22 Months to DF-Day - The Race is On!

tirlittan

For the New Year, I’m going to join the ranks of fellow MSE diarists to keep me on the straight and narrow and achieve my goals. So bit about me and my debt to follow and then I shall be off!

I’ve been struggling with my debts for sometime, ever since I went travelling after uni in 2004. Thanks to a good friend introducing me to MSE, things are finally starting to go my way, though now and again, a spanner is thrown in the works (mainly, my car needing lots of work atm).

I want to be debt free before my 33rd birthday, wish this could’ve happened ages ago, but this is the realistic target now. My sig at the moment says March 2012, so I need to shorten this by 5 months as my birthday is on 4th of November.

Before my student loan interest rate went down to 7% (this will be in effect from 1.1.2010) it was 8% and I decided to do a balance transfer on my Virgin CC as it was 6.9% for the life of the balance.

The plan is to pay off student loan this year, should be done by December latest. At the same time, any extra money will be going towards CC, otherwise balance on that won’t be chancing much. At some point, I’d like to do a balance transfer to a 0% card, but at the moment, I can’t stretch to pay off any more.

I pay off £360 every month towards student loan, CC minimum payment is subject to change as I pay extra, but the minimum I can definitely pay every month is £40 and then any extra I can scrape together. These are the payments that give my sig the DF date. For me to pay everything off in October 2011, I need to find extra £1700 by that time. I’ve already paid off extra £111.77 off this, so will need to find £1588.23. Most of the extra money to date has come from amazon sales, but hoping to start MSing next year.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!:D

tirlittan

Finally received my 'big cheque' from MM, £2.53! :rotfl:
I have quite a few cd's on amazon atm, but they don't seem to be going fast. I'll give them till end of February I think and then flog them on MM.

Waiting for my £5 scratchie money to arrive into my account as well from virgin.

Bit skint till pay day on 15th as my dad was over just before Xmas and money was spent. I can't even pay my BF for the share of Xmas food before pay day as hardly have enough for food till then. And NY is in-between all this. Not feeling too good though, have had a cold since before Xmas that's not shifting, so might stay in bed tomorrow night.

gilligansyle

Morning and good luck with your DFD. As the date gets nearer you will probably be able to find the money easier, don't forget that once you've paid the student loan off, that money will go off something else and the interest will keep reducing making a difference.

Have you joined any challenges to keep you on track?

tirlittan

Hi gilligansyle and thanks for popping in. My first guest! :beer:

Yes, I've been doing different challenges (NSD,£10 a day,£1000 in 100 days etc) and keeping an eye out for anything suitable. Atm I'm doing the £10 a day challenge. Next year I'm also going to join the Pay One debt in 100 days (obviously, I'm not going to manage a whole debt, but will try to pay more off CC). I think I should start on NSDs again too.

My DF date is calculated on the snowball calculator and I know I have to work hard to pay off the extra I want. I'm looking forward to getting my letter about my student loan as just paid a big chunk off it and now the interest has changed so they'll let me know exactly how much I'll be owing them. My s.loan is from abroad and in euros and my payments only go out every 4months because of the transfer fees, so it's all bit of a guess work how much it is in pounds, but I try to keep it rounded up rather than down.
I know I can pay the student loan off this year just by my normal payments, that's why anything extra I get is going towards CC.

tirlittan

Joined the 'One Debt VS 100 Days Challenge', which starts next year. Aiming to clear £470 off my Virgin CC, maybe I should just round it up to £500, that would be 3 times as much as just normal payments.

Still feeling really coldy, actually feeling worse as the day has progressed. I have to meet up with a friend just after work, but that's just for coffee and when I finally get home, I think I'll go straight to bed.

savingholmes

HI Tirl - took me a while to find you but got here in the end! Good luck - If you can afford £500 go for it - if it is going to leave you impossibly short then don't! Hope you feel better soon!

tirlittan

Hi Saving. Thank you for your support.

Interesting word - afford. I don't afford more than the minimum payments on the Virgin CC. All the extra I'm planning to pay will have to be 'found' so this challenge will go hand in hand with Make £10 a day, cos that's were all the extra money is going to come from.

Have some stuff to ebay,some books to put on works intranet/gumtree,old SLRs to sell, and yesterday went through my amazon stock, which some of is looking bit sad and not sure it'll sell. Planning to start MSing finally as well next year, when I can buy my scanner/printer/copier.

Where there's a will there's a way. Positive vibes needed my way.

savingholmes

Hi Tirl - positive vibes enroute as we speak! I do well on the £10 a day challenge which tends to be a mix of free scratchcards, quidco offers/loopholes, bingoport, occasional cash, cashback credit card vouchers etc. I'm on close to £250 for this month excluding the £100 we were given for xmas - so chuffed with that (in bad months I would include that LOL)! You can get there! Certainly get a lot further than if you don't even try!

tirlittan

The only two months that I've managed to make the target since I started in June were August, when I managed to sell some festival tickets that I won, and this month,when I added the £190 in cash I got as Xmas presents. This months I think is slightly cheating, but then again, it is extra money I wouldn't've normally had and it will certainly help.

Purpleroses

evening :wave:

Just noticed you have a diary! good luck and well done on getting under £10k!! :j

*subscribes*

tirlittan

Thank you purple!

Honored to have you on board!