£23179.10 until my debt free life begins in March 2014

DebtFree2012

Well hello 2012 :j.

This is Chapter 2 of my DF journey. Chapter 1 started this time last year (ish) when I had my LB moment in Dec 2010 and decided I would get rid of my debt asap. Initiallty and stupidly I thought this would be gone by Summer 2012 hence my user name and old diary title! Oh how wrong I was, I’d taken a stab in the dark and didn’t take the nasty interest into account. How things have changed!!! I used to fritter away money, mine and the banks (thinking it was mine OD etc) and now I am the opposite but having said that I have my moments! The diary's keep me well on track though.

So now, in Chapter 2, my second diary - this year I mean business more so! The total owing is 23179.10 as at Dec 2011 which is 1 year on. For this year I have made a few decisions about what I will be doing and will jot them down, along with their progress, here in this diary.

For those of you who are reading and are interested I am a mum to 2 children both under 5. 1 in nappies so have extra cost there. I work full time and struggle to keep organised with everything as they days just fly past. I have a very close family and own a dog and chickens Also those who have read my old diary know that I am the only one who knows about my debt and that is the way it will stay. I got myself into this, I will get myself out of this.

When DS starts school we want to move to a farm and start to live a self sufficient life.:beer: This will take years to achieve and I’ll have to continue working FT to allow this to get started however that’s where we want to be. Luckily as we’re waiting until DS is in school before we start the journey of looking for somewhere and decision making, that gives me until 2014 to become DF and it’s do-able. I aim to be DF March 2014 however the specific date will be confrimed in Chapter 3’s target! :rotfl:

Main Focus of 2012:
Pay off my loan which stands at £3486.86 as at Dec 2011. I would like to make the final payment on this in October. I've signed up to the Pay one debt 2012 challenge for this and will update my signature accordingly.

Other areas of focus for 2012:
I will keep all my Tesco vouchers for Xmas and double them up to buy toys and gifts to keep the cost of Xmas down with left overs (yeah right) to the food.
Any extra money made on cashback sites is going directly towards the debt's final payment!
I’ll follow up on the PPI claims that I started in December.
Live a more frugal life and be an avid follower/member of the OS boards.
Complete 1 “non standard” job a day at home in order to declutter and feel slightly more in control.

Whilst I am focussing on paying the loan off I still have to pay towards all my other debts which is a big chunk of money each month. I will do a breakdown of payments shortly.

I am back to work after the festive season and ready to see what I can achieve. Wish me luck Welcome to any new readers, please feel free to join in and post and I hope any “oldies” pop in too as you are all so lovely and help me stay focussed.

DebtFree2012

My monthly outgoings add up to £944.16.

This is for things that have to be paid otherwise someone comes knocking on the door or we pass out with hunger as we have no food. The food budget is minimal and very very tight. It's set at £125 next month and I don't think I have managed to acheive it so low when in my current situation - ie working FT with packed lunches/limited time and so on.

Also includes petrol of £60 which I think will turn out to be too low - we shall see as I will be monitoring this.

The rest are the usual utilities. I have £785 left - it was at point in 2010 I thought I'd use this figure as the amount I can pay off the debt each month :rotfl:. And that is why I failed to set a reasonable target!!!

The remaining money has to pay for all debts (5) plus birthdays, xmas, car tax, holiday, school expenses, kids clothes and so on. Basically "anything else". Although I strive to keep everything to a minimal, it's difficult. Therefore I have learnt to have pots of money for each area. This year I plan to save separately for all of the above and shall try and post how they are all doing. Eg £20 a month for kids clothes - 0 spent so £20 still in pot etc etc.

So bear this in mind when I try to pay off my loan by October I hope to be able to say where every penny's been spent this year. So far so good but it's from January's pay that I intend to keep it all diarised.

LAM2011

Hellooo

nice shiny new diary

I too joined a year ago but I had massive debts (for me) and spent last year killing off the credit cards one by one. I now have about £22k of debt in a loan that I am hoping to be debt free of in July 2014 (same year as you)

I dont have small children by my DS (23) and my partners DS (17) live / study with us and so does my mother. None of them know the real extent of my debt and I am lucky in that OH pays for all food. We also have 3 chickens, 3 dogs and 3 horses lol

Will tag along in your journey as you will motivate me to keep going as I am already starting to frett about where I can find extra pennies to pay off this debt quicker.

DebtFree2012

OOOhhh someone in a similar position - how fantastic. It's great when you have people to talk your journey through with and even better when it's about the same amount of time etc.

