Tuesday 26 July 2016

#28 No More Student Loan!

Quick update to share the good news.

Bonus was paid and immediately got on the phone to pay-off my student loan.

Had an unexpectedly large amount left over - £5000! - after paying it off.

Sat down with the Mrs and we decided to put £3000 towards paying off our Credit Card - leaving only £2200 left in balance - keep a further £1000 as savings for now and put the other £1000 towards a well-deserved break of some sort as a family.

We're still looking into when and where that break will be but ideally it'll be abroad so we coughed up the £92 for the kids passports and an additional £78 to renew the wifes. Expensive business this holidaying.

Debt now looks a lot better and we'll be benefiting from the addition £330 each month that I was paying towards the student loan.


  •       Student loan – paid off. £0 outstanding.
  •       House loan – Total remaining now is £7,441. This will be updated on 1st Aug.
  •       Credit Card -  £3000 paid off. Total remaining now is £2,212.99. This will be updated on 1st Aug.
   
Total Debt = £9,653.99

This time 10 months the total debt I owed excluding mortgages was £25,800. To get down to below £10,000 in less than 12 months is great. 

Now we have to not just absorb the additional £330 per month which was previously going on the student loan and instead save it and/or use to pay down the remaining debt asap.

Sunday 3 July 2016

#27 Salary and Bonus

An ad-hoc update.

Received confirmation from my manager that I'll be receiving the full bonus I am entited too, which is 20% of my current annual salary - £67k.

Even more good news was that I will be receiving a 3% pay rise - taking me up to £69,010 per year.



The plan is to use my bonus in July to pay off my student loan which will leave us with £330 per month extra - to be put directly into a savings account.

The pay rise should add £120~ extra per month too, which will also be put directly into a savings account.

#26 June 2016 Summary

So, did we stick to the budget?

Yes. It has taken a year since I first created our budget but finally we have stuck to it.




If not, why not?

n/a !!!!

Any positives?

Obviously the positive was finally sticking to our budget.

Overall debt dropped below £19k.

Lessons / thoughts?

This is a result of a years worth of behavioral improvements and trying to cut back wherever possible.

We still had a fairly high amount of money spent on family wedding and days out - but it just shows that the budget leaves plenty of room for fun and it's now been proved we can stick to it.


Expectations for next month?

July will be an expensive month.

I am attending a stag do, have a camping trip with friends and have my annual cycle scheme renewal due.

However, my bonus is also due so expectation is that we'll be able to pay off the remainder of the student loan and allow us to start building some savings over the coming months.

Effect on overall finances?

S    Student loan – £335 was paid off direct from payslip. Total remaining now is £6,126
·         House loan – £298 was paid off direct debit. Total remaining now is £7,441
·         Credit Card -  £120 was paid off. Total remaining now is £5,212.99
   

Total Debt = £18,779.99




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Savings

Savings were wiped this month to pay for an unplanned for childcare cost of over £750.

Account to pay for bills.
  • £62 added this month, total now is £124
Emergency savings. 
  • £0
Savings for France 2017 family holiday.
  • £0
Shares
  • Current value is £329.60 (decrease of £41.38 since last month - thanks Brexit!)
Total accessible savings =  £453.60 (£124 + £329.60)

Pension
  • Current value is £8,658.13 (not updated)