My journey to debtfreeness

charlyze2

Good afternoon all.

Well ive been sitting here all wrapped up in my blanket and feeling a little bored. Im off work today as i have a tummy bug and not feeling to well with it but there is only so much sleeping i can do. So i thought i would update my financial plan for the next few years as it doesn't require me to move from the sofa.

A bit about me. Im 29 i have a lovely hubby 31, two [STRIKE]gremlins[/STRIKE] boys, 8 and 3 and 2 cats.

we both work full time

Im starting this diary as a way to keep me focused on paying of this debt that just seems to hang over us.
We have quite a bit. i will list it out here and hopefully i will start to see it reduce down nicley each month.

part of my debt is on buy now later plans. They are due to end soon and they need to be paid off before the end date otherwise they will wack on all the back dated interest.

Interest free plans

Very OH @ £216.00 - DUE 06.01.12 - £115.46 interest that will be applied should the balance not be paid by due date
Argos @ £52.26 - DUE 27.01.12 - £4.00 interest that will be applied should the balance not be paid by due date
Argos @ £105.96 - DUE 17.04.12 - £16.86 interest that will be applied should the balance not be paid by due date
Very OH @ £399.00 - DUE 13.08.12 - £163.20 interest that will be applied should the balance not be paid by due date
Very Me @ £189.00 - DUE 22.10.12 - £78.78 interest that will be applied should the balance not be paid by due date

I have a budget for my main bank account already set up in excel which shows a running total until 2013. it includes all direct debits, expected money in, min payments on the credit cards, money that goes into savings pot for things like car tax, mot, birthdays, christmas, hobbie and clubs for DS1 etc etc. It takes into account things i can predict for example childcare costs going down in sep when DS2 goes to school along with an estimate in the reduction for tax credits. As is it is a running balance with all the accurate (well within a day or two) dates for reciepts and outgoings, i can see exactly what effect say a £30 payment here or there will have on the future balance. I have conditional formatting set up on my total column so that when the balance is positive the cell is green, in the overdraft but within £100 of my limit is light pink, using the last £100 of my overdraft shows as blue and if it goes over it is Red.:rotfl:
So with all that in mind i have already budgeted for the lump sum payments of the above interest free plans. The payments will be made 5 days before the plan is due to end.

The other debts i have are a natwest loan at £466.11 per month. again included in the budget. The end date for this is July 2015. I'm happy just to ignore this and let it pay itself until i have the credit cards cleared and then this will be attacked. They allow overpayments but i think its a minimum of two months payment per overpayment IYSWIM so (932.22 at a time)

We have a Halifax credit card with a balance of £2850.00. It was on interest free however this has just run out. Thet interest rate is 0.055% per day so approx 20% p.a, however i have just applied and been accepted for the barlclaycard 0% balance transfer for 16 months. Very shocked as i didnt expect to be accepted. Im just awating on the card now to find out what credit limit they offered me. Hopefully its enough to move the whole balance from halifax across. If it is then this card will be min payments while i concentrate on OH barclaycard and the overdraft.

Overdraft - Limit is £1600. We tend to go near to the limit each month but never over it. (i have learnt that lesson that hard way) With a bit of hard work i should be able to clear the overdraft in about 6 months. (this is including making the lump sum payments to the interest free plans and the min payments on B/card and halifax). When the overdraft is clear so that we are not living out of it each month i will then concentrate on OH barclaycard. I know that it would make more sense to do the B/card first as it has a higher APR however after reading stories on here i live in fear of the bank removing our OD facility so i want it gone asap.

Barclaycard. Has a current balance of £3k. Interest rate is 15.9% so not great but not as bad as some cards we have had in the past. The plan here is that when the overdraft is gone any cash left over each month after bills etc will be flung onto this. I have a pivot table set up that shows me each month total out and total in and net cash flow. I just refresh it if i have to make any changes to the budget and it updates. At the end of the month i will pay any surplas funds onto OH barclaycard (i must make sure to do it after the DD has been taken otherwise they just reduce the amount of the DD).

