Update for the end of October:
Credit card: $2,190.33
Personal Loan: $28,975.55
Total Debt: $31,165.88
Starting to see some improvement. This is the right direction at last!!
Thursday 27 October 2016
Monday 10 October 2016
Smarter and harder
One of the things I think I can do to help myself out of this self-dug hole is to work both harder and smarter.
Smarter:
I've recently received a $20 per fortnight (which is my pay cycle) boost in pay, thanks to our enterprise agreement annual increase. That has been added directly to my credit card payment since that is the most pressing of my debts and the one I'm most keen to kill off first.
I've also decided to stop transferring $50 into a savings account each fortnight. If its sitting in the savings account, I tend to spend it. I'm not good at saving at this point in time, and I think that is a symptom of my focus being on debt reduction. Putting it into one account just to transfer it out and spend it is just a stupid waste of time and its not getting me anywhere. So instead of not-saving it, I'm just going to put it to debt. I won't spend it if I've paid it off debt. If it isn't there, I won't miss it.
That boosts the credit card payment to a whopping $520 a fortnight.
I'm also in line for a potential raise at work, which would equate to about $140 a fortnight before tax. I'm not sure how much tax will hit it, but I expect that about $100 of that would come home to me. So that will be added to the credit card too if it comes through. The bonus with that one is that if it does come through, it should be backdated to early August, meaning a good solid lump sum to go straight off the debt - five pay fortnights worth it should work out to.
Harder:
My second job has managed to hold on through the season, despite my fears that I was going to lose it completely. It looks now that the manager there will keep me on, and my shifts are secure for as long as I want them. Through the winter, for various reasons, I'm only able to do one shift a fortnight, which equates to about $55 after tax in my account.
As spring has now hit, I'm able to do three shifts most fortnights and that means that my pay for a fortnight is around the $150 mark, depending on hours.
So far, I've worked a mix of one shift fortnights and three shift fortnights over this financial year, but haven't been paid yet. I'm expecting a lump sum payment of those shifts that I've worked to come in this week, and all of that will go to the credit card. I expect this will be north of $500 in a lump sum, which will go directly to the credit card.
As fortnightly payments for this second job come in, they'll go straight to the credit card too.
I'm hoping that this smarter / harder tactic will help me make a sprint towards zero on the credit card before the end of the year.
Smarter:
I've recently received a $20 per fortnight (which is my pay cycle) boost in pay, thanks to our enterprise agreement annual increase. That has been added directly to my credit card payment since that is the most pressing of my debts and the one I'm most keen to kill off first.
I've also decided to stop transferring $50 into a savings account each fortnight. If its sitting in the savings account, I tend to spend it. I'm not good at saving at this point in time, and I think that is a symptom of my focus being on debt reduction. Putting it into one account just to transfer it out and spend it is just a stupid waste of time and its not getting me anywhere. So instead of not-saving it, I'm just going to put it to debt. I won't spend it if I've paid it off debt. If it isn't there, I won't miss it.
That boosts the credit card payment to a whopping $520 a fortnight.
I'm also in line for a potential raise at work, which would equate to about $140 a fortnight before tax. I'm not sure how much tax will hit it, but I expect that about $100 of that would come home to me. So that will be added to the credit card too if it comes through. The bonus with that one is that if it does come through, it should be backdated to early August, meaning a good solid lump sum to go straight off the debt - five pay fortnights worth it should work out to.
Harder:
My second job has managed to hold on through the season, despite my fears that I was going to lose it completely. It looks now that the manager there will keep me on, and my shifts are secure for as long as I want them. Through the winter, for various reasons, I'm only able to do one shift a fortnight, which equates to about $55 after tax in my account.
As spring has now hit, I'm able to do three shifts most fortnights and that means that my pay for a fortnight is around the $150 mark, depending on hours.
So far, I've worked a mix of one shift fortnights and three shift fortnights over this financial year, but haven't been paid yet. I'm expecting a lump sum payment of those shifts that I've worked to come in this week, and all of that will go to the credit card. I expect this will be north of $500 in a lump sum, which will go directly to the credit card.
As fortnightly payments for this second job come in, they'll go straight to the credit card too.
I'm hoping that this smarter / harder tactic will help me make a sprint towards zero on the credit card before the end of the year.
Thursday 15 September 2016
Back to basics
I'm still feeling frustrated.
