Nearly there!

GreenSaints

I know what you mean. Try not to get too disheartened.

Just think once it's cleared, all those pennies and pounds are all yours!

January20

Thanks GreenSaints! I've just had a read of your diary and see you are just as ambitious as I am! More ambitious even! It's great. It makes me feel that it's not so silly to aim to pay off so much until next payday!

I want to say that I will never, even have a cc again but the reality is that it can be quite useful, especially for online purchases and extra warranties etc. I will love my BC account to be at £0.00 though! Can't wait

GreenSaints

My ambitious target is also related to stupidity!

The best feeling in the world (other than bring a size 10 when I get there!) is having a balance that says zero. Can't wait to phone up Barclaycard and cancel it.

The next thing I've got to do is cancel current accounts I don't use. I must have 3 that need going!

rdchick

Hi January

Just read your diary, wow you're so close it's exciting! I shall subscribe to see how you get on!

Won't be long til it's all gone! xxx

January20

GreenSaints you have expressed exactly how I feel (even down to the stupidity)

rdchick, welcome to my diary! I hope it's not too boring for you as I go through drought periods when I say nothing for days and days, and then I'll come and rant about something (like my interest rate). You're right I'm very close. I'm so close it's nearly painful because, like GreenSaints, I want my BC balance to say £0.00 and I can't wait!!!

GreenSaints

Just look at your starting figure - that's pretty incredible to see where you are now! I'm finding this last bit of my Barclaycard is hard to shake because all the things you can do to take big chunks out of it (selling things) are gone so you need to make other adjustments

January20

Yes GreenSaints, you are absolutely right. What I am going to do is work out how much of my initial balance I have now paid off. That will help.

I re-jigged my spreadsheet to work out much more easily how much I normally pay in bills and how much I pay on my cc. So, I got paid today and I had your word about not pushing myself too much ringing in my ear. I was going to pay £300 but decided that on £200. I can always add more throughout the month. So balance today is £1229.56 - paid off since January 1st = £556.63 (31.16%)

£1229.56 is 9.78% of my initial balance so I have paid over 90% of my debt!!!!

GreenSaints

That's pretty amazing!

I overstretched myself last month (December 15 to January 15) and that was awful! Constantly checking my account, keeping track of pennies, putting stress on me that I didn't need. Pay what is comfortable and then pay little chunks off if you have spare cash.

Touch wood, nothing bad that will require happens, but you never know. I'm quite happy making Barclaycard use their staff to take the £5, £10 etc when I can!

January20

I could pay it off much more quickly, if I decided to put some of my savings to it, and I know it's what Martin Lewis advises: no point in having savings if you have debts because of the interest rates, but I don't have savings for the interest rate. I have savings (not much though) because I could have a big car repairs bill (my car is 10 yo) or I could suddenly need a new sofa (mine is really on its last legs - and actually one of the legs is really dodgy). As I have no other credit cards (or source of money) I could find myself in a really tricky situation!

GreenSaints

I totally agree. Also, your debts aren't massive anymore. I think the security of being..........er..........secure, out ways debt repayment on this occasion