Debt Free By 30-ish Diary

bobbie78

OK just has a quick play with the snowball calculator and if I'm in constant work (hope not I need some days off) for the next 3-4 years I can pay off everything INCLUDING the house. So it has given me a dfd of January 2012 if I pay off £4500 a month, so that combined with the 4k challenge I think I'll be able to put more into repayments and bring that date down but if I actually get organised and focused with this rather than min repayments which would end up with me paying nearly 150k in intrest with the house I think paying 20k interest until 2012 sounds better really.

bobbie78

Income
salary + rent from lodger = 5000 (ish need to sort this out properly)

Total income will be 5000

Outgoings
mortgage - 1060.23 (53.27 of that is the deposit loan part which is same apr as mortgage)
Halifax buildings and contents - 25.59 (includes having lodger and home office hence a bit higher)
hsa 17.99 (for dentist must actually get around to using this then cancel it)
tmobile - 20 (just signed up new contract was 35-40 a month before)
xmas / birthdays 20
car maintenance 20
car tax 10 ( £115 / 12 ish)
car insurance 50 - due for renewal in September so will shop around then need one with business mileage included with 2 year no claims
food 100 (roughly need to confirm with spending diary)
petrol 100 (probably a lot less as have travel card to get to work which is paid for through work)
clothes 35
hair cuts 10
emergency fund 50 (this is me just wanting to build up a grand or 2 in savings as I've emptied all my reserves paying for the buying costs on the house)
tv licence (oap in house I'm in so exempt)

subtotal 1498.81

fixed repayments

student loan - 100.18
student loan - 36.65
lloyds loan for car - 256.59
virgin cc min payment 50

total outgoings 1942.23

total income - total outgoings = 3057.77

debts
Virgin card 0% till jan 08 - £10078 (Applied for Halifax card awaiting confirmation to b/t so 0% again forgot to do this in December so at 18% I think this month)
Car Loan 9% - £ 9329.58
Student loan 1999 - 3% - £1100.30 (need updated figures this is approx)
Student Loans 00-02 - 3% £4919.10 (need updated figures this is approx)
Northern Rock 6.35 % 8000 - secured loan running along side mortgage once it starts.

bobbie78

I've finally paid off the graduate loan I took out in 2001, :Twhich has been hanging over me for years. It is so good to finally have that gone. :j Depending on if I can get the 0% credit card or not next I plan to either pay off the credit card if I have too or pay off the car loan. I've also just applied for a cash isa so I can fill that before April which may mean I pay more interest on debts but it will pay off in the long term as it is 6.35 tax free interest so the same as the mortgage but just going the a good direction for a change. Using the snowball calculator my dfd/mtd is august 2012 I think 4000 a month is more realistic than 4500 but if I keep working as much as I am lately then it might be possible. Oh I'm also quitting smoking again, but for good this time so I haven't included ciggys on the soa as I won't be having any more.

Next I need to look at getting a current account that pays better interest and / or savings account but also need to sort out life insurance and have a talk to an ifa about pensions / wills etc really at some point really soon.

bobbie78

Started Spanish lessons tonight as an evening course as I just don't have the mental will power of late to force myself to do something like learning every night after work for fun regularly enough via distance learning etc. So this will force me into actually going somewhere to do it maybe I can try and learn a language (did french at school can only remember how to ask for a cheese sarnie now) and plan my dream trip to mexico for a few years time.

It has been such a busy 18 months for me really, but I've been thinking and even though the debt hasn't gone down as much as I might have hoped when I first started this diary it hasn't gone up and I do have a lot of "proper" things to show for it that I wouldn't have managed to get if it wasn't for lessons learned on here, so thanks Martin. :money:

So at the start of the diary end of 2006 when I'd just been made redundant I was looking at a debt of 29311.23 today it stands at 25426.98 (not including house debt and with approx values for student loans) so not debt free by any means like I planned to be but I do have a house, appliances, furniture, a new boiler for said house and it is currently being decorated downstairs through out as I speak. So with all that my debt has still gone down and tomorrow my plan is to get a settlement figure for the car loan and chase up the credit card application to see which one of those two things I pay off this month so that should be another 8-9k less hopefully off of that in the next month.

I do recognise I need to be a lot more organised and strict with myself with the "do I want it or do I need it" and get that back under control again, but if I hadn't have found this site I think I'd be 20k more in debt and would never have got my house etc even though I haven't been as strict with myself as I'd hoped when I started. I am determined now though, I need to get a plan in place which is both for my career and for my retirement so I know when I'm working all these crazy hours I do that it is for a good reason, and with the help of snowballs and dates showing how soon it could all be paid for house and all I think it is time to get serious again, so watch this space.

bobbie78

hmmm, so didn't get organised, just worked farrr to much but by working 70-90 hour weeks for 6 months have no idea where I am. So must get back in charge again, if people can work 3 jobs and still do their daily clicks and have an allotment and all the millions of things people do on here I have no excuse.

