Debt Update May 2009: Sub £8k

It's payday today so as soon as it gets to 9am I'm ringing the loan company and making a payment of £870 on my loan. The automatic payment doesn't get made until the 27th, this is when the interest goes on as well, so after nine today my loan balance will be £7,942, below £8k.

I'm going with my new cash only plan from the first of the month, so I'm going to wait to do a budget until then; I'm only spending money on grocery at the moment anyway, for which I use my debit card.

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Weekend Link Love

{photo credit: utnapistim}

Posts I've enjoyed this week:

• Ten Ways to Stay on Top of Your Work at Dumb Little Man
• Early retirement or meaningful work at Brip Blap
• Drastically Reduce Your Expenses Starting Today at My Two Dollars
• Spring Cleaning: Day Four at Simple Mom

Back Monday with a spending update, nothing spent on Days 7 and 8.

Don't forget I'm holding a giveaway over at my other site, Move To Portugal. Leave a comment before Sunday midnight (GMT) and you could win a copy of the updated Your Money or Your Life.

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A Brand New Budget

I've been playing around with my spreadsheets this week, sad I know, but this is a sure sign that I'm getting my focus back.

I've worked out a much simpler way of doing my finances, yes, after four years I've finally simplified them, and I'm hoping that this will give me an easier way to debt freedom.

My new simple plan; withdraw £400 cash on the 1st of every month. Ground breaking I know! but because I get paid 4 weekly and most things are monthly, my finances have never been really simple. With my new plan, they should be as simple as they get. I've worked out, that if I just withdraw this amount every month, for the next seven months, there should be enough money left over to pay down my debt.

The £400 budget:

£200 Grocery
£60 Fuel
£100 Daughter expenses
£40 Misc/Birthdays etc

I have tried using cash before and it didn't work very well, but I'm willing to give it another go; I see me using cash in the future, not debit or credit cards, so I might as well get used to it now.

Daily Spending: Day 5 and 6

£18.96 Grocery

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May Mini Goals and April Progress

So how did I do with my April mini goals:

• Reduce debt by £900 - Paid off £710
• Earn £250 extra income - Earned £90.75
• Do a car boot sale - Decided against

I've had better months, but I'm not disheartened. This is going to happen, I just need to keep going!

Only one goal for May:

• Clear £1,000 from my debt total

May Daily Spending:

Day 3 and Day 4 - No spending :)

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May Daily Spending: Day 2

I went to London today to visit my daughter; very hot and very busy.

Spending:

£7.50 Underground - I bought my return ticket to London a few weeks ago so that was already paid for.

£15.00 Food - Lunch and some drinks

£8.99 Moleskine Notebooks - They're doing new colours now! (No excuse for buying these)

Tomorrow will be a no spending day.

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May Daily Spending: Day One

I need to get my focus back. It's back, but not enough. There are only 243 days left in 2009 and this debt needs to be gone by the time they are up!

Starting today, and for the other 30 days of May, I'm going to track all my spending on this blog.

This is an expensive month for me, with three major birthdays and a school trip. I'm also going to London this weekend to spend some time with my daughter. I need to keep a lid on my spending and making myself accountable on here will help.

Day 1:

£40.00 School Trip spending money and food
£7.15 Grocery
£37.66 Fuel
£11.03 Work expenses
£0.90 Postage

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