£12k in 12 months!!! 27 April 2011 at 2:30PM edited 22 October 2011 at 1:35PM in Debt free diaries 112 replies 7.3K views

mrsspendalot

As hard work as this is going to be .... I'm biting the bullet today and am going to get this sorted once and for all!

My hubby has just over £12k of credit card debt and with very strict budgeting I have worked out we can clear this in 12 months.

I'm probably being ambitious, possibly unrealistic, but my original estimate was January 2013 so anything earlier than that is a bonus!

So, here goes the journey .....

Tixy

Hi

Good luck - thats a huge amount of money to pay off in a year, hope it works out for you.
Is hubby on board with the budgeting as well? much easier if you both sign up to the target.

MoneySpendingExpert2011

Hi Mrs SA,

That is an impressive target! I am hoping to clear £11k in 2011, so will be watching this space very closely. Hopefully I will be able to pick up useful tips and advice.

Good luck!

mrsspendalot

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

Good luck - thats a huge amount of money to pay off in a year, hope it works out for you.
Is hubby on board with the budgeting as well? much easier if you both sign up to the target.

Thanks ....

Hubby is a little bit more of an ostrich about it than me to be honest. He's happy as long as everything is paid, but not overly bothered about the speed at which it is paid off. He suffers from depression so I think that is part of the problem. He's not clueless about money, in fact he is AAT qualified to level 4, but he just isn't scared of having debt.

On paper, the £12k in 12 months is do-able if we don't go on holiday, do any home improvements, go out socialising etc. during that time, so I thought it was worth a try. We're expecting a baby in July and need a larger car, but I refuse to take on more credit to buy one. I told him we will manage without until the debts are clear - so the motivation for paying it off so quickly is to afford a car without credit.

My main weakness is saying no to the children Oh, and pregnancy cravings aren't helping much with food budgeting at the moment (darn Chinese takeaways :rotfl:)

mrsspendalot

MoneySpendingExpert2011 wrote: »

Hi Mrs SA,

That is an impressive target! I am hoping to clear £11k in 2011, so will be watching this space very closely. Hopefully I will be able to pick up useful tips and advice.

Good luck!

Thanks - maybe we can give each other some encouragement?!

MoneySpendingExpert2011

mrsspendalot wrote: »

Thanks - maybe we can give each other some encouragement?!

Sounds like a wonderful idea! Payday tomorrow so will be chucking a bit of money towards the debt.

mrsspendalot

Well, day 1 ...

Pay day tomorrow which signals the end of another month on my spreadsheet . At the end of each month I sort my spreadsheet out and check what is to be paid the following month. I've already paid the first 2 CC payments for May as they would have been late otherwise with the BH weekend.

May is probably going to be the hardest month to get through financially because of some one-off outgoings this month, so it is going to be the biggest test on whether the £12k challenge is going to work It's going to require nerves and willpower of steel to get through, so I'll be aiming for many NSDs and a very low food bill. Oh, and it's DDs birthday in May too, and I have no idea what to buy her

We have everything we need for the baby coming, including a stock pile of nappies and wipes, and all the kids have their summer shoes and clothes sorted. Shouldn't need to buy any clothes now until school uniform time, which will be a biggy this year as DD goes to secondary school :eek:. How much does everyone else budget for clothes and shoes per person per month?

Spends for today: £14 on birthday present for niece for next week - present came in on budget at £10 from Amazon, but had to pay £4 in postage to ensure it gets here on time due to BH weekend . Lesson learned there to be more organised to avoid postage! :rotfl:

MoneySpendingExpert2011

mrsspendalot wrote: »

stock pile of nappies and wipes

considered buying things from places like Costco if you have got one near you?

mrsspendalot

MoneySpendingExpert2011 wrote: »

considered buying things from places like Costco if you have got one near you?

We don't have anything like that where I live

We don't have an Asda, Lidl, Primark or anything like that either which makes shopping for anything so much more expensive

Just have to rely on good old Mr Tesco and Sainsbury's. We have a Matalan, which is about the cheapest place to get clothes here.

MoneySpendingExpert2011

mrsspendalot wrote: »

Just have to rely on good old Mr Tesco

Mr Tesco has taken over the world. I think you have to be living in the middle of Siberia not to have Mr T around. On second thoughts, Mr T might be there too! :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

choogirl

Good Luck

I'm aiming to have paid off £13k in 15 months and hopefully should be debt free by December 2011 :j so I will be rooting for you.

Congratulations on baby, just a quick thought - don't try to be too strict with yourself though as it does get quite hard going sometimes and you need some sort of treat occasionally.

As for the budgetting for clothes, shoes etc - we have a budget of about £80 per month but that covers DH, 2 kids, and myself - school uniform, shoes etc, it could be cut down alot but clothes are a weakness of mine.

Good luck xxx