The amazing shrinking debt!

dreamdreamer

I am not having a good week! First the direct debit screw up, then the house news, and now the council have "accidentally" taken £143 out for council tax this month when it's meant to be a tax free month. I recognise it was more complicated this year as we moved into the area halfway through the year but really, how hard can it be? They apologised and said they'd take the sum off of next years total, but that doesn't help me this month when I've already overpaid my loan and now have £265 left instead of £408! GRRRR. :mad:

keggie

Complete pain about the council tax but thinking positively if you could stretch to cover it then you'll be slightly better off every month next council tax year?

Love the idea of the revised SOA... hadn't allowed myself to think past paying off the debt. Just done a snowball and realised that if I can manage £650 a month towards debt then I would have that amount to save in 12months time! Will be longer though realistically as we have 2 holidays to save for alongside paying the debt...

dreamdreamer

Yeah I kind of wish I did have a holiday to pay for (!!) but I'm holding out until debt is paid and then saving like crazy. Debt should be paid by September and hoping we can afford to go to New York at xmas (OH's dream!) as a big "WOOHOO! Debt free!" celebration trip!

I'm trying to look at the council tax positively but a bit tired of always struggling by at the moment. Keep trying to remind myself that I'm in the home stretch but after over 2 years of chucking every spare penny at the debt I'm feeling a bit weary with it all!

dreamdreamer

Well, booked another 4 overtime shifts today while I was at work (on an overtime shift! Vicious cycle!). I now have:

February - 6 shifts - £800 overpayment end of March
March - 4 shifts - £600 overpayment end of April
April - 2 shifts - £400 overpayment end of May

And hoping for:

May - 2 shifts minimum - £400 overpayment
June - 2 shifts minimum - £400 overpayment
July - 2 shifts minimum - £400 overpayment

This would mean the loan paid off on 25/08/2011 - shaving another month off. Even if I didn't book a single other overtime shift this year, it'd be paid off by 25/10/11. So either which way, I'm DEBT FREE THIS YEAR!! :D:D

There's no avoiding it, this is my year!! :j

jwil

Definitely your year, what a great feeling that will be!

dreamdreamer

I know, I can hardly wait! But have little choice.

Had a lovely week down in Cornwall with my dad (he has a holiday home down there) and went back to work today, which was a shock to the system.

Between a few naughties down there (can't resist the scrumpy and pasties!) and a food shop I'm down to £114 until pay day, but I'm working til Thursday, at the in-laws until Sunday and then working Mon & Tues so I don't envisage spending over £10 in the next 8 days. By then it'll only be 3 days until payday.

dreamdreamer

Down to £99 until pay day after buying a hanging basket for by the front door, and some car shampoo! The sunny weather has enticed me outside!

dreamdreamer

Not much happening in my financial world - am off down to see my mum wednesday-friday supposedly but tickets are all pre-booked. Might not be going though as it's looking increasingly likely that OH will be deployed in the next week to help with a certain airstrike that's all over the news. So mostly this week I will be worrying myself sick. :(

dreamdreamer

Payday today. I was planning to overpay my debts by £800 but my dad needed some money sharpish so I leant him £500. He'll be repaying it in June with interest. This should have meant a £300 overpayment but that would have put my total debt at £4031 and that £31 would taunt me so I overpaid by £350.

Total debt now: £3981 (74.8% paid off)

After all my bills are out I'll have £471 for the month. I have nothing expensive planned, no nights out etc, so I'm hoping to maybe overpay by another £100 later in the month. We shall see.

dreamdreamer

I've just been looking back over my journey since I started paying all this off in 2009. I always thought I'd paid a lot more a month at the start of my journey than I do now - I felt incredibly restricted by my budget for the first year or so, never seemed to have any money etc. But actually I only paid £7000 in the first 18mths, and in the 6mths since then I've paid £4400, so I'm paying off way more now than I was 18mths ago (average of £733 a month instead of £388). This will be partly because my interest is a lot lower now (good loan APR and a lower balance) but I think it's also down to actually budgeting every month rather than just spending willy nilly for the first 2 weeks after pay day and then being BROKE for the last fortnight.

These days I don't really feel like I'm struggling financially. I still have and do nice things. I go to the cinema, we have a takeout every now and then, or a meal out. We buy stuff for the house and garden. My money goes so much further than it did when I first set out on this journey, large thanks to things I've picked up on this site. It makes me hopeful that I've learnt good habits that will stick with me for life, and stop me getting into a mess like this again.