Looking forward to a debt busting 2011

SaZoom

Thought I would start a diary as I'm determined to start clearing my debts in 2011.

Debts currently stand at:

Halifax Credit Card £10,370.41
Cahoot Loan £7,090.00
Other Loan £7,172.67

Total Debts £24,633.08

Savings £30.06

Grand Total £24,603.02

My first target is to reduce my debt to £21,000 by the end of June 2011, although this may change as my financial situation could change considerably in January as I'm planning to buy a house, but more about that when the time comes.

SaZoom

First off I'm just going to pay £10.41 to my halifax credit card. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to rounding up numbers. Can't round up my other loan as it's a fixed payment, but that's where the savings will come in so I can round up the grand total (this will be rounded up when my regular monthly payment is made, make sense?!?).

SaZoom

I'm all set for Christmas and the New Year.

Renting a cottage for a week over Christmas and New Year which is already paid for, bought all the food stuff in that I can for then, just need to get drinks. All Christmas presents are bought, just need to get everything wrapped up.

Got enough money in savings ready for the house buying if that goes ahead in January.

Oh I bought a computer early this year which will need paying for in February from a catalogue, think it's around £500. From what I can remember if I don't pay for it in full the interest will be put on which will be around £300. I need to avoid that if possible, will need to get my thinking cap on. I'll find out the details and will add it to my signature.

SaZoom

My tasks for this week are:

1. Have 5 NSD
2. Take a packed lunch to work every day
3. Sort out my old desktop computer to see if I can sell it
4. Same for my old laptop

SaZoom

Bought some boots at the weekend for £12, which I've found are slippy on some floor surface so I've put the tags back on and took them back to the shop today for a refund.

So that's £10 towards my credit card. Don't think I'll be able to pay anything else off until the end of the month when I get paid.

Just managed to stop myself from buying Jason Manford tickets, so that's progress.

kdenty

Hi Sazoom,

I just come over from my thread to say hello on your thread.

I like your OCDness. My OH goes nuts at me for paying off weired and wonderful numbers just so it all balances and there are lovely round numbers on my spreadsheet.

The other day I was actaully laughed at myself contenplating spending 0.99p so I didn't own something like £999.99 on one particular cc.

Will you have any savings left after buying the house? When we bought this house I had a good deposit and a fair amount stashed away. The house quickly consumed that. They are money eating monsters especially if you have a shopaholic twitch.

I think looking back now I would have borrowed a little more to put towards decorating rather than put it on credit cards. We didn't know much about decorating and didn't know things like - if previous occupant has magnolia'd over badly placed wallpaper (obviously done to sell the house) and you scrape that off and it's paper/plasterboard underneath to get it neat you will end up re-plastering the whole lot. It's amazing how much people can mint up a house to sell it and you realise the problems when you move in.

SaZoom

Hi kdenty,

Thanks for saying hello over here.

No I won't have any savings left after paying out for buying the house. Luckily I won't need to start paying out for decorating etc as the house I'm buying is the house I'm living in now (renting from relative) and shouldn't run into 'problems'.

As soon as everything is sorted out I'll be putting money away for emergencies etc every month.

Can't wait to be able to sort the house buying as I'll then know exactly where I stand. Did see a mortgage advisor 6 months ago and she said they would be able to offer me a mortgage, hoping that's still the case.

SaZoom

Ending up buying the Jason Manford tickets (may be able to get my over half to contribute something towards them though), so that's £54.25 on the credit card. Plus £206 towards a carpet and £6.99 for a extra Christmas present I decided to buy.

Going to find out tomorrow what I need to pay for the computer I bought from a catalogue, I've put £900 in my signature for the time being for that. So I've now got a estimated DFD of Nov-2015.


On my tasks for the week:

1. Have 5 NSD - had 2 so far and will be spending Saturday and Sunday so I've failed on this
2. Take a packed lunch to work every day - had a packed lunch for 3 out of 5 days
3. Sort out my old desktop computer to see if I can sell it - fingers crossed I'll be able to do this
4. Same for my old laptop - we'll see

SaZoom

[STRIKE]
My first target is to reduce my debt to £21,000 by the end of June 2011
[/STRIKE]

Think I'm going to give myself smallish targets to aim for.

1. Clear computer debt by end of Feb-11.

kdenty

Ooo it's good that in effect you get to try your house before you buy it. I hope it all goes well for you.

I think I might have to look at smaller targets too. I keep looking at the big numbers and giving myself a headache.

Good plan from Sazoom *small shiney targets*

SaZoom

Managed to sort out my old desktop computer, check that it still works. Going to have a look round and try and get an idea on how much I could get for it. Will try people at work first to see if any one is interested before I advertise it.

Aims for this week are:

1. 5 NSDs
2. Take a packed lunch to work every day
3. Sell desktop computer
4. Sort out laptop ready for selling
5. Put books on eBay