So in theory by the end of 2012 the Argos card, my Very account, OH Very account and the overdraft will be gone and i will be making progress into clearing the barclaycard.
In 2013 i should have cleared OH barclaycard by May and then it will only be my barclaycard(halifax balance) left. The interest free period will end about then with about half the balance left. Hopefully i will be able to get another 0% deal but if not it will be our only remaining debt and we should be able to clear it within 3 months.

After that we will be concentrating on the loan - i will deal with that though when it gets nearer.

Well done :T if you got this far through my ramblings. Im mainly just setting it down so i have my plan to follow. and when im looking at crafty things and really wanting to buy them i can take a look here and remind myself what im working towards.:D

charlyze2

hello.

the last couple of days haven't been to bad. I went back to work on wednesday cause i felt a little better and was feeling really guilty about taking sick days.
Went to slimming world wed night and lost 0.5lb was hoping for me seeing as i had been sick the day before and hadn't eaten anything. Well never mind. hopefully it will be more next week.:)
Wednesday was a NSD as i had payed for a countdown course with SW two weeks before.
Today has been ok. another NSD for me. Found out that DS1 is going to be a King in his concert with school and DS2 is going to be Father Christmas :T. so will need to get costumes for them both soon.

On the money front i have just had an email from barclaycard re my CC application.

They have given me a £3000.00:eek: limit.

did not expect that much. This means that i will be able to move the whole balance of the Halifax card over.

If i could do that it will mean that besides OH credit card everything else will be at 0%. YAY. :T

also i read here about Barclaycard doing a low 7.9%? life of balance transfer to existing customers.
so was thinking when Halifax is clear transfer balance of OH Barclaycard to Halifax and then after a week or two transferring it back - giving me 7.9% rather than 15.9%.
will have to check the sums on this though first.:think:

charlyze2

Hello.

well the barclaycard arrived yesterday, so i have now transferred the halifax balance across to it.

Yesterday wasn't a NSD as i had to take DS1 rock climbing £12 gone.
Today wasn't a NSD either as i had to go shopping and DS2 has a party to go to today, one tomorrow and another next week.
i managed to get 3 pressies for £10. Bargain.

charlie

charlyze2

Good morning.

God im tired this morning. I went to the cinema last night with my sister and her friend to see twilight. Really enjoyed it but cause the showing was at 9pm by the time i dropped sister off home and got home myself it was almost midnight, and then cause DH was working early i was up at 6 with the kids
Was really good and took my own popcorn (even though i didnt actually eat any) and a drink. there was no way im paying the cinema prices.:eek:

Not planning on doing much today. DS2 has a birthday party later on today but apart from that we are not going anywhere. As DH has the car today to go to work i will have to walk to and from the party. Will help on the weight loss front i suppose.

Charlie

triple_choc_chip

[QUOTE=charlyze2;48607577 also i read here about Barclaycard doing a low 7.9%? life of balance transfer to existing customers.
so was thinking when Halifax is clear transfer balance of OH Barclaycard to Halifax and then after a week or two transferring it back - giving me 7.9% rather than 15.9%.
will have to check the sums on this though first.:think:[/QUOTE]

Hi charlyze, well done on being so focused! I just wanted to mention that if you're within the time period, after transferring to the Halifax card you could add another £2k to the new barclaycard at 0% before transferring the remaining balance back to the 7.9% card. Good luck.

charlyze2

Hi triple choc chip.

Thank you for posting and your comments. I was thinking about that yesterday and think that is what im going to do.

but i also applied and was accepted for a creation credit card £2k limit and 0% balance transfer for 20 months.

OH b/card £3125.

£1.8k to creation

leaves £1325 on OH b/card.

Once that is done i will have OH b/card £1325 @ 15.9% and the overdraft (which i can clear in about 4 months) as interest chargin accounts. The rest will then be at 0% so it means that we will actually be clearing the balance rather then forking out on interest.

If we are strict over the next year we will be able to clear the 0% cards before the 0% ends and that will be the end of our credit cards forever :T
Charlyze2

charlyze2

Well i have been a bit lax with posting haven't I?

