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chocaholic110

I don't really have any advice but just wanted to say that most people will support you here.

I find it helpful to use one thread as my own personal debt diary. Whenever I'm feeling de-motivated I have a read through and see how much has changed from when I first joined here. It sort of inspires me to carry on.

Also I use a snowball calculator that gives me a good indication of when my debt free day will be - it inspires me to pay off the odd £10 or £20 here and there extra in order to shave off a month or two every so often.

Moozie's How much have you spent thread is excellent - though I have to confess I haven't posted there since before Christmas. Will get back on track in the New Year - it really makes you think whether what you're about to spend is necessary or not.

Another way to look at it is - so you've "only" paid off £1000 this year - you could so easily have gone the other way and increased your debt instead - lots of little steps add up to big steps sooner or later!

As to not treating your girlfriend - my OH has never been one for extravagant gestures (he is a natural MSEr) but he does lots of little free things that shows he cares - oh, and the odd bar of chocolate never comes in wrong!!

Anyway keep plodding on and hoping to see you posting again soon!

chocaholic110

Oh, and have you tried cashback sites, survey sites, pigsback etc?

They may not be much but every little helps and you could use the odd voucher as a little treat for your OH.

LookingAhead

Oh yes - totally agree with chocoholic on that last post....Pigsback would be a very good way to get together something for a little treat! And QuidCo for a little extra cash if you do the searches via Kelkoo & The High Street Web every day and do the free DVD trials.

Brindle_2

Hi chocaholic

I use youguv. Am £10 short of the £50 needed to withdraw

Pigsback I have £9.95.

Quid co under £1 but only started using 3 weeks ago. Not spending money to get cash back LOL.
Don't like rpoints, waste of time if you ask me, accumilation is very hard to get and spent many hours trying.

LookingAhead

http://www.fun-vouchers.org.uk/

This is a good site too....get your imagination going though

Willsnarf1983

how about getting another job, two nights a week or something and using that money for 'treats'

Will

ps if she is offering to help pay ur debts of and has the money then don't let ur pride get in the way!

Brindle_2

She has never offered and I would not let her anyway as she currently is paying £2500 for her permant visa, would not be fair

Snaggles

Hiya, just a thought re Sky: £15 sounds like a fairly basic package - have you compared it to Freeview (you can get a Freeview box for less than £30). Might not work if you can't live without Sky One though, but we find most of the channels we watch on a day to day basis are on Freeview (you also get Film4 which is great for shutting the curtains, buying cheap Asda popcorn and pretending you are at the cinema lol!).

And honestly, try not to be disheartened - we paid off £15k approximately in about 5 years, and for the first couple, you feel like nothing is happening, because you can only pay off small amounts. But then things start getting paid off (like your sofa - only 11 months to go), so you throw that at the next debt, which goes down much quicker, then when this finishes, you can throw a lot more at the next one.....it snowballs pretty quickly.

Just keep plugging away and keep posting when you start to feel despondent, and we will give you [STRIKE]a kick up the backside [/STRIKE]all the support you need!

PS: As others have said, £1k paid off is still a reduction in your overall debt - how much does your debt normally increase by each year? If for example your debt was increasing by £3k per year, you are actually £4k better off now than you would have been if you hadn't started to tackle your debts. :T

Brindle_2

Thankyou Snaggles.

Wise words I feel. But I do watch a lot of TV, like 13 hours today...(should really do something better with my time!).

My debt spiralled in 5 years from nothing to £30k....

Thank you all so much

LookingAhead

Brindle....have you thought about updating your signature to put the total in and then watch it come down?

Truly truly every penny helps.

It motivates a lot of people and might make you feel better to see it drop as well?