Kayleighpea's Journey to Debt Free!

Kayleighpea

Hi All,

I did start a diary at the beginning of 2010, but lost my way a few times as we all tend to do. So New Year new start!

A brief history: I got into debt when I went to Uni - a ridiculous amount thankfully my dad stepped in and took the majority of it and put it on a 0% Credit Card in his name back in Oct 2008. If he hadn't done that I dread to think what situation I would be in now!

The highest amount that my debt got to including the balance transfer fees to my dads card was £16,153.56. :mad: But in the last 2 years and 2 months I have paid off £4337.90 and my current balance is £11,815.66. I am so pleased with the progress I have made but I definitely know I can do better than approx £2k a year.

For 2011 I want to aim to double this and pay off £4k :eek: a big ask but I know I can do it if I put my mind to it, and any help and encouragement you can all offer will be greatly appreciated!!

Kayleighpea

Ok, so my first little steps in order to achieving this has been to sign up to a few challenges today:

* The £365 in 365 days - to clear my A&L Overdraft.
* The Earn £5 a day in Jan Challenge - this is to start me off as I keep trying and failing with this one! Hopefully once I get into the swing of this I can aim for more each month.
*£2 Savers Club - I did say that these would be paid into an ISA but I'm now thinking that these will be extra payments either to Barclaycard or Halifax CC.

So definitely a fair bit to get me started! But I am aware that these are just little bits and won't get me an extra £2k this year. So as before, any extra suggestions would be great!!:)

**edit** forgot to say that I do a little bit of mystery shopping now and again, but will have to up the amount of this I do as well to help towards it - and use the earnings to pay off debt and not to spend like I have been doing!!

loumac

Good luck Kayleaighpea!

I'm sure that keeping a diary and using the advice on the forums to keep track of what you're paying off will help to keep you motivated.

It'll be worth all the hard work I'm sure. x

brummiebabe

Good luck Kayleighpea - sounds like you've done well:T

BB x

Kayleighpea

Thanks loumac and brummiebabe! Need all the encouragement I can get!

Well I am off work until Tues 4th so have got no excuse not to get my ar*e into gear! Today's plan is to start sorting through all the tat in my bedroom (I flatshare so luckily only one room of rubbish to sort, but there is definitely a lot of it still!). As well as possible things to sell I have TONS of paperwork, bank statements, receipts etc that I have stocked up on for god knows how long.

So I imagine today will just be a day of sorting into piles and binbags(!) and then tomorrow can be the day for putting things onto Amazon & Ebay. Either way I am definitely staying in today and not going out spending!! :rotfl:

Kayleighpea

Well I didn't get as far as I would have liked today really, but still managed to get 3 bin bags full of rubbish cleared out! (Mainly from extra packaging from xmas presents). Have got a nice little box full of ebay items ready to be put on, but have got so much more stuff to go through in my room yet!

I also managed to do a couple of surveys on My Survey that got me up to enough points to order £10 to Paypal :j So once that has arrived it is being transferred straight to my A&L O'Draft - this is the one I am trying to blitz on the £365 in 365 challenge so will be on the way!

On the downside though I had a look at all the 60+ items I have in my Amazon selling inventory and was shocked to see it was January 2010 that I put the majority of them on there and they havent budged! Also, the lowest market price for almost all of them is 1p so I think with these I am going to have to give up and take them to a charity shop. So, good for decluttering, not so good for debt-busting

Now I should really get to sleep to prepare myself for another day of sorting and ebaying, but I may just be lurking around on here a little while yet Night MS'ers!

Kayleighpea

**stumbles in hanging onto the door frame and rubbing very sore head**

Morning all...anyone got paracetamol? I seem to have a slight headache!

Not feeling the best for my motivational January! :rotfl:Have slept alll day! Hope everyone else had a good NYE!

sashybo

Hi Kayleighpea, just thought I would drop in your diary after "seeing" you in mine.

Well done on the amount you've paid off your debt. :j Would you believe the debt between my OH and I was approx £25,000 before we started our DMP. :eek: It's taken us several years to get where we are now (£13,424) so believe me - you're doing well!

chevalier

Kayleighpea wrote: »

On the downside though I had a look at all the 60+ items I have in my Amazon selling inventory and was shocked to see it was January 2010 that I put the majority of them on there and they havent budged! Also, the lowest market price for almost all of them is 1p so I think with these I am going to have to give up and take them to a charity shop. So, good for decluttering, not so good for debt-busting

Have you thouht about putting them on green metropolis instead of amazon. Might access a slightly different audience


good luck with your debt busting
chev

niccatw

Hey KP

Good to see you back .

I've decided to stike a balance between trying to sell stuff to put toward my debts and decluttering, so I do a sell/charity shop/bin type triage and with the selling it's 3 strikes and you're out! I.e. I'll only list it 3 times and if it doesn't sell, it's going to the charity shop.

I can focus more when there is less clutter around! (At least, that's the theory! :rotfl:)

The NSD challenge has been great for me - makes me more aware of what and when I am buying stuff! And makes me question whether I really need it.

Good luck and here's to both a fun and prosperous 2011!

Kayleighpea

chevalier wrote: »

Have you thouht about putting them on green metropolis instead of amazon. Might access a slightly different audience


good luck with your debt busting
chev

Hi Chevalier, no I hadn't thought of that actually - is it quite easy to use?

sashybo - thank you for stopping by! and that is such an incredible amount paid off :T

nicca - is good to be back! I know we're only 2 days in but I'm feeling good and confident that I will make a real dent in my debt this year. And today is going to be my 2nd NSD for Jan as well so making a good start!

I had a proper think about my money stuff yesterday (once the headache eventually wore off) and worked out that if I actually managed the £5 a day challenge, it would be £1825 in a year which would be almost the extra I want to pay off this year! :j Now being realistic I don't think I can do £5 a day every day but if I earn more on other days then it could all even out one way or another! So has definitely made me think more seriously about how I can achieve this

Now I am off to nosy on other ppl's diaries and have a look around for some high paying mystery shops!