To remind myself how far I've come - my debt diary. - SOA added

chocaholic110

Happy (belated) New Year one and all.

Payments all gone through for this month so I can relax and stop worrying that I will have a mad spending spree and spend all the pay that has been sitting there since December 22nd. Has been nice actually to have a decent bank balance for a while!

So. updated debt balances are as follows....

My Debts

Egg Loan: £2,501.72
Marbles Card: £4,388

OH's Debts

Egg Card: £2,307

Joint Debts

A+L loan: £ £3,736

Total Debt: £12,932.72
which hits the target of being under £13,000...just!!! :j

Total reduced in December: £1,636.28
Total reduced since LB moment (August 2006) : £14,043.28
Total reduced since debt at highest (January 2006): £15,951.28
Snowball calculator now indicates will be debt free November 2007!

[STRIKE]New target for end of January: To get below £11,700 - may be a struggle as my pay reduces in January (sob!) but a challenge is a challenge![/STRIKE] - achieved

moozie_2

chocaholic110 wrote:

Total Debt: £12,932.72
which hits the target of being under £13,000...just!!! :j

Total reduced in December: £1,636.28
Total reduced since LB moment (August 2006) : £14,043.28
Total reduced since debt at highest (January 2006): £15,951.28
Snowball calculator now indicates will be debt free November 2007!

New target for end of January: To get below £11,700 - may be a struggle as my pay reduces in January (sob!) but a challenge is a challenge!

Hi chocs, happy new year to you too!

Fantastic achievements there :T :T :T :T I am mightily impressed! Kerep it up sweetheart and Nov 07 will be our celebration

chocaholic110

Certainly will! Or even earlier, hopefully!

arthur_dent_2

That is an utterly amazing achievement, that is a huge sum of money to have paid off in such a small amount of time.
Keep up the good work and if you haven't already then add your total to the 2006 count.

chocaholic110

arthur_dent wrote:

That is an utterly amazing achievement, that is a huge sum of money to have paid off in such a small amount of time.
Keep up the good work and if you haven't already then add your total to the 2006 count.

Thank you. I already did add my total to the "How much did we pay off in 2006." Very proud to be part of the £1,200,000 paid off this year!

Very much like your username, by the way.

chocaholic110

Well, haven't posted for a while, work is so busy have time for little else, grr!

But the end of the month update stands as thus:

My Debts

Egg Loan: £1,761.99
Marbles Card: £4,300

OH's Debts

Egg Card: £2,168

Joint Debts

A+L loan: £ £3,270

Total Debt: £11,499.99
which is below the target of £11,700 by £200.01 :j :j :j

Total reduced in January: £1,432.73
Total reduced since LB moment (August 2006) : £15,476.01
Total reduced since debt at highest (January 2006): £17,384.01

Amazing to think that this time last year we were almost £30,000 in debt and now it is only (ONLY!! *hollow laugh*) £11,500.

Target for end of Feb - and again it might be tricky as is a short month, is to be below £10,000 - imagine the boost of being in single thousands rather than double!!

Sadly though, my pay dropped by £200 a month in Jan as my promotion has come to an end -the person whose job I was doing is back at work.

Other changes this month

Keeping up with the Flylady challenge on the OS board - my house is becoming so organised and dust free - feel free to call round and inspect under the bed, behind the wardrobe or the highest shelves - OH thinks I am barmy - "But who looks there??" he says as he shakes his head in bewilderment.

The plot of land which has been rumoured to have a proposed housing estate put on it that we would like to move to has put up a sign saying that houses are coming soon. We have wanted a bigger house for years but have been put off by the level of debt we had and also that our little village only has tiny terraces or massive £350,000 out-of-our-price-range homes and the kids don't want to leave the village. As I moved around a lot during my childhood, it is important to me that they are setted so we have stayed in the same tiny terrace for years - hopefully soon e might be in a position to make a move. Sort of scary and exciting at the same time - I have lived in the same house since leaving home!

DH and I are trying for a baby again - here's hoping everything goes a bit more swimmigly this time.

chocaholic110

Just realised that I have been on here for six months now. It's unbelievable that my life has changed so much in such a short time. At the beginning of August I was really despairing and couldn't see us ever getting out of the debt situation. Now it seems like the end of the road is in sight - still a long way to travel but getting there.

