Pay off as much as you can in 2011 Challenge!

rubywhatashmoo

cococoladebt wrote: »

I still can't get my head around people going on holiday, when they have debts to pay off. Surely, it's best for the debt to be paid off and save for a holiday?

You could say that with every luxury thing though - why aren't you living on the cheapest own-brand no frills food, getting the bus or walking everywhere, still watching TV while you still have debts to consider?! If you focussed entirely on your debts then of course they could be paid off quicker, but for more than a very short term solution you'd be so bloody bored to tears that you'd more than likely give in and end up splurging on something huge and undoing all your hard work anyway

If you can budget in to spend some money on something that makes the slog towards paying off your debt easier then why not do it? As long as you're meeting or beating your minimum payments it's not making the situation any worse at least.

dreamdreamer

I'm still here! Just broke, so no more payments for me until payday (next friday, hurry uuuup!). Should be getting £500 back from my dad that he owes me next week as well so that'll take a nice chunk off!

I still can't get my head around people going on holiday, when they have debts to pay off. Surely, it's best for the debt to be paid off and save for a holiday?

People will all have different ideas of how much they want to sacrifice in order to pay off their debt, from the extreme living-on-nothing-but-noodles approach to the paying-minimums approach. Personally I haven't had a holiday since I started debtbusting in 2009 but I want to get this paid off as quickly as possible and it will have taken just over 2 years, which is not that long to go without a holiday. If it was going to have taken me 10 years, I'd be going on holidays!

We're hoping to go to NYC in december and Florida in June 2012 to make up for it though! :rotfl:

jwil

svb53 wrote: »

Morning all,

Jwil is it a real pain if I change my amount? I've been off sick for months and am going back to work in 2 weeks so can come back to debt busting, but I don't think i've much of a hope of original amount. Can I change to £5000 please and I'll promise I'll check in regularly?!

Thanks lovely.

Hi svb good to see you again! No probs with changing the target. Good luck going back to work, hope it goes well.

jwil

phoenix_dragon wrote: »

I think people tend to get caught up with things during the year, but once Christmas comes, the mind becomes focused on financial matters. I think the only reason I've been so determined to keep updated and pay off as much as possible is because I'm due to give birth around 6th December, and I just wouldn't be able to relax knowing that I have debts that need to be paid.

I'll still have my loan to pay until March next year, but I plan to save up enough to cover the payments so that the monthly payments don't eat into my maternity pay.

On the bright side, I found out the other day that, 3 months after my last loan payment, the bank will be giving me £1180 back of interest! Turns out there was a deal when I took the loan, which I either totally forgot about, or didn't know about in the first place. Discovering this really made my day!

That's great news about the cash back!:j

jwil

kdenty wrote: »

Just popped in to say hello and saw your figures and had a little bit of a mathematical play around and figured out the percentages paid off. Wow this is amazing.:T:T:T

I wish I had more to debt bust for you but had a month of paying lots of big bills so it went up (but only a little bit). But my overall debt is still going down. Just not always on the credit cards.

I hope in the next few months to get it down again and have an nice update for you to help with the figures.

I know I'm not around much but I'm still inspired by your thread Jwil. I have a little corner of my spreadsheet dedicated to my total on here.

If the overall debt is still going down, then you are doing well kdenty!

jwil

kdenty wrote: »

Just popped in to say hello and saw your figures and had a little bit of a mathematical play around and figured out the percentages paid off. Wow this is amazing.:T:T:T

I wish I had more to debt bust for you but had a month of paying lots of big bills so it went up (but only a little bit). But my overall debt is still going down. Just not always on the credit cards.

I hope in the next few months to get it down again and have an nice update for you to help with the figures.

I know I'm not around much but I'm still inspired by your thread Jwil. I have a little corner of my spreadsheet dedicated to my total on here.

Doh! Forgot to say, thanks for doing the percentages, it's looking good! :T

jwil

kavics17 wrote: »

I'm still here too but only make extra overpayment twice a month so there is nothing to report really. We won't be able to pay as much this month because of extra unexpected purchases such as new bike for OH, insurance renewal, flight tickets,family visiting etc but will try our best. I just made an overpayment of £1350 this morning. I'm still hoping to pay off the debt by the end of September though it's more likely to be end of October which is still good. We are very focused but started to relax a bit more as we can really see the end of it. OH also agreed to try for a baby as of now instead of waiting till we'll be debt free:). I'm one happy lady at the moment...

2. kavics17 - £18,818.72/£24,000

Great news about trying for the baby kavics, you've done so well with the overpayments, one month later won't hurt too much :T

jwil

cococoladebt wrote: »

I still can't get my head around people going on holiday, when they have debts to pay off. Surely, it's best for the debt to be paid off and save for a holiday?

I think the others have put the nail on the head. In an ideal world we'd all be able to give up all luxuries for as long as it takes to clear the debt, but in reality I think most of us need something to keep us going. I have certain spends that I don't give up, even though I would be debt free quicker - it just means that it keeps me on the straight and narrow rather than going off on a big splurge after getting fed up with not being able to do anything.

abba1772

I'm taking the kids to Blackpool for a week, I got it through the sun and for a week in Blackpool it's only cost me £104 which I think is a bargain, i've made the sealed tin our spending money. I haven't been on holiday since my honeymoon in 2001 with ex-hubby, my kids are 9 and 5 this summer and I want to take them on holiday as a reward for not asking me constantly for things as they know i'm trying to be careful with money plus i've taken on 8 extra shifts this month so next month I will be able to keep on paying the overpayments i've been paying rather than paying the minimum that i intended to pay in July because of our wee caravan holiday and birthdays.

My car DD came out today so thats another £125 added to my total taking me to £4061.94 / £7000 :j

I've passsed the £4k mark now woo hoo lol

jwil

dreamdreamer wrote: »

We're hoping to go to NYC in december and Florida in June 2012 to make up for it though! :rotfl:

Dreaming about holidays keeps me going too. I just keep thinking that with the amount I'm paying back each month, I could pretty much go on holiday each month.

I can't wait til I can afford it again! NYC is one of the places I'd so love to go back to.