Starting afresh in 2009 - I WILL be debt free diary!

Sneezy

Hey Jenna, just wanted to see how you were doing

Hope you're feeling a little bit better

Jenna

Hello hello!

So sorry I've been away but things have been a little exhausting for me and even popping on here has been too much for me. I've literally just been working in the week and resting/sleeping during the evenings & weekends! This has been terribly boring but also rather DFW - if you're not up to going out you just don't - so I have been saving unintentionally!

I just wanted to share that I have been saving up towards making a payment onto my CC. I had been waiting to make the actual payment (as the card is on 0% so makes more financial sense to save it) and had been continuing to keep saving a little bit each month but... couldn't resist it!!! I needed a little "push" to get back to debt busting and I desperately need to see the figures come down. I was also a little worried that I might spend it if I didn't get it out of my savings account soon!

Anyway ... *drum roll* ... when the payment I made clears onto my CC it will be at £1500!

Hope everyone is okay xx

Jenna

Hey,

Hope you're all having a great Saturday :cool: ... my weekend is shaping up very well indeed as I've just checked the CC balance online and seen that my latest payment has now cleared ... making my CC balance £1,500

As you'll see from my sig I also have a big milestone approaching - I need to re-pay just £354.22 to get to the "50% of debt re-paid" mark! I know it's not all the way but it's a really big thing for me and also represents 12 months plus of not increasing my debt :jyey!

xx

Shoe_Gal

Hi Jenna

You're doing really well - well done you! :j

I've done very little lately towards reaching any of my goals, DFW or weightloss, just don't sem to have the motivation at the moment

Well done on keeping focused :beer:

Jenna

I have been trying to think of a sneaky plan to get rid of my debts faster... this is what I have so far (though it needs work and isn't going fast enough in my opinion!):

CC in February 2009 is @ 1500 @ 0% til beginning of June 2009
Current savings towards paying off my CC = £276.07
The minimum payment is £25 a month (x4 for Feb - May inclusive) = £100
My Mum is helping me with my debts :A(it was her Christmas present to me) and is giving me £50 a month (x4 for Feb - May inclusive) = £200

This makes £576.07 paid off my CC by May (leaving £923.93 to go). PRESUMING that I can get another 0% CC deal :rolleyes: (I hope!!!) then:

Mum's help - £350 (x7 Jun - Dec inclusive)
Minimum re-payments £175 (x7 Jun - Dec inclusive)
Min. re-payment on sofa* £26.41 (Dec only)

That makes £551.41 in total and leaves £372.52 to go on the CC for 2009 ... so far.

* The sofa is a joint purchase between me and my OH (though the finance is in my name). He owes more than me on it but (based on my current rate of progress and paying £26.41 a month) then I'll make my final payment in Nov 09 thus freeing up this cash in Dec 09 to put towards the CC (because he will then have to take on the whole DD as it will be only him that owes money on it)

And I have 10 more months of £5 min. re-payments to my family (not my Mum before you ask!). I've asked them and they say they can do without the money for now so it's not a problem - but as far as I'm concerned once the scary commercial debts are gone then this is priority numero uno for me. The total now is £885 (minus £50) leaves £835 to go by the end of 2009 ... so far.

So according to my maths (and presuming that nothing changes for me financially in the meantime) by the end of December 2009 I would then owe:

[STRIKE]Sofa - £0[/STRIKE]
Family - £835
CC - £372.52
Total projected debt @ end of 2009 = £1207.52

My minimum debt re-payments are currently £56.41 but only paying this amount after Dec 09 would leave me with something like 21 or 22 (?) months to go before I would be debt free. This means I'd make it to debt free ness in either 2011 or 2012 (can't quite work that part out).

Now - my point is - I've re-paid almost £2k in (just over) the last year. That was mostly due to lots of OT and some dumb luck LOL no I mean pay rise .

