Start of my Debt-Free Journey

andrea1968_2

Hey Lilykins

Well done on taking the first steps to a debt free life - you'll get loads of advice and support on here.

To get your credit card debts down quicker put all your amounts into a snowball calculator - what you owe, minimum payment and interest rate for each card, and it will tell you how much you should be paying on each to get the debts down quicker. You need to throw every available penny at the one with the highest interest rate, no matter what the balance on the card is but it will literally save you hundreds in interest and reduce the debts much more quickly.

Good luck and remember that lots of little steps will soon get you a long way down the debt free road x

[Deleted User]

Thanks again everyone, the advice and encouragement is great.

zarazara, the 5 pleasures sounds really worthwhile, will look at this after my post- although I feel and bit of a high to be dealing with things and get things out in the open I feel I may be heading for a low- have done so much in past couple of weeks to get extra cash to pay off debts, have sold some old gold, put lots on e-bay and am preparing for car boot. However feel stressed that this will be countered by neices and SIL birthdays, SIL 40. Also Mothers Day, and in-laws live 200 miles away so stressing will have to find money for fuel to see her.
I have thought about cancelling everything this year, also got two family weddings, again, travel costs, presents etc. Feel guilty to cancel things like Mothers Day cause it was my own selfish fault for getting in this state with debt and family dont deserve it, also our mothers arent getting any younger, who knows what around the corner? so am wrestling in my mind with all this - anyone else feel the same?

andrea1968, many thanks for the advice about the snowball calculator, have previously read about people and snowballs- wondered what on earth they were talking about. Do you know where on the site I can find the calculator? I can see by your signature that youve been debt free since January- congratulations. Would love to hear how you did it. Cheers.

On a more positive note, DS had a school training day. Myself and another mum share the child care for these days and it was my turn. Previously I'd always done things with the kids that involved lots of money, day out at a water park an hours drive away, cinema, meals, bowling etc- it usually costs me a small fortune. Was very lucky that the weather today was beautiful. Took the kids to the library, park and they then spend an enjoyable afternoon in the garden making mud-pies and 'perfume' from leaves (dont think I could sell it unfortunately!!!). They had a wonderful day, I enjoyed my last annual leave day of the year and caught up with some chores.

Another positive, did the menu plan and shopping list for the week last night and DH did the shopping today (cant trust myself yet). He spent £39- for the week- couldnt believe it- I've been spending £120 a week until very recently and we were still having two take-aways per week. So improvements are being made, just need to keep reminding myself.

Craig_W_2

:smileyhea:smileyheaReally feeling the love on this thread. :smileyhea:smileyhea

:dance::dance::dance:You guys rock! :dance::dance::dance:

foxgloves

You can get a mobile phone contact for £15 a month. Your grocery spend could definitely come down. We are finding we eat really well on £250 a month & I'm about to start trimming that as have decided to take voluntary redundancy, so it's possible. Cut back on your energy bills. I've swapped suppliers 4 times in the past with virtually no discernable difference to bills, but to try & be a bit greener, we had a hard look at what we waste and that got our monthly payments down from £150 (for elec & gas) to £66. Also, I would suggest that your big TV contract is a luxury you can't afford while you have a lot of debt to pay off. If you get rid of it, that's nearly an extra £800 a year to chuck at the debts, even before you do anything else!. Every little helps & seeing that debt figure go down every month is very motivating. When we were initially having trouble getting groceries & household shopping down to £250 a month, we tried a month of £100 for sort of a 'cold turkey' approach. It ended up being quite fun, but the fact that we only went over by about £50 taught us that if we can do it on £150, we can definitely do it on £250 and we've stuck to it ever since! Another thing to try is sit down quietly by yourself & really have an honest & serious think about what things you most enjoy doing & that make you happiest. Despite having been a serious fritterer of money in the past, I found that all the things I enjoy most are actually free. We live in a very shallow consumerist society & it's easy to get sucked into all that, but when you step back & just concentrate on doing what's right for YOU, it does suddenly all start to make sense x

foxgloves

Re. Mothering Sunday.....no, I don't feel any particular pressure to drive down to see my Mum. I will send her a nice bar of dark chocolate with ginger (her favourite) and a card with a letter in it & will phone her on the day for a chat. I don't buy expensive presents for anyone any more. It was just getting ridiculous. I like making things. I shall see my family at Easter, so I'll bake a nice cake to take with me & will also pot up some wild primroses from my garden to give to people. Your priority is paying off your debt, not buying expensive gifts for people. Try & think of gifts which show lots of thought, but which don't cost a lot of money.

zarazara

Hi again lilykins, I've been thinking about those weddings birthdays and motheringSunday. ITs only an idea but have you thought about writing a nice letter and putting it into a card,for example you could write to your mum telling her how much you love her and appreciate all she had done for you, I know,as a mum, I would prefer this to any present any one could buy for me. Maybe let her know that when you have the money you will visit and clean her kitchen or tidy her garden or her. re neices ,weddings,birthdays etc. I suggest a phone call and a letter in a nice card too,just be open and honest,let them know you havent the money,maybe an IOU in kind,ie you will look after your neices for a birthday treat and take them to the park? I have found in life that being honest about my state of affairs has worked out for the best. I have lost some "friends",evena couple of well-heeled family members along the way,but others have sighed with relief about getting out of the spend/present/visit cycle. and those i lost,well it wa spainful at the time but i realised i am better with out them . Stay strong,give it all some thought, stay with us and keep us posted about how you get long.

zarazara

Craig_W wrote: »

:smileyhea:smileyheaReally feeling the love on this thread. :smileyhea:smileyhea

:dance::dance::dance:You guys rock! :dance::dance::dance:

yahoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:T:rotfl:

andrea1968_2

Hi again

If you google - make sense of cards and under the calculator section there's a snowball calculator. Enter all your card details and it will tell you how much you should be paying to each one.

That was my absolute lifesaver and it brought forward my debt free date by about 14 months, as I'd previously thought I should concentrate on the card with the highest amount on it and not the highest interest rate.

There are loads of other 'snowballers' but I found that one to be the easiest and best laid out.

Andrea

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Hi Lily and well done for facing up to your debts :j
Having looked at your SOA i'm with the others, downgrade the Sky, we went to Freesat from Sky and TBH don't miss a thing, how many times do we need to watch the same old stuff on Dave??

Also phone your mobile company and say you want to cancel and see what they say, hopefully they'll offer you a major reduction but don't sign up for any longer than your original contract end, then go PAYG, again we barely spend £5 a month between us and again miss nothing, androids and apps are for kids with time not for adults working full time:D

Again why not try you can always go back to these things when you meet some of your debt targets.

The weddings, birthdays and general presents are the same, if your family and friends are only there for you if you flash the [STRIKE]cash[/STRIKE] credit they are not helping you at all and the sooner you can accept that the better for getting debt free.

One of the things that helped me start to see the light was realising that by buying things on credit that in the long run i'll be buying less stuff than i could by saving up and buying from cash not plastic. As it is i'm realising just how many times i'm paying for that magazine and cd that i chucked on a cc years ago and still haven't cleared despite probably paying for it ten times over:mad:

Good luck you're on track:beer:

theoretica

Amount short for making debt repayments. -227.09

I suggest you consider paying off your family loan early with proceeds from the selling you are doing. Because it is a comparatively high repayment amount compared to the size of the loan paying it off will have more effect on your monthly shortfall than paying the same amount off other debts. Ideally you want to cut down (look groceries, TV, energy, presents as other posters have suggested) so that you break even with only your salaries, and can use any extra money you make for additional repayments, or of course treats.