A wedding & 15k worth of debt - Aiming for a Debt Free Married life!

spykey_uk

Well, I have finally had my LBM this week and realised that I need to get my finances under control, and fast! I am a long time lurker but have not been an active posted, so I hope you don’t mind but I am going to start myself a little diary to keep myself motivated and hope to pick up lots of tips from you lovely people!

Total debt = £7,640 (£3,321 on loan, £882 on overdraft (with a shocking 19.4% interest - that's my first focus!) and the balance on credit cards (all 0% at the moment)). :eek:

I have been reading lots of the other diaries on here and they are so motivating, so it has made me want to sort out my own life!

So, a bit about me…I am a trainee solicitor (doing the job of a solicitor but for a tiny salary until I qualify!) living in Hertfordshire with my fianc!, who is an engineer. Between us we have around £14-15k worth of debt, but it works out at pretty much exactly £7.5k each, so we have decided to each concentrate on clearing our own at the moment.

To top it all off, we have booked our wedding for 20th August 2010, so have just over a year to go. We have almost saved everything we needed to pay off that, but have around £2.5k to go, so I need to add that to the total to get. We would LOVE to have a honeymoon, but obviously if the money’s not there we can’t. So IF I manage it, then the next step will be saving for a lovely holiday, our first as man and wife.

I would just love to be debt free by the time we are Mr & Mrs…I don’t think its realistic, but I’m going to give it a d@mn good try! I qualify as a solicitor on 1st July 2010, so think I am going to try and aim for that as a starting point, and then have a couple of months ley-way if I don’t quite make it! :rotfl:

So I hope you can bear my waffle for the next year or so, as I am going to try my best to get myself Debt Free by Qualification/Marriage!

So far this week I have listed 22 items on ebay, requested my internet banking details for my current account so that I can keep more of a track on my spending (and transfer excesses to my debts) and transferred most of my credit card debt onto my 0% Abbey card (0% until June 2010).

Goals for This Week:
Set up internet banking and check daily
List another 8 items on ebay (making a grand total of 30 for the week)
Have lunch at home/bring packed lunch every week instead of eating out

Here’s to a Debt Free August 2010!

spykey_uk

I forgot to mention, I have also: -

• Signed up to do daily clickies with archerfish;
• Signed up to freecycle to help dejunk the house, and also see if I can get a new bookshelf (ours has fallen down but I don't want to buy a new one when we're struggling with bills/debts etc).
• Added the bank account with an overdraft debt to paypal so that I can withdraw my ebay profits directly to the debt.
• Been reading moneysavingexpert.com and particularly the DFW boards religiously!

Feeling really motivated at the moment, I so want to get debt-free and taking these first few steps towards that is a great feeling! :j x

floris_2

welcome to the forum!
im sure it can be done, im amazed at the amount of debt the lovely people on these forums are able to pay off in such a short space of time, its such an inspiration
do you have much else to buy for your wedding?
i had a fantastic wedding on a limited budget (in barley, herts) so give me a shout if you need any ideas
also, and not sure if im allowed to do this - im currently training as a mua and need to build up my portfolio before i can launch my business sept next year - would be happy to do yours, bridesmaids and mother of bride makeup in exchange for photographs if not a million miles away (im herts,essex borders)
re: honeymoon, why not give yourself a little more time to save for a honeymoon and have a nice holiday over xmas - a double celebration - getting married and qualifying as a solicitor, perfect!

Fire_Fox

If you have wedding savings you should use these to pay off the expensive overdraft, then focus on saving to put the money back into your wedding fund.

spykey_uk

Fire_Fox wrote: »

If you have wedding savings you should use these to pay off the expensive overdraft, then focus on saving to put the money back into your wedding fund.

I know you're right, but I'm just terrified of using the funds for the wedding and then, for some reason, not being able to repay that money into the wedding fund. I think there's just something comforting about knowing that whatever happens the wedding is paid for. We stand to lose a lot of money in deposits if we can't go through with the wedding because the money isn't there.

If I were braver I would just pay it off but I'm just terrified something will happen to stop us putting the money back into the savings. Me being paranoid I guess! :rotfl:

Floris - Thanks for the advice too! We don't have a make-up lady yet, I was planning on doing it myself to save some dosh so this could be something we could consider, thanks so much for the offer! x

yukkibear

Hi and welcome to the boards. I too want to save for a wedding as well as paying off some debt. My debt is a bit smaller at around 3K but I wont book a wedding until it's paid for so I am trying really hard to get it paid off quickly.
I have a diary on here so feel free to nick any ideas if you think they're useful.
Will be reading with interest and good luck.

spykey_uk

yukkibear wrote: »

Hi and welcome to the boards. I too want to save for a wedding as well as paying off some debt. My debt is a bit smaller at around 3K but I wont book a wedding until it's paid for so I am trying really hard to get it paid off quickly.
I have a diary on here so feel free to nick any ideas if you think they're useful.
Will be reading with interest and good luck.

We'll definitely have to motivate each other then! I'm feeling quite positive about this at the moment, although no doubt there will be lots of "I can't do this" moments along the way!

I think we just had our heads in the sand when we booked the wedding and were concentrating so hard on saving for the wedding that we didn't really think about the debts that have just been sitting there since uni...but now I am determined to try and be debt free (or at least credit card and overdraft free) by the time we get married.

I will definitely have a read of your diary for inspiration as well! Here's to us becoming DFMs! (Debt-Free Marrieds!) :beer: x

spykey_uk

Well my first NSD down! I walked home for lunch and cooked something rather than buying an expensive sandwich in an overpriced shop!

I'm off home now to cook dinner for hubby-to-be (already in the slow cooker so should be an easy job!) and then list some more items on ebay and go out for a long walk with OH for some exercise (and also tv will be off for the duration so that helps lower the leccy bills!).

Here's to another NSD tomorrow! x

Fire_Fox

spykey_uk wrote: »

I know you're right, but I'm just terrified of using the funds for the wedding and then, for some reason, not being able to repay that money into the wedding fund. I think there's just something comforting about knowing that whatever happens the wedding is paid for. We stand to lose a lot of money in deposits if we can't go through with the wedding because the money isn't there.

If I were braver I would just pay it off but I'm just terrified something will happen to stop us putting the money back into the savings. Me being paranoid I guess! :rotfl:

I am only suggesting paying off the overdraft which is (a) costing you a mint and (b) will still be there if you need it for the wedding. Not saying pay off the relatively cheap loan or free credit card. Alternatively would you consider changing banks?

Not sure if Alliance and Leicester are still offering the matched 0% overdraft for one year - IIRC think the catch is you have to have been out of your overdraft at some point in the last three months. So pay it off temporarily just before you apply! Also Alliance and Leicester have just launched a current account with 6% interest for one year which I upgraded to ... and there's about £50 cashback on offer too (I don't work for A&L ).

spykey_uk

No you're right, its definitely worth having a look around, to be honest I only actually found out the rate yesterday! Sounds silly but I just buried my head in the sand and didn't want to know. :embarasse

I'll have a look around tomorrow, especially at the Alliance and Leicester one - thanks so much Firefox!

Will save me around £15-20 a month in interest! x

spykey_uk

So, day two! I was really good last night and went for a long 5 miles walk, had our slow cooker dinner and then sat down in front of the laptop and listed 3 phones on Mazuma (total of £75) and sold a bunch of CDs on Magpie Music for around £10. All stuff that is lying around so will hopefully start to reduce that overdraft!

I have about 23 items listed on ebay at the moment as well, and am going to hunt around tonight and see what else I can find.

I was so pleased I had another NSD yesterday, and am hoping to try and have one today as well. I am able to walk home at lunch time so its not too difficult to walk home and make myself some lunch and then I get some exercise and normally get five minutes to do a bit of housework as well.

Not actually managed to reduce any of my debt as yet, but am hoping my current account internet banking details will be through in the next couple of days and then I can monitor what spare I have and transfer money to the debts direct. Also, I should start getting some paypal payments/cheques for ebay stuff so will pay that in direct as well.

Still feeling quite positive today, but then again it is only day two! :rotfl: x