Despite putting $450 a fortnight against my credit card debt, each fortnight I've had some reason to use it and my net debt has barely moved.
Total credit card: $2926.81
Yes, you read that correctly. In the two months since I last wrote, I've paid less than $50 off the balance. I'm livid at myself.
My personal loan isn't faring that much better.
$29,515.13.
Total debt: $32,441.94
In January, my debt was $32,195. So I'm actually further in debt now than when I refinanced my loan, before the house move.
Its the interest that is killing me on the personal loan - I'm paying $300 a fortnight (over the minimum payment), and each month copping an interest hit of over $300. I know that this will get better when I'm whacking $750 against it each fortnight, but at the moment it just feels like treading water.
I am taking my credit card out of my purse. It needs to stay in the drawer, and not be used.
I need to tighten back up on my expenditure. Things got out of control during the house move, and then from there I made a very expensive purchase on my credit card ($2000 odd). I bought a Thermomix, and to be honest, I don't regret it at all. Other than wishing that I'd saved up for it rather than putting it on credit card. I purchased it straight away as there was a special on, and I do think that I got good value from doing it that way - or at least I would have if I'd been able to pay the credit card off in a timely fashion.
I ate out a lot during a period where we were clearing out my Nan and Pops house - and not only ate out paying for myself, but shouted other people lunch on a number of occasions. At $50 - $70 a pop, that was taking valuable money out of my weekly budget, and I was then putting other things on the credit card - like groceries.
I think perhaps I've been putting the wrong amount away into my bills account too - I raised that amount up, but I think I'm putting too much in there and not leaving myself enough in the weekly account to do what needs to be done. For example, I'm saving for medical things into the bills account, but paying for them out of the weekly account because the bills account isn't readily accessible. So I'm saving into the bills account, spending out of the weekly account, then paying for things that should be coming out of my weekly account with my credit card. Its a stupid, pointless cycle.
I've also had additional medical bills, with my daughter requiring a new medication and visit to a specialist. That set me back $500 in one single day!!
So. Back to basics for me. I WILL get myself back on track, I WILL have a $0 credit card by the end of this year, and I WILL get this debt cleared.
Despite putting $450 a fortnight against my credit card debt, each fortnight I've had some reason to use it and my net debt has barely moved.
Total credit card: $2926.81
Yes, you read that correctly. In the two months since I last wrote, I've paid less than $50 off the balance. I'm livid at myself.
My personal loan isn't faring that much better.
$29,515.13.
Total debt: $32,441.94
In January, my debt was $32,195. So I'm actually further in debt now than when I refinanced my loan, before the house move.
Its the interest that is killing me on the personal loan - I'm paying $300 a fortnight (over the minimum payment), and each month copping an interest hit of over $300. I know that this will get better when I'm whacking $750 against it each fortnight, but at the moment it just feels like treading water.
I am taking my credit card out of my purse. It needs to stay in the drawer, and not be used.
I need to tighten back up on my expenditure. Things got out of control during the house move, and then from there I made a very expensive purchase on my credit card ($2000 odd). I bought a Thermomix, and to be honest, I don't regret it at all. Other than wishing that I'd saved up for it rather than putting it on credit card. I purchased it straight away as there was a special on, and I do think that I got good value from doing it that way - or at least I would have if I'd been able to pay the credit card off in a timely fashion.
I ate out a lot during a period where we were clearing out my Nan and Pops house - and not only ate out paying for myself, but shouted other people lunch on a number of occasions. At $50 - $70 a pop, that was taking valuable money out of my weekly budget, and I was then putting other things on the credit card - like groceries.
I think perhaps I've been putting the wrong amount away into my bills account too - I raised that amount up, but I think I'm putting too much in there and not leaving myself enough in the weekly account to do what needs to be done. For example, I'm saving for medical things into the bills account, but paying for them out of the weekly account because the bills account isn't readily accessible. So I'm saving into the bills account, spending out of the weekly account, then paying for things that should be coming out of my weekly account with my credit card. Its a stupid, pointless cycle.
I've also had additional medical bills, with my daughter requiring a new medication and visit to a specialist. That set me back $500 in one single day!!
So. Back to basics for me. I WILL get myself back on track, I WILL have a $0 credit card by the end of this year, and I WILL get this debt cleared.
