Pay off as much as you can in 2011 Challenge!

boysma

Morning all

Another 20.00 paid to ISA savings this morning making my total now:

2082.36/10,000:j

seasideDreamer

Just paid £50.19 to my amex so that's £1484.33/£6842.49. I should hopefully get my SAYE cheque begininng of April so that will help my total down nicely:)

DedicatedDFW

Hi all,

Was going to purchase a dress from a charity shop but didn't so transferred the money i would have spent plus the small pence on my target 1 £1817.08/10,000

fedupandskint

£600 paid off in March on debt repayments

total £1747/5000

Just worked out on the snowball calculator if I pay off a further £70 pm on the CC repayments I can pay the first card off 3mths earlier than originally planned.

I'll be giving it a go and if I continue sticking to my budget I should be able to do it. I need to stick at the NSDs and keep reducing my outgoings as much as possible to do this.

In march I can cancel a mobile contract and I'm just considering giving up some more of the virgin media contract if they let me do this.

Will stick to taking lunches to work, cheap evening home cooked meals, staying out of the shops at lunchtime. As I work next to a large supermarket and shopping centre its tempting to nip in for something then find I walk out £20 spent.

It will be worth it in the end, just need to stick to the repayments and this thread is good for reminding me to do so

copperjar

The minimum payments have come out for my two loans, so that's another £273.41 paid this month. That takes me over £3k for the year! God, what I could have done with that....

£3055.22/£10,000

DedicatedDFW

Hi copperjar - I agree - am so trying not to think about that but well done on paying off so much! Just wanted to post to say that my £10,000 target is a huge stretch for me - given my income from f/t work is not much more :o:o hence the p/t work etc. Ideally though I am wanting to pay off all my debt this year (except for student loan ), so if I do start to exceed my target then I will up what I'm aiming for. - hope this makes sense. If others do the same we may well be on target for the 1 million.

I also wanted to ask what people are doing about the student loan? I tend to think if I am earning enough then it is receiving payments and if not then it isn't and my home etc. is more important. Any advice greatfully received

dreamdreamer

Martin has an article on whether or not to pay/overpay student loans... http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/student-loans-repay

The long and short of it is: If your loan is post-1998 you'll never pay more than inflation rate on the interest, so it's not worth paying off more than you need to. Your money is better off paying any other debt incl. mortgages, or even saving it in a top ISA or savings account, will be better off in the long run.

I have student loans from my degree (orig. £11,000, now about £6500) but I don't "include" these on my debts - I know they ARE debts but I'm not going to make a conscious effort to pay them off because the interest rate is currently 1.5% and has been 0% for a good chunk of it. Once my higher APR debts are paid off my money will be better off chucked at our 3% mortgage or put in a savings account. I've paid my loan out of my paypacket since the day I started work so my wage is my wage, I don't miss the loan repayment because I never had it. I think as it stands it'll be paid off around 2016/2017.

DedicatedDFW

Dreamdreamer many thanks for taking the time to reply - I should be fine just to leave my loan to do its thing.

Well, gave myself a little talking too and got my act together and tracked down those pesky new DD's via the long route of contacting each company and finding out the info. that way. This allowed me to make another overpayment today:£1867.08/£10,000

Muffin86

Hiya, paid 203.81 off the debts on friday xxx

suzie_wong

Another payment of £140 made today, prompted by the shock of trying out the snowball calculator!! :eek:

Now up to £655/£6000 paid- not too bad I suppose having only joined the challenge this month!