Wanting to be debt free BEFORE retirement!

planning_ahead_2

Debt diary day 51

Thank god it's the weekend:j That's just how I am feeling this morning - I just feel I need the 'chill out' time only a weekend can give me:rotfl:

Not much to report today, except that I managed to cut our car breakdown cover costs by £14pm yesterday and retained exactly the same cover, with exactly the same company we were already with. I possibly could have got it slightly cheaper elsewhere, but am very happy to stay with the AA. DH's employment reimburses him a fixed sum for this which covers the cost so I am happy (previously we were slightly out of pocket).

Anyway - that is another £14pm I can throw at our debts......off to put knew monthly snowballing figure in the calculator and see what it does for our debt free day.
Have a great day everyone:beer:

planning_ahead_2

Debt Diary - day 58

My goodness - where did the last week go:huh:

Just thought I ought to pop into my diary and let people know I am still here and fighting the debts. Things aren't moving very much on the debt front at the moment....I had a sort of 'second lightbulb moment' this week. I suddenly realised that I am paying money off the debts as soon as we get salaries into the bank - and therefore going well into the overdraft. I have worked out that I can use less of the overdraft if I wait until the due date of payments to debts rather than just pay immediately the salaries hit the account.

Now, the thing is I haven't worked out which is better financially because my OD is with Halifax and they don't quote an interest rate, just a daily rate of £1 up to £2.5k and then £2 over that. So for most of the month I am being charged £2 per day, but I have worked out I can get this down to mostly £1 per day.

I know, I know - I can hear the shouts from across cyberspace - Halifax is a rip off - go get an account elsewhere that charges less for the OD. I don't think we would be accepted, and especially not with the OD level we currently have (£3.5k:o). I promise to sort out moving the bank account and overdraft as soon as it is down to a level that will be acceptable to a new account provider;)

I have been popping in and out of the forum this, just haven't posted on my own diary. I am very pleased to see Elsie now has a very supportive gang of geezers and gals as they all head towards debt free retirements. I can just see the debt free geezers and gals annual coach trip to Great Yarmouth (or wherever). Fab group of people supporting each other - well done Elsie for starting the group:T

I have also been tidying up my thread subscriptions - I seem to have subscribed to loads of threads and, very sadly, a fair few of the thread OPs seem to have given up the fight to be debt free. It set me to wondering how many people join and have enthusiasm to clear the debts only to give up within a month or two (says she who is not yet at the end of the second full month of being a debtfreewannabe:rotfl:). Seriously though, it is so sad, reading back through some of the threads, that the people have given up - understandably fighting the debts is hard - but they have even given up coming on the forum and I find that popping into this forum is what keeps me focussed. I have times when I can't pay anything to the debts, or when hubby has spent money on something because he 'forgot' we were debt busting:mad: and I get frustrated with car bills etc etc etc.....but I still come on the forum and just read.....and read.....and read some more. I read success stories (and dollydaydream that will be us soon:o), I read sad life stories of how debt affects relationships, health and much much more. There are so many people in this country affected by debt and many of those are living with it almost like a guilty secret and often this forum is their only way of sharing the worries and stresses that debt brings. The fanastic and mostly non-judgemental support and guidance given is awesome. All-in-all - every thread gives me a reason to keep pushing at our debt and clear it.

OMG - I am being heavy for ten past one on a Saturday morning - time for a smile and bed.

Take care everyone - have a great debt busting weekend:beer:

Cialilerin

Hi PA, Glad you're feeling better. Congratulations on reaching Day 58 and still feeling motivated:T

Like you, when things aren't going so great, I like to come on here and have a mooch round until I feel inspired again, or I go on my diary and let off steam by writing it down. I'm sure my dh's ears must be burning constantly

I have no advice about the Halifax - it's too confusing keeping up with what my own bank is doing without trying to keep up to date with others, however, having known you for 58 days I am confident that you know what you're doing and will make the necessary changes when you can!

planning_ahead_2

Cialilerin wrote: »

however, having known you for 58 days I am confident that you know what you're doing and will make the necessary changes when you can!

