A Return to A Debt Free Mission

Exerbusi2

My impatience got the better of me...

At the moment I am so into my debt repayments that I feel like I am not doing enough if I don't actively reduce my debt every single day! The upshot of this is that I can pay the debt off more quickly - the downside is that I am not teaching myself to be patient, and am perhaps throwing too much money at the debt, leaving myself short on other targets.

I have paid £91.02 off my CC, and today will balance transfer another £380 to it. This brings my total CC debt to £1770, and my plan was to have it down to £1500 by July. At this rate I will have it below £1000 by July, which would be fantastic!

My original plan was to remove my overdraft completely on the 1st, but that might have to wait for a couple of weeks now, which isn't a massive deal to be honest.

Exerbusi2

Todays update...

As I said yesterday, I bit the bullet and paid off the balance of my 0% CC. That leaves me able to balance transfer another £380 onto 0% - once I clear that balance I will have £1390 on the credit card, which would be a big psychological boost - less than half of what I started with!

The slight delay is being caused by payment clearing. I have paid the balance, and my CC says I have £400 available (the maximum balance available to me), but it says the outstanding balance is £91.02, which is the amount I have paid. Given I have £400 available on the card, it would suggest that somewhere in the system there is acknowledgement of the payment. I think when I have made payments in the past it has taken up to 5 working days to clear (usually slightly less).

Next payments into my account are on the 14th and 15th, and that should see me hit my target for the month - £1800 in savings. I am ahead of my other target, which is to reduce CC debt to £1500 by July. I am now going to see if I can reduce that debt to £1000 or less by then. A massive challenge would be to remove it totally, so I will see where I am in April and try to throw money at the CC in an attempt to remove it.

Today we are researching prams ahead of our babies arrival in July. We may buy one or two smaller items, but the pram trip is purely research - no big money being spent today!

Exerbusi2

Post weekend update...

A busy weekend on the money saving front!

We bought a pram on Saturday, and had the bargain of the century. Whilst out treating a patient, my GF mentioned we were buying a pram. Her patient mentioned a friend was selling an immaculate Bugaboo Chameleon with all of the accessories for £450! We were straight down there to view, and eventually buy the set! Being so excited with the purchase, we came home and I looked up each individual item - it turns out we had paid £450 for a package worth £1300! YYYYEEEESSSS!!!

Still excited by the bargain, my Mum then told us she was going to give us the money for the pram and accessories, meaning it was FREE! My GF's parents are going to buy us the cot (the other major expense), so it means we are going to manage to get away with this relatively lightly!

Sunday we entertained - my brother and his GF came over. We had planned to go to the pub, have a couple of drinks and a meal. Instead I cooked a roast dinner at home, which saved me at least £25, and was actually much nicer! We then stayed in and watched a DVD, making for a cheap afternoon!

Monday I had some balloons brought in for my GF buy a client, which was free. I did buy some food to cook, and a couple of CD's for her. Overall I spent about £35 yesterday, but I was OK with this considering I am technically £450 up after the pram news.

Today I am looking at a couple of much tidier bank accounts!

I have hit my savings target of making the balance hit £2000 this month! I have also balance-transferred another £380 on my 0% CC. This takes 7-10 days to process, but within 2 weeks I will have a £2000 in credit in my savings account, a CC debt on one account of £1390 (less actually, as my repayments still come out automatically) and a CC debt on another of £380 (which will be eaten into quickly). The great thing with this is that when I come to balance transfer my next amount, I will be under £1000 in CC debt for the first time since 2008 - a massive boost!

I now have some decisions to make - do I use money to start paying off my flexiloan whilst I am waiting for my CC balance transfer to clear, or do I wait and use the money to pay off bigger chunks of CC debt when it has cleared?

My impatience means I will probably end up paying more off somewhere!

Exerbusi2

Month update....

When I restarted this thread on 4th of Feb (can't believe it was so recently!) I had a total debt of £4791 - this was broken down into...

Savings

£1500 HSBC
£150 Tesco
£100 Premium Bonds

Total Savings = £1750

Debts

£4141 HSBC Flexiloan
£2300 HSBC Credit Card
£100 Tesco Credit Card

Total Debt = £4791 (Savings - Debts)

I then became obsessed with my debts, paying off large chunks. I wanted to go for massive action, and I am not particularly patient. I wanted to balance transfer large chunks from my HSBC CC to my 0% Tesco card. At the same time, I wanted to put more into savings (I know paying off debt is a wiser action with my money, but I wanted a cushion that I can be flexible with).

