what are you planning for your debt free life?

JAMIEDODGER

hi all,

its taken me quite a while to finally have my lightbulb moment and at 32 i have suddenly realised that if i dont start paying off the money i owe now i may well stay in debt for the rest of my life, always robbing peter to pay paul, buying on the never never and generally living beyond my means.

i am glad i have reached the monumentous decision to pay it all off starting here...january 2006!!!

i have been thinking a lot about what i will do when i no longer have to pay out to those debts each month, and will suddenly have disposable income. buying a home of my own is not an option for me as i rent a substantially sized 4 bed house from the housing association and would never be able to afford a mortgage to house me and my 4 kids. so, i have decided when i am debt free i would like to do the following:

1) take a holiday every year (wherever it doesnt have to be expensive) as i have never been able to take my kids on a proper holiday.

2) save £100 in an isa per month

3) have some rainy day saving incase of appliance breakdown (£1000 in an instant access account)

4) never buy my car insurance on dd again, make sure i have the money to pay in full, and also have the money to buy 12 months car tax instead of 6 months.

5) save some money for my children

all these things would make my life so much better and in control.


what will you do........?

Kevicho

My aim is to have a holiday for my next birthday in october, while technically i wont be debt free, i aim to have all my non loan debt paid and have some savings by then

After that i want to maintain my current level of savings, so that this is not in vain and i can start looking at ways of making money from having enough money to invest etc

overdrawn

hi jd,
i have been giving this some thought lately as i hope to be debt free by 16th feb '06 thanks to advice from this site.
unfortunately i will be on benefits for a while as i have 5 kids,my husband is leaving and i don't want anyone else to bring up mybaby,so i won't be working until 2008 when she starts school.
however once i stop throwing all my money at my debts(originally £7000) i don't want to go back to my old ways and would love to know the way forward. i only have one credit card now and only spend what i have in my bank and use the skypoints to pay my sky bill.
i won't go back to loads of takeaways,or many mobile contracts,but other than that any advice anyone????

JAMIEDODGER

hi overdrawn. i too cannot go back to work until my youngest goes to school, due to no special needs (DS3) child care in my area and the fact that i am a single parent. that will be 2008 aswell (they must be around the same age she is 22 months). ATM i live on a shoestring budget throwing everything i can at my debts, praying for the day when i will be free. i am hoping to have paid all but my car loan off this time next year.

my advice to you would be carry on what you are doing but instead of paying off your debt with surplus cash, save it instead. keep on keeping on and live below your means xx

lottie26_2

hi i plan to do pretty much the same
1 Save, save, save for house, it won't be for a few years yet but i can see it.
2 Have a holiday i'm not wanting to have a holiday for silly money.
3 save money for the children's future.

overdrawn

hi jd,
yes my daughter is 20 months ........going on 3 !!!!!!!
major chatterbox!! thanks that sounds like good advice to me. good luck with your debts ,
louise
ps. love your avatar !!!!!!

pixie1

Im trying to plan for a tomorrow but it seems such a long way off, but if i make it .....
I would like to be able to save, to treat my husband to something nice instead of him always treating me and maybe for once paying towards a holiday.

FrankieM

We will be debt free ( other than mortgage) at the end of this month :j

We are saving to go to Oz :j Originally it was to relocate but now we are having to do a slight rethink cause it all seems so expensive over there and we don't have any savings cause of our debt :mad:

Of course I'm struggling to not spend our 'extra' money on all the broken stuff we've been making do with :rolleyes:

roversbabe

Hopefully pay off my mortgage earlier - I'm hoping to go part time after my maternity leave so I might not be able to though

ag359

You could always move over to the Gambling Introductory Offers board, and make some money to accumulate some savings!

Old_iron_balls

Just to settle down really.
I have a great g/f of five years who will find me down on one knee the day i become debt free.
I would of done it way before now but ive promised myself ill get myself out of this horrible situation first. ( DFD in around 10 months if not sooner )
Its something to aim for and look forward too.