This is getting long so I am just going to go and work out my hourly net rate again... sorry to leave ya'll in suspense (like anyone is listening to / interested in my mad ramblings :rotfl:!!!)

Jenna

Thanks Shoe Gal I have to admit though, I am not very motivated myself about this money lark, I have just forced myself to come back on here and get "guilt tripped" into doing something about it! The DFW board is like my conscience LOL

Jenna

OK - free salary calculator (not sure if I'm allowed to post the link so I won't) tells me I earn £7.506 per hour so I guess in real terms you are supposed to round that to £7.51 per hour.

Incidentally that figure is NET so that's my real money that will get into my bank account after tax/NI has been taken off. This is less motivating than my gross hourly wage when I am doing OT but it does have the singular benefit of being accurate so I suppose I shall be good and resign myself to the fact that 30 mins OT really only gets me £3.76 in my pocket :eek: and I thought I didn't earn a bad wage for 22!!!

Well anyway if my debts were £1207.52 / £7.51 = 160.788 hours of OT. I guess I should round this to 161 hours of OT. If I ignore Jan & Feb 09 (as I need to work a little OT this month anyway just to get back on an even keel after having so many sick days) then that leaves me with 10 months in 2009. That would result in 16.1 hours OT per month or 4.25 hours OT each week.

I was doing 4 hours OT a week in 2008 and (evidently) this proved to be a bit much for my health so I can't realistically try this again (though I will think I can so tell me off if I suggest it in a month :rolleyes:).

My other option is to cash my holiday days (as a contractor in 2008 I received 24 days) and my holiday year runs from 1st April 08 - 1st April 09. I accrue my holiday on a pro rata basis and I can either take my holiday days off or cash them in.

Now by April I will have a few days saved up but this is my plan of how to afford a holiday this summer (e.g. take 5 days leave and cash whatever other days on top of that I have accrued by the date I go). BUT in my new holiday year of April 09 - April 10 I will be getting 28 days holiday due to the new legal minimum. I have to take holiday days for bank holidays and over Christmas (and of course if I want a holiday LOL) but that's still 4 days more than in 2008 so I won't miss what I never had.

The free salary calculator says I get £60.05 per day (based on my standard 40 hour week / 8 hours a day) so if I cash these 4 days then I'll get £240.20. And of course if I can do without using up all of my other 24 days then I can use some of these to top up my savings towards paying back my debt.

The other thing that works in my favour here is getting paid weekly and having set up my budget based on a 4 week month. I know it's inaccurate but if I get an "extra" week's pay I just deduct the extra expenses I've accrued in that week (e.g. I am still using electricity, water, and paying for food and such) but I DON'T need to pay 90% of the usual bills as they've already been covered. This means I get a lovely bonus ... I've just been into my budget and worked out that I'd still need to spend £119.55 and my usual week's pay is £300.32 which = £180.77 bonus! :j I've just checked the calendar and my next 5 week month is July 31st.

So then the sums could become:

£1207.52
minus £180.77 5 week bonus month pay
minus £240.20 2009 bonus holiday pay
leaves £786.55 to go which is "only" 105 hours OT (mind you this results in needing to do 10.5 hours OT a month or 2.625 (err? what's that in real hours?) a week. Which is a bit more moderate to say the least! But it could be improved if I could cash in more holiday days for example.

I do have the added complication that I have the option of trying a new treatment for my health which is £80 - £100 a session (sessions would be once a month and the price doesn't include my travel to/from the appointment). I can also only get the treatment during the working week so I'd need to arrange something with my boss on this if he's willing to be flexible.

I also receive DLA at the moment but my payment expires very soon. I'm trying to fill in the forms just now but (as always) the payment could be stopped, remain the same, or increase. This would certainly complicate my budget for this year!