Sunday 26 June 2016
Frustrated
I'm sure that the universe is trying to tell me something.
No closer to getting my credit card cleared.
Think I need to revisit my budget.
Gifts have blown me out of the water these last weeks. Gifts and takeout - which couldn't be avoided as I was away from home helping my parents.
Credit card: $2997.60
Personal loan: $30,250.67
Medical debt is zero.
Wednesday 11 May 2016
Big changes
I've been a bit absent, but with good reasons.
I've moved house - which was a very long, painful and expensive exercise.
But the house that I'm not in is lovely and there has been discussions with the owners about us potentially buying it when the time comes. So that is a positive.
The new house has solar panels, so I'm expecting that with a little careful management that I'll have no net increase in my expenses here, with the electricity windfall making up for the slight increase in rent.
I am behind the point that I last left you though, having had to redraw on some of the funds I was ahead in my loan in order to make the move happen. I've also put a bit back onto my credit card.
In response, last night I sat down and redid my budget. We're down to brass tacks here for the foreseeable future until I can right the damage that I've done to my progress.
First step is to put the credit card back to zero.
I've allocated $450 per fortnight to that.
Second is to knock my loan back down. So as soon as I've moved that credit card to zero (I cringe to say that it will be 4 fortnights until the magic $0 appears)... the loan repayments will be going from the current $300 to $750.
My medical debt is fully cleared now, so that is a massive help.
I've also gone through how I manage all my annual payments and allocated them all to my "bills" account, which is separate to my daily account. By transferring out all of the payments and future allocations the day that my pay goes in, I will only be left with a very small amount in my account which is to cover groceries, date night and $50 discretionary spending each fortnight. That discretionary spending is to cover any small incidentals - school excursions that come in last minute and so on.
All payments for this fortnight have now gone out, so I'm starting May with this renewed approach to getting my house back in order.
I suspect that anyone who is like me, not terribly great with money, has these setbacks when they start off on a debt journey. It certainly seems to be the case for most of the debt reduction blogs that I've read - even though most of them are American. I know that it is far from ideal to be having big expenditures like a move when I'm trying to pay down my debt, and worse that I've actually gone backwards as a result of it. BUT, I'm determined to pick myself up and get back to that lovely feeling of $0 on the credit card and thousands in front on my loan. It felt so good the first time and I know that I can do it quickly if I am careful with my money.
So, onwards and upwards as I keep chasing zero.
I've moved house - which was a very long, painful and expensive exercise.
But the house that I'm not in is lovely and there has been discussions with the owners about us potentially buying it when the time comes. So that is a positive.
The new house has solar panels, so I'm expecting that with a little careful management that I'll have no net increase in my expenses here, with the electricity windfall making up for the slight increase in rent.
I am behind the point that I last left you though, having had to redraw on some of the funds I was ahead in my loan in order to make the move happen. I've also put a bit back onto my credit card.
In response, last night I sat down and redid my budget. We're down to brass tacks here for the foreseeable future until I can right the damage that I've done to my progress.
First step is to put the credit card back to zero.
I've allocated $450 per fortnight to that.
Second is to knock my loan back down. So as soon as I've moved that credit card to zero (I cringe to say that it will be 4 fortnights until the magic $0 appears)... the loan repayments will be going from the current $300 to $750.
My medical debt is fully cleared now, so that is a massive help.
I've also gone through how I manage all my annual payments and allocated them all to my "bills" account, which is separate to my daily account. By transferring out all of the payments and future allocations the day that my pay goes in, I will only be left with a very small amount in my account which is to cover groceries, date night and $50 discretionary spending each fortnight. That discretionary spending is to cover any small incidentals - school excursions that come in last minute and so on.
All payments for this fortnight have now gone out, so I'm starting May with this renewed approach to getting my house back in order.
I suspect that anyone who is like me, not terribly great with money, has these setbacks when they start off on a debt journey. It certainly seems to be the case for most of the debt reduction blogs that I've read - even though most of them are American. I know that it is far from ideal to be having big expenditures like a move when I'm trying to pay down my debt, and worse that I've actually gone backwards as a result of it. BUT, I'm determined to pick myself up and get back to that lovely feeling of $0 on the credit card and thousands in front on my loan. It felt so good the first time and I know that I can do it quickly if I am careful with my money.
So, onwards and upwards as I keep chasing zero.
