How have you paid thousands off your debt in a short period of time?

smarties84

Hello there, only just started posting the last couple of days and some of you are such an inspiration, honestly. I take my hat off to you and well done on clearing alot debt.

I have noticed from a couple of tickers, that some of you have paid such huge amounts of debt off in just a few months, i am intrigued on how you have managed to do this?

I have asked for more hours at work, none available. Partner is already doing all the over time available. I try selling on Ebay but i don't get alot when stuff sells.

Any tips and if you could possibly share how you paid thousands/hundreds off in just a few months, i would appreciate it so much xx

Many thanks Shelley

elantan

the list is huge really shelly ...have you done your s.o.a yet? have you put all your figures into the snowball? it can shave off a good amount quickly....you then start looking at your spends? food etc how you can cut back ...whilst doing that see if you can transfer anything to 0% makes it alot easier ...there are many ways to do it and not all of them right for everyone try with your soa first and see where you go from there ...also if you do it too fast it might creep back on you need to do it right so take all the time you need

crazyhazy

I'm quite new to clearing the debt, but have taken a good look at our outgoings this week and am trying to reduce them wherever we can, since yesterday just by getting rid of some sky channels, redoing our life ins and redoing hs mobile phone we have managed to save £70pm! After xmas I will be working on reducing our spending on groceries as well and all the extra will go straight off our debts, so hopefully this time next year I'll have paid a good chunk off! We're also selling books and cds on amazon and doing surverys and using quidco for extra money too. Hope that helps a little.

reventon

I just spend less on crap and make an effort to save money !

tealady

Hi There is a great Up your Income thread with loads of ideas. However if you start with easy stuff like the downsize challenge, spending diary, batch cooking etc then those pennies will soon mount up.
I found menu planning and only having a fixed amount of money each week worked for me, I couldn't spend what I hadn't got so had to budget.

hypno06

It is definitely a case of lots of little things all adding up to make big progress - just a few £££ here and there that you throw off the debt makes all the difference!

Check out the snowball calculator on www.whatsthecost.com and put your details in there - it will show you what a difference those few pounds can make to the speed in which you pay off your debt.

As for my own progress it comes from some of the following:

• Taking on an extra job - OH actually has 3 jobs, and I have 2
• ebay, amazon and car booting
• free bingo and scratchcards
• matched betting
• meal planning and cutting back to make the budgets go further
• using quidco
• working on sites that pay you for reviews occasionally, such as qype, dooyoo and slicethepie
• renting my spare room out to a foreign student
• making use of referrals on the referrals board

There is loads more but I am not awake yet so can't think!

Basically, spend some time mooching the boards and getting ideas -the "up your income" board has loads of good ideas, some of which will fit in with what you do. Look for some casual bar work, fun but reasonably well paid, revisit your budgets and check you are not paying over the odds for anything, use the old style board for tips on menu planning and cutting back the grocery budget, use vouchers for free or cheap nights out from the freebies board, etc etc etc

As I said, it is a case of lots of small efforts making a big difference - and once you make a start, it seems to snowball as you get more motivation and can see the difference happening!

Good luck!

Numpty_Monkey

To go along with all the other tips, I think the biggest one is we are not adding to our own debt

That might sound stupid, but if you think about it,
Before you could have been paying off say £250 per month off a credit card and spending £250 or more less a month on it,

frasersmum123

Snowballing is great, I cant recommend it highly enough.

I also use the 'Payment a Day' thread, which has helped me so much in making small daily payments - have a look, its really addictive!

For me the main thing was to change my frame of mind, before I wouldnt blink at spending £40 in Primark etc. Now, I really consider if I need something before buying it, and letting my guilt get the better of me rather than trying to dampen it down!

I have managed to pay off just over £1000 since October 1st, plus not having to pay goodness knows howmuch interest.

Good luck.