Attack Debt & Begin Life at 40

WelshSaver

I have started a diary on here before, so here goes again. All our married life my husband and I have had debt, now 16 years on and 2 children later things have not changed. Our credit card debt has now totalled at just under £34000 at the end of January. We have had many lovely holiday's, have a lovely home, but I could not say what all the £34000 has been spent on. Approx. £650 every month goes out on credit card debt/catalogue debt which is the minimum payments, we have no problems paying this, but how long will that last. This £650 per month could give us some lovely treats every month or a nice holiday every few months, which I must admit we do love.

So it's time to change, so now it's time to make more money via cashback sites, daily clicks etc. Selling our items, saving on our groceries, match betting (which I seem to have got the hang of, but only dabbled so far) and overtime if I can get any.

I will be 40 in 2012, so what a double celebration it would be if our £34K debt could be totally wiped out in the same year.

Our credit rating is not too bad, but we haven't had much luck lately being accepted for new low rate or 0% cards. So the aim is to pay as much of this year as is possible,then another chunk next year, then finally the last chunk in 2012. Once a large chunk of debt has been cleared this year we will try again towards the end of the year for some low rate transfers.

So the following must be paid off this year:

Pilot329.17
Mint2754.71
MBNA2373.68
Choice121.35
Debenhams265.70
Littlewoods189.03
Barclays4466.01

Total 10499.65:eek:

dealwithdebtdot

Hiya,

Wanting to wish you luck! But I wondered about what made you choose these debts to tackle first, are they the ones with the highest interest rates?

I too am on the grocery slashing! I am quite loving having a full fridge after the food shop, but the fridge empty for the next, no wastage! Menu planning all the way!

Am subscribing to keep you company.

Dot

tiff

We have been in debt most of our married life too (will be paid off this year). How much can you throw at debts each month, some of those accounts have relatively low balances so should be easy to clear and motivating to see them paid off.

WelshSaver

Thanks dealwithdebtdot and tiff, lovely to have some company and it will be lovely to have some support on this road to recovery. dealwithdebtdot I chose these ones first as they are all the ones with the higher interest, approx 20% which hurts a lot and it will be great to clear these, plus the catalogue payments are high every month, so want to clear these. On average the debt tiff should go down about £300 per month with the regular debt payments, plus I want to make sure another 200-300 a month gets paid on top with extra money made. So it will be great over the first few months to see some lower ones cleared.

brizzledfw

Keep going Welsh saver..you're on the right lines. Will keep in touch with your progress. Remember to hit the highest APRs first.

WelshSaver

I have been working out how I can make the extra money and know with daily clicks and free scratchcards I could make at least £30 per month. So to push myself a little I am going to aim for £40 per month on cashback sites/scratchcards. With the match betting I will aim for about £60 per month. Selling items on ebay etc, there is so much here to try to get rid of I will aim for about £50 per month and then £50 per month with grocery savings, loose change savings etc. How does that sound? So that is about £200 per month, I think that is doable.

WelshSaver

Thanks brizzledfw lovely to have you on board and I will definitely keep to your advice regarding the APRs.

brizzledfw

no probs welsh saver. I have restarted Ebay and was surprised at how easy it is now to list stuff - and good value too if you list on a free listing day. There is always something thats not nailed down that you can list!! Last from me was some ink cartridges and a posh (impulse buy!!) handbag that I had only used about twice. I am now about to list a few more things.

The other thing was decluttering - I tried Flylady and did the get rid of 27 items thing..OK she said into a bin bag which offended my environmental sensibilities so I cleared 27 plus items into charity shops, bin, recycling box and also freecycle. Feels good! I recommend it!! If you ask yourself what you can do without and what others might want...well theres probably quite a lot in most homes!

Speak soon..

beanielou

Great start.
Keep posting!

WelshSaver

You're right brizzle, I keep telling myself I must list some things on ebay and I borrowed a book from the library yesterday on decluttering so I will get on with that too. I am starting in the hallway, I have some motorbike gear which I haven't used for years and is still in pristine condition, not sure if ebay is the right place to sell it though.

Thanks beanielou I will keep posting.

Also on the moneysaving front I borrowed one of those electricity monitors from the library yesterday and am going to get that connected to work out where the money is spent.

Good news yesterday on the bingo, I had a bonus given to me and managed to have a few wins, total winnings of £86, so I am going to include that in the match betting amount as it is winnings, may take a week or so to get the money as I withdrew £20 a while back and it took a week for that to hit my bank account. That will definitely be used to pay off one of my debts straight away.

I just noticed I put the Pilot figure in incorrectly, it should be £329.17 , I will try and amend it now, looks as though I copied the choice figure. I am going to get choice paid off first with the £86, plus my regular payment of £27, leaving £8.35 to find which shouldn't be too difficult to find. Can't wait now, think I will go and count our penny jar :j

savingholmes

hello and welcome to diaryland - hope you have fun and good luck on your journey!