My Debt-Free-Wannabe Diary

DontDoDebtKids

Debt Totals:

£5,148.00 Amex
£2,123.08 Lloyds TSB
£6,276.36 M&S

Total: £13,547.44

coxj2901

Hi DDDK,

We decided to lease a car and I'm quite pleased with how it's turning out. My lease payments are £240 per month for a brand new megane and like you say I don't need to worry about tax, MOT's or services etc....

I've had it on a 2 year lease and it will cost me circa £5.7k over that period. However, at the end of I will have the choice to either replace it with a new one or buy my own. Depending on my circumstances at the time it has certainly helped and bought me a bit of time!

Good luck with whatver you decide and well done on getting those debts down.

Rgds, John

DontDoDebtKids

Well, the good news is that the car is working again but there's a new noise when I brake, so I'm going to have to get that checked. It's all too much hassle!

As I have said above, I don't really have the money to buy a newer car. I could, however, lease a car like John has.

I was talking to my Dad about when I bought my car for £1900 and how annoying having to spend so much fixing it was the other day and he said "if you'd bought a new car you'd have lost that much in depreciation" but then I retorted "but I'd have had a nice new car that hadn't broken down for the same money".

It sort of proves that leasing isn't that bad an idea...

I just don't like to have to fork out every month for things. It's much less flexible than just owning the thing, but then I suppose you can either have flexibility (and unpredictability) or predictability (but no flexibility).

DontDoDebtKids

Hi all,

Direct Debit has gone out today:

Debt Totals:

£5,138.00 Amex
£2,123.08 Lloyds TSB
£6,088.07 M&S

Total: £13,349.15

slowlyfading

Its going down! :j

DontDoDebtKids

slowlyfading wrote: »

Its going down! :j

Slowly!

In other news:

I've almost, but not quite, decided to use a local estate agent to sell my flat as I haven't got the holiday time left this year (having already taken a week skiing and two weeks to go to Japan) to do the viewings justice.

I will put it on the market before the tenant has moved out, hopefully meaning that I can have it sold for when the tenant has moved out! That would be ideal.

As it stands, the valuations that have been given by the estate agents that have seen it were £25,000 more than I thought it was worth, so I'm very happy to sell it for anywhere near the prices they are claiming to be able to sell it for.

Lots of flats are being built in the area that my flat is in, and althought they are going to be new poky little things, they aren't going to do my flat's value any good. I've decided that what you need is an older house that is freehold so you get both the benefit of actually owning the land on which you live as well as having an old house, which they don't build any more - i.e. the supply is static!

The amount I will get from selling my flat, it seems, will easily pay off my debts (which mostly came about from buying the place slightly before I could really afford it and also from doing it up all on credit cards!) and still leave me with a good amount to invest for a while until I need the money for buying a real house with real land!

Over and out. Have a good weekend everyone.

DontDoDebtKids

Already it's April and I have a statement from Amex and the Lloyds DD has gone out.

Debt Totals:

£5,157.38 Amex
£2,080.08 Lloyds TSB
£6,088.07 M&S

Total: £13,325.53

coxj2901

Well done DDDK,

Your progresss is inspiring.

Rgds, john

DontDoDebtKids

Great news everyone:

I've been promoted! Woohoo! Looks like I'll be getting an EXTRA 23k a year - amazing eh?

DDDK

onedayiwill

An EXTRA 23k per year?!?!?! Wow! That's impressive. What do you do?