Cialilerin - is that all it is Really:eek:

It feels as if you have been a really good friend forever;)

planning_ahead_2

Debt diary - day 61

Ohhhhhhhhhh my fingers are just itching to press the transfer button to pay some money off my debts - but I am resisting so that I can reduce the overdraft fees each month. I know that technically if the overdraft is lower I will have paid off some of my debt anyway, but until I actually get the bank to reduce the limit I will still count the overdraft as being £3.5k:eek: Hopefully that will get reduced down sometime soon.

I have to say, I am wondered what I ever did with our money:huh: We are now paying off our debts (well bit by bit), we have a small savings fund (£365 in 365 days challenge - see signature - but as hubby is saving as well we have double;)), we don't go without, we've covered an expensive car bill in the last month......so what did we do with our money before we became DFWs:huh::huh::huh::huh::huh: .............Blowed if I know:o

Seriously, I can't believe how well everything is going since commiting to facing up to our debts and joining this site. Sometimes I am frightened I am doing something wrong and missing something but no horrible red letters are appearing on the doormat (or in the inbox;)) so I am ignoring the occasional niggle that I have overlooked something/someone:rotfl:...because that's all it can be....a niggle;)

I have never been so 'on top' of our money before. I know to the penny what's in the bank account (ok...what level the overdraft is at), what's owed to each and every one of our creditors on a daily basis. Whilst we still owe an awful lot of money, I love the feeling that we are now in control of our finances and we can clearly see a distant light at the end of our debt tunnel (it's that 2012 Olypmic flame burning - not quite brightly just yet....but it is there and July 2012 is our debt free target):T

Have another great debt busting day everyone:beer:

Cialilerin

I was wondering something similar myself. I'm still having a good standard of life, but a debt-free one. The main difference is I budget for my nights out and treats now and I do enjoy them more!

planning_ahead_2

Debt diary - day 62

planning_ahead wrote: »

Debt Diary day 8

Wow - Week 1 of my journey to a new debt free life completed already ...............................We also decided we needed to set some interim targets – debt free for the Olympics 2012 is an awesome challenge that we both seriously hope (believe) we can do, but to ensure we remain motivated we want some small, achievable targets for our debts….so, here goes

• Clear the Nat West CC by end March
• Clear Very catalogue by end March
• Clear Choice catalogue by end March

The above post was written by me on 22 January - not that long ago and I am pleased to say that I have 'achieved' the two of our interim targets, ie Very and Choice catalogues are now cleared in full:j

I am not going to achieve clearing Nat West CC by the end of March - but for very positive reasons;) It was cleared today, but then they offered us a 0% balance transfer which we took - although we only had a very small limit on this card (because we had reduced it anyway) - so still a fairly low balance on that card, but it's now not going to be cleared for six months - the period during which it is 0%

Our total debt is now sub £44k (funny how pleasing that sounds to me, when to anyone else it probably sounds horrific....but I know how much better that total is than it was 62 days ago). I am so looking forward to the day I can say that it is sub £40k. My snowball reliably tells me that should be sometime in July this year....not too far away:beer:

REDMADCURLS

Well done on doing so fabulously well - that is a fantastic achievement!

planning_ahead_2

REDMADCURLS wrote: »

Well done on doing so fabulously well - that is a fantastic achievement!

Thank you:beer: It does feel good to have come so far so quickly.....long may it continue;)

And so....on to our next 'interim' target. Next target to smash is the MBNA card. The snowball calculator says that by the end of April the balance should be down to £3,139.83 - we are going to try and increase our income with ebay sales to smash that target and get it below £3k by the end of April. That would be soooooooo good if we can achieve that.

Fingers crossed as they say:beer:

Cialilerin

You are doing so well :T I can't believe how quickly you are tackling these debts - you're an inspiration:A