The "Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2012" challenge - PART 3!!!

Ruthy1604

mf0u1098 wrote: »

Next step is pushing this over the HALF MILLION mark!!! :T:T:T

Well I'll make a start then! I just paid a chunk off Mr Bransons card & made a payment towards my hols too....

#306 £9160.20/16779.81 54.59%

Finally over half way:j:j:j

psychopathbabble

Amazing work everyone! We need you all on the PAD thread Last year we hit half a million in the whole year!

Am on hold on the phone waiting to find out where a parcel has gone... it's been scanned into the llandudno depot... but I'm in essex!!!

SpagBol

Superheavy wrote: »

I don't think I can say "Amazing work team!" without thinking about one of our regional managers who uses that phrase a lot, but it really is relevant. Every month I imagine the type of house that we could buy between us...and it's starting to look pretty swanky!

Thanks Jemma....I probably wouldn't be as far along with the debt busting as I am thanks to this thread...I probably owe you a pint or two once this is all over!

Just think...the average credit card interest rate is 17.3%. If we'd all left those balances on the credit cards for the first six months we'd have paid over £41k in interest alone. :eek:

Time for a well deserved :beer:. Yes, at just before 8am on a Tuesday!

I love a statistic (and an inappropriately early beer :rotfl:) so thanks for that :T

Bonglecat wrote: »

Mrs_Addicted_to_Spending wrote: »

I sympathise with this - my DH is not being too bad atm but I can never be sure he isn't suddenly going to go on a mad spending spree and wreck all our hard work. QUOTE]

Hi I just wanted to get in on the DH thing here. A couple of months ago I convinced mine to cancel his credit cards and put them into a consolidated loan. To ensure he did get rid of them I gave him a card on my M&S visa account (the only cc I have) on the understanding it was FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY.

I came to check my balance on pay day to see that he had spent £31.90 on it for water filters for the pond, in my mind NOT an emergency. I won't go into all the ins and outs of this but his argument was that I hadn't made it clear!!!! :mad:

Because I've been dropping the limit on the card to match the repayments this actually took us over limit. I don't think we've been charged for that but it was a close thing and it was on 0% but now we're being charged interest on this, okay it's only 17p so far but :mad::mad:.

I'm really worried that I can't get him out of the mind set of "I want it, therefore I need it, therefore I will buy it without consideration for where the money is coming from because I want it"

My DH is just as bad, what's wrong with them?!?!?

Ruthy1604 wrote: »

Well I'll make a start then! I just paid a chunk off Mr Bransons card & made a payment towards my hols too....

#306 £9160.20/16779.81 54.59%

Finally over half way:j:j:j

well done, bang on target time wise for 50% :T

SpagBol

Please ladies I'd like your advice. We are doing well with our challenge especially paying off our cards...however we are living at the max of our ODs and so paying £130pcm just on interest for those:eek: it is £11k in total between us and our joint account (how could things have got like this?!:eek:) so I'm wondering now I know we've been disciplined for 6 months we could try a loan to pay off the ODs and immediately cancel them with the bank and live to "£0" for once, at 6% sains are offering (if we can get than APR) we would pay £210pcm for 5 years. It would mean only £80 more pcm and the OD would effectively be going down (capital) and costing less in interest.

We are saving £200pcm on our mortgage from this month so would still be ok spare-cash wise for our challenge. Once the cards are paid off then we could save up and pay what's left on the loan but that £11k would be almost half what it is now...if we stick with ODs we'll still have £11k to pay off after the cards are gone.

What do you all think? I know consolidation loans are frowned upon on here but would save money if we cancel the ODs IMMEDIATELY and I think we've proved that we have changed now. :think: I really value your advice ladies! Thanks in advance

mf0u1098

Awwww shucks you guys, you're all so lovely...! I'm sure I would have given up by now if it wasn't for you guys spurring me on!

I've given myself a target of 15 NSD's this month as they really used to help me curb my spending but I've slackened off for the last few months. Unfortunately I'm having a bit of an argument with myself (luckily I'm in an office on my own!) as I have some cakes and mince pies with me but no lunch... I don't want to lose a NSD but I don't want to eat all my snacks for the week in one day and eat crap... Tomorrow I'm having my hair cut as it's longer than Kate Middleton's now and is strangling me! It's the first time in about 6 months and will only cost £20 so it's not bad.

