Willsmum and the debt monster

runmichellerun

Good luck to you Willsmum. I shall subscribe and look forward to your updates. I'm expecially intigued to know what the snowballer says.

Well done for your fantastic start too :beer:

willsmum_2

Thanks runmichellerun!

You have done incredicbly well with your debts! Any hints and tips??

WM x x

runmichellerun

Thank you! Well I had to sacrifice a bit. I used to live alone but now house share in order to pay an extra £200 a month off my debts. I hated it to begin with, but now I don't mind it at all.

Ebay got me a lot of money, and I always look on the freebie boards for free things I can either use or sell on.

Certain survey sites are worth doing. I currently do crowdology and onepoll as I find their surveys short and fun to do. I get bored doing long surveys.

I believe some bingo sites give free money on scratchcards, and it would be worth looking at the latest £10 a day thread on the DFW board for information on that.

Oh, and the challenges on here are highly motivating, have a look around for one that you think you can keep to.

Other than that it's boring things like staying in all the time, cooking meals from scratch and making sure you only buy what you need, not just what you want.

I think you'll do fantastically as you seem highly motivated. Keep plodding on and you'll be there in no time.

coldstreamalways

Kepp going willsmum, I love reading diaries so I've subscribed and will be trying to stay motivated myself!

willsmum_2

Well, I have finally got round to doing my "snowball" and so my official DFD is December 2014. Not sure if I want to laugh or cry!

On the plus side, have just done my end of month balances and have managed topay of a MASSIVE £843.12 off my debts in November(!!) That leaves me with a grand total of £16,695.87. I was so pleased when I saw that total that I almost cried!! I can't believe I am under the £17k mark already!!

Now I know December won't be that spectacular what with Christmas and the fact that I am trying to save as much to hit my debts on January 1st for my "10 in 10" challenge, but I now can't wait for January. I wonder if I can get it under the £16k mark?? That gives me 2 months to do it! Fingers (and legs crossed!!)

WM x x

willsmum_2

Have had a bit of time to myself today to sit down and go through some goals for 2010. I am the sort of person who works best when I am trying to achieve targets so here's my plan for 2010:

1. Mortgage arrears to be cleared (currently £375.56 and only 4 payments left)

2. Virgin Card to be cleared (currently £3,184.08)

3. Natwest overdraft to be cleared (currently £3,352.88)

4. Moorcroft to be cleared (currently £146.23 and an easy one to achieve in order to keep my morale up!!)

Those four goals alone will wipe off £7058.75 off my current debt and get me under the £10k mark which would make me VERY happy. :T

After advise from the wonderful people on here, come January I am going to throw every spare penny off my Virgin card as that has the highes APR. According to my snowball I am scheduled to pay this bill off in December 2012 :eek: but am hoping to get rid of it ASAP.

Just a quick question, with the snowball thingy on whatsthecost, does it automatially take your monthly fixed payments off or do I have to enter each and every payment manually?? I understnad that I have to add any extra payments, but am not sure about the ones that I detailed when filling it all in.

I have got £50 left over this week so I am going to put it away for my "10 in 10" challenge ready for the 1st January. I would like to think I could pull together something like £250 before then to get a good start on the challenge. I am so determined to do this!!!

Well, must be off. Still have some Christmas shopping to do so I am off to have a look on Quidco for some good offers!

WM x x

savingholmes

well done on payments so far - you are off to a brilliant start!

with the snowball - it estimates your dfd using your intended payment but I update with my real payments as well. I found it a faff to do some of its numbers - so if it says pay off £42 I normally pay £45 and have done and things like that.... I still find it very encouraging tho to track my progress looking backwards but also it helps me to look at the projected figures and to see this is not for ever!

I am now inspired to do the mortgage challenge once I've cleared our personal loan and credit card debt... We also have a £6K ish student loan knocking about somewhere.... My motivation is to have a positive retirement but also ideally to be able to help the kids out when they are older. It is important I think to have short, medium and long term goals.... They keep you going... Once we've cleared the main debts I want to save for a trip to Disney for example....

willsmum_2

Well DH has gone to pick the kids up so I will have a mad house this afternoon!!

Spent a bit more than I had originally planned for this week on Christmas presents, but I still have £63.83 to last me to Friday which is okay. However, I didn't put the £50 aside for January :mad: as I didn't want to leave myself short in case of emergencies (washing machine is making a horrendous noise when it goes onto spin!!)

On the plus side, I only have about £50 left to spend for Christmas and I am finished!!! Hopefully, this will mean that all of my December wages will be my own (the first time I can EVER remember this happening) so I will be able to set most of it aside to hit the debts in January. I need to make sure I am careful with my food shopping for the next few weeks as I am getting close to my £40 budget each week. I haven't gone over budget, but I seem to be slipping slightly and things I could do without (i.e biscuits) are creeping their way back into my trolley.

Must really get started on my spending diary aswell to make sure that I can account for everything. Have only one night out planned over Christmas and that is the work's do. The good part is that it is a set menu so everyone is paying the same and we are getting our own drinks so as long as I am careful and don't go too mad, I should be able to enjoy myself without too much worry.

Also really need to look into switching energy providers although I think I owe on my current one even though I pay by direct debit so don't want to end up cutting my nose off to spite my face (if you know what I mean).

Well, must go, there is a couple of things I want to get on with before the madness decends!!

WM x x

willsmum_2

I am FUMING! Have just looked into my Scottish Power account and I couldn't believe it. I am £319.50 in credit (!!) and after looking at moneysupermarket.com for comparison i can save......wait for it....£680 a year!!!! :eek:

That's unbelievable! And I would get at least £60 cashback for switching!! Have entered my meter readings and in two days (that's how long it takes some twerp to bother looking at it) I will go on and see if it is still in credit by so much. I will also give them a ring to see if they will change my tariff! I am so angry I am literally spitting feathers.

On the plus side, could be £320 towards the January debts which I didn't know I had!!! Every cloud and all of that! :T

Need to calm down before I get the knife out to calve the pork!

WM x x

gailey_2

Just wanted to say well done you doing so well.

I too dread postman and dont open post straightaway

hate phonecalls, some quite nasty.

been lurking for few years had lbm last year and been working hard to get out the red as our income dropped dramatically and had our 2nd child in september but determined to clear bulk of our debt in 2010.

Me and hubby used to look at finances as separate but now are fully aware of our combibed debts and working on it together.