My introduction

Tauster_2

Hi All

I had a light bulb moment a couple of months ago and since then I have been lurking on the DFW boards and thought it was about time that I finally introduced myself.

At LBM in Oct 08 our debts (shared with my husband) were £38,600 excluding our mortgage :eek::eek:

Since my LBM I read Martins article and have done a credit card shuffle by moving credit card debts to existing cards with lower APRs. This should save us approx £1590 in interest over the life of the debts.

I then looked into Snowballing, again another tip I picked up from this website. By using the snowballing method and over paying on loans we should save a further £1400 in interest payments and also be debt free 13 sooner than previously thought.

Our Debt Free date should be around Nov 2012, which is a long way off I know but it is a target that we are looking forward to meeting!

I have also been looking into saving money in our other monthly outgoings. So far I have changed our land line and broadband providers to Talk Talk on a special deal that I saw on MSE and should save approx £412.50 over the next 18 months.

We have also been meal planning since LBM and currently trying to decrease our food bills even further. Thanks to the Old Style Money saving forum I have found Stardrops and now have a very shining house all for less than £1!

My LBM came from the increasingly worsening economy and the real risk that my husband, myself or both of us could loose our jobs I decided that we really really needed to sort ourselves out. Once we are DF then we are going to try for a family - out of the frying pan into the fire? :rotfl:

I think that if enough about me for now.

Just wanted to say thanks to all that post here your tips, wisdom and support have been great so far :beer: and from now on I will promise to post and not to lurk

Thanks for reading
Tauster

EverTheOptimist

Hi Tauster

Just wanted to say welcome and congratulations on your LBM. :T

This site is amazing, i look forward to payday now so i can reduce my debts further!! And you'll be amazed at the tips on here, when you think you've done what you can to reduce outgoings and increase income, someone somewhere comes up with something else.

I dont know if you've done an SOA, or whether you want to share it at this point but the peeps on here can see if you can make any more savings.

So good luck on your debt free journey, and i bet with the hard work you've already done :j and with more to come you can reduce that date even further.

ETO

rubyslipper

Hi Tauster

I'll just back up what ETO has already said and welcome you to the boards! It sounds like you've really turned a corner and with a future family to focus on you've really got great motivation.

You're right - MSE is a fab place to hang out and after a while little things become second nature. For me I was always terrified of checking my bank account online as I had no idea how awful it was going to be from one day to the next but now I know exactly what's going in and more importantly coming out and I check it religiously every day.

You might find some of the challenges on here like Sealed Pot useful - I'm hoping to use my sealed pot contents to buy my Xmas presents this year!

Anyway, welcome out from lurker's corner and do keep posting!

Ruby x

gettingbetter

hi

well done for taking the plunge and posting
www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

if you feel you can post it up
we will all pick it to bits and
see if we can help

kas xx

Numpty_Monkey

Hello and welcome:hello:

Just watch out , there are loads of strange people on here :eek:

They try to help you save money and stuff:think::D:A

DFrancis_3

Welcome to the forum.

gettingbetter

Numpty_Monkey wrote: »

Hello and welcome:hello:

Just watch out , there are loads of strange people on here :eek:

They try to help you save money and stuff:think::D:A

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

kas xx

Head-Out-Of-Sand

Hi Tauster, welcome to the forum, and congratulations on all your hard word so far!

Keep up the good work and keep posting, it'll keep you motivated and on track! :T

Tixy

Hi Tauster. Good to have you on board

Numpty_Monkey wrote: »

Just watch out , there are loads of strange people on here :eek:

They try to help you save money and stuff:think::D:A

:rotfl:The stranger the better on here ;)

Tauster_2

Thanks everyone!

I will do a SOA in a few weeks when I know how much of a paycut my husband is going to have to take as everything might change a bit then.

RubySlipper - we were bought a Terramundi pot for a wedding present and have been using that as our sealed pot which is being filled up nicely :j

Numpty Monkey -thanks for the warning I will watch out for money saving weirdos

gettingbetter

Tauster wrote: »

Thanks everyone!



Numpty Monkey -thanks for the warning I will watch out for money saving weirdos

hmmmmmmmmmmm guess that will be me then

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

back to the naughty seat

kas xx