I earn a decent wage (but I work bloody hard for it), so I need to have a positive balance in the bank for when the tax man comes knocking!) The bonus I have running my own business is that I have numerous pay days throughout the month, so I can balance payments off and move money around quickly, knowing there will be another pay day soon.

So, as I am in a rush (and will post more details at a later time), my current account balances look like so...

Savings

HSBC £2000 (Feb target was £1800 - so a massive HIT!)
Tesco £200 (spread money around!)
Premium Bonds £100 (will leave alone)

Debts

HSBC Flexiloan £4000 (was £4141)
HSBC Credit Card £1390 (was £2300)
Tesco Credit Card £380 (was £100, but is 0% so adding moreof my HSBC debt to it!)

This means my current debt is £3470, which means I have paid off £1321 of debt in 11 days! Exciting!

I am now down to less than £3500 of net debt - a massive boost and one that will serve me well in future. I think I have one more month of massive repayments where I will try to clear another £750-£1000, then I will have to start easing off as my income is eaten up by our new baby!

Less than £2000 debt by the time baby arrives? Let's hope so!

Good luck fellow money savers!

tryingveryhard_2

I haven't seen your posts before, but they are very motivational! I'm having a baby too, in June and am also busy saving up and paying down debts - in my case it will be me going on maternity leave for at least 6 months, and as my OH is self-employed I think its wise for me to have a savings cushion in case something awful happens. Good luck and keep posting, I'm enjoying reading such energetic and positive posts, thank you!

jonjamie1970

Well done mate, I have done some more this week as well, I get paid again in 2 weeks and as that date comes I know I can release some more, therefore I upped my savings this week from £500 to £1000, when payday comes again on the 28th I will pay some more of the credit card when I know what I have left, daughters birthday this FRiday though.

I'm moving money around as fast as you, I dont have the luxury of a 0% card but anyway.

By the way, PM me if you are interested in some PT work in the Chester area from a wealthy woman friend I know.

Exerbusi2

Thanks guys! Hope the pregnancy is going well for you tryingveryhard. Just keep plugging away at your debts - it is amazing where you get to when you just work hard at it!

Jonjamie - well done mate! When that pay day comes in it makes such a difference to the accounts! It was my payday yesterday, which was a bit of a bonus hit when I looked at the accounts! I have one of my major repayments on a DD, so it has taken a bit of a hit today, but the good news is that overall the accounts are looking healthy, and February is the shortest month, so the next payday comes sooner than any other!

Will PM you now!

Exerbusi2

Todays update - I am off to the other end of the country today, meaning I will be spending a lot on fuel! Luckily I can keep the reciept and claim tax, as part of the trip is actually for business means.

Taking £520 out of my account today (baby costs and my half of the rent), but it should be OK - I have 'over-saved' this month so I have a slight cushion.

Have reduced the limit on my HSBC CC to £1500 - cut in half now, meaning I can't go back into so much CC debt!

Good day!

Exerbusi2

Back after a busy (and expensive) weekend away!

I spent around £175 this weekend, which was perhaps more than planned. That said, I had over-saved this month so only needed £100 to tide me over for the rest of the week. I also have a chance to earn a little extra money this month from a cash job.

During my time away this weekend, my minimum payment on my CC was paid, meaning my HSBC CC debt is down to £1335. My next payments are due on the 1st on March (my birthday month) which means I will give my savings and debts another hit then!

Hope you are all well.

jonjamie1970

Nice going Exerbusi, do you think you will be in a good position come the birth of the baby, how much debt do you expect to have left ? I bit the bullet this week and asked to increase my overdraft which I didnt think would happen, suprisingly they gave me an extra £500 so I have paid another lump off the Capital One card using the overdraft which has a fixed rate of £10 per month, Ive also moved my savings pot into the current account as there is no point paying £10 overdraft fees when there better than paying 34.09%. I'm hoping that the Cap One card is cleared by March 31st which is another 3 paydays away, I can probably move £400 per month across so the extra will go to the Barclaycard. In the space of a week Ive gone from paying 18% off my total to 23%