Well its been an up and down few months.
unfortunately our debt has been added to in the form of spending on OH barclaycard.:mad:

most of it was justified though. He applied for and got another job. The great news about it is that his income goes from £21k per to £31k along with £2.5K bonus each year if targets are met.

The down side is that his travel has increased from about 8 mile round trip to a 44 mile round trip.
This meant that while in his old job he would ride his bike to work so we only had one car. In the new job we needed to get him some transport.

After weighing up pros and cons of motorbike verses car we decided on a bike.
It was more expensive to start with as OH had to do his CBT and get a bike, Gear and insurance (all totaling £3.2k) however as he got a 125 the fuel economy is fab about 120mpg. it works out as about 5p per mile.
Also when he come to sell the bike and a get a bigger one next year we will get back almost what he paid for it.

As he started middle of Feb but after the cut off date for the wages it meant that he didn't get paid in feb from new job and had to wait until the end of March so Feb and March were very tight months.

So effectively we have increased our debt but with OH new job it will be paid off quicker than before.

Will post later on today with new debt totals when OH gets up and keeps an eye on kids :rotfl: Hes a bit hungover today as it was a staff night out last night. Free bar so quite cheap although he did manage to spend £20 on train and taxi home

charlyze2

Looking at debt figures to date

Have worked out that everything bar our loan will be paid off by Dec 13 at the latest. Sooner if extra careful and OH works overtime.

So along with trying to pay of the debt i am also trying to lose weight and exercise more. Have just tipped the scales into the overweight category for the first time in my life. Really need to start bringing the weight down.

And as if that wasn't enough to be getting on with i am also studing for my ACCA qualification.
First exam is June so really need to knuckle down and get some more studying in. I also need to pay for the exam but will be able to claim it back from work so not too worried about that.

So looks like i will have my work cut out for me over the next few years.

When OH receives his first proper pay from new job (April) i will redo my SOA and post it up.

OH has just taken the kids to his brothers as it was his bday yesterday (£20 out of pressie fund) i have the house to myself :j

am going to have a quick tidy round and then i am jumping on the treadmill. Really need to start running daily as im doing the race for life in June.

Bye for now

charlyze2

Well run didn't go too well. Just completed my 5 min warm up and just started my run when OH rang and said he was on his way back and could i put something on for lunch.
oh well will have to try again later after the kids are in bed.

So for April my spend budget is £390.00. This is for
Cubs DS1 - £5.00
Tae kwon do DS1 - £15.00
OH fuel bike - £40.00
Fuel car - £140.00
Groceries - £190.00

Im going to keep track of spends on here so so far i have spent
Budget / Spent / Remaining
Cubs - £5 / £0 / £5
Tae kwon do - £15 / £0 / £15
OH Fuel - £40 / £0 / £40
Car fuel - £140 / £70 / £70
Groceries - £190 / £20 / £170

Fuel for the car should come under budget as im only in work 2 days next week cause of easter hols and DS1 is not going climbing (40 mile round trip) for two weeks either.

Food should be less also as MIL is taking DS1 away to their caravan for 9 days.

The great thing about the caravan means that we can go there on holiday during the summer hols :j

haven't been away during summer hols before as couldn't afford it, but because MIL and FIL own the caravan can pay the site fees we can go with no costs (just food and activities) :j

any surplas at the end of the month will go back into bank to cover O/D, which should be clear end of May

after that any surplas at the end of the month will go onto OH barclaycard.

charlyze2

:mad: up early this morning

was supposed to be my lie in but OH and the kids made such a racket leaving this morning that i ended up getting up just after they left at 8am

come downstairs to find a bomb site so spent 45 mins tidying up and putting a wash on.

Went shopping to A*da last night and spent £52.43 so grocery budget now down to £115.57 for the month
got loads of meat in the freezer so shouldnt be too bad

Just been on A*da price website and ended up getting 3 money off vouchers totaling £9.40 so that will be a big help next week.:j

Right time for some studying now while i have peace otherwise im gonna fail my exams

cleggie

Morning Charlyze.
Which charity are you doing to race for life for?
Good luck with the training!

You sound very organised with your spending/saving, so well done!