A Gap Year

Randomness: When I'm debt free, there's a big part of me that wants to quit the job and go backpacking for 12 months!

Anyone care to join me?

Payday Budget for October

Payday is next week and here are the plans for my money; I have £50 left over from last month and due to my tax code changing I have an extra £210 in my wage packet.

£800 - Joint account towards savings and bills
£18 - World Vision Sponsor
£80 - Daughters expenses
£20 - Miscellaneous for me
£10 - Gift for my brother
£20 - Petrol, reduced due to work changing expense claims (better for me)
£200 - Food, back up as I struggled to lower this month
£194 - Loan payment
£1000 - Snowball

I'm still using cash for everything I can, so I'll withdraw £310 and divide it into envelopes for the month. It's working quite well at the moment.

My debt balance by the end of October, if all goes according to plan, will be £4,377.

Argh, a week without posting! I've been so busy with work and party preparations, that blogging went by the wayside. The good news is that my spending hasn't. I've managed to keep up my spending diary, make a little extra money and pay down some more debt.

Payday isn't until next week, ten days time, and I want to have a spending fast until then; I'm only buying milk and fruit between now and the 30th. We have a freezer full of food and I want to make do.

This month I feel like I'm back in control - it's a great feeling. I've been inspired by this post at Man vs Debt, some of the ideas are quite radical, and some I've already done, but I love it. I know when I started out on this journey I was as single minded about my debt as anyone could be, over time this has eased a little. I need, and want, to get back to that mindset.

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Debt vs Savings: how we do it

Further to my post yesterday I received an email asking why, when we have savings, we don't pay off my debt. There's a couple of reasons for this, which I'll answer here:-

1. We decided early in the year to save a 12 month emergency fund. This was because dh and I worked for the same company and if the worst happened (we both lose our jobs) we wanted to be able to meet our financial commitments. Prior to this in 2008 we were paying down our mortgage at an accelerated rate and had little savings.
2. I view this debt as mine, all mine. Dh has never been in debt (apart from the mortgage) and I wanted to pay it all off myself and learn my lesson in doing so.

What do you think, is this how you would do it?

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Joint Accounts and Debt Payoff.

Combining finances as a couple is not always easy, different couples, use different systems. We (dh and I) use the three account system; two personal accounts and one bill account, which we both pay into. I think we will always do this as I can never see a time when either of us doesn't want our own account. Having said that, as time moves on and my debt freedom day gets nearer we are combining more and more things and it feels right.

I've always viewed my debt as a separate entity* and mine to pay off, so we've kept everything apart. We allocate a certain amount of money to fund our bills and our goals, the rest is our personal money to do with as we wish. I use mine mainly to pay down my debt, but once it's gone, we will need to rethink how we do things. When we move to Portugal, in 2012, we will need another rethink, our system needs to be constantly evolving.

* The reason I run two blogs is for this reason; I see this as my debt, 'turn my life around' blog and Move To Portugal as a joint blog about how we plan to move abroad. I hope this makes sense! Once my debt is paid off though, I see this blog continuing as a place to plot our progress towards our financial goals.

Debt Total Update (No1) September

Hopefully this will be the first, and not last, debt total update this month. My Earn Money Challenge for September is going quite well, so I should be able to snowflake some more money to my debt soon. Doing challenges with other bloggers really helps to keep you going!

I've sent the £300 snowball and updated the progress bars; 87.3% of the debt is gone, only 12.7% to go!

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Weekly Report: Feeling motivated

It's been a good week, I'm definitely feeling the benefit of a two week break from work.

Highlights:
-I've only spent money on grocery and postage
-I've made a little extra money
-I've ditched most of my clothing!

Payday came and went and I'll have £300 to snowball to my debt next week, which will take me nearer to my debt free goal. Dh and I have also been discussing our long term financial goals, which we need to update to make a little more comprehensive - I like the way Miel and James have done theirs over at DINKS Finance, so this will be something to complete next weekend.

Have a great weekend!

September Mini Goals

A new month and a new determination to achieve my goals. My blog posting has been erratic and infrequent over the last few months, this is contributing to my (continued) lack of focus. When I blog regularly, I achieve more, it's a fact. So, here are my personal goals for this month:

• Post on this blog at least 15 times
• Reduce my debt by £500
• Earn £100 in extra income
• Record my daily spends
• Make better food choices and lose 8lbs

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I also blog at Move To Portugal