Tuesday 15 March 2016
Discipline isn't my middle name
First pay fortnight of March, and I stumbled.
I paid a measly $300 off my personal loan, down from my intended repayment of $670.
Now, I'm still paying over my minimum payment, and I'm proud to say I'm now over $2000 in front on my loan repayments in total, but this is a stumble.
Second pay fortnight, lesson learned. I've transferred $370 and the other $300 goes out tomorrow as a planned debit.
I am not a disciplined person by nature - but I am determined and I will get to zero.
I paid a measly $300 off my personal loan, down from my intended repayment of $670.
Now, I'm still paying over my minimum payment, and I'm proud to say I'm now over $2000 in front on my loan repayments in total, but this is a stumble.
Second pay fortnight, lesson learned. I've transferred $370 and the other $300 goes out tomorrow as a planned debit.
I am not a disciplined person by nature - but I am determined and I will get to zero.
Thursday 3 March 2016
Update - February
So its the end of February. How did I do?
Pretty well!
I managed to pay $1580 off my personal loan and $320 off the medical loan for a total of $1,900 off debt in February.
I'm pretty damn proud of that.
The rest of the months budget went pretty well too, although I had some additional expense due to an unexpected trip away with my daughter.
Originally I'd planned to take her to Melbourne to go shopping for her birthday. But for a whole range of reasons we ended up having to stay the night, so I was up for a hotel room, and breakfast, and dinner.
But, it wasn't too bad, because I was able to claim a rebate on some medical expenses that I'd previously paid out, and that covered all the expenses.
All in all, a great month.
Onwards to March, which is a three pay month, so I'm hopeful that it will be an even better result!
Pretty well!
I managed to pay $1580 off my personal loan and $320 off the medical loan for a total of $1,900 off debt in February.
I'm pretty damn proud of that.
The rest of the months budget went pretty well too, although I had some additional expense due to an unexpected trip away with my daughter.
Originally I'd planned to take her to Melbourne to go shopping for her birthday. But for a whole range of reasons we ended up having to stay the night, so I was up for a hotel room, and breakfast, and dinner.
But, it wasn't too bad, because I was able to claim a rebate on some medical expenses that I'd previously paid out, and that covered all the expenses.
All in all, a great month.
Onwards to March, which is a three pay month, so I'm hopeful that it will be an even better result!
Monday 1 February 2016
Progress Report - 14 February 2016
All my loan repayments were made at the start of my pay fortnight, and my new budget is going well. At the end of the first fortnight I'm within budget. I'll give a full report at the end of the month.
So - debt balances as of today:
$30,235 - personal loan
$0 - credit card (woohoo!!)
$800 - medical
Total debt: $31,035
Starting debt (19 January 2016): $32,195
Total paid off to date: $1,160
Total paid off to date: $1,160
I know that interest is going to hurt on this loan, so I'm glad to say that I've already managed to get ahead of the payment schedule already - after only one month. Having ongoing boosted payments is going to help to significantly reduce the interest that I'm paying on this loan, and reduce the length of time that I'm under the debt.
I was discussing debt with my partner a few days ago. I asked him how he was going with his loans - he seems to be travelling ok. He asked how I was going - I told him what my balance was sitting at and he was shocked.
I'm not sure why he was shocked... he knows how much debt I carry... but I guess its not something that we discuss all that often. He made a really interesting comment about how depressed he would be if he was carrying that amount of debt.
I'm not depressed by it. I'm annoyed that I let myself get into this situation, but in the end, it was me that did it. I made choices, and I have no option now but to deal with the outcomes of those choices.
BUT - I'm on a really solid track to wiping out this debt and I feel really, really good about how that is going so far.
I think there are other things I could be doing to squeeze even more out of my budget, to boost those payments further. Thats something I'd like to work on in the coming months. But for now, $760 a fortnight (or $1646 a month) seems like a pretty solid base payment for this single income household to manage.
That's $380 odd dollars not a fortnight than the minimum payment :)
Sunday 31 January 2016
New Budget, what to do with "leftover money", debt update
Last night I sat down and plugged all of my actual expenditure into a spreadsheet. What an eyeopener.
I had a budget - which I thought I was following quite well. In some areas, absolutely I was, but in others... not so much.