I've also started saving £2 coins again and rounding down my account balances to whole numbers. I've asked my mum if we can meal plan as most of my money each month (except fuel) goes on food! I also need to return my garmin and get my other things ready to sell. I've got absolutely loads that needs to go! To pay off 1% then I need to pay off over £167 so my aim this month is to pay an extra 1% off from selling things, reclaiming money from my medical insurance for optical/dental etc and cutting back on my food spends plus have lots of NSD's. It's only 175 days until Christmas and I need this debt gone!!!!!

psychopathbabble

How stupid of me... I signed up for a scottish friendly bond in a moment of weakness and cashback frenzy. It's been 2 years now so I could cash it in if I had to, but I've paid in £800 and I'd only get £328 back! So, I guess it's best to keep it going for the next 8 yrs to complete the policy and look at it as a savings plan so in 8yrs I'll get (hopefully) £3k lump sum back.

his_missus

Hi Spagbol. The reason I'm against consolidating loans is that everytime we paid off the CCs by getting a loan, we ended up eventually spending on the CCs again. That was mainly due to us feeling that as the loan was manageable and was ticking along merrily, we could almost forget about it, IYSWIM. Then the CCs would ge tout of hand and the bank would nicely extend the loan to pay off the CCs then the vicious circle would start again.

If you truly believe you have the discipline to never go back into the ODs and a consolidation loan would work out cheaper in the long run and you can get a favourable rate, it could work for you. It probably would have worked for us IF we'd not spent on the CCs once we'd taken out the first loan.

mf0u1098

SpagBol wrote: »

Please ladies I'd like your advice. We are doing well with our challenge especially paying off our cards...however we are living at the max of our ODs and so paying £130pcm just on interest for those:eek: it is £11k in total between us and our joint account (how could things have got like this?!:eek:) so I'm wondering now I know we've been disciplined for 6 months we could try a loan to pay off the ODs and immediately cancel them with the bank and live to "£0" for once, at 6% sains are offering (if we can get than APR) we would pay £210pcm for 5 years. It would mean only £80 more pcm and the OD would effectively be going down (capital) and costing less in interest.

We are saving £200pcm on our mortgage from this month so would still be ok spare-cash wise for our challenge. Once the cards are paid off then we could save up and pay what's left on the loan but that £11k would be almost half what it is now...if we stick with ODs we'll still have £11k to pay off after the cards are gone.

What do you all think? I know consolidation loans are frowned upon on here but would save money if we cancel the ODs IMMEDIATELY and I think we've proved that we have changed now. :think: I really value your advice ladies! Thanks in advance

Consolidation loans are only bad if you then continue to spend on your credit cards/overdrafts thereby increasing your debt! If the APR on your overdraft is more than on a consolidation loan then for me it is a no-brainer especially if you can overpay the loan. This means that you have structured repayments so it's always being paid off (whereas an overdraft tends to stay at the same level at the end of each month). I think you've proved to yourself that you can do this and have the discipline to get rid of the debt.

To be honest, I think you already knew the answer hun :A

GreenSaints

Hi all,

Sorry for not being around as much as I'd like. Also, just come back from holiday and totally forgot about debt busting!

Anyway, my totals are:

Member #27 - £4123.65/£22,922.39 (17.99%)

Looking forward to next month when I'll be student overdraft free and hit 20% gone

Never going to clear the rest by December (and I secretely always knew that) but I'm on target to be debt free (minus joint mortgage and joint BOM loan) by the big 3-0!

his_missus

:wall: Hubbys! My DH has booked a two night break for us for tomorrow and Thurs nights. Now, I know we're trying to be Df but occasionally I do treat us and occasionally book a good bed, breakfast, evening meal and bottle of wine deal in a hotel with a pool/leisure facilities. However it turns out the break he's booked is just b&b, no evening meal thrown in, not even a pool/gym to while away the hