Amy and Jon bite the bullet to get debt free.....

Parsley_2

Hi Amy,

I start my DMP in September so not even made the first payment yet. I just hope all the CCs agree to freeze the interest.

I love the account book and pink stickies idea.

I spent a good while yesterday putting all my debts into a spreadsheet and organising Microsoft Money so that I can transfer to the DMP and then from there move whatever they pay into each of the cards. My husband thinks I'm mad but I like to know where everything is going and I tend to do it to the penny. I guess it's my version of the account book and stickies.

Marie

amyandjon

Aww thats good, debt can be such a weighing down... and when you have your head in the clouds before the lbm it can be a hell of a scare.... we are trying to get df because we would like to look at moving somewhere bigger before we think of starting a family so we are going to be working damn hard... i thought id be upset with putting all extra cash on a debt but its nice to see the numbers tumbling and you feel in control any mini debt clearence is a relief... i owe a couple of hundred to my brother and mum and im going to get them paid off just so i can tick it off the list lol!! how sad is that i dont really understand what a dmp is or how it affects credit rating... im going to try tay clear of it for the time been unless things get really tough then il maybe think of ringing someone but at the mo i think we are ok.... we are selling everything and anything we can on ebay which is good i cant believe how much stuff we hord lol !! whilst getting debt free im also watching what i eat because i would like to be 2 stone lighter before my wedding next year i enjoy writing things with nice pens im a geek like that :P lol x

Parsley_2

You're doing what I would like to be able to do but don't have enough earnings to cover all the minimum payments and buy food.

I have to ask, what is an "lbm"? I keep seeing it around but can't find an explanation.

We do the e-bay thing as well although it's my husband selling stuff through his business. He lets me have some of the funds towards paying off debt since the business is responsible for pretty much all of it.

Good luck with the weight loss for the wedding. I expect you'll manage it and will look fantastic. I'm trying to lose 6 stone but it's for health reasons more than anything else. A lot of it was worry about all the debt but I've lost just over a stone in the last year so anything is possible.

Going to bed now so I hope your day is good tomorrow.

amyandjon

Good morning....LBM is lightbulb moment when you realise ypu have the debt.... i go to slimming world managed to shift 5.5 pounds in a few weeks and enjoy the food.. we plan our meals so we have enough in the house and arent wasting food...... sometimes i do get fed up about the debt wondering why we let ourselves get this way sometimes it just feels crap giving money away lol ..... but il get the gist..... like i said in a previous post in the diary we are going to clear a cc and transfer to a 0% or not to use for the wedding however if we manage to get our bank charges back we will be credit card down and a lump sum for the wedding we only have to save 3000 the rest family are paying for ...... i owe some family money and although it is intrest free id rather pay them i dont like having there cash if you know what i mean it makes me feel so ashamed i mean i dont know how many 24 year olds can rack that debt up with a partne imagine what it could have been like if i hadnt have had my LBM it doesnt bare thinking about lol haha i have a few loans that end early 2010 so im going to see what that takes off the credit balance to make myself feel better.... hehe and credit cards will be tallied every month on the last day to account for my little payments hehe :T i like to come on here when im feeling fed up just to keep me motivated xx

amyandjon

:j Okay so looking at my soa, the two loans that end in 2010 (hopefully credit cards paid off by then obviously but these gurenteed to end ) means a whopping £7354.90 will be cleared off the debt amount.... wowzer im happy with that .... we are apparently clearing the biggest cards first luckily im getting my psychological lift from the remaining balance going down in mere pence due to intrest ..... but im longing for the day when i can say " cash is king " woo woo xx

amyandjon

Yay.....ive just updated with sky and am now paying 33 quid for tv, broadband and sky talk so a good saving of at least 30 quid yaaaaaaaaay :P im happyhappy happy..... me and oh are off to the tip free of charge lol and then making some little aims for our debt free date woo hoo .....

Parsley_2

Morning,

Well done for changing Sky.

I'm planning on getting Sky Freesat as neither of us really watches much TV and can never find anything on anyway. Not really worth paying the £17 per month and it's just a one-off cost of £20 to get the Freesat card. Still has plenty of channels to choose from and will just take time to figure out which ones we can watch. I wish the planner blanked out the ones you can't view as that would make life a lot easier.

Our broadband is £13.99 a month with 300 free 01/02 mins each month t/phone calls. We barley use 100 mins so this suits us fine and it's anytime too. The only problem is that we have BT answer and so if we don't use 6 BT charged calls a quarter we get charged £3ish for the voicemail and that's more than our calls would have been anyway so have to remember to do it or buy an answer machine at some point.

My next Debt-free challenge is to change Sky and I'll get it done as soon as I have a spare £20 in a bank. This is where the problem lies. Until the DMP starts I have no cash at all.

Once the courts make up their minds about bank charges then I'll get them claimed back too. The majority are in the last 2-3 years so still got 2 yrs to play with. (Only claim back 5 yrs in Scotland).

Marie
p.s. I think I'll start a diary and see where it leads.:eek:

amyandjon

Yay start a diary and post me the link.... its nice to learn about people... you will be very happy once you start on your plan it will feel like a weights been lifted off your shoulder.... me and other half are just going to buy a spending book each to keep tabs on everything we spend on... then each month we can take a look and highlight key areas.... we are also going to make some mini aims so we can keep each othe motivated the road to debt free can be quite boring i think after the intial buzz you just want it now and its hard to accept it will take a few years... luckily we dont have children yet and arent tied up in a big house with a big mortgage we can cope at the current time... really we would like to be in a better position in a few years where we can upgrade our home and still live comfortable i dont think im going to keep a credit card once im debt free im going to see how we manage.... and as the overdraft comes down il probably reduce it to around 500 pound i mean the temptation to spend is always there ....... when you have things staring at you hehe. Ive just got back from the tip.... yipee i feel rather pleased at the garden tidy ... we are going to request vouchers for the wedding now then we can use them to do the house up if we intend to stay in it a 3 years longer hopefully august 2011 will be the debtfree date for unsecured maybe sooner if we work really hard and graft for it...ahhhh nipping for my spending book now yipee awww exciting i was in credit with sky so i didnt have to pay my 22 pound this month also have 6 pound remaining so thats bloody good i was very pleased so ive gt 22 pounds toplay with yipee xxx:o

Parsley_2

I started a diary. This should hopefully be the link.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1087037

Thanks for the support. Enjoy your extra £22.

Aussieonabudget

Hi Amy,

Well done on taking the first steps on the road to becoming debt free. It sounds like you have already done some great things and are well on your way. It took my OH quite a while to get on board, but our debts luckily weren't that bad to begin with. He is very good now, checks if we are on a NSD before buying anything and will try to stick to the budget if we go out. You are lucky that Jon is with you all the way becuase it is so important and will make it so much easier!

Good luck and keep that positive attitude!
Aussie