Determined to be debt free in five years!

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  • So this morning I got weighed. I know this is a debt busting forum but I'm going to use my diary to record my weight loss progress too. The two should go hand in hand. Eat less chocolate and other unnecessary goodies and cut down on wine and I should have more money to put towards something else. Every time I'm tempted I'm going to transfer the money I would have spent into a savings account I've now set up for a holiday fund.
    Whilst some might say we shouldn't be planning for any holidays whilst we are paying off our debt I feel they are really important. We both work really hard and are not getting any younger so we do need to live a little during our debt free journey.

    Weigh in today proved what I thought. My weight has increased. Now weigh 13st which is at least 2st more than what I should be. Also don't get enough exercise.

    Got up really late this morning so had a large bowl of porridge for brunch. Really cheap to make, healthy and filling so should hopefully see me through to dinner this evening. Not planned what we're having yet but it will be something that uses up something from our freezer, fridge or cupboards. Got so much stashed that needs using. Again any savings I can make from grocery budget will go into holiday fund.

    Hope everyone is having a lovely debt/weight busting bank holiday weekend :)
    Total Debt April 2017 = £98086.93 :eek: May 2017 paid back £678.63/£97943.93 or 0.69%
    Short term financial goal :-
    Clear £7107.78 of high interest debt (includes clearing overdrafts)
    April 2017 £0/£7107.78 paid. May 2017 £678.63/£7107.78 paid (9.54%)
    Weight loss goal:- Lose 30lbs by Christmas 2017 April 2017 1/30 lbs lost
  • Have decided to break my debts up into chunks.

    The priority at the minute has to be those that are attracting interest. The really large consolidation loan is going to take a long, long time to clear so my first goal is going to be to clear some unsecured debts including the overdrafts.

    I have calculated that by paying the interest bearing unsecured debt and overdrafts over the rest of their term that I have a total of £7227 to pay. Some of this is on really high interest rates so the quicker I can pay this off the less interest I will pay. Overpayments will hopefully therefore have quite a big impact on the final amount that I pay. Will use the snowball method to reduce it all as quickly as possible.

    Going to try our hardest to get this cleared in 6 months. Won't be easy but I'm hoping that having a smaller chunk to focus on rather than the overall debt will help motivate us.
    Total Debt April 2017 = £98086.93 :eek: May 2017 paid back £678.63/£97943.93 or 0.69%
    Short term financial goal :-
    Clear £7107.78 of high interest debt (includes clearing overdrafts)
    April 2017 £0/£7107.78 paid. May 2017 £678.63/£7107.78 paid (9.54%)
    Weight loss goal:- Lose 30lbs by Christmas 2017 April 2017 1/30 lbs lost
  • motivated
    motivated Posts: 3,044
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    Hi Debtfree in5yrs

    Ive found you after you gave me support and encouragement on my diary. I am here and will subscribe to return the favour. Weight loss wanabee here too..I certainly need a good kick up the back side with this one. I have 2 stone to lose :( so I am following Slimming Worlds way and I feel like I am eating too much. We will see at the weekend when I get on the scales :eek:

    Well done on tackling your debt and I agree that clearing small chunks of debt will help. Small targets is what I am aiming for.

    Anyway keep going, Onwards and downwards with the debt and the weight :p
    M
    Emptying my lake with a teaspoon
  • motivated wrote: »
    Hi Debtfree in5yrs

    Ive found you after you gave me support and encouragement on my diary. I am here and will subscribe to return the favour. Weight loss wanabee here too..I certainly need a good kick up the back side with this one. I have 2 stone to lose :( so I am following Slimming Worlds way and I feel like I am eating too much. We will see at the weekend when I get on the scales :eek:

    Well done on tackling your debt and I agree that clearing small chunks of debt will help. Small targets is what I am aiming for.


    Anyway keep going, Onwards and downwards with the debt and the weight :p
    M

    Hi :) Thank you for reading my diary and for your post. Sounds like we're so similar we could be twins!!:rotfl:
    I've done Slimming World in the past and found it relatively easy to stick too. Have thought about going back but don't want to pay the fees and with work and everything else I just don't seem to have the time. Going to base my new diet on their principles though.

    When you feel ready to go down the self managed DMP route then I would recommend it. No-where near as scary as it sounds and much more flexible.
    Total Debt April 2017 = £98086.93 :eek: May 2017 paid back £678.63/£97943.93 or 0.69%
    Short term financial goal :-
    Clear £7107.78 of high interest debt (includes clearing overdrafts)
    April 2017 £0/£7107.78 paid. May 2017 £678.63/£7107.78 paid (9.54%)
    Weight loss goal:- Lose 30lbs by Christmas 2017 April 2017 1/30 lbs lost
  • Lumanous
    Lumanous Posts: 132
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker
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    Just popping in to say subscribed! Good luck on your journey, seems like you have a sensible plan to tackle everything :) I haven't started my diary on here yet will be starting later this year but also on a debt busting journey (mortgage-free is too far away to do anything about yet but it is in the long term plan!)

    Look forward to seeing your updates!
    :A
    No, my username is not a typo :tongue:
  • Lumanous wrote: »
    Just popping in to say subscribed! Good luck on your journey, seems like you have a sensible plan to tackle everything :) I haven't started my diary on here yet will be starting later this year but also on a debt busting journey (mortgage-free is too far away to do anything about yet but it is in the long term plan!)

    Look forward to seeing your updates!

