Lee's Debt Free Diary: New Years Day Here I Come!

LeeSouthEast

Well, it's about time I posted this... thanks to you all for your support, ideas and spirit so far.

A little bit of background: my wife left in December last year (2008), and at that moment I decided I'd had enough of living in the pit of my £1,500 overdraft every month (courtesy of her, essentially), and I was going to become debt free by the end of 2009. It was an arbitrary target but one with a lot of emotional significance to me; new year, new life, etc. After giving up the house we rented together I moved back in with my parents, so after essentials there is a lot of surplus for debt repayment.

I started off with over £17k owing once all loans were totaled up, cards, overdraft and potential divorce costs (although I'm not including that as a 'debt' per se).

My debts stand at, as of today:

• BarclayPlus Loan: £9,200-odd at posting
• Egg Credit Card: £1,022-odd at posting
• BarclayCard: £450-odd at posting

BarclayCard is a 0% balance transfer of £1,000 off the Egg card taken out in January. This will be paid off in 4 months (fixed payment of £120/mo), Egg will be gone in about 3-4 months as well (fixed payment of £400/mo) and given the BarclayLoan is front-loaded, I'm putting £1,000 a month into a high-interest account until December with a view to paying that off just before New Years Day. There's already £3,500 in the savings account.

Other ways of raising money: I've got some tat to eBay, which will probably rake in a few hundred pounds. I'm doing all the overtime under the sun at work, which will bring in between an extra £200-£600/mo depending how much I push myself. ALL of August is designated as NSD (thanks to others for that idea!). My SOA has been cut down to about £250 for the bare essentials of living - getting to work, eating, mobile, and my LoveFilm subscription - everything else goes toward debt repayment.

My goal beyond DFD: Saving for a deposit on a nice place to call my own. That is my life target. This is my diary. :A

LeeSouthEast

So today is the last day I can 'spend', and it's quite well timed. I'm taking my wonderful little cousin out for a late lunch before she disappears back to uni. Nothing outrageous, probably just Subway or something as we're pushed for time... but it'll be the nicest Subway I've ever eaten!

I budget £50/mo for food for the month, of which I've spent £44.50 of it so far (the month begins on the 20th of each month for me), and I've got so much stuff in the freezer that's home made from large pots (thanks OS'ers!), I reckon bar a couple of days towards the end, that I won't be needing to buy food at all for a few weeks with the exception of toping up my fruit bowl - that'll be where my small food cash surplus will come in!

Primula

Good luck. Looks like you've come a long way already, from looking at your signature and you sound very focussed.

Buffythedebtslayer

*subscribes*

Excellent, glad you have a diary, as i said on your other thread I think you are doing brilliantly

xxxxx

LeeSouthEast

Thanks guys! Welcome to my little scrap of cyberspace (Thanks Martin!).

Lunch was a respectable £15 for the two of us which was a nice surprise! Ended up in a pub round the corner from the train station so she could eat, drink, and hop lol. So.. that's it. No further spending. *gulp*.

The entire list of outgoings for August:

Barclaycard: £120
Egg: £400
Barclays Loan: £412
Three Mobile: ~£25
LoveFilm: £15.95
Websites: £12
Fuel: £100

No other spending permitted at all! Should be fun.

penguin83

Hi Lee, welcome to diaryland! You are doing really well and sound really focussed.

Good luck for your NSD challenge x x x

LeeSouthEast

Well, day one of my NSD-month passed without incident yesterday. It was a nice surprise to go to work and find I was being fed for free, so what I brought in went back in the fridge for another day!

Today I think if I smile nicely and make lots of tea, I might be included in Mum's roast dinner plans later so that's another food freebie. Nothing immediately jumping out out me for buying, although it's Mum's birthday on the 19th and she wants a specific Wii game... going to have to do some serious thinking about that one. Has to be a way around it besides shoplifting lol

penguin83

Well done on your NSD's and there is nothing like a roast dinner from mum so enjoy it! xx

LeeSouthEast

I hadn't planned to, but I paid off the majority balance of my Egg card today! Will be £82 left on it by the time the payment clears (down from £3,700 at the beginning of the year). Have set the direct debit instruction to 'clear in full' next month. Paid up 5 months earlier than originally planned at the start of this year with a saving of approximately £150 in interest and PPI charges!

Not bothered about the Barclaycard, that interest free period will outlive the balance so that'll be gone of its own accord by November at the latest.

By new workings out I'll have sufficient surplus to pay off my Barclayloan by New Years Day AND possibly still have enough to pay my solicitor as well.

Things are looking up for once. Excuse me while I enjoy the moment before something blows up / gets stolen / lost / arrives unexpectedly.

penguin83

Well done Lee, that is really good how much you have cleared off the Egg card and it is nearly gone for good.

As you say enjoy the moment x x x

LeeSouthEast

I had a speculative visit to the mortgage advisor in my bank today. No real reason other than to discuss some figures and see what price range I might be able to consider once I'm past my DFD.

I'm still in shock.

£158,000 pre-approved. :eek:

Need to start working on my deposit once January is here. For the very best rates apparently 70% LTV is the goal.

Looks like frugal living is set to continue for a while yet