2011 is my year to get sorted

MRSM1983

Hello everyone,
Today I have decided to start a diary about my progress with pay off our debts. I had me LBM back in September and since then have made some dent into our debts. Now I really want to get cracking and make it my big focus for this year.
I’d like to tell you a bit about myself so here goes....I am happily married to my wonderful husband and we have a beautiful little boy and are hoping to try for another one in about a year . Although they are by far the best things in my life and I wouldn’t change them for the world or go back and do things differently some thing did come at a price. We had a beautiful (and expensive) wedding followed by our little boy who I took a year maternity leave with. During all of this we have racked up our debt and it wasn’t until September that we realised how bad they were. We were basically living well beyond our means.
Fortunately we are both working at the moment and are able to make a dent in them each month. So here is my making a dent diary which has honestly been inspired by all of you on here, reading what some of you have done is truly amazing. You are a real inspiration and if anyone fancies helping me with my journey and keeping my company along the way, I would be very grateful. I know there will be highs and lows but I am determined to keep going.
I will continue with the large payments I am making to various accounts and the ones I am not I am going to try and clear one at a time.
So my first mission is to clear my Argos account and get rid of it. I am going to try from today to make a payment a day even if it is just £1 and that it should be cleared hopefully by the end of Feb. Then I will close the account along with my next and studio24 accounts and will be store card free. :j
Looking forwrad to getting to know you all

NAEFAGS

hi
welcome to diary land

thanks for your post its great to hear from people in the same boat when you have debt you can some times feel alone but not on this site its full of great people that keep you going.

keep posting as it helps


wishing you well i pop back soon:j

Naefagsxxx

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hello welcome and goodluck.xx

joshua_blue

hi mrsm1983

best of luck on your debt reduction mission...i would say it can be a bit of a roller-coaster ride at times & sometimes it's hard to keep financially disciplined 100% all the time, but this forum is superb.

well done on your achievements so far.

MRSM1983

Hello everyone,

Well I haven't been on here for a few days but I have been busy in those days trying to get a few bits sorted here and there. I have found an old debit account that I have and have decided to use it as my debt account so all money going onto those debts that I dealing with one at a time I will take the payments out of this account.

So Today I paid £25 off of my argos account :j through a few bits of loose change and finding £10 in this debit account.
I am aiming to try and save a bit from shopping ect at the weekend and try to pay another £10/£15 off on Monday.

So this weekend My plan is
1. List 3 things on e bay
2. do a complete review of our finanaces
3. work out some extra ways to make money on top of my job.

With the third thing if anyone could give me some ideas that would be great.

Oh and I am on a diet trying to lose about 25 lbs and I lost 4lbs this week ..so yay me :T I weight myself every tuesday so will let you know how I get on next week on Tuesday.

Have a great weekend everyone

joshua_blue

well done on losing the pounds especially at this horrid time of the year

MRSM1983

Hello me and anybody who wants to join me (you are very welcome)

So it has been a while since I lost wrote on here but I have been really busy making a dent (a small one) into my debt. I have managed to pay off my Argos card through wages, selling a few books on Amazon and with a lovely cheque sent to me from BT from £106 when I closed my account . I was in credit with them and didn’t realise. Once the money had cleared I closed my Argos and studio accounts so I am now officially store card and catalogue free :j:j. I am so happy about that it feels like a real achievement and now I cant use them there is no way of putting anything on them.:T


My plan now is to start on my abbey cc which currently stands at £2000 although I paid £50 off today so it is now at £1950. I am hoping to pay off another £150 in the next three weeks hopefully. Not sure how yet but I am going to try. Any ideas? I would like to try something other than surveys and cash back. If I can get it to £1800 before I next get paid I will be chuffed with myself.
My diet has gone out of the window at the moment. Still at 5,5lbs loss but really need to get back on track in the next few days.
So hopefully I can try an pay £7.50 ish each day this week to abbey but we will see. I’ll keep you posted.

Have a lovely evening xx

MRSM1983

Hi

Mananged to pay another £50 off my santander cc today from stuff I sold on e bay last week. Hoping to do another £100 by the 25th feb which is pay day. Starting to feel like it is going to be a long road but at the same time cant believe that it is nearly the middle of feb.

Although I am foucusing on all of the debts I am trying to work really hard on one at a time and as you know this one is my santander cc. £100 down £1900 to go. When I completly cleared my argos debt it give me such a sense of achievment.It really makes me realise how easy I spent it but just how long it takes to pay back. A bit like weight really

Oh and I had letters from Argos and Studio to say my accounts were now closed so YAY. Thing I will frame them :rotfl:

So that is all my news really this week oh and I am going to start the special k diet from tomorrow so will up date up on that.

Have a lovely evening everyone

MRSM1983

Debts:
Right it is time to give myself a big kick up the bum again. The last couple of weeks I have been really slack and now need to get re motivated.
I am going to do a mini financial review today and look at where we are and where I want to be by Aug 2011 as that will be three years until my DFD. I know I sometimes set myself unrealistic goals but that also needs to change.
I do however feel very pleased that by April 2011 we will be under the £50,000 mark which feels like a long time coming and will be the first time in a while that our debts have been under that mark.

Moving:
We are also in the process of looking to move. We have a flat that needs a bit of decorating before it can go in the market in Sept/Oct. We then plan to sell and move in with my in laws for a year to save for a deposit (my husband has some money coming too from his granddad who passed away) and pay off lots of our debt. By staying there we should save around £1200 extra a month which will really help.
Here is a question: Have any of you been able to get a new mortgage with debt? If so do you mind me asking how much debt?
Weight Loss:
Back on weight watchers for the last two weeks and I have lost 4lbs. Woo hoo :j. Hoping for a 3lb loss this week to reach the silver seven mark. Wish me luck!!!!!!!

PollyBanwell

Hi Mrsm1983!
Just seen you diary and well done for making such headway! In your debts and with weightwatchers! I'm surrently meant to be doing the onlineprogramme but have been really slack in the last month or so!

I started my diray in December and I totally get that feeling when you realise how easy it is to spend and how LONG it takes to pay off! I've mananged to finance a trip to Spain, Christmas without getting into more debt and made a little bit of a dent into my figures, but it takes such will power!

Keep going with your posts!

Best wishes
Px

MRSM1983

My goodness it has been ages since I have been on here, but I have just had a look at my signature and feel fairly proud of what we have achieved so far. Nearly £10,000 off is pretty good I think.

Well we are still working hard at trying to repay our debts but with full time work, a 2 year old and a home to run sometimes I cant always do everything as much as I would like to. I have though applied for PPI repayments on 2 cards and a loans and if it comes through it is going straight on my cc.

We have had quite a busy few months and a busy summer coming up. I have however not used my cc or racked up anymore delt so far and have been very economical which is something I am proud of.

So it is time to just keep going . At some point before the end of July I will look at what I need to do in the next 12 months and what I hope to pay off. We are hoping that by christmas our debts will be at be under £42,000 which is over £15,000 since our LBM in sept 2010 wow.

It feels like such a long struggle sometimes and that we are always skint but I have learnt (and I am still learning) some seriously valuable lessons. I feel like we have made some very silly and implusive choices in the past and that is something I wont do again, I CANT WAIT for my debt free day xxxxx