Debt free by 2018

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I am glad the pots system works for you. It always did for me too and I knew if I overspent on one pot I could take it from another. I use clear checkbook (this is free) which uses the envelope system like YNAB but I think it is simpler and does not take as much time to get to grips with.

Once the debt is gone you will soon save up that house deposit.

I love the pots system, gives me the flexibility of adding to my personal pot for the rare treat. I've just created my own spreadsheets on excel, I absolutely love my spreadsheets! I have right from 2017 through to 2021 spends when I am aiming to buy my house! I will have a look into checkbook though, thanks for the tip.

I currently have £3600 in my help to buy ISA so will get 25% bonus from the government on that too, I've also restarted my monthly transfers over so trying to clear debts whilst also saving £200 a month where I can, if I get desperate then I know I have that to fall back on but I know I won't touch it being in there unless I absolutely have to.

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I love spreadsheets too. I have one for savings (projections) and one for pensions and update them yearly and one where I record our yearly spends on each category(pot) which was useful when planning retirement so I knew how much we needed to get from our pensions/savings.

You seem so organised and great discipline to have a help to buy isa but not touch it. Normally people say use savings to pay off debt but I think Help to Buy is different because of the government incentive. As your loans are on a low interest rate and credit card 0% then it makes sense to keep it separate for now.

Thank you, I'm just so determined to get out of rented accommodation (if I can get a mortgage on my own) and I know I am going to need a huge deposit. With the government incentive and at around 3% interest I don't feel that it makes any sense using it towards debts, I also wouldn't be able to reach the maximum of £12k to get £3k bonus if I transferred it to my debts with the limits on the account.

You sound much more organised than me, I seriously need to start thinking about a pension, I have absolutely nothing in place for that at the moment :eek:

Dug out my paperwork for my card, can anyone clarify if the account began in April 2016 and it states 0% for 19 months would this mean my balance would need to be cleared by the same date in November or December?

No big updates although I am getting a lot of clarity on my spending, people say all the time how little things add up but tracking every single penny with my pot system really shows me just how much. I have had to amend a couple of pots as I was a little too ambitious initially and after a couple of months both my food and fuel for my car pot were running at a minus so I have adjusted these. My target for July is to work on the amount I spend on food, I have put in an order for meat which should arrive Friday to last throughout the whole of July so I should only need to buy fruit, veg and milk, I am considering putting a weekly order in for these too as then I wouldn't have to go to the store ever which I think is my downfall as I start thinking about other things I might need.

Have been off a little over the last week and so a little damage has been done on my credit card, I am waiting on one thing to clear so I can report figures.

I am back at it today though, I have another card which I don't currently use which I received a balance transfer offer for, 0% until April 2019 with a 2.9% fee. My credit limit was fairly low on this card, I have just managed to increase it so that I can transfer my whole balance across once I have my final figure in a day or two. This will incur a fee of around the £30 mark but with overpayments to my loan now possible I should be able to get this back from savings on my interest on my loans. Worst case scenario, I don't make overpayments but won't have to worry about paying money back by November at a relatively small cost.

Will report debt figures at some point in the next few days.