200 by the end of the year.
2013-2015 I got in a bad relationship. She lived 40 miles away and didn't drive. At the time I had a BMW 528...cost me a fortune in fuel. Rather than say no I can't come up I would drive up a number of times a week. I was spending £400/£450 on fuel a month (I was only earning £1,000 a month at the time). I had a credit card with a £2,000 limit on that I used to buy my motorbike lessons and kit with. I found some paperwork for this recently and got this down to around £250...that seems like a life time ago now!
Relationship went on, credit card got used...a lot. Ended up getting a balance transfer one that they gave me a £8,000 limit. Of course I didn't use it for what it was meant for and before long I was at the limit. I was paying close to £300 a month just to cover the min payments. I then decided to sell the BMW and get a car on finance that would save me money (I know...). Ended up with a Corsa costing me £140 a month. Two months later we broke up for good.
End of the relationship I had close to £10k of debt on credit cards and a car on finance for five years plus an overdraft of £1k.
Got a loan of £10,000 from Tesco, with interest I was paying back £12,xxx. This was October 2015. My repayments are £215 a month which was doable.
December 2016 I decided that I couldn't afford my car anymore and decided to sell it (I was thinking of VT it). I still live with my parents and my mum wanted a new car so instead of paying her rent she has the car and I pay the finance still (I get very cheap rent anyway). I also pay the tax for it and put fuel in as and when I use it a lot). My bike is used mainly. In a couple of months my phone contact ends and I'll be going to a sim only. Currently paying £60 a month for it.
I have taken on a part time job that gets me around £250 a month, this gets paid into a separate account that another voluntary job expenses get paid into. Both of these jobs cover my loan repayment and car payments, then transferring £150 over as well as a buffer and savings. Then at the end of the year, whatever I have left pay off a big lump.
My loan finishes getting paid in October 2020, I've got £7060.02 left to pay. If things go well I should get that down to around £3,200 by the end of the year.
ARHarh said:
Got in trouble with credit cards years ago and got them paid off in 1997 not had one since. Cleared mortgage 6 years ago. Now probably couldn't get credit if I tried as I have no history. It makes life so much cheaper though.
I'm not much different to this, got a little out of control with credit cards when I was at Uni (and just after) and it took a long time to clear them.Finally achieved that in 2002 and have never owed a penny (other than mortgage) since then.
I was working toward being mortgage free in the next few years as well but that's just taken a beating by virtue of moving house, they say that you never lose money on property in the long term though so I'm viewing this as my pension!
OP - make sure you pay off your debts in a structured way, most expensive first, if you have more than one credit card, pay the minimum payment on all but the one with highest interest rate, pay all the rest of your budget to that card... keep doing it and you'll get there in the end, it's a great feeling!
OP here! Glad to see this has gone into four pages already and seemingly useful too
K50 DEL said:
<snip>
OP - make sure you pay off your debts in a structured way, most expensive first, if you have more than one credit card, pay the minimum payment on all but the one with highest interest rate, pay all the rest of your budget to that card... keep doing it and you'll get there in the end, it's a great feeling!
Yeah thats what we are doing, its going to be a "tight" (well by our standards) year but more than manageable, went through and updated the spreadsheet over the weekend with some new bits of info I had forgotten when I put the spreadsheet together, its all go, go, go as of Wednesday (aka Pay Day) OP - make sure you pay off your debts in a structured way, most expensive first, if you have more than one credit card, pay the minimum payment on all but the one with highest interest rate, pay all the rest of your budget to that card... keep doing it and you'll get there in the end, it's a great feeling!
not sure if helpful at all - but I go one step further than some of the XLS shown.
I work out what I want my spending money to be for the month, Spreadsheet it, divide it by the number of days in the month and that gives me how much i'm allowed to spend per day.
I then fill in , daily (broken into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Extras) what I spent on each morning of the next day. I have a cell that shows RED automatically if i'm spending more than I've allowed myself, and Green if i'm on the right trend.
That's in addition to the sort of things I've seen you guys post earlier........as the fixed costs are easy to control once you have managed them to within an inch of their lives........(best phone, sky, utilities deal)
As I always found it was the extras (the nights out, or dinners etc that were mounting up in a crazy way)
I also draw out what I allow myself for the week in cash. So I really know what i'm spending!
I work out what I want my spending money to be for the month, Spreadsheet it, divide it by the number of days in the month and that gives me how much i'm allowed to spend per day.
I then fill in , daily (broken into Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Extras) what I spent on each morning of the next day. I have a cell that shows RED automatically if i'm spending more than I've allowed myself, and Green if i'm on the right trend.
That's in addition to the sort of things I've seen you guys post earlier........as the fixed costs are easy to control once you have managed them to within an inch of their lives........(best phone, sky, utilities deal)
As I always found it was the extras (the nights out, or dinners etc that were mounting up in a crazy way)
I also draw out what I allow myself for the week in cash. So I really know what i'm spending!
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