Time to Change!!!!!

sammy115

Blimey...you have a lot of money lying around....

Word of warning...I am in my forties now and I was first in debt in my twenties...I have got rid of my debt three times now..you have to work out why you got into debt in the first place. Its not just spending - its emotional triggers that cause you to spend or peer pressure.

SkintGypsy

Hi Scottswald! Nice to see everyone being so helpful. I have never yet seen a diary where posters encourage spending on a hobby!

About your plan to pay the min payment and then pay the rest at the end of the month, this is what I did, and it worked really well. I paid all the mins and loans at the beginning if the month and then put the money aside for the rest. If I had an expensive month it was there to use, but more often than not it went to pay off the cards.

You are doing really well. Keep on keeping on.

Gypsy x

pixiechick_2

scottswald wrote: »

you're correct about the car.

my evening job is a bouncer, so im out a couple of times a week but get free drinks and entry to the bars.... :money:

nice one!! :beer:
something i used to do which made me so popular and happy was bodybuilding, i used to eat all the right foods and train most days, it used to cost a little but it was what my life was about and made me happier than anything.

due to paying my debt off ive stopped that and lost 3 stone (all the way down to 14 stone)

nothing would make me happier than to start doing that again. even just thinking about it brings a smile to my face.

then start doing it again otherwise your life becomes all about debt which in turn makes you depressed and ill. I suggested having £200 a month to spend on 'you' - which is approximately your budget for your bodybuilding. If you're not going back to body building, then please give something to your parents for board, they'll appreciate your thoughtfulness (speaking as a parent). You never know, they could also be in debt and really need the money. If not, and they don't need it for board, they could save it for you. If you do go back to bodybuilding, then you'll be paying for your own food anyway.

Life is for living and you're lucky that you have quite a large surplus at the end of the month. I know of lots of people (myself included) who have a deficit every month

pixiechick_2

Gypsy - congratulations on becoming debt free in just a couple of years. That's a fantastic achievement.:j:j:j:T:T:T

vasseur

scottswald wrote: »

little bit more good news, found a cheque for £31.25 in my wardrobe, not much at all but every little helps i suppose!!!

That's a weeks food shopping for me!

scottswald

sammy115 wrote: »

Blimey...you have a lot of money lying around....

Word of warning...I am in my forties now and I was first in debt in my twenties...I have got rid of my debt three times now..you have to work out why you got into debt in the first place. Its not just spending - its emotional triggers that cause you to spend or peer pressure.

dont worry, it wont be happening again, absolutely not!!

talking of money lying around, i went into my safe today (which i havnt used in a while) and i found more!!!!! i actually found £350!!!! and a fiver in a vase lol. :beer:

i'm pretty confident that this will be everything lying around now though lol

SkintGypsy wrote: »

Hi Scottswald! Nice to see everyone being so helpful. I have never yet seen a diary where posters encourage spending on a hobby!

About your plan to pay the min payment and then pay the rest at the end of the month, this is what I did, and it worked really well. I paid all the mins and loans at the beginning if the month and then put the money aside for the rest. If I had an expensive month it was there to use, but more often than not it went to pay off the cards.

You are doing really well. Keep on keeping on.

Gypsy x

thanks, thought it had some sense to it.

well done on becoming debt free!!! how do you feel now its gone?

pixiechick wrote: »

then start doing it again otherwise your life becomes all about debt which in turn makes you depressed and ill. I suggested having £200 a month to spend on 'you' - which is approximately your budget for your bodybuilding. If you're not going back to body building, then please give something to your parents for board, they'll appreciate your thoughtfulness (speaking as a parent). You never know, they could also be in debt and really need the money. If not, and they don't need it for board, they could save it for you. If you do go back to bodybuilding, then you'll be paying for your own food anyway.

Life is for living and you're lucky that you have quite a large surplus at the end of the month. I know of lots of people (myself included) who have a deficit every month

yeah, i suppose i am lucky to have a high surplus, my parents wont accept board. i definately will get back into bodybuilding tho as it would make me happy again!! :j

vasseur

scottswald wrote: »

talking of money lying around, i went into my safe today (which i havnt used in a while) and i found more!!!!! I actually found £350!!!! And a fiver in a vase lol. :beer:

omg !!!!!!!!!!!

SkintGypsy

Scottswald, in answer to your question, I feel relaxed. And free from stress. It really is an awesome thing that I would never truly appreciated had it come easily! We planned our new baby to coincide with debt freeness, so am knackered, but I have everything my heart desires.

Pixie, thanks muchly for your congrats. It was a bit of a slog, but two years on we are a lot more disciplined and make much better choices about financial things. Started on our MFW journey now, so I guess it's a good job we have learnt so much!

Gypsy x

scottswald

ok, so i had £200 in my bank to cover £140 for this months car insurance (which they are now giving me for free this month) and £60 quid to cover my phone bill (which will only be 10-15 quid)

i got my weekly wage throught for working the doors and ot £224 this week.

obviously this gave my current account the total of £424 so i kept a hundred in for phone bill and some supplements for my bodybuilding.

i put the £324 into my loan account so i should have reduced the debt to about £10,122, progress!!!!! nearly below the 10 grand mark, what a mile stone!

at this point i would like to point out that since all my debt has been with llyods tsb, my current account is with barclays.

Mags30

scottswald wrote: »

i'll write down how much it costs just incase you guys think it is too much...

It's difficult for any one of us to say what's too much for somebody else but here's what I think.

If you couldn't make the minimum payments on your loans then £200 a month would be way too much and you would have to sarcrifice the hobby to make the payments.

Debt is majorly inconvenient but so long as you are able to make minimum payments and aren't getting letters from banks and damaging your credit rating then you're doing ok. Obviously it's better to pay more than the minimum but once the minimum is paid the remaining money is yours to do as you choose with be that overpaying loans or spending on hobbies.

I think you can afford the bodybuilding, it just means you will be paying the debt for longer but that's ok so long as you aren't adding to it.