Starting my Journey

Ashamed_2

Thanks Penny, I'll ask the nursery for said form when I pick my daughter up this evening. I really hope we are entitled. I know we are earning more than said amount but we have no free money at present as we are so in debt

nat21luv

Ashamed,

I have been reading you Diary with interest and I've got to congratulate you! What a fantastic job you've done! I only wish that I could pay £1000 off each month-we'd be debt free within a year! Its very refreshing to hear that your OH is on board, I only wish that mine was-it was all his debt after all!(he racked it up before I met him) Im going to subscribe if you dont mind, your very inspirational and this morning I felt myself starting to slip and after reading your thread Im back on the wagon!

I look forward to your next post,

Nat

Ashamed_2

Thank you very much for you kind words Nat21luv. I'm very happy that you subscribed. . I will also find your diary (if you have one) and subscribe.

I have only myself to blame for our debts. It's hard being a man sometimes, we have expensive hobbies such as cars. If only we could turn back time I'm sure your other half would also make some drastic changes. I know for a fact that my mortgage would be paid off by now if I didn't remortgage and rack up the credit cards. But then if I could replay my life would I miss out on all the good things I've achieved and acquired from the money I spent? Probably not but I would make sure I didn't waste the money (which is about 80 - 90% of it).

I say the wife is on board because she is very supportive of our goal, but I do still get moaned at now and then becuase I'm being too tight.

Someone once said in this thread, you still need to live and if not paying off as much money makes for a more peaceful life with your family then there is no choice. These were not the exact words, but pretty similar and this is something that has stuck with me throughout the journey. I'm relaxing a little now with the money but I thik that's because it's becoming more of a routine rather than something new. i.e. we know we only have £50 a month for entertainment so we think about what we can do for the month as the month starts.

It's kind of strange now how I'm actually looking forward to payday, not becuase I get paid and I can go and spend money, but because I can make the overpayments, fill in my spredsheet and see how the over payment has changed the debt free date.

I have a spreadsheet, which I'm happy to share with everyone if they want it. It calculates the minimum payments, interest etc on your credit cards. It also works out what your balance will be next month - 2 months time etc all the way to 4 years. The spreadsheet has three tabs.

a) Actual Debts - You fill this in as you go (i.e. if you have £40 extra to put against the barclaycard this month, you add it in).
b) Projected Debts - this is the prijection of how quickly you will pay off the cards if you make the standard payments each month. You can use this to compare to your actual debts to see if you are on target or over/under.
c) Monthly Ins and Outs - This lets you work out how much money you have spare each month to put towards overpayments on your debts (i.e. if you get a bonus or overtime, you fill this in here and it tells you how much allocation you have).

I'm sure most people have their own spreadsheets or ways of keeping track, if you don;t I would really recommend it, especially something that predicts the end date of cards etc. It's very motivations.

As I said I'm happy to share mine if people want or even set one up for you as a template that you can update.

Kepp

Hi Ash,

Glad to see your still doing well.

I'd be interested to see your spreasheet - I already have one without about 12 tabs but am always wanting to find new ways of measuring things - sad I know!

Ashamed_2

beccie wrote: »

Hi Ash,

Glad to see your still doing well.

I'd be interested to see your spreasheet - I already have one without about 12 tabs but am always wanting to find new ways of measuring things - sad I know!

No worries Beccie, PM me your e-mail address and I'll send over my template version.

milliemonster

Hi Ash

Just been reading your diary and your update on your other thread and am amazed at how well you are doing, I wondered if you would mind sending me your spreadsheet? we are just restarting our debtfree journey after seriously falling off the wagon and this would be a great help

nicnoo99

Hello,
I've susbscribed to keep an eye on your journey - it sounds like you're really motivated, and very good at monitoring 0% deals and balance transfers, which is great - well done!
Also just wanted to say I totally understand about looking forward to payday so you can pay chunks of debt off. I'm the same - I get very excited about payday, but for different reasons to most people, I think!
I also monitor my spreadsheet obsessively! I make a payment a day and watch the % paid off rise every day, which is lovely.
Best of luck!
Nic

Ashamed_2

milliemonster wrote: »

Hi Ash

Just been reading your diary and your update on your other thread and am amazed at how well you are doing, I wondered if you would mind sending me your spreadsheet? we are just restarting our debtfree journey after seriously falling off the wagon and this would be a great help

No problem at all. Please send me a PM with your Emails Address and I'll send ove my 2 year template plan I used to get started.

Ashamed_2

Anticrastinator wrote: »

Hi,
Just wanted to say thanks.

My brother told me last night how great the site was so I decided to take a look today and yours was the first post that I read. It's giving me the push I need to do something about my own situation. It'll probably take me a little while to learn about all the features of the site but I'm going to try and do something each day.

Step 1: join the site and make a public declaration of intent. (its a start, I suppose)
:j

Time for step two now mate

Ashamed_2

Myself and the wife joined weightwatchers last night. Since quitting smoking we've piled on the pounds and although we say we are being careful we realy are not.

So that's another £40 a month coming out of our account for a few months at least but I guess it will probably pay for itself.

We will start shopping with tesco online this week. That way we don't need to fill our trolley with stuff we "fancy" as we are walking past it. Cheaper for shopping and better stats for fat club.

Dust... it's actually very low in fat.