So this month I'm going to change it up a bit. Along with carefully tracking my expenses as they happen on my newly minted spreadsheet, I'm also going to try the envelope system. So any money for groceries, spending money ($25 / fortnight) and takeaways / eating out ($25/ fortnight) will be in envelopes in my purse. That way, when the cash is gone, its gone.
I am working to a $0 balance monthly budget, but at the end of January I had around $65 left in my account. So I've transferred that to savings, and I think what I'll do if I happen to underspend this month (which I'm projected to do at just under $500 if I follow my budget) I'll put that into savings too. That will give me the emergency fund I've been considering without having to actually take anything away from my loan repayments - it money that I've just been losing due to poor budgeting in these past months. I also send $50 a fortnight to savings anyway, just as a drip feed, so that will keep the account ticking over.
Today my pay came through from my second job, $310. I have now transferred that into my loan, bringing the total for the loan to under $31K! Woohoo!!
Even better, with that little kick along I'm right on course to bring the loan back under $30K this month!!
I'm thrilled that I've been able to throw so much at this already - even before my first interest payment hits the account (which I think must be due around the 15th). I expect interest will be around $300 but it will be interesting to see exactly what the impact is.
(Note that I'm not paying more towards the medical as its at 0% interest, and is due to be paid off in 6 more payments anyway)
New balances for today
$30,835 - personal loan
$0 - credit card (woohoo!)
$960 - medical
$31,795 - total
I had a budget - which I thought I was following quite well. In some areas, absolutely I was, but in others... not so much.
So this month I'm going to change it up a bit. Along with carefully tracking my expenses as they happen on my newly minted spreadsheet, I'm also going to try the envelope system. So any money for groceries, spending money ($25 / fortnight) and takeaways / eating out ($25/ fortnight) will be in envelopes in my purse. That way, when the cash is gone, its gone.
I am working to a $0 balance monthly budget, but at the end of January I had around $65 left in my account. So I've transferred that to savings, and I think what I'll do if I happen to underspend this month (which I'm projected to do at just under $500 if I follow my budget) I'll put that into savings too. That will give me the emergency fund I've been considering without having to actually take anything away from my loan repayments - it money that I've just been losing due to poor budgeting in these past months. I also send $50 a fortnight to savings anyway, just as a drip feed, so that will keep the account ticking over.
Today my pay came through from my second job, $310. I have now transferred that into my loan, bringing the total for the loan to under $31K! Woohoo!!
Even better, with that little kick along I'm right on course to bring the loan back under $30K this month!!
I'm thrilled that I've been able to throw so much at this already - even before my first interest payment hits the account (which I think must be due around the 15th). I expect interest will be around $300 but it will be interesting to see exactly what the impact is.
(Note that I'm not paying more towards the medical as its at 0% interest, and is due to be paid off in 6 more payments anyway)
New balances for today
$30,835 - personal loan
$0 - credit card (woohoo!)
$960 - medical
$31,795 - total
Friday 29 January 2016
Debt update - 30 January 2016
I had a lot of issues getting the insurance removed from my loan, and the balances have only just been adjusted.
I actually under calculated the insurance costs (GST maybe?) so the loan balance is currently sitting at $31,145 - I had calculated it as being closer to $31,900.
Payments will go to the loan on Wednesday of this week (four days) and I'm planning on putting the full $600.
I am still considering whether or not to start an emergency fund.
Psychologically, I think I'd like to get a few more payments under my belt on this loan, and get the balance down below $30,000 before I start directing funds away from debt and into savings.
This will also give me time to get the medical expense paid off, which would be great.
I have used my credit card twoce this fortnight, to purchase items for a special project I'm working on. I immediately transferred the funds from my savings though - and so the card is still at $0.
I feel like things are going well.
Saturday 23 January 2016
Emergency Fund
I read a lot of debt blogs / financial advice blogs and one thing that they all seem to recommend is an emergency fund.
I don't currently have an emergency fund... I have a savings account that has the princely sum of $54 in it at the moment, and a savings account that holds money allocated to bills, but that fund fills and empties in line with my bill cycle... although it does have a floating balance of around $1000 - $1500 normally. Perhaps that really is my emergency fund?
I'm not sure that I want to divert payments away from my debt, but perhaps it would be wise to put a more formal emergency fund in place... most sites seem to recommend $1000 and that would only take me three fortnights - a month and a half - if I put the extra $300 I am currently putting into debt repayment into the savings account instead.
Something to think about.
Friday 22 January 2016
Second job... uncertainty
I have a second job, in an unrelated industry to my primary job.
Its dirty work, starting very early in the morning, and compared to my daily job, it pays horribly.
But, its not hard work and extra money is extra money.
I don't count the money that the job pays me as income, in so far as it is not included in my budget.
When I get paid - and they do pay on a very irregular cycle, I transfer the whole amount into my debt payoff.
I was told a little while ago that I may not have this job going forward, but today I have been told that it may carry on for a little while yet, which would be fantastic. Theres no guarantee either way, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.
I hope it does go on though - I like the work, I like the change from my daily routine and I REALLY like having the extra funds coming in to go against my debt.
Its dirty work, starting very early in the morning, and compared to my daily job, it pays horribly.
But, its not hard work and extra money is extra money.
I don't count the money that the job pays me as income, in so far as it is not included in my budget.
When I get paid - and they do pay on a very irregular cycle, I transfer the whole amount into my debt payoff.
I was told a little while ago that I may not have this job going forward, but today I have been told that it may carry on for a little while yet, which would be fantastic. Theres no guarantee either way, but I'm not going to get my hopes up.
I hope it does go on though - I like the work, I like the change from my daily routine and I REALLY like having the extra funds coming in to go against my debt.
Tuesday 19 January 2016
"Found" money
I was just doing some washing and checked the pockets of a pair of jeans that I wore over the weekend.
In the pocket I found $90 in notes and a handful of change, mostly $1 and $2 coins.
I honestly have no idea why I'd put that $90 odd into my pocket instead of into my purse. I'd forgotten it was there. I wouldn't have missed it if it had gone... which is pretty awful I have to admit. It was part of my spending money that I'd allocated within my budget, to do with my major purchase. There were some pick up costs associated with it that I had budgeted for and some of them were refunded.
Given that I didn't realise that the leftover money was there, I'm going to consider it "found" money. As in, money I didn't know I had, and therefore unassigned within my budget.
There are two ways that I deal with found money. For coins, I have a very sentimental money box that belonged to my Pop, that he gave to me a few years ago. It's not pretty - its an old milo tin I think, that he punched a slot into the top of big enough to fit a 50c piece. My Pop must have had it for years. It's developed this lovely grey patina of age, and its label is long since gone. Its heavy - I think it must have been before they started to cheap out and use aluminium :)
So all my coins go into that. I've developed a habit in the last few weeks particularly of emptying the coins out of my purse at the end of every few days into the tin. It must be adding up fast - but I'll keep doing as Pop did and wait until its getting quite full before I go and cash it out into my loan.
The notes are a bit more hit and miss, as you'd expect. I sometimes find a $5 or $10 note in my old handbags, or in the pocket of a coat come the winter time. Up till now I've just been adding those into my purse and they get spent along with my weekly allowance. Not any more.
From now on, "found" money will go into my purse, but I will immediately make a corresponding transfer of funds into my loan from my bank account. I think that some people (Dave Ramsay is one) calls these small one-off deposits "snowflakes". Given that I'm snowballing my loans, it makes sense to use that terminology too for the transfers.
So I'm off to make a $90 snowflake thanks to my jeans and my found money!
In the pocket I found $90 in notes and a handful of change, mostly $1 and $2 coins.
I honestly have no idea why I'd put that $90 odd into my pocket instead of into my purse. I'd forgotten it was there. I wouldn't have missed it if it had gone... which is pretty awful I have to admit. It was part of my spending money that I'd allocated within my budget, to do with my major purchase. There were some pick up costs associated with it that I had budgeted for and some of them were refunded.
Given that I didn't realise that the leftover money was there, I'm going to consider it "found" money. As in, money I didn't know I had, and therefore unassigned within my budget.
There are two ways that I deal with found money. For coins, I have a very sentimental money box that belonged to my Pop, that he gave to me a few years ago. It's not pretty - its an old milo tin I think, that he punched a slot into the top of big enough to fit a 50c piece. My Pop must have had it for years. It's developed this lovely grey patina of age, and its label is long since gone. Its heavy - I think it must have been before they started to cheap out and use aluminium :)
So all my coins go into that. I've developed a habit in the last few weeks particularly of emptying the coins out of my purse at the end of every few days into the tin. It must be adding up fast - but I'll keep doing as Pop did and wait until its getting quite full before I go and cash it out into my loan.
