The Challenge - Debt free in two years!

Kepp

Don't be too down Adam.

You got me thinking earlier and I ran some figures through the repayments calculator on here to check progress in a different way.

I'm about to leave work now so don't have time to re-type but I did post about it on my diary, have a look and see if you can look at your progress in a different way.

You can always try to pay more off as and when - didn;t you mention bonuses at one point?

Just remember at least you're doing something about it now so don't beat yourself up too much.

Have a relaxing weekend with plenty of sleep and try not to think about money (and no, I don't practise what I preach but I'm sure it's good advice!) and I'm sure things will seem better by Monday.

Chin up mate

Kepp

Another quick thought - are you running the snowball with you paying your OH every month?

That will really whack up your DFD as you're paying less of the debts that are accruing interest.

I know it's not nice to owe money to people you know and if she wants the money paid back a whatever rate she is perfectly entitiled to it.

But have a play with the figures at least - see what difference it makes if you cut payments to her to say £100 a month etc. It may alter the final outcome enough to make it worth talking it through with her.

Anyway, like I said, just a thought!

Ceniza

Hey thanks for stopping by.

The new snowball includes what I owe her, and I'm paying her £200 a month until I've cleared the debt. I don't really want to pay her any less.

New DFD is April 2013, not December, that was a typo on my behalf. I will still aim to drag this back down to 2011, but that's going to be a near on impossible task. But if I don't try, then I definately cannot achieve it.

Ceniza

Payments to my debts this month, despite paying £830.69 towards the debt, it's only come down a little I just want to get below £20k already! GRRR, okay well anyway, no point crying about it! Down to just over £21.5k now from £23.3k in May

My updated debt diary
Last update: 03-July-2010

Lloyds Loan - £18,479.99 @ 14.5% (down from: £18,831.22)
[STRIKE]Capital One CC - £0 @ 30% (down from: £968.83)[/STRIKE]
Egg Banking CC - £794.23 @ 21.90% (down from: £943.30)
[STRIKE]Lloyds TBS overdraft - £0 @ 12.3% (down from: £2,000)[/STRIKE]
Loan from OH No.1 - £400 @ 0%
Loan from OH No.2 - £2,000 @ 0%

Total Debt: £21,674.22

jtr2803

AdamA9 wrote: »

I think I'm going to have to redo my snowball as I think I was too agressive with my plans to clear the debt. I don't think I can maintain £1000 a month on my debt, without going crazy! It's killing me having literally nothing left every month after I've paid my rent and bills.

I'm going to redo at about £800 I think. That's got to me easier to sustain, whilst keeping my sanity!

Hi Adam,

Sorry to see you are feeling a little bit demotivated at the moment. In regards to your post I quoted above....

The hardest part of being a DFW is trying to find the right balance between putting every possible effort into clearing debt without leaving yourself so little room for any sort of 'life'. The worst scenario is that you get so fed up of living on pennies that you lose the plot entirely and 'fall off the debt free wagon'. What about having one month where you pay £800 so it gives you a chance to have a bit more freedom that month and then the next month pay it at £900? This way you will get a regular breather but are still paying an extra £100 towards the debt bi-monthly....just a thought!

Try not to let yourself forget that if you hadn't started your diary after your LBM and started working on that debt then it could have taken years before you got to a point where you realised that you were in the serious brown stuff. No one has ever said debt busting is going to be easy and we are all having to learn the hard way but it will end up making us better people and I am sure that your OH is and will be immensely proud of you for facing up to your problems

Don't forget we are all here for support

Jody

x

Ceniza

I try to remind myself of the fact that without MSE and without me doing something about this mess, then I'd be in a lot of mess right now - so I'm please to be dealing with it for now, I just feel like I should be enjoying my money and am so angry at myself for getting into such a mess.

Anyway, must stay positive!

Herewego

I know exactly where your coming from, but everything happens for a reason and we wouldnt be making great friends on here if we had no debt
I also look at some of my friends who are still spending to keep up with the Jones but at some point the credit will run out, at least we can tell them where to go to get help when it does, then it will be our turn to have the fab holidays paid with CASH :rotfl:
No offence but glad your slowing down its giving me a chance to catch you up

Ceniza

Thanks Herewego! I guess without this place I may have already fallen off the wagon! So thanks for being my stabilizers y'all

Kepp

Morning Adam, hope you're feeling a tad better bout things than you were on Friday.

Think Jody's suggestion bout changing the payment bi-monthly to try and get the balance between 'life' and DFW is a really good one.

Stick with it - doing something is always better than nothing and while your DFD may be further away than you wanted at least you know when it is - rather than sticking your head in the sand like so many people do.

It is hard to maintain motivation day after day, I had a right strop on Friday after coming off the phone with Goldfish, but that's what we're all here for. People you can rant to and who can give you a good old-fashioned kick up the !!! when you need it most!

Keep going

Ceniza

wow - just realised I'm over 100 posts here already! Didn't think there'd been that much activity in my diary already

Thanks Beccie - I am feeling a tab better about things. I guess I cannot really afford to spend more than I can afford, so shouldn't beat myself up over it! I just hope when I'm debt free, I can stay that way.

I worked out yesterday that clearing my debt earlier than the minimum payments would have done saves me a LOT of interest.

Making the minimum payments would have meant I would be debt free in July 2016, that's 72 months to pay off these debts and I'd have paid £10,912.00 in interest.

Paying £800 per month means I will now be debt free at around April 2013, that's 36 months to pay off these debts and I'd will pay £5,005.00 in interest

It's shocking that I'm going to save nearly £6k by clearing it all earlier - that's enough for a lot of holidays!!!

What was the problem with Goldfish?:mad: