Debt Free by Thirty!

d3mon4ngel

6th July

Daily Comps:

• Snail Race (http://ooh.comps.bigfish.co.uk/snail-race/play)
• Gu Chocolate (http://www.gupuds.com/)
• Company (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2503679)
• Sugar (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2550285)
• Ginsters (http://www.ginsters.co.uk/pfys/)
• Dmax (http://www.dmax.co.uk/)

Change Pot: - 5p x 1

Item for Sale:
- None

Amount spent from allowance:
- £2.95: Lunch

HockeyDuo8083

Hi,

Just wanted to say good luck on your journey. I am really enjoying following your progress so keep it up.

Have you got yourself a slow cooker yet? If not I highly recommend it; great for lowering food bills.

Stay positive and keep chipping away at that debt -YOU CAN DO IT!:T

d3mon4ngel

7th July

Daily Comps:

• Snail Race (http://ooh.comps.bigfish.co.uk/snail-race/play)
• Company (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2503679)
• Sugar (http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2550285)
• Ginsters (http://www.ginsters.co.uk/pfys/)
• Dmax (http://www.dmax.co.uk/)
• Free Batteries (http://www.battery-force.co.uk/promotion.html)

Change Pot:
-

Item for Sale:
-

Amount spent from allowance:
- £2: Lunch

Milly1974

d3mon,

Have flicked through a lot of your thread. You have certainly set yourself a challenge, but I reckon you can do it!

Wanted to say thanks, as you reminded me to get in touch with the tax office and get my code corrected. It has been wrong for at least 2 and a half years, and I have known for about 6 months, but kept forgetting to call.

Thank you!:j

d3mon4ngel

Thank you for the words of encouragement

I've not started the month off too well, but there is still time to get it back on track.

I had a thought last night, regarding my overdraft vs credit card. I'm with Halifax, so I pay £1 for each day I use my overdraft, regardless of the amount, whether it's £1 or £100, so last month I was in it for 15 days = £15. I am also paying interest on my CC as I don't have the rating to get a 0% deal. The interest plus PPI works out at about £10 a month. So paying out a total of £25 pm in interest and fees.

I was thinking last night that once my holiday in August is out of the way, I might pay off my CC with my overdraft as I'm going to be paying the fee until I'm out of it anyway, and it means that I don't get the £10 a month interest hit. But it does mean that I'll be in my overdraft for longer. Though according to my calculations, I should have enough to pay the CC and overdraft off fully by Christmas, so maybe I should just stick with how it is...

Decisions... decisions...

d3mon4ngel

d3mon4ngel wrote: »

I had a thought last night, regarding my overdraft vs credit card. I'm with Halifax, so I pay £1 for each day I use my overdraft, regardless of the amount, whether it's £1 or £100, so last month I was in it for 15 days = £15. I am also paying interest on my CC as I don't have the rating to get a 0% deal. The interest plus PPI works out at about £10 a month. So paying out a total of £25 pm in interest and fees.

I was thinking last night that once my holiday in August is out of the way, I might pay off my CC with my overdraft as I'm going to be paying the fee until I'm out of it anyway, and it means that I don't get the £10 a month interest hit. But it does mean that I'll be in my overdraft for longer. Though according to my calculations, I should have enough to pay the CC and overdraft off fully by Christmas, so maybe I should just stick with how it is...

Decisions... decisions...

I've (sort-of) decided on a plan of action for this. I'm going to use whatever is left of my fee-free OD (max £300) each month to pay off extra on the CC on the day before payday. This will mean that I won't get charged any fees I wouldn't have been without doing that. As I have to pay for my holiday in Aug, I don't think this is going to happen this month (or next for that matter).

I'm also debating swapping from an Ultimate Reward to just a basic Reward account once I'm fully clear of the OD and have a nice little bit extra in there for safety. It will save me £12.50 a month (£150 a year :eek:) and I will still get the £5. The only things I use from the Ultimate are:
- The fee free portion of the OD (hopefully not for much longer!)
- Card protection
- Mobile phone protection
- 15% off house insurance
- Breakdown cover
- Travel insurance
Hmmm... maybe I do use it enough for it to be worth it? I'll have to do some proper sums on it all at some point.

d3mon4ngel

I'm not too good at sticking to things, so I've already got bored of posting my daily update with comp links. It's too bare and not personal enough for me lol.

I've got my MSE head back on, and I'm back in the zone!

I paid off over £700 in my first month of debt-busting. This included a refund cheque for £178, which means that I must have at least £500 a month spare to throw at these debts. If this is correct, I should be out of my overdraft, cleared my CC and paid off Wescot in 3 months - cleared by October. This spare can then be put across into my savings until I have enough to ring up and pay off the car finance in one go. As this is also coming down each month, then by October the balance should be around the £1.5k mark at a guess. Bearing in mind that Christmas will be during this time, add an extra month or so on for that, and I should be all paid up on the car by March 2011. The debt to my family can then be repaid by May, and lastly I will have the money for the debt to my ex by August 2011 - a whole YEAR earlier than I have aimed for! :j

I'm probably getting my hopes up higher than they should be, but even if it's only ends up as £300 available each month, I should still be able to do it before the end of 2011.

Edit: I would also like to add that this is Smoke Free Day 63 - it's now over 2 months since I had a cigarette, and I have saved approximately £340 through not buying them

thirtytoseventy

Hey,

Just wanted to say Keep Going! It's the daily triumphs that make the long-term aims pan out. Your attitude to it is great. I've spent about six quid since Sunday and I'm revelling in it!!

Regarding one of your other posts about which order to pay things off in, I have to say I'm like you in that I would wantto pay off smaller debts first because somehow in my head it's better...then you get stuck into the bigger ones! Having the psychological advantage is preferable to saving a few extra quid in interest in my belief...different strokes for different folks!!

All the best :-)

jwil

That's a great amount paid off in the first month, well done! :j

Congrats on the two months being smoke-free too, that is a huge saving! :T

d3mon4ngel

I had my first NSD for July yesterday :j

I also sold my lawnmower for £28.51 on ebay, and when they came to collect they rounded it up to £29 :cool: That's probably going to go on doing up the garden though. I should actually have a finished garden by next weekend. Once it's done I'll post a pic to show my OH's hard work

I've been hard at work baking today while OH has been at work. I've made:
- 1 x 10" sponge sandwich cake (used total of 10 eggs!)
- 23 x fairy cakes (only 2 eggs for these)
- 2 x weetabix cakes (in the oven now)

Might make a few more weetabix cakes later too, as they keep really well and will do us in our lunchboxes next week.