I am hoping that I have inspired my Mum too. She told me today that she had finally filled out her forms for PayPlan. Here's hoping that they will begin to sort her out. Curious to know if they will include me in her list of creditors or do they only count actual firms? Would be nice if they counted me, I might actually get some money back!

Not looking too hopeful for getting below £10,000 this month. The figures I worked out last night indicated that I would be around £40 over target - can't think of where to find that extra money from - unless DH gets paid more than usual one week.

Off work this week. Been cleaning most of the day - off to tackle the attic now. If I'm not seen in the next few days better send in the search party - I'm not sure what state it will be in!

chocaholic110

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,389 (Pension and student loan already deducted)
Partners salary - £1600 (this varies as it depends upon hours worked and nights away but averages at £400 a week so counted a month as 4 weeks
Child Benefit - £116

Total - £3,105

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage - £340
Council Tax - £89
Gas / Electric £102 (Just changed and is lowest can get according to USwitch)
TV License - £10.99
Sky £44 - I know, I know, can you tell OH??
Phone - £31
My mobile (PAYG): £2
Weekly expenses - £360 - We take £90 a week out and this covers food, OH petrol, OH's haircuts, OH's lottery, the odd pint for OH etc
Haircuts (mine and children) £20
Car Insurance- my car - £16.66 - though I got £100 back from Quidco so technically only £8.33 (Paid until Sept 2007)
Car Insurance - OH's car £21.25 Paid until July 2007. Didn't know about Quidco then, grr!
My Petrol: £40
Car tax: £27.50
Car servicing: £13.75
Life Insurance £16
Water: 18.15
Car payment: £260 Runs until Sept 2008 0% interest
Union Fees: 14.50
OH's pension: £60
Bank account fees: £0 - cancelled fee paying account
Charities: £8 - mmm, I know, but I feel so bad cancelling - I have reduced this honestly!
Contact lenses: £15.50 There are probably cheaper schemes but I love my extended wear 30 day lenses then I don't have to put them in /take them out (urgh!) very often
Overdraft interest: £2
Broadband: £17
DD's school lunch: 31.00 (termtime only)
DS's school lunch: 40.00 (termtime only)
DD's breakfast club £8 (termtime only)
Dentist: £2 (£24 a year)
Christmas / Birthdays : £60
Clothes: £30
Children's entertainment / days out / etc £20
School clubs £10
School trips £5
Work lottery £4 Not stopping putting this on as you can guarantee they will win as soon as I leave syndicate!
Holidays: Decided against any until we are debt free, hopefully will only miss one year.
Nights out: And they are...?


Total: £1,739.31
I am sure I will have missed something so just shout!

DEBTS

Egg loan £8,661.64 7.7% £245 but paying £720 from end of February
Egg Card (OH) £2,675.83 5.9% £100 and anything else that can be spared
A+L loan: £4668 6.9% Paying £485 a month (non flexible)
Marbles (0%) £86

Total debt repayments £1391

Total outgoings: £3130.21

which is actually £25 over our incomings. We are managing though and I can only explain the discrepency by the fact that I was fairly conservative in estimating OH's income and also the fact that I keep getting the odd windfall from Quidco, Mystery Shopping, ebay etc.

Verbatim

Have just caught up with your news chocs. You've kept so motivated and have kept really hard at it. Ahem, the debt busting that is. How do you keep going. Is it the flylady discipline? I looked at that once and was so exhausted just imagining doing all that I had to go for a lie down!

chocaholic110

Looking at your signature you seem pretty motivated yourself! Pretty good going there!

I can stay motivated as I know it is going to be relatively short term - if I had years to go I think I would have slipped already. I just take it one step at a time, lots of baby steps add up to a giant step eventually.

Also I spend lots of time fussing with snowball calculators, reading diaries on here etc - I haven't got time to spend!!

As to the FlyLady, the longer you do it, the easier it gets as everything is organised and nowhere really gets time to get dirty - loving my shiny house and several visitors have commented. A little girl who came to play today told me I had a very clean house and when her Mum came to pick her up she asked how I kept so tidy with the children off school. Bit scared of telling people about the FlyLady though in case they think I'm off my head - can just imagine the parents at the school gate...

"Hmm, you know that Mrs Chocaholic...she needs a stranger to tell her when to change the bedding / clean the fridge / wash the skirtingboards etc"