Debt free and buy a house by 35

Cloudy456

Well done on the half marathon! You're making brilliant progress with the debts so try not to get demoralised. I can imagine that living at home must be a bit tough but you're so lucky to be able to do that and make much faster progress on the debts. I think its better to suffer a bit more for a shorter time than drag it out. I wish I lived close enough to my Mum to move back in with her for a while... but I can imagine its not all its cracked up to be even with the rent savings :-)

Keep going at the rate you have been and you'll be there before long!

andymc29

Just updated my signature and made an overpayment of £200 to my natwest loan. Total debt's dropped under 17k now. Feels good, should be under 16k by this time next month, tehn under 15k by Christmas, I won't have made my year target of half my debt, but it still feels great to see it dropping.

southantrim3

Good going - keep at it and it will soon be gone.

andymc29

Another day, another £100 overpayment made. Need to stop myself paying too much, don't want to run out of money before the end of the month. It's just so tempting to keep making payments.

andymc29

Weirdly enough, due to me paying off an amount on my credit card this month at the same time the direct debit took the minimum amount, I'm now just over 7 quid in credit on my card. Well, the interest rate is about 15% so let's see whether I get the same interest when I've lent them money...... (I know I won't)

andymc29

I couldn't help myself, I've paid another £150 off my big loan, I wanted to knock it under 15k. So it's no 14977.24, feel so much better. I really want to be under 16k total at the end of this month. Then under 15k by Christmas.

andymc29

I'm trying zopa again, they have a listing section, where you can put in a personal listing for the zopa lenders to decide whether to lend to you or not and at what rate.

So I've put a listing on and will see what offer I get, the whole point is to get a much lower APR than the 16.6% I'm paying with natwest now.

andymc29

I've decided to cancel my Zopa loan application. I did a quick spreadsheet looking at how much it would save me. And it's just not worth it if I'm going to overpay as much as planned. If I just left it and paid the minimum amount each month, then I'd save a load of cash, but if I'm paying back a grand a month as planned, then I only save 50 quid, so not worth the hassle of switching. Besides, I like that my loan amount goes down straight away on my online banking, it takes a few days for Zopa to register a payment.

In other news, I'm not immune to the lure of computer games and am sat waiting for my copy of Balck Ops to arrive. Not much time to play it though, got Taekwondo training tonight, then taking teh GF out for dinner tomorrow night.

andymc29

I joined the local college gym today. It's great, it's five minutes walk from my office so I can go at lunch times, or before/after work. It's got a seperate weights room and lots of good qulaity gym equipment. And the best bit is it's only £20 per month for unlimited use! You won't get that at a normal public gym!

So for any of you paying out full price for a posh gym, check out your local poly college, they might do a cheap public deal like this one does.

It's Cambridge regional college gym for anyone interested.

This actually works out as a money saver, because it means I won't be going to Tesco at lunch and will have to make my lunch at home cause I'll be at the gym at lunch.

andymc29

Had a really nice date last night. We went to the Oak Bistro in Cambridge. Was a bit of a special treat for us both as we've not really seen each other much since getting back from holiday nearly a month ago. It's a perfect little place, good food and decent sized portions. Just wish I wasn't driving cause I could have enjoyed the wine a bit more!

Am aching today from the gym yesterday, was totally worth it though and will be going again tomorrow after work.

Just made a little overpayment on my loan, and my nationwide payment's just come out for the month. current accounts looking a little low, so better hold off any more overpayments till the end of the month, especially with Christmas coming up, need to start my present shopping!