Earthdancer's Dump the Debt Diary 2009

earthdancer

Well, after posting my SOA earlier in the week and receiving some excellent advice :T I have decided that I need to start a diary thread to set my goals and keep track of my progress. Even if no one else reads it, I've written my plans down in an open forum so I'll find it harder to find an excuse not to stick to them.

My LBM was towards the end of December 2008 when I assessed my level of debt at £27,383.85. :eek: Not as huge as some people are facing, but I know that we need a bigger house (therefore a bigger mortgage), need a new car (mine is only just staying on the road) and need to stop living in the overdraft, and all of those things will only be possible if we bring that figure down significantly - preferably to ZERO!

I currently don't class my mortgage as 'debt' - we need a roof over our heads and unless we win the lottery, a mortgage is a necessary evil. The rest however is purely down to our 'want it now' attitude in the past, and our poor financial planning. So, our first goals are (1) plan for the expected and (2) plan for the unexpected.

I have made progress already. In January and February this year I have managed to reduce our monthly overdraft by around £800. If we stick to the budget I set out for this month we should end March in the black for the first time in over a year. I also transferred the balance of my highest interest CC to a lower rate of 8.5% fixed until August 2012. I could have tried the 0% interest route but most of the deals I found online would allow a max transfer of £5000 on a 9 month deal and I didn't want to end up with 2 or more new cards that needed switching again before the end of the year. Time will tell if I made the right decision. Last month I also managed to pay an extra £214 off my higher rate cards from ebay sales and selling two old mobile phones to a recycling company recommened on MSE.

My goals for this month (March) are:
- End the month in the black on our current account (no more overdraft!)
- Make at least £75 on ebay sales (10 items listed so far)
- Bank at least £30 of £2s into 'emergency fund' (£2 savers challenge)
- Bank at least £20 of loose change to pay towards debt (Loose change pays debt challenge)

You may wonder why I keep switching from 'me/my' to 'our'. Fact is, I am ready to tackle our debt but DH isn't quite there yet. He understands we have to do it, but is worried we'll have to stop living in order to do it. So, final goal for this month - get DH onside! I have the snowball calculator results all ready to show him... :rotfl:

Pippilongstocking

Hi and welcome to diary land you seem to have done tonnes of great things already - good luck on your target for March!!

skysky69

Getting the OH's on side is sometimes the biggest battle. I have to say that most of the debt tackling is down to me. My OH seems to think that because we can make the monthly payments every month, that everything is great. He is probably about 90% on board I would say, he just needs that extra push every now and again.

earthdancer

Grrr! Just when you think you're making progress on repaying the credit cards, you find you've inadvertently added another transaction. In my case some concert tickets that I thought were being paid for out of our 'savings for entertainment' budget. It seems that the default card on that website is one of my credit cards and not a debit card so my balance has jumped by £80 Just need to find out how to change it now so I'm spending money I actually have rather than credit.

On a more positive note, today was a No Spend Day. I was a bit late to sign up for March's challenge, but hoping to join in for April. In the meantime I'm aiming for at least 2 NSDs per week. Things are still on track to meet the March goals. 2/10 of my ebay items have received bids already so fingers crossed for more - still 6 days to go Also made an overpayment of £50 on my storecard balance - ambitious but means we'll have to be extra careful about unnecessary spending for the rest of the month.

earthdancer

No NSD today - forgot I'd promised to go swimming at lunchtime, so £2.70 for that, and was so thirsty when I got out that I bought a can of pop - 39p. I did take my own lunch however, so no temptation to go spend a fiver at the butty shop across the road. Away with work for the day tomorrow so should manage a NSD, fingers crossed.

Checked ebay auctions 3/10 will sell so far and another 1 is being watched. Left enough change in purse for long stay car park tomorrow and put rest in the 'loose change' pot.

earthdancer

Eek £7 for the station car park today and £2 on a coffee from the cafe, so lost the chance for a NSD. Found 2 £2 coins for my savings pot though, so not a totally wasted day. Off to look at prices for a Sky+ box now. If it's not too high then I want to cancel the monthly insurance premium we pay to Sky.

earthdancer

Cut out some unnecessary spending today that would have ended up on my credit card. My subscription to a genealogy site is due for renewal on 1 April at a cost of £83.40 but I hardly have time at the moment to make use of it, so I've cancelled it for now. Can't put that money towards my debt, but at least it didn't join the existing total

Seem to have miscalculated on our budget this month and it's looking like we may not end in the black after all unless I can pull it back somehow Am having to remind DH that we are trying to get out of debt and that the budget for 'entertainment' needs trimming.

My 3 ebay auctions are going ok, with one item having 22 watchers, but the remaining 7 seem to have no interest. Oh well... Missed out on another NSD due to buying a can of pop - it's so easy to forget!

earthdancer

Red Nose Day today - seemed mean not to make a donation even though 'Charity begins at home'. Handed out a total of £10 between me and the kids but I feel good about that.

earthdancer

First batch of ebay auctions for March ended on Sunday with 7/10 items sold and a total of £51.18 raised. Relisted the remaining 3 items and added a couple more and so far one is selling for over £16 so I'm on target to meet my goal of £75 of ebay sales IF the others pick up. Still decluttering so on the look out for potential sales to boost the debt overpayment for this month.

Unnecessary spending got a bit out of control this week with 2 birthday celebrations and giving in to DS1's pleading to buy a particular game. That will have to stop if we're to keep from undoing all our hard work.

mrscmr

Hello Earthdancer

im totally with you on the OH not quite there yet! im managing our repayment plan - debt free by 2013. seems a million years away but just need to keep head down and get through a day at a time.
im also doing the ebay thing and have managed 64 pounds so far this month with 1 more item with a bid but ending soon. will list more and also doing boot sale/table top sale in a couple of weeks - loads to sell due to excessive spending and greed... learnt lesson the hard way!
best of luck and i support u 100%
mrscmr

earthdancer

Thought I'd give myself a bit of a progress update now I'm nearing the end of my first month as a Debt Free Nerd.

My goals for this month (March) are:
- End the month in the black on our current account - Looking good for this one, tho maybe by the skin of our teeth!
- Make at least £75 on ebay sales - Achieved already £83 made
- Bank at least £30 of £2s into 'emergency fund' - Not banked, but £30 in the pot already
- Bank at least £20 of loose change to pay towards debt - Really not sure about this one - the pot feels heavy but an awful lot is copper

I've also managed some overpayments on my credit cards this month, values to be calculated when I do my monthly review on Tuesday, so I'm expecting the overall debt repayment this month to be over £1200! Shame the interest payments mean that the actual debt reduction is a lot less, but its moving in the right direction. Looking forward to updating my sig on Tuesday