Pay off as much as you can in 2012 challenge!

jwil

billibabs wrote: »

I would love to join in on this, will be great way to push myself to achieve it!!

I want to pay off £4000 this year. So far I have managed to pay £2000 back which i owed to my mum. The other £2000 will be off a personal loan. I will still owe a substantial amount, but every little helps.

So £2000/4000 :j:j

Out of interest, are people including their mortgage debt in this as well??
Gillian

Welcome to the challenge billibabs Good luck with the debtbusting.

I don't include my mortgage as I have plenty of debt to keep me occupied It's perfectly ok to if you want to though and I certainly would if I cleared everything else.

sarahs999

billibabs wrote: »

I would love to join in on this, will be great way to push myself to achieve it!!

I want to pay off £4000 this year. So far I have managed to pay £2000 back which i owed to my mum. The other £2000 will be off a personal loan. I will still owe a substantial amount, but every little helps.

So £2000/4000 :j:j

Out of interest, are people including their mortgage debt in this as well??
Gillian

I;ve just started overpaying my mortgage, and I count that, but not the usual payments.

My_life

Hi Everyone - number 27 calling

February Debt reduction (mortgage and loan) £2,172

Running total £4,362/£20,000

My life

The_Ubiquitous_Mrs_Smith

Not quite a saving but a sort of anticipatory saving so I'll post it.

I currently pay £10 a month fee for my bank account, mainly for the £200 overdraft. It would take me 4 months to pay of the o/d so I'd pay £240/50 depending on when the fee comes out. I've rejigged stuff so I have moved the £200 to a free overdraft and am changing my account so I don't get any more fees.

So that's £40/50 saved, right?

snailmail

jwil wrote: »

Welcome to the challenge snailmail! Good luck with the debtbusting

thank you! I made an extra payment of 1.65 on my cc whooohoo!;) It was mainly to make sure everything was workign--unlike when I just tried to up my payment for my pro study loan so I'd pay off it all next month---grrr it wouldn't let me, so annoying when my monthly payment is £110 and i only have £160 to pay until it's gone!

michmcc79

Direct debit came out in these wee small hours so thats £100 towards my council tax arrears! Hooray! When I first faced up to my arrears (well, had no choice really - they sent the bailiffs! lol) it was £2200!!!!! I can't believe i'm so close to the end now...just 6 more months and that will be clear!

I really am wishing this year away because I am so close to the end of everything and I just can't wait! :rotfl:

So my new total is £386/1900 :T

lynnsey30

#98 here £44.40 today

jwil

Thanks for the updates everyone.

I've made some nice payments totalling £348.48 today

michmcc79

Forgot about my £20 standing order towards my water arrears. Thats my new total at £406/1900...whoop whoop!!!

DedicatedDFW

Advice Please

Hi everyone - i know we are coming to the month end so hopefully lots of people are popping on with updates :T i would just really appreciate some advice please

Several years ago i took out a long term savings account. This requires i pay in a set amount each month during the term of the savings. When i took out the savings my situation was very different to the one i'm in now. I was not in debt, I had savings, i had a job paying more than double what i'm earning now and i didn't have a mortgage (at that time - got the house just before being made redundant) and the mortgage is higher than the rent i was paying. Following redundancy i am working but have been unable to find a job with the same salary i was on before - i know alot of us know how hard it is with jobs now. So when i took out the savings account i was paying 6% of my salary into this which means with my new job i am paying about 12% of my income into this. - Putting this a little more into perspective my mortgage is 43% of my salary :eek::eek::eek: - i know but i was earning more before and the rent would still be 29% if i hadn't moved.

I am now considering if it would be best to cash in these savings early and pay the money towards the debt.


Positives i can come up with for keeping the account going are:

I have no other savings and i have no pension - these savings were something for the future so that will be gone. I have used all my other savings meeting the mortgage and bills payments when i was scraping in £400month working part time.

I have kept up the payments so should still be able to do so.

Currently alot of my debt is 0% but that will end soon.

If i cash in early then i will lose some money - but as savings are linked to stuff that fluctuates i could save and still lose money - not sure if the is a plus or minus really


Reasons to [STRIKE]take the money and run[/STRIKE] cash in early:

The savings are not guaranteed - linked to things that fluctuate so i could carry on paying in over the next few years and lose alot of money (to me).

If i cancel this and use the money to pay towards debts i could set the same amount up to be paid into a more guaranteed account like a cash isa - so still have saving that are less risky.

The debt has been getting me down alot lately sleepless nights etc. am sure alot of us know what i mean so this would relieve some of that - i'd still have debt to clear but it would be less

Currently alot of my debt is 0% but that will end soon - as a negative as it will end soon.

Any advice would be really appreciated

jwil - hope you don't mind me popping this on here its just that there's alot of traffic on here