DC's journey to become debt free and saving for wedding

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

Got home today to find the gas bill had arrived £195 for 3 months doesn't seem to bad. I have been budgeting for this each month and had enough money put away to pay for this.

I checked my quidco account today and I have £16.80 scheduled for payment at the end of the month. This will be my first payment from them. I bet you can guess where this money is going? That's right off the halifax card. I am going to aim to clear this card by the end of next month but that means absolutely no spending money on any crap. I have managed to do that this month and I am not planning to spend any unnecessary money next week either.

Have a nice evening everyone.

DC

debt_cruncher

debt_cruncher wrote: »

I am going to set myself a mini challenge to get this balance down to £320 by the end of the month.

Evening everyone

Well the balance on the halifax card now stands at £318 :j and I still have a week before the end off the month. The challenge has been easy as I have had a bit of extra money coming in this month from the sale of books.

So as I have passed this challenge I feel the need to set another one. Let's have this card cleared by the end of March.

So I will have to do this in a few steps.

Step 1 try and paid £100 off the card by end of February
Step 2 pay £170 off the card from next months wages
Step 3 need to make £48 from other scources eg scratchcards, sale of books etc
Step 4 do not spend money on unnecessary crap

If I just follow these easy steps I should have this card cleared by next month.

I am away this weekend to see my family so I am looking forward to going home.

Need to go a make a meal plan for next week and do a shopping list.

Have a good weekend

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

Today has been a good day debt busting

£7 of the halifax card
£26.74 of the black horse account
£55.25 of the creation account.

I also checked quidco and have £36.80 scheduled for payment at the end of the month. I only need to find £10 and I will be able to clear halifax card next month. I am hoping the £10 will come from the scratchcards.

I received my clubcard deal vouchers today so we just have to decide where we want to go and when. £70 worth of deals should last us about 3 months, so that''s the entertainment fund sorted.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

It is very quiet in here.

The OH has got a job interview on Thursday for a training contract. I really hope he gets it because there is very few jobs out there. The pay is not great for the first few years but once you get qualified after 3.5 years you earn a decent amount. The only drawback with the job is that you have to go to classes every Saturaday for 3 years but it is worth it in the end.

The money from the scratchcards cleared bank account today so that was put towards PAD. I was calculating today that if I can keep paying £200 or more a month of the credit card and the two finance agreements I will have them cleared by the end of August. I am really going to try and get these cleared by then so that will only leave the car loan, student loan and mortgage.

The car loan finishes in Nov 2010 so I think I am going to let this run til the end. I am going to pay an additional £100 a month of the mortgage. I think this is a good idea because when this recession is over I think interest rates will soon creep up and I want to pay as much off the mortgage as I can before then.

I also want to start proper savings for the wedding even if it is just to get deposits paid on things. I am planning to save £100 per month and hopfully the OH will have a job by end of the year and his money will go straight to savings. He should be able to manage £500 per month. I am also not letting him spent his last instalment of this student loan so that should be about £1500. I really would like to have £4000 saved by the end of the year.

Any advice would by greatly appreciated.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

This is a very late post from me. Got paid today and I have started next months budget. I made another £7 payment to halifax card. I checked quidco earlier and I have another £1.14 scheduled for payment at the end of the month. My sky subscription has now validated at £85 yesterday is was tracked at £50 and was £75 last week . So I will just have to wait and see what I get when I get paid.

Only two days til the weekend.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

I haven't posted in a while I have been really busy with things. Since the last time I posted I have paid off the halifax credit card :T . The car loan is now below £4,000 and I have started a begone fund for the black horse finance. I can't make overpayments each month on this one but I can pay it off in one go. So I am planning to have all the money saved by June so that I can pay it off.

I also received £50 of M&S vouchers the other day for Sky subscription I took out. I am going to use these to buy my dad's birthday present and some xmas pressies.

The OH heard today that he didn't get the job he went for a couple of weeks ago. He has applied to other jobs so hopefully he will get something soon.

I thought it would be worthwhile to start an emergency fund especially in this current climate so I have put £455 away into this.

I think that is all that has been happening.

DC

debt_cruncher

Evening everyone

Well the black horse begone fund is building up slowing. It now stands at £20.86. The minimum payment should come out of bank account soon and this will take the balance below £500. I am going to try and have a balance of £60 in the begone fund by the end of the month. I have been working through my budgets for the next few months and I should be able to have this account paid off by the end of June.

I am out of the office at the minute and every day I am out I save £3 car parking. I am putting this money into the DIY fund and the balance is only £3.35 but at least it is a start.

Any other spare money which I get I am putting into the wedding fund. I have put £8 into this in the last few days. Any money from the scratchcards and Quidco is going into this fund.

I got the car serviced at the weekend and that cost £106. I am glad that I started putting money away for the car because I do not know how I would have paid for this otherwise. Saving has never been my strong point but I think I am doing OK so far. I might even have turned a corner as I do not like spending a single penny.

DC

debt_cruncher

Morning everyone

Got a busy weekend

Have to go to bank and put some money into savings account for future bills.
Need to do grocery shopping
Need to finish off work for Monday
Going to cinema later. Got a 2 for 1 voucher to use and have got some sweets to take with me. So hoping to spend less than £10.

Need to go and get ready as bank closes at 12.

Be back later with an update.
DC

debt_cruncher

Afternoon everyone

I had a sale on amazon today should clear £2 after postage. Not a lot of money I know but it is £2 more than I had this morning. I only need 50p and then I can withdraw £10 from the free scratchcards. I am putting all these additional bits of money into the wedding fund and it is gradually getting bigger.

I went grocery shopping yesterday and only spent £22.46 and I only need bread and milk during the week. So meal planning is really helping me keep to a budget of £30 per week and we still have treats.

I have had a NSD and I do not plan to be out the rest of the day. Still 2 weeks till payday but I seem to have money in my bank account. Unsual for me as I am always skint.

Not much other debt free things happening. Just having a relaxing sunday.
DC

Jolly2009

Hi Debtcruncher,

Just thought i'd pop in and say hi Hope you don't mind! I love the way you update regularly and seem to have an ahievement each time, it's really positive!

Have a diary myself but not so good at keeping to it and also achieving anything of late....hopefully that'll change! Anyhows, good luck with the clearing of debts and saving for the wedding fund - what better reason to clear those debts and make the extra pennies :T

Take care, x