I have had some really good news - I have been granted my PPI claim that I have been battling for. I am not doing anything with it yet as it's at this point I get the urge to spend and blow it all but no - not this time (having done this in past and what got me in this position). So I will pretend it's not there for a while and get my head round things first. It's "only" 1.5k so can't pay everything off but it'll set me in good stead!

xxx

LAM2011

Whoo hoo - great news :j

and ... I too have a PPI claim in at the moment lol. How funny both in similar situations. I hope mine comes through - I only have the acknowledgement letter of my claim (dated 19 December 2011) so far - these things seem to take ages though dont they?

amber03

travelled over from your previous journey, lets look forward to a great 2012 financially.xx

rachelww1

Hi DF, remember me? :wave:

It's nice to see you doing so well still. Well, I'm a year in too and manage to pay off about £16k last year and I still have just over £25k to go. I got a bit slack the latter part of last year after a bit of bad family news. But I'm back on it again now and am hoping to have cleared my Bcard and overdraft by the middle of the year.

It's my 40th :eek: this year, and I was hoping to be able to go on a little holiday, but I don't think we'll be able to manage it. Oh well, just think how good it will feel to be debt free in a couple of years, then all those payments can go towards a fantastic holiday

DebtFree2012

Morning all

It's been a bit chaotic this morning but for no apparent reason other that the norm! anyway, in work and getting everything ready for a busy morning ahead so thought I'd do a quick update before I start.

LAM2011 - we're both on the same planet it seems! My PPI claim too around 10 weeks I think. I have some more here which I don't hold out any hope for but will try. Saying that, I didn't expect to get this one so bonus! It's very welcome as I have been living with no pennies for such a long time. I'm not going to "spend" it but it's nice to know it's there. I shall leave it a while before making any decisions.

Hi amber - lovely to see you along for the ride, hope you are having a great 2012 so far!

rachel! long time no speak - how ya doing? Sorry to hear you've have a tough time. What are you doing with yourself, are you keeping your diary? I haven't seen it in my update screen that I can think of? Lovely to "see" you back.

I'm going to check my accounts and then do some work - joy!

xxxx

DebtFree2012

Good morning diary and friends

This morning I have checked my balances as there's been a bit of activity there.

I have borrowed £450 from PPI money to pay for my part of our holiday abroad and I will pay it back over next couple of months which is how I would have paid for it in the first place (scrimped and saved so this takes pressure off a bit).

I've also bought myself a work outfit so I feel a bit better about myself at work - got this from Tesco for the point and it's also very reasonably priced as got a suit. This is a treat as I spent my birthday and Christmas money on other people's xmas presents so as not to have to borrow. This was my first year without an overdraft for Xmas so I am proud of myself :T

The rest of the money is staying in my account and I am leaving my card at home so I can't use it. I want to get a good history going with the bank as I've been out of my overdraft since March 2011 which is great however I never have any cash in there. So now that I have they may see me in good light and offer me a better rate on loan or such like. I plan on paying it off this year as you know so it may not be worth it but it's the principle!

My 0% card has produced it's monthly statement so all is good there as it's as expected and the money will be there on pay day to cover it. Virgin are terrible for producing statements on a set date - they flit, so god knows when I will get that one. Also the interest amount fluctuates from 90 a month to 102 - i can only think it's based on the transactional type by date and as I chip away at the balance I am clearing different types of transactions. In fact - if it's higher this month I will call them.

I also have a tesco card which I used to manage online as I do everything, however I somehow managed to lock myself out of it and they won't reset my password as I don't know the expiry date on my card as it's cut up! Grrr. So i have to phone up once a month to make the min payment however this is all i need to do for this card at the mo so i am happy to continue this way for now.

I am upping my payment to the 0% family loan this month to £150 as I don't want to look like I am taking the you know what with piddly little payments.

We've been given tea tonight so all I need is a flat bread to go with it as I don't have any. Also free lunch for me today with work

I am off to see how much I will try to overpay loan by this month - cos I am sad like that!

Have a great day everyone........xxxx

If_My_Pennies_Were_Pounds

Hi DF, I've followed over from the link you put on Beccie's thread, hope you don't mind?!

You sound really focussed and like you have a plan of action in place.

I'm subscribing to support you on your journey

DebtFree2012

Hi there pennies!

How lovely! I am very focussed! I am armed with my spreadhseet and online banking lol.

Not so good news is I was declined for the 2 yr BT from barclaycard - expected it as they say no more than 10% of earnings owed out and I owe more than that! So I shall wait until my loan is paid off and then apply for a different one. Need to get rid of this interest as it's crippling my repayment scheme!

Thanks for joining! Congrats on becoming DF yourself!

xxx