The ultimate incentive to get debt free, can I do it by New Years?

Dinah93

Hi all,

I have decided to start my own diary thread on the forums (having avoided it since January) as I need all the motivation and encouragement I can get to gain momentum on clearing my debts. Little bit of background first, and you can decide if you want to keep reading I had my LBM last January, and have cleared around 3k since then, however I really need to pick up the pace. It all started well with economising, doing the £10 a day challenge etc, but gradually it ground to a near halt. I still have around 14k to clear, and I would love to clear it by the end of the year (well, I'd love to clear it tomorrow but I think my fairy godmother got stranded on a XL holiday).

My boyfriend lives in Ireland, and we spend every other weekend together (between us I think we keep jet2 and ryanair in business!), however he was over for 11 days last week (the longest we've ever managed to get together)and when he left it was awful, both in floods of tears, but we know we couldnt support ourselves at present due to the ammount of debt I have. So he told me that it's up to me, but within 30 days of me telling him I'm debt free, he'll move over here! :j So, I certainly have the incentive to do it, now I just need to get a good pace. For anyone who has seen any of my previous posts I met my BF about 3 months ago, and he's everything I never thought existed outside movies, and meeting him was the kick I needed to get out of an extremely unhappy and unhealthy relationship.

I intend to update this thread at least once a day, on any money I've managed to make and how. Somehow my wages seem to almost entirely get eaten up every month (yes, kept a spending diary last spring and the money all seems to go to sensible places but in tiny ammounts so i dont notice it!), so I am largely focussed on making money from secondary revenue ie surveys, ebay, amazon, mystery shopping, as well as trying to save in my day to day spending and I've recently got back into comping which might not make much but it's very exciting getting parcels in the post.... not that I've got one since March :think:

So... quite a ramble there.... I do that a lot..... wish me luck!

Tinkabell25

Good Luck, Sounds like the perfect reason!!

doodledo_2

Good luck with your new diary and your debt free journey.

What a lovely story and definately a fantastic motivation to be debt free. Here's to a happy new year for you both

Purpleroses

just want to wish you luck too! :T definately have great motivation now!

Dinah93

Thanks guys. Should be able to get off to a decent start, my mum found a letter I never opened from a few months ago telling me I have £605 of premium bonds, so going to the post office to hand in the cash-in form today. Lesson to all - don't assume all mail is bad news!

Also have 12 books to post which I sold on amazon for £26.68 in total after fees, hopefully will clear £10 profit after postage. Keep repeating the mantra 'every little helps'. My mum thinks I'm barmy to sell books for £1 profit each but I see it as £1 closer to getting the BF here and I then have no issue trudging my book bag to the post office 3 times a week! Have been meaning to get around to listing them for months, then when my lovely BF was here and it was raining and he felt ill and we were too skint to go out he just sat there and listed about 120 of them for me!

leo1976

Hello, good luck with your challenge, is it worth you posting a SOA in case there are areas which can be trimmed down a bit and help you on your way in paying off your debts???? There are soooooo many good tips from people here.:o

Dinah93

Yep I think I might do that, again, every little counts! Would be great if I could squeze a few £100 from it as I'm sure there should be more kicking around somewhere! Will do it this evening when I have my trusty laptop with all its spreadsheets and things in front of me

Dinah93

Posted my books, came to £9.44, so a total of £17.24 profit. And sent off the letter to the premium bonds people. But did go to return a faulty top and necklace to Dorothy Perkins, no receipt no refund but the lady would swap it for me, but ended up making up the £2 difference. Think I'll have to do ebay penitence by listing 3 items to make up for it! :rotfl:

gettingbetter

Dinah

might not be much help to you, i found the best way to sort out the mess i am in was to get my mum to help
She is there when i need to ask advice :j and also there to kick me up the backside if i need it:eek:
Do you have a friend who could be a debt buddy if you like that will keep you motivated and you could make it a competition
kas x

Dinah93

Hey gettingbetter,

Oh my mum is great at kicking me up the backside, mainly cos i have boxes and boxes of things stored all over her house that are 'to go on ebay'... sadly its taken me nearly a year to do the amazon stuff, and i NEED to get onto the ebay thing next but I find their system so complicated now its soul destroying trying to spend more than 30mins doing it! Would love a debt buddy friend but none of my friends have any debts that I know of. Most lived at home until they had significant savings to move out of their parents, while I tried to run before I could walk and supported my ex for over a year when he didnt get around to getting a new job! Could maybe suggest to one of them they try to get to the same ammount in savings in the same time, but not sure I would get anyone to bite?

Dinah93

Okay, I'm skulking back with my head hung in shame. I vowed to myself to keep this updated, then I was poorly a few days and forgot, and when I remembered I felt too guilty to come back! But DFW contains some of the nicest people on the internet imo, so hopefully a little slap on the wrist is all that is in order. However when I tell you how well I have done, maybe all will be forgiven?!

Since posting last I have paid £1045.18 off my credit card, £2200 off my family loan, and put £90 into my savings account to be paid off the credit card at the end of the month unless I need it to repair the car before then. So for those keeping track that is

:j£3260.18 :j

closer to having my boyfriend over here in slightly under a month! No, I don't have an insanely well paid job btw, after tax I take home around £1480 a month.

So, breakdown of what I have paid so far:

• £2150 received from insurance company as settlement from car accident in 2004, added £50 to pay off a round £2200 from a loan from a family member, leaving me 11 payments at £200 a month left :T.
• £100 standard direct debit to 19.9% CC1
• £25 standard direct debit to 0% CC2
• £605 redeemed premium bonds (paid straight onto CC1)
• Quidco paid £18.66 into my bank (paid straight onto CC1)
• £10 mystery shop paid into bank (again, straight onto CC1)
• £89.99 (I rounded up to £90 for convenience) from sales of books on amazon (oh so many heavy bags of books!) placed into savings account in case my car battery finally dies a good death and I need a new one before I get paid, otherwise it will go on the credit card on the 25th.
• £170 onto CC1 on payday to cover the dentist treatment that I couldn't entirely afford last month and August (trust me, I tried. I smashed my terramundi and took the poor girl £68 in very mucky coppers and small silver for the first 2 filings! She was remarkably good humoured about it. I think she's secretly an MSE'r)
• £20.32 for another Amazon payment for books (also straight onto CC1)
• £4.20 I found in an old savings account (also onto CC1)
• £17.00 my brother gave my for using my bank card to buy his GFs birthday pressie, as for some reason his card was being rejected for being foreign issue (I count it as off the debt as I payed for the pressie on my debit card, but I put the mnoey back onto CC1)

I have also today called o2 and questioned my last 4 phone bills as it appears none of my text messages are coming out of my inclusive allowance.

I have also signed up to do the 10 items a day on ebay challenge, as I have an entire shed of items to sell that I can't face looking at, and hopefully now I will.

In addition I mentioned previously my ex, well after much pursuasion from my DM (Dear mother, in case I just made up a new abreviation!) and BF, I wrote to him, and his mother (who always held the cards!) as I paid for his university fees, until he was assessed for financial eligability. Well he was given a partial award in September 8 months after I paid them, into the joint bank account (which I still can't get taken into one name or the other) and he withdrew within a few hours. So I have written asking for this money to be repaid (but only the partial ammount), or I will file take it to small claims next friday to ask for the full ammount and his share of the bills I was left to pay when we broke up. His mother has called and said she will talk to him over the weekend and get back to me.

So... I think that's enough of an update for 2am on a Saturday night (up late as I have a bad ear infection I think it is and can't sleep). I will update again tomorrow, as I have been making DFW moves every day, and it will help to write them down.