A Return to A Debt Free Mission

LabLover

Truely inspirational posts, your very motivated !! My baby is due in July as well and my OH is self employed. We are flinging money towards credit card and have gotten it down from £3k to £800 since December I also have £700 in savings for when Im off on maternity leave should be around £1500 by July. Have been stock piling nappies and wipes when ever they are on offer. If you join the boots baby club you get more points for every £1 you spend on baby products , so you can earn a nice amount of advantage points while buying essentials. Good luck , look forward to reading more of your posts.

Exerbusi2

Todays update...

I had a phone call today telling me I have had a new client ask for my services, which will be a nice extra pay day. I won't see the money until the 15th of March though, so I can't get too excited about it yet. As I have mentioned before, I have a new cash-paying client who I will be seeing on Saturday, which will be worth an extra £100 per month. That money will pay for fuel, leaving me with extra paid money to pay off the CC.

My typical pattern for debat repayments will be an extreme burst of payment at the start of the month (I have various paydays up until the 15th), then after that it will be a question of trying to limit my spending. This looks like it could be successful, and it gives me a clear picture of where I am up to by the middle of the month.

This month was the last of my massive debt repayments as we are moving to a bigger place ahead of the baby arriving, so it means I will be needing to save what I can from now on!

My target for next month is to get the CC debt to below £1000 - another big boost! I also want to hit £2250 in savings (but this is a very tough task).

Here's hoping!

@JonJamie - mate you are NAILING it! I like the way you have grabbed your debt by the scruff of the neck and are tackiling it. I have done the same, and there is a certain power that comes with removing big chunks of the debt in one go!

I am hoping to have the CC pretty much removed by the time the baby comes - my original target was have it down to £1500 but I should be able to beat that! Having it removed would be a massive boost - seriously big. It would be the first time in 3 years that I didn't have any credit card debt.

As I mentioned in another post, my credit rating may be improving (not that it was shocking anyway) because I keep getting offers for pre approved loans that go straight into the bin!

@LabLover - well done getting rid of most of your CC debt. Do you have a date that you will be able to pay it off by? We have bought our pram, looking at cots and will start to buy bits and bobs for the baby sooner rather than later! My Mum is already putting money away for the baby, so it will have a decent savings account started by the time it is born!

jonjamie1970

Thanks for the bigup, helps lol !!

Stopped and just checked a few things today, I did the snowball calculator thing and the order I was goign to pay things has changed, turns our after digging out the statements that my Barclaycard is a better apr than the overdraft so Im going to do Cap one first, then barclays overdraft which is a huge 19.9% and then the barclaycard which is 13%.

Exerbusi2

Todays Update

Given my over-saving this month, I had let myself become a bit stretched, and had to bite the bullet and transfer some money back into my current account to save me from going over my OD limit.

This morning I read a letter sent to me by my bank - they are putting the interest rate up on my CC (despite record low interest rates, they obviously have profits to think of!) Luckily this won't affect me too much as my plan is to pay off as much as I can asap, meaning the damage is minimal.

On a financial point, I was paid a £100 up-front payment today, which will go straight into the bank. I am also expecting about £400 going into the account on Monday, meaning my saving/debt repayments start again in earnest.

Additionally a planned night out has been re-scheduled, meaning I am saving money there too!

Bonus.

invisigirl

I agree, I love reading your blog style post and agree about creating wealth rather than getting rid of debt. I have a new lease of life about me this year!

Exerbusi2

Hello again!

Well today was a stark realisation of the importance of surrounding yourself with supportive people...

I now have more money than I used to - I earn more, meaning I am more comfortable financially. That is very theoretical. I am still in debt, I am just choosing to pay it off at a faster rate than I am contractually obliged to. I have a cushion in savings, meanining potentially I could go out and spend a fair bit of money, but I don't. I have grown up and now have a much more sensible financial attitude.

My realisation came today when I suggested to my gf we went to watch the football. She agreed, and it was assumed we would just have lunch there, as we always do with the football. The problem is that usually the bill comes to over £20. This isn't a massive amount of money, but we will do it 2-3 times per month, which adds up. Usually I pay.

We went today, and my girlfriend paid which saved me about £25! Her support is great, and every now and then a reminder of how lucky some of us are is a good thing.

