Debt Diary 2008

whatatwit

BelfastGirl, you have done really well and sound so positive.
Your mum would probably much rather contribute towards the TV, at least then they know what the Christmas money has been used for.

BelfastGirl_2

Hi, and a quick update!
I've achieved it - yes, finally my credit card debt is below the £10000 mark- standing at a wonderful £9976.89! What a great Christmas present to give myself!

As for the other goals I had set myself, I'm going to have to re-evaluate. I had hoped to have the A&L credit card paid off by the end of January (just in time for yet another interest rate increase by them!), but it's not going to be possible! There was a bit of a problem with my wages from my second job (they forgot to add on the holiday pay portion) and, to be perfectly honest I've been treating myself to a few things that I have been really wanting to get to make Christmas a bit more enjoyable. It's Christmas at my house, and it's the first year I'm the hostess, and I really did seriously set myself a budget that was way too small! I didn't appreciate the cost of entertaining at all!!

Anyway, I'm not too bothered by the fact that I'm not reaching this goal. There's a lesson to be learned here - to set realistic and achievable goals. I could have hit this goal if I was going to serve chicken soup on Christmas day! But life is for living. The debt is a priority, but so is enjoying life and time with family and friends. And I'm still putting 15% of my income towards repayments this month - an extra £250 above the minimum. So I can't beat myself up over this, but learn from it, and make some new goals!

So here we go:
1. Based on what extra I have been able to pay recently, I can have the A&L card paid off by the time the statement comes in at the end of March 2009. I might get it before that, but this is my goal. Realistic and achievable, lesson learned! (But I really wish it was going to be end Feb!!)
2. Interest below £150 by statements in at end February 2009. (Could be <£150 by end January, but could be a few pence over, so to be safe I'll say Feb)
3. Once A&L repaid, focus in on Monument card. Balance is now at £3387, so I'm not really wanting to set a target right now for that to be repaid. And during the period of time I'm repaying that card, the total interest being added to all the cards will drop below £100. I'll have a better idea of when that will be reached in a few months.

So overall, I remain positive about this journey, and determined to see it through. But it is hard sometimes to stay focussed, especially when I'm tired working 50-60 hours each week. And that after taking a payment holiday from my loan and putting that money towards my cards, I'm seeing the balances coming down more slowly again now that the loan repayments have started again. But I keep imaging the feeling I'm going to have when my total credit card debt stands at £0 for the first time in YEARS! So I've decided to take another break from the second job - the weekends at the end of January, start of February - but I'm working a lot to make up for the lost earnings those weekends! Hopefully this time I won't get sick like the last time I did this!

I'm not likely to be on this site again before Christmas, so I wish you all a very happy christmas and a truly prosperous, debt free 2009!