The notes are a bit more hit and miss, as you'd expect. I sometimes find a $5 or $10 note in my old handbags, or in the pocket of a coat come the winter time. Up till now I've just been adding those into my purse and they get spent along with my weekly allowance. Not any more.
From now on, "found" money will go into my purse, but I will immediately make a corresponding transfer of funds into my loan from my bank account. I think that some people (Dave Ramsay is one) calls these small one-off deposits "snowflakes". Given that I'm snowballing my loans, it makes sense to use that terminology too for the transfers.
So I'm off to make a $90 snowflake thanks to my jeans and my found money!
What's the damage?
Last post I said that I had extended my personal loan.
The new balance, once the insurance is removed, will be $31,835.
I have set up an automatic $600 payment to go out each fortnight and I will be putting any extra that I can against it.
In good news, the interest rate is actually lower than it was before - now sitting at 13.69% - down from 14.99% on the previous loan.
Totals as of tomorrow - when all payments for this fortnight are made:
$31,235 - personal loan
$0 - credit card (woohoo!!)
$960 - medical
Total debt: $32,195
My mini goal has been updated - looking forward to getting back under the $30k mark!
New debt payoff goal: December 2018
Monday 18 January 2016
A setback, but I'm not sorry
I've made a fairly significant purchase.
It required me to refinance my loan to take an additional $5000 on top of the existing balance.
There was the payout figure, plus a $150 loan processing fee, and then the $5000 added to my balance.
I also elected to take out the loan insurance, but I'm going to call and cancel that tomorrow. The loan insurance is payed up front for the full term of the loan (7 years) and you pay interest on the whole lot - I was feeling particularly risk averse when I took it out but on reflection its not needed. There's a 28 day cooling off period, so I can cancel it now with no penalty.
On the upside, my interest rate is lower than before - apparently I qualified for a discount by virtue of my employer being part of a scheme at the bank I'm with. So that actually will save me money over my last loan.
I've also paid out completely my credit card now, and my repayments will be the snowballed $600 a fortnight, so the extra money will be repaid in no time.
I'm not going to detail what my purchase was, but I will say that I am not sorry, and I'd do it again tomorrow.
Updated balances later this week when I've taken that insurance off my loan and made this fortnights payments.
It required me to refinance my loan to take an additional $5000 on top of the existing balance.
There was the payout figure, plus a $150 loan processing fee, and then the $5000 added to my balance.
I also elected to take out the loan insurance, but I'm going to call and cancel that tomorrow. The loan insurance is payed up front for the full term of the loan (7 years) and you pay interest on the whole lot - I was feeling particularly risk averse when I took it out but on reflection its not needed. There's a 28 day cooling off period, so I can cancel it now with no penalty.
On the upside, my interest rate is lower than before - apparently I qualified for a discount by virtue of my employer being part of a scheme at the bank I'm with. So that actually will save me money over my last loan.
I've also paid out completely my credit card now, and my repayments will be the snowballed $600 a fortnight, so the extra money will be repaid in no time.
I'm not going to detail what my purchase was, but I will say that I am not sorry, and I'd do it again tomorrow.
Updated balances later this week when I've taken that insurance off my loan and made this fortnights payments.
Thursday 7 January 2016
Impulse Buying and "Stuff"
I've been a pretty impulsive buyer in the past, and its resulted in me having far too much "stuff" hanging around the house.
My daughter and I had a clean out yesterday - I've sold some things, I've also sent a big black garbage bag to Vinnies. Its a start.
I told my partner what I was doing, that I was tired of the house being so cluttered. He laughed and told me that my house wasn't cluttered... his house is cluttered (we don't live together).
His house is cluttered, its a typical boy house. He's forever buying stuff on eBay - and he has hobbies that use a lot of equipment and he's just totally unable to say no to a bargain. I have to say that he does buy things that come in useful, but it also means that he has a lot of... well... stuff.
I want to keep going with my own de-clutter. I'm going to go through my spare room thoroughly - there's plenty in there that could go. I've held on to a lot of things for sentimental reasons, but really, I can take a photo and let those things go.
I went to a hardware store today. The shower caddies that I bought aren't working. They're the suction cup variety. Unfortunately, they don't hold onto the walls in my shower. So my partner hung one up on hooks over the top of the shower. I thought I could get some cheap chain to hold the second one on, so they could hang one above the other.
