Skaps's "Will i ever be debt free?" diary

skaps

Hi everyone

Been obsessed with this site and the forum since finding it on Jan 1 2010, think it was fate that bought me here, as i was looking for some foot cream and ended up on one of the forums. Anyway i have joined lots of challenges (see sig) and am hoping to make dents in my CC, save for a wedding and overpay the mortgage. A big ask i know.

So far i have rung up the mortgage company and as i thought i was paying a larger amount, i now am overpaying the amount i had budgeted for which is an extra £60 a month. Also have sold some toiletries on ebay and made £40. I'm making a list every time i do grocery shopping and trying hard to stick to it, plus im writing a meal plan for each week too. The OH is doing overtime at work and has been for a few months now so hopefully at the end of the month there will be a decent amount to put towards the wedding. Also have applied for a 0% BT card which hopefully i'll get.

Now i can't wait till the end of the month to get paid and make some payments to the CCs.

So glad i found this site, normally i have obsessions that last a week or so but this one is going to last a long time, and its a good obsession to have. I think 2010 is going to be a great year for me.

I think i have officially had my lightbulb moment. :j

skaps

Today got my cheque for £40 from my shares so this will go towards wedding or CC - this all depends on getting accepted for the BT card. Also got a refund for a top i bought for £12 so this will go to one or the other. Waiting to get back £35 from work which often takes a month at least and doing some tutoring this week which will be an extra £30.

skaps

Have got accepted for a BT card today - got sent a text but dont know the credit limit yet. Hope it will be enough so i can get rid of my halifax cc.

Logged onto online banking and a BT of £6000 has been paid off from my halifax cc. Phoned up halifax cc and the guy could not tell me who made the payment - how weird - must be for the cc i applied to, but as i applied for two who knows which one it is?! The guy was so out of it saying good morning at 5pm! Plus when i asked him to let me know how much money i have left on the card and what rate the money was all on he was moody. I hate talking to people on the phone sometimes. Can't wait to say bye bye to Halifax for good, have been trying to do it for years but everytime i come close they offer me a great BT or a lifetime balance offer. :think:

skaps

Woohoo, got accepted for another CC card today so i can finally clear and maybe cancel the Halifax CC. Going to have to stick to making extra payments as much as I can. Sometimes im good at doing this and other months i say to myself 'you'll always be in debt so why worry'. But since ive been on this forum and signed up to lots of challenges have got lots more motivation and know others will be motivating me to keep on at it.

As for my exercising challenges these are going quite well, though don't know how ill ever be able to reach the target of 50000 for squats and situps! Target tomorrow is to go jogging and then do at least 1300 squats/lunges and 1500 situps oops meant 1100.

At work today we raised over £1000 for Haiti :j

planning_ahead_2

Hi

Well done on transferring balances on yours CCs - secret is to make sure you close the original CC accounts - don't keep them open 'just in case' - it's much to easier to spend on them and that's how debt spirals out of control (see my signature because I was top of the class at doing this unfortunately).

Good luck with all the challenges.

skaps

Thanks alot for the advice. Have been closing down the CCs but this Halifax always gets me. As soon as i get the balance transfer i will call them to get rid of it though. Already when i called them i reduced the credit limit by £10,000! I never wanted such a high credit limit but they kept on increasing it.

Good luck to you too - you joined the same time as me and you have done well especially considering what January is like. :beer:

Btw am curious - Whats the wibbly bums challenge?

skaps

Reached my target of 15 NSD for January today

Ended up doing a club today after work so £21 (once i get paid for it) to put towards debt/wedding. Still waiting for my new CCs to come so i can do the last of the BTs.

skaps

On the MFW 2010 thread someone suggested a spreadsheet for me to use to help me see the difference overpaying would make. By using the spreadsheet I saw that if i continue to pay the amount im paying my mortgage term will be reduced from 30 years to 17 years.:j This includes the OP i am making of £60.11 from February 2010. If i did not overpay but continued to pay the amount im paying every month it would be 18 years. Wow little payments do make a difference. Now i just have to hope interest rates stay low after i come out of my fixed rate in Oct 2011 and that i can still make overpayments in the future.

skaps

Natwest CC came today and straight away i activated it and bt the last of the money in the scalifax CC. Cant wait for it to go through then i can pay off the little thats remaining and close the card down.

skaps

Finally have got paid and have paid £75 off today off the scalifax. :j

skaps

Put another £220 towards the wedding. Still got lots more till i reach the target of £5500, its started to get worrying.

Have pledged 18 NSDs for February which will be difficult with the short month and half term week too. Will try my best though.