How do you keep motivated in the fight against debt?

jojitsui

We have been looking at rented houses but the rent is more than morgage repayments and my other half isn't keen.
I can totally see where your coming from though.
We have also looked at a council/housing assosiation part buy where you rent for 2 years and then 1/2 your rent goes as your deposit. The thing with that was the houses where well over our budget
At the moment we are saving 1,000 a month between us ready for the deposit and living in very low price accommodation him £200 a month me £0
Am also over paying betwen £300 and £500 a month of my debts.
I have worked it out I will completely debt free April 2011 so we might wait until then before we start loooking again!

Percy1983

I actually keep myself motivated by spending a little, I sold most of my life on ebay and got £1500, to which I then spent £200. Might not be the quickest way but remember getting debt free isn't a race and you still have to 'live'.

Another thing which might just be me being a bit sad, I setup a nice spread with everthing listed across my credit cards and used conditional formats so if it was at its limit it was red and empty was green. When I first started everything was red/orange, now I have a good few greens and yellows. Sad as it seems watching the colours change actual makes me feel better than just reducing numbers.

jojitsui

Percy1983 wrote: »

I actually keep myself motivated by spending a little, I sold most of my life on ebay and got £1500, to which I then spent £200. Might not be the quickest way but remember getting debt free isn't a race and you still have to 'live'.

Another thing which might just be me being a bit sad, I setup a nice spread with everthing listed across my credit cards and used conditional formats so if it was at its limit it was red and empty was green. When I first started everything was red/orange, now I have a good few greens and yellows. Sad as it seems watching the colours change actual makes me feel better than just reducing numbers.

I like the idea of a spread sheet but I am not the best. Is there one on here that I could use as i wouldn't know where to start.

I found £10 earlier and paid it striaght off my credit card :T

Matty23

I think the best way i've managed to motivate myself to sort my Debts (rather call them bills) Is to look in the long run, E.g, I want to go to austrilia to visit my sister who i've not seen in 4 years, without having to worry about "Do i owe anyone any money in england?"...i just wanna get there and use MY own money for my OWN use...I used to be bad, but this site made me see the grass is always greener over the other side of the hill..!
Good luck with your motivation plan!...if that dont work..have a plan B!

Broken_hearted

Start off by being realistic, set smaller goals at first as each one achieved boosts your confidence. The challenges on here are a great way to start. Treat yourself once in a while as a life without treats is no life.

Percy1983

jojitsui wrote: »

I like the idea of a spread sheet but I am not the best. Is there one on here that I could use as i wouldn't know where to start.

I just put it together myself, but I am an advanced user of excel, I could setup I basic template and send it to you. :cheesy:

Iloveflapjacks

For me I want to remove that feeling of being limited or 'owned' by my debts.

I love my debt stats, I have a spreadsheet that has all stats on it, for example, there are 596 days till I turn 30 and to clear my debts I would need to make a daily payment of £38.86! Each time I make a payment, I enjoy watching this figure go down.

I've setup standing orders that pay off a reasonable sum of debt per month, so while this ticks away in the background I focus my energy elsewhere on the things I enjoy doing.

Not only do I have a spreadsheet but I have a mindmap, categorising and detailing all the things do and enjoy, some of the items are related, some collide. Some of it is routine now, but if I cannot do anything more about a debt I look at doing something else which is free or something that I can get involved in.

This means that I can take my mind off the debt and do something else I enjoy, it's been a really useful tool because I used to just dwell on the debts and waste alot time not 'living'.

I guess this is distraction with a little bit of motivation.

Feel like I have rambled, but hope that makes some sense!

andy40

I dont have any option BUT to pay off my debts, Im at that point!
Having very little spare cash means I have to find low cost or no cost things to do. This includes various self-improvement projects (running, self-study) and free or discotned entertainment (museums, student rate cinema tickets), BOOKS!
Having so little money for entertainment has made me realise how so many of my friends rely on money for their fun. Sad to say I see few of them now because I cant afford to join them in whatever activity they are prepared to do, and museums or whatnot are 'boring'.

minniepoos_2

andy40 wrote: »

Having so little money for entertainment has made me realise how so many of my friends rely on money for their fun. Sad to say I see few of them now because I cant afford to join them in whatever activity they are prepared to do, and museums or whatnot are 'boring'.

I know what you mean - we made our 'black hole' a bit bigger by trying to keep up with our 'so-called' friends for a few years. Finally realised that not only could we not keep spending, but we weren't really enjoying what we were doing, and are much happier spending time with the few like-minded people we know (who seemed to opt-out of the same kind of lifestyle after watching us do it first!).

Bloody kicking myself now though, the money we wasted over the years...Still...Onwards and upwards, eh?

After over a year of living sensibly, our mindset is firmly in the right place, so at least when we are finally debt free (8 or so years to go depending on how many overpayments we can make), and suddenly have POTS of money, I'm confident we'll not go back down the same route.

And to everyone on here in the same boat.....well done, you've taken a big step and it'll DEFINITELY be worth it in the end :T:D

lez17

computershack wrote: »

Honestly, I'd forget buying a house. You end up in misery trying to get enough money together for a deposit only to see that every year you need more. Even then, when you get the mortgage the repayments are that high that you continue to struggle for years. And then an unexpected cost comes along (in my case a front door) and you've got to figure out how to pay for it.

I think the time of home ownership for all is over and we're going to go back to where it was 40 years ago where most people rented. You can get a far better house than you can afford to buy and the maintenance problems are the landlords responsibility.

Got to agree with you. We bought our house" as it is the correct thing to strive for".Wish we had stayed council now,boiler packing up £2000. Leaking roof £?,electrics need sorting£?, bathroom & kitchen need replacing £????, if we were still renting £000........think before you leap,once you have ,they have got you where they want you......then they all squeeezee & squeeezeee, coz they can!!!. Trying to plan how to get rid of the house,enjoy the hard earned money we have invested in it and get back to council for our old age,so they can't take it all from us in the end to pay for "living costs"................THINK B4 YOU JUMP!!!