And also my apartment is a mess :rolleyes: so not really money saving BUT if we have clean crockery we won't be so tempted to order take away so it is really very DFW I promise!:rotfl:

So my plan of attack is (some for this weekend, some long term):

1. Wash & dry the dishes
2. Wash hair (this is really effortful now I'm ill so don't laugh - it needs to be included as a "to do" now!)
3. Wash my work clothes for next week
4. De-clutter the apartment and the stuff that's at my Mum's house (this is a long term one) - sell what I can and Freecycle the rest
5. Move my contacts over to my new phone and cancel the contract on the old one ASAP (I KNOW this is bad :eek:)
6. Finish the DLA forms and submit them ASAP
7. Investigate into this new health treatment - maybe trial one session if they will do "first one free" (hey worth an ask!) - check into if there's any grants available for me to get this treatment
8. Decide whether to keep seeing my psych
9. Do my formal / final budget for 2009 based on whether on not I get the DLA again and at what rate I get it
10. Complete a revised SOA and post it up here for [strike]ripping apart[/strike] constructive criticism
11. Do some investigation into moving abroad (we are thinking of this but really really really want/need to be DF first)
12. Consider running my own business and how I can make that a reality after being DF e.g. what finances do I need, what opportunities are open to me etc
13. Prep for job review and consider trying to build in event mgmt stuff to my existing role to bring in £'s to the dept.
14. Depending on whether I get the DLA and what results posting my SOA yields, decide how much OT I need to be doing and start on that
15. Investigate nice cheap (but lovely and relaxing) holiday for this year and plan out how we can use it to do "moving abroad" research whilst we're there e.g. do job interviews, look at renting/buying house costs etc

OK I am sure there's much more but that's a good start.

My brain now feels a little emptier and I feel more purposeful so I am going to go make a start on the dishes and then watch a movie with my OH. See - very DF - not even going to go out this weekend!

OK I will shut up now - if you've got this far then WELL DONE! But you're mad :rotfl:okay well hope you're all having a good Sat eve xx

Jenna

Morning!

Couple other things occured to me overnight - I need to cut down on buying lunch & make my own sometimes. I normally spend £20 / week on "fun money" which includes food & drink at work. So any change from this £20 I could save and put to the CC.

Also if I commute by car I get more £'s back than it costs me in petrol. Travelling is too tiring for me right now but it's worth keeping in mind for later in the year!

Okay gonna snooze in bed for a bit longer & then get up and have some brekkie & a shower. Also must buy food & wash dishes - and go see family later on.

Hope you're having a lovely relaxed Sunday xx

Shoe_Gal

Hi Jenna

You are amazing, you make me feel ashamed just reading your post I am sat here, feeling sorry for myself and achieving nothing!

Well done for being so organised - and so positive :j

Shoe Gal x

ms_london

Hi Jenna

Just read your whole thread & just wanted to say hi!

To be honest, if you have found a pysch that is making a diffference and making you feel better, stick with it! Or even cut to two sessions a month rather than go without completely - your health is far more important and to be honest, I dont think your debt is too bad - although I guess debt is still debt and worrying nonetheless. ((probably because my debt was £19,000!)).

I understand where you are coming from on the wanting to travel/live abroad thing. That was my motivation for becoming debt free, and I just returned (well, 6 months ago now!) from a 25 month around the world trip (obviously working aswell). LOVED IT.

It sounds like you have a lot of ideas, but you cant do it all at the same time, so think about what you want first, and what would benefit your health the most. For example, your own business, it may jeoprodise your health? My advice would be to travel, however, I am bias, and obviously your OH needs to share the same views :rolleyes: .

On the a/d front, it depends on the individual and the antidepressant, I've just made the decision to come off them (been on them since Nov) as I found they numbed everything, but not in a good way, i.e. unable to cry, which some people could argue is the whole point, but I just felt worse as sometimes the relief of crying helps IYSWIM. Also, I find that I dont care about anything, so my spending & other stuff goes out of control, which is how I run up the debt in the first place. But up to you, see what your doctor says and what you feel comfortable with.

What are you doing today? I saw confessions of a shopaholic in the week and loved it, very funny!
Have a good day :j :j