So I'm going to do what I said I would back in jan and join the 4000k challenge just very very late, which means from monday I'd have £918 for the rest of the year.

I've down loaded silkquit again and will use that to help in quitting smoking, starbucks gave me a free mug the other day which I'm determined to use at work to have tea in instead which will be good for my bank balance and for my waist line I think. I guess they gave it to me as I'm such a good regular but it has been handy and might be the thing that keeps me out of their strange as it seems.

This weekend is soa time and get back on track and stop burning money on things to cheer me up as I'm working too hard, as I suspect I could do an easier job on less money and be better off financially, than doing all this stress and then spending on coffee and things to cheer me up as I haven't had a day off in months is costing me more money anyway.

So I guess will it be sporadic updates again and then check again in 6 months time or will I finally get my act together and focus on sorting ME out rather than just sorting out work stuff. Only time will tell I guess.

bobbie78

I've just terrified myself but in a good way I hope. I was watching spendaholics after being inspired on here yesterday and at the same time started thinking about my spending for the 4k challenge. So I thought I'd back fill the last month of the spending diary as I haven't used this before. So I started picking and choosing what would go in as the cheap ryanair flights don't count do they, or the jumpers I got from gap with the 30% off voucher, then I realised I'm fooling myself just the same way as the woman on spendaholics was - I don't have a shop's worth of clothes I really needed jumpers - but by picking and choosing what I count means I'm missing the point that I'm wasting money in huge amounts in some places. :eek:

So I went back and filled everything in from my bank statement and I just can't believe it, it isn't 100% as I normally get cash out for lunch at work / ciggys and starbucks and I don't know what I spent the cash on for last month really, but I can't believe what I've been buying in the name of needing to cheer myself up as I never get holiday and am working so late. I somehow thought as I was working so much I wasn't really spending that much but the internet has a lot to answer for in this regard it seems and impulse purchases are going to have to stop.

I had planned today to be a no spend day but ended up buying fish and chips which was £14.60 I'm not going to take that off the shortened 4k total as I did work that out as starting on monday, but I had already booked to go out to dinner on tuesday with some work people so that is £20 for the set menu + wine.

Also next weekend I'm going to the secret policeman's ball which I am hugely looking forward to but that will mean some money being spent I think, unless I can think about it before then. Is taking in your own home made "bottled water" allowed or will they just confiscate it do you think? I've had that before at the hamersmith Apollo and other venues.

Some good news today though I haven't had a ciggy since last night so silkquit says I've saved the following which hasn't been easy but is a start. :T

One day, 27 minutes and 19 seconds. 10 cigarettes not smoked, saving £2.65.

Also I started to look at cash isa's yesterday but unless I get the spending sorted I'm not sure I'll have enough to do this years full quota which is nuts but I think this is going to help me re-asses my priorities a lot as to which debts I pay off in what order and build up a bit bigger emergency fund just in case of job loss.

bobbie78

Signed up for another challenge which is try and have 10 NSD's in October, which will be hard not being used to thinking about it for a while but I think is achievable.

I've stopped myself today already from getting a solar powered phone charger from ebay - doesn't matter it is cheap of ebay or that uses less electric you know it will just go in a draw and you won't use it.

I think the tricky part is there are so many good ideas on here, but also so many bargains so it is tempting to spend in a weird way too.

So hopefully with the NSD's (note to self - which doesn't mean you just spend double on the other days ) and with the remaining % of the 4k a year budget I will get things snowballing faster in the right direction.

I haven't been using credit cards or over draft or anything "bad" for this year really and as I had been over paying I felt I was doing good, but it was only in the past couple of days I realised how much money I'm still wasting and that I could have been debt free but the house this year probably if I'd been smarter about it and not just chucking it all at the house. So priorities will be sorted once I get the totals of what is outstanding still on the car loan etc.

I realised though I have a school reunion tomorrow so £10 for that I haven't paid yet, but I'm really going to try and make today a NSD to allow for that and the other things planned this week so the fact I'm even thinking about it again before I spend is good. So new mantra to I NEED it or do I WANT it, I WANT a solar powered charger as it is cool, but I don't NEED one.

One day, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 36 seconds since last ciggy. 18 cigarettes not smoked, saving £4.70. So far too