Cheap chain. Pffft. The cheapest packet that was rated to what I needed was $13.90. Then I needed clips to hold the chain to the caddy base. Another $7.00. So I went looking at caddies - maybe there was a new one that I could buy for under $20 and I could sell the ones I've currently got. Nope - the only one big enough to hold my stuff was $30. I made it nearly all the way to the front counter with that caddy in my hand, and then I turned around and put it back. The shampoo can sit on the floor. The $30 is going against my credit card instead.
Now I'm going to clean out some more stuff :)
My daughter and I had a clean out yesterday - I've sold some things, I've also sent a big black garbage bag to Vinnies. Its a start.
I told my partner what I was doing, that I was tired of the house being so cluttered. He laughed and told me that my house wasn't cluttered... his house is cluttered (we don't live together).
His house is cluttered, its a typical boy house. He's forever buying stuff on eBay - and he has hobbies that use a lot of equipment and he's just totally unable to say no to a bargain. I have to say that he does buy things that come in useful, but it also means that he has a lot of... well... stuff.
I want to keep going with my own de-clutter. I'm going to go through my spare room thoroughly - there's plenty in there that could go. I've held on to a lot of things for sentimental reasons, but really, I can take a photo and let those things go.
I went to a hardware store today. The shower caddies that I bought aren't working. They're the suction cup variety. Unfortunately, they don't hold onto the walls in my shower. So my partner hung one up on hooks over the top of the shower. I thought I could get some cheap chain to hold the second one on, so they could hang one above the other.
Cheap chain. Pffft. The cheapest packet that was rated to what I needed was $13.90. Then I needed clips to hold the chain to the caddy base. Another $7.00. So I went looking at caddies - maybe there was a new one that I could buy for under $20 and I could sell the ones I've currently got. Nope - the only one big enough to hold my stuff was $30. I made it nearly all the way to the front counter with that caddy in my hand, and then I turned around and put it back. The shampoo can sit on the floor. The $30 is going against my credit card instead.
Now I'm going to clean out some more stuff :)
Wednesday 6 January 2016
Mini goal
I've been thinking about when I will feel like I'm making progress on my debt.
When I spoke to the bank yesterday they said that they "don't negotiate on interest rates for personal loans" so that's a shame. Worth the ask though.
I'm looking forward to getting my total debt below $25k. It's a little way off, but it will feel good to get there.
Tuesday 5 January 2016
Totals at 6 January 2015
Totals as they stand today:
Loan: $26,419.54
Medical: $1,120
Total: $27,721.32
My interest and loan admin fees hit my personal loan, which is why there's a disparity between last times totals and this one.
I paid $500 against the credit card earlier this week and I should have clarified that $300 of that was "extra money" from my second job, and $200 of it was from my regular $300 payment allocation.
I've now paid an additional $100, so I'm square for this fortnights regular payment and I've kicked it up by $300 for a total payment of $600 this week.
I'll knock that $181.78 off completely next fortnight and then snowball the balance of the $300 regular credit card payment into my personal loan.
There are now only 7 repayments to be made on the medical expense too so I'm feeling really positive about how soon that will be cleared.
I'm going to the bank today and I'm hoping that I can knock down the interest rate on my loan while I'm there. Doesn't hurt to ask!
Monday 4 January 2016
Christmas and some payments
So Christmas really threw a spanner in the works as far as my budget went.
I guess it's important to know for next year to put more aside and ensure that I've got a buffer. I'm not going to beat myself up about it - just get back on track now that the silliest part of the season is over.
I was paid for a number of shifts in my second job today, and I've transferred $500 into my credit card account.
The balance on the credit card is now down to $289.86
Interest on my personal loan has been applied so the balance is up to $26,719.54. There is a payment to be applied later this week though, so I'll update again then.
Current net debt: $27,009.40
Should note that this doesn't include the medical bill but I'm not sure of the current balance on that. I've made the normal fortnightly payments so I guess that it's gone down by $160 with another payment due to go out in a few days too.
I feel like it's only going to take me this fortnight to catch the credit card back up and take it down to a zero balance.
It's been taken out of my handbag now and no further charges will be added.
Next fortnight I'll be able to start snowballing into my loan balance - I'm looking forward to that!
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