    Hi :) Many thanks for subscribing to my diary. Will look forward to reading yours when you start one. We've been in debt for many years but now have to clear it once and for all.
    We've been paying our mortgage for 20 yrs so to be honest it's the least of our problems. If we just carry on making our normal payment then it will be cleared in 5 yrs. It's the consolidation loan that is really weighing us down. Paying it all off is not going to be easy but we will do it one way or another.
    Good luck with your debt busting journey. Please keep dropping in to let me know how you're getting on
    Total Debt April 2017 = £98086.93 :eek: May 2017 paid back £678.63/£97943.93 or 0.69%
    Short term financial goal :-
    Clear £7107.78 of high interest debt (includes clearing overdrafts)
    April 2017 £0/£7107.78 paid. May 2017 £678.63/£7107.78 paid (9.54%)
    Weight loss goal:- Lose 30lbs by Christmas 2017 April 2017 1/30 lbs lost
  • Debtfreein5yrs
    Debtfreein5yrs Posts: 62 Forumite
    edited 1 May 2017 at 8:50PM
    Well today has been a lovely MSE day.
    Took some left over decorating items back to B&Q that we've had sat in the kitchen since Nov!! Got a credit note for £36.99 which we used to buy some other much needed items. In the past we would never have got round to taking things back.

    We then decided to have lunch out as a treat. I had a £20 voucher for Frankie & Bennys which I've had for a long time (they sent it to me after I gave them some feedback). Had a 2 course meal for £9.95 each and bought one soft drink for other half. I had tap water which I prefer to fizzy drinks. Healthy and free!! After voucher was taken off then we had just £2.65 to pay :T

    Next stop was Argos. Bought an electric can opener a few months ago and it fell apart after a few uses. Was really good before it broke so I've swapped it for another one. If this one has the same problem then I will take it back for a refund. Again in my pre debt busting days I wouldn't have made the effort to take it back.

    Last stop was Aldi where we did our weekly grocery shop. Spent £32 but that included coffee and a large chicken. Shouldn't need anything else this week.

    Spent the afternoon in the garden. Was really sunny. Got lots of packets of seeds so going to grow salad items and other fruit and veg which will hopefully help reduce food bill even further.

    Final MSE task of the day was to cook dinner using veg left over from last weeks shop and meat from freezer. Pre debt busting we wasted so much food but now everything gets used.

    All in all been a lovely day. Hope yours has been too? :)
    Total Debt April 2017 = £98086.93 :eek: May 2017 paid back £678.63/£97943.93 or 0.69%
    Short term financial goal :-
    Clear £7107.78 of high interest debt (includes clearing overdrafts)
    April 2017 £0/£7107.78 paid. May 2017 £678.63/£7107.78 paid (9.54%)
    Weight loss goal:- Lose 30lbs by Christmas 2017 April 2017 1/30 lbs lost
  • Had another MSE morning :)
    Started when I burnt my toast. In the past I would have thrown it away and started again. This morning I scraped off the dark bits. Tasted fine. Every penny helps!

    I've also got up to date balances on all of my interest bearing debts. Looks like I overestimated slightly as by my calculations today the cost of paying it all back over the original terms will be £7107.78 instead of the £7227 that I estimated.
    As I am including the overdrafts on 2 accounts then the final figure is still a bit of an estimate but I've based the interest and charges on what we paid this month when they were both maxed out and multiplied by 6 which is the number of months we have set ourself to pay off this chunk of debts. Hope that makes sense?

    In addition I've made a payment this morning of £136.40 towards the debt. Other half gets paid weekly so planning on paying off something every week to reduce the debt quicker.

    Have updated my signature to show the revised figures.

    Payment today means I've paid off £136.40/£7107.78 or 1.91% of interest bearing unsecured debt :)

    Feeling really positive
    Total Debt April 2017 = £98086.93 :eek: May 2017 paid back £678.63/£97943.93 or 0.69%
    Short term financial goal :-
    Clear £7107.78 of high interest debt (includes clearing overdrafts)
    April 2017 £0/£7107.78 paid. May 2017 £678.63/£7107.78 paid (9.54%)
    Weight loss goal:- Lose 30lbs by Christmas 2017 April 2017 1/30 lbs lost
  • Debtfreein5yrs
    Debtfreein5yrs Posts: 62 Forumite
    edited 2 May 2017 at 4:00PM
    Now got accurate balances on all debts apart from secured loan which is around £56K
    As of April 2017 we owed a massive £98086.93 made up of :-

    Mortgage £18281.62
    Secured loan £56000
    Other loans £5207.78
    Overdraft Bank 1 £1650
    Overdraft Bank 2 £250
    Old credit card debt £16651.13 - all interest free. Total of 11 creditors

    Paid back today £136.60 towards 'other loans' and a massive £6.60 towards overdraft 1 :) Both amounts left out of weekly wage

    As of 2nd May 2017 :-
    Paid £136.60 + £6.60 towards short term goal (interest bearing unsecured loans & overdrafts) =
    £143.20/ £7107.78 or 2.0 %
    or
    £143.20/ £98086.93 or 0.15% of total debt!

    Really scary when it's all down in writing .... but makes me more determined than ever to pay it all back asap
    Total Debt April 2017 = £98086.93 :eek: May 2017 paid back £678.63/£97943.93 or 0.69%
    Short term financial goal :-
    Clear £7107.78 of high interest debt (includes clearing overdrafts)
    April 2017 £0/£7107.78 paid. May 2017 £678.63/£7107.78 paid (9.54%)
    Weight loss goal:- Lose 30lbs by Christmas 2017 April 2017 1/30 lbs lost
  • motivated
    motivated Posts: 3,044
    First Anniversary Photogenic First Post PPI Party Pooper
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    Hi DFin5yrs
    I agree about it being scary when you see it written down. But I also agree that it helps to keep you heading in the right direction too.

    You are doing well keep going
    M
    Emptying my lake with a teaspoon
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