The Debt Free Birthday Club Challenge!

laura2481

*Jellie* wrote: »

Good to see you joining us Sashanut! Good luck with the challenge!

I'm in a bit of a quandry at the moment as I'm probably going to sell my house. I think to make it more saleable I'll have to spend some money on repairs and tarting it up a bit. Unfortunately this could mean not reducing and even adding to my debt for a bit. I'm loathe to stop throwing money at my debt even for a couple of months as I really want to make this challenge!

Hmm, tough one Jellie.. but if you spent a bit on improvements would you perhaps make a enough of a profit to clear your debts? If so- I would perhaps think of it as speculating to accumulate But set a definite budget on those home improvements

*Jellie*

Thanks Laura. I think you're right but it's difficult to know what is worth doing. I'm trying to figure out the easiest things I can do cheaply!! It's not worth doing too much as my place is best marketed for first time buyers who want a house rather than a flat.
This may sound weird but I wanted to clear my debts the hard way rather than using property equity- I really need to feel like I've had to work hard to get myself sorted to get into good habits for the future and to stop myself just getting into debt again.

rictus123

Well im exactly £2,000 in the red and turned 18 at the end of June! So id definatly hope im totally debt free at 19 with some savings behind me!

mooomin

I've been meaning to update the thread with the new members, but I'm rubbish so haven't!

I'm at work just now so could someone PM me and I will sort it tomorrow morning!

Cheers

PS - Welcome new folk, I'm normally more organised than this

laura2481

*Jellie* wrote: »

This may sound weird but I wanted to clear my debts the hard way rather than using property equity- I really need to feel like I've had to work hard to get myself sorted to get into good habits for the future and to stop myself just getting into debt again.

I know what you mean.. but have you considered clearing your debt with the equity- but then 'repaying' the amount you used into a savings account. Thereby teaching you continued good money habits of budgeting and saving- but not costing YOU any more, nor giving any more than necessary to the credit card folks (or whoever )

Just an idea...

savingholmes

Progress is painfully slow - but at least there is some!

mooomin

sashanut wrote: »

I've been a subscriber to this thread but not actually joined it before as I couldn't see a realistic birthday for clearing the debt:eek: Now things are looking up a bit financially so I would like to join please & have as the DFD my DH's 50th birthday on 290910. I haven't added up the debts:eek: but will try to do so, wish me luck!!

rictus123 wrote: »

Well im exactly £2,000 in the red and turned 18 at the end of June! So id definatly hope im totally debt free at 19 with some savings behind me!

Welcome!! You're on the front page list now and I've allocated you a Challenge Number. Good luck with the debt-busting!

I'm doing ok this month but not amazingly well My ticker won't be great...still, it's always good to know I have the support of all the lovely DFWs! :T

sashanut

Thanks for the welcome folks - as you know f_f I am also on the PAD challenge & finding it really useful ton concentrate the mind, I feel twitchy if I haven't PADDed:D

Here's a bit of my story FWIW - similar to many others I am sure!! I've been on MSE for quite a while now, originally joining when the debt was so big that I couldn't sleep & DH didn't know about it:eek: Finally had the courage to face it (& him) & spent some time sorting out all the finances as best we could. The short story is that we both had well-paid jobs but then DH wrote a best-selling course & we went self-employed - made a lot of money v.quickly, bought cars/big house/lots of needless stuff etc etc. After a few years the money slowed but the spending didn't :mad: & so we put a lot of it on credit cards. Eventually we got so that the money almost completely dried up.......but of course the bills were still there in spades.

When I finally woke up & decided to take control, our income had dwindled to virtually nothing but outgoings were massive. I trimmed these as much as possible, still a work in progress - but the major thing was to keep our heads above water, which we did - just - & stop spending on the ccs. So really we could only 'tread water' for the last couple of years, with the debt not really reducing that much IYSWIM.

Now it looks like the business is picking up again - & thankfully we have always just about managed to pay the tax/VAT bills (with the help of overdrafts though) but at least we are not in arrears with anything.

The focus is now to get rid of these debts & to never fall into that trap again :mad:.......so I'm hoping this challenge will help with a definite date in mind. When I make my PADs I am aware that sometime they look large, but of course my bills are also large:eek:

Re the total owed, I've not been brave enough to total quite everything, but in Feb when I did a snowball, the total on there was £67,174:eek:

Now it is standing at £56,736 but although I set up the snowball originally, I really want to set up another - also keeping the first one - but can't see a way to do it on there - can anyone help??

BTW thanks for all your support, I couldn't do it without you:T:T:T

SarahNeedle1872

If you use whatsthecost, you can just build a new snowball in the same way as you create the original one, then save it as a different name

HTH

Sx

Purpleroses

Can I join in too? Have been lurking on this thread so thought it would be better if I just join. I'm aiming to have most of my debt gone by the end of the year and then to be debt free by my birthday in Feb. I'll be 26 then.
Since Dec last year i've paid of £1926.10 so need to put some serious effort in in order to shift it all.
Did one of those ticker things (which i'm finding slightly addictive now lol)