Todays lesson is in these times of focussed debt repayment, take a moment to look up and see the view. Appreciate the good things in life, and work to make life better. Don't focus on debt, focus on appreciation, gratitude and creating a better future for you and your loved ones.

P.S. £100 in the bank tomorrow, plus a mentally busy day. I thought Monday was the 1st, which was wrong. I have the £400 going into the bank on Tuesday - not Monday!

Hope you all are well.

jonjamie1970

Good morning, nice to catch up with your posts, dont let the slow down dampen your enthusiasm. I spent this weekend with my girlfriend instead of travelling south to see my children, either way it can be an expensive weekend. My girlfriend is fairly wealthy so I have given up trying to compete on the paying for dinner front, we go out most nights so this time I said that I couldnt afford it, however we also went to watch the football and travelled to merseyside, Im a season ticket holder and my dad is on holiday so we just upgraded his ticket from concession and watched the game, luckily lunch was a hot dog and chips. On the way home we stopped at the cinema and watched True Grit.

Payday for me today, Im still apprehensive about looking at my account which is a leftover from the days of big debt. I will see what I can allocate to the cards. CSA (£500) and my car etc come out tomorrow.

Sorry to crash your thread I should start my own really.

Exerbusi2

I don't mind you crashing the thread mate - more than happy to share it!

Todays update...

I spent a lot of money today...on a bike!

I have bought a bike for £190 from my brother. It was actually mine (I used it to do a charity John O'Groats to Lands End ride last summer). I then auctioned it off to raise extra money for charity. The bike was £600 brand new, was used for training and the ride, and my brother has had it sat in the garage since he bought it last summer!

I have agreed £190 with him for a bike in great condition, and it will save me a small fortune.

When I looked at my business account, I spend north of £300 per month on diesel. I have 5 clients who I could cycle to, and the occassional ride to work wouldn't do the bank balance any harm. Long story short, if I can cycle to even 30% of my clients, it equates to a saving of around £100 per month, which is fantastic.

My thoughts are if I can go on a money diet in terms of my normal spending, then surely I can do that with my business, thus making it a far more profitable venture for me. I would hope to save around 30% on fuel costs overall (more if I use it for errands too),and I will be monitoring this. I am collecting the bike on the 12th of March, so will hope to see imporvements in the fuel costs from day one! Could I get by on £50 per week fuel? I think so!

Money update...

£100 in today, £96 bill out. No problem - I have extra funds going into the bank tomorrow, and I have heard on the grapevine that a client will be upping his sessions to 3 per week, which is an extra £100 per month on his bill!

My motivation kicks in again tomorrow as it is the start of my income streams again, which I throw at debt and into savings!

How are we all?

jonjamie1970

Just off to the gym, I lost 3 stone in August to November last year due to gallstones, I had the Gallbladder removed in November and its been a slow process back. I'm 6ft 3 and now back to 13.5 stone, hopefully most of that is muscle. My body fat is 18% and my BMI showing 21. I am also playing football tonight so healthy mind healthy body etc.

I did some motivational banking today, reduced the Capital one to £599 after I threw £25 at it and then threw another £25 at the overdraft as total debt needed dropping to below £5k

I wont work out the bigger payments until my direct debits come out tomorrow and Im 100% sure it looks OK. I might have to budget for a tyre, I have a newish BMW and the run flat tyres cost £210 fitted I found out today.

Cycling to your clients will impress them im sure, good time for it but make sure youve got the safety gear, my mate had a nasty accident 2 weeks ago when a car dragged him around Milton Keynes :-(

Are you in a position to be able to review a price increase to your clients, the cost of fuel etc should mean a price increase, right ?

Exerbusi2

That is a really good effort to get the muscle back - after an illness it can make the return to fitness harder as the demands on a whole range of body systems make things so much harder. Good for you though for battling back to it!

Motivational banking - I like that term! It suits the approach we are using perfectly. Big hits mean big wins and all that!

Todays update...

£350 into the bank today. I will be putting £100 back into my savings, and paying off another £100 of CC debt. I also have a £100 boost going in there tomorrow which is a nice bit of breathing space. The next hits come next week when I benefit from a couple of additional payments into the account. Once those go in I am much more financially healthy, and will get rid of more CC debt - maybe even pay off my Tesco balance in full if I can.

It is my birthday this month, so I may benefit from a few extra pennies I didn't account for!