steph123steph diary...Journey to debt free and beyhond!!

steph123steph

:THi everybody, I thought it was about time I started my own diary as I have been lurking for a while and took lots of great tips from you guys.

So here's my story. I'm 21, married, with one very precious daughter aged 1. Me and husband both work full time, and very hard. Over the past couple of years we've been stupid enough to take out finance on things that were definatly not needed but now I am clamping down! I look forward to the day I can go to work, and know that my money will be for me and my family and not the banks directors! :-)

I worked out all my figures for my debt, and my mortgage from 6th October 2009, (the 6th as all my direct debits have cleared by then and this is the first day of the financial year so I know exaclty how much debt I will be carrying over year by year!) I aim to repay my mortgage and debt off at the same time, as I fell more motivated by seeing all my figures going down as opposed to one :-)

The figures...

My total debt - 10,717.36 as a household on 06/10 GULP!

Savings - £5530 (I plan to keep this for emergencies)

Mortgage!

Well heres the story behind our mortgage. We bought our first home June 2008 at the peak of the market. We were in a rush to move (we exchanges contracts on my pregnancy due date!!) so decided to buy a shared ownership home as we didnt have a large deposit to go anywhere else. The value of our home was £118000, so our share, 50%, was £59000. Our deposit was £4950, so our mortgage balance started at £54050. When I received my first mortgage statement, I was a little disheartened at the balance to say the least. So my overpayment journey begins now!!!

My rate is fixed until 2013, at 6.39% !! not happy, but what can I do now :-) Me and my husband both agree, that we want to add another child to our family within the next couple of years. So our aim is to pay enough into our mortgage so that we have around 15-20K equity in our share when we want to upgrade to a bigger house. Were hoping to do this by the time our fixed rate ends... who knows?

Ive started a weekly shopping budget, of £30 for the 3 of us, my daughter eats all her meals in nursery at the moment. Im hoping to try £100 for the whole of next month from the 1st to 1st, as Im finding £30 is more than enough, and we have lots of leftovers still.

Sorry to bore you all, wish me luck ! :T

I look forward to the 6th November, when I take all my new reduced balances :-) xx

setmefree2

Hi Steph,

Do you have debt on credit cards?

steph123steph

no no credit cards anymore. I have an intrest free loan for a bloody expensive couch and also a loan with fixed repayments.:rolleyes:

RosieTiger

Welcome and good luck !

StuartGMC

Best wishes on the journey and do keep us updated

steph123steph

Thanks :-) Ill pop by with updates as often as they come :-) xx

setmefree2

steph123steph wrote: »

Thanks :-) Ill pop by with updates as often as they come :-) xx

Look forward to reading your updates

steph123steph

Hey everybody, just popping in to make an update to myself and anybody lurking :-)

Ive just paid £25 off my mortgage today! Yippee!! I know its only small but they soon add up.

My shopping budget is going really well too which is pleasing. I start the week on a Sunday, and try to last to the following Sunday, and managed to go until Wednesday without shopping again so 10 days :-)

I have quite a few listings on the go at the moment on Ebay, I know the fees are robbery but they seem to be doing quite well, infact superceeding what I expected so Im going to split the money onto my mortgage and maybe keep a little for a treat for me and hubby!

xx

carrieg_2

You go!. Sounds like you have the formula down!

evab_2

Welcome and good luck with all your plans x

steph123steph

thank you :-) Just about got time to stumble accross the old style board and taken some really great tips.

I have cut my food bill hugely, going from £30-£50 per week for just myself to £25-£30 per week for a family of three! really not been as hard as I anticipated!! But I have only just considered freezing leftovers and reusing them. I just have to get creating. Going to print off all the good tips, put them in alphabetical order and when Im stuck on what to make with the leftover, I can just look!

And as a bonus, my mum really isnt the type to bother with money saving etc, so shes agreed to freeze all her food that they wont use by use date, and pass it on to me when I pop round instead of binning it! Bonus!

Have a night in with the hubby planned tomorrow. Daughter is at my mums for the night, so going to make the most of our much deserved peace and quite. We have a pizza takeaway planned, but Im currently searching for a nice recipe that will cost us less but taste just as good :-) Dont tell the hubby though ;-) xx