New year new budget- time to stop making excuses

[Drasticpants]

Hey,

so 2025 marks the start of a new financial chapter for us. We’re mid 40’s 2 dc’s and ‘high earners’ ( I know that sounds wanky). We’ve not been good with money and despite our income we’ve racked up a lot of credit card and loan debt- it’s totally fixable but we have to do it now.

we have a projected debt free date of June 2027 so about 30 months. We need to pay off 2k a month ( I told you it was bad!!)

every non essential direct debit has been cancelled and our passports are locked away!!

we take home £7500 per month between us and I’ve whittled our fixed costs/ bills ( not including food) down to £2700 Food will be no more than £500 so £3200 in total. Not all of the debt is 0%and out high debt levels appear to have made us not eligible for any 0% offers at the moment.

i’d also like us to put £500 Into a savings account as a buffer.

this feels doable but also shows just how much we’ve been spending!!

anyone else on a similar mission?

I'd highly suggest setting aside a bit of fun money each per month - when all is said and done it may add a month or two to your repayments, but it makes it much easier to stick to!

I've done similar on a similar salary (though solo) for a couple of years to build my house deposit. Pared back on bills, skimped on the holidays but would not have survived without my £350 'fun money' a month!

We will, but I think we need a hard cold turkey reset for a month or two

Good luck. What have you been spending on?

I’ve opened an ISA to start saving! , my dream is to move to Italy and get a goat 😅 so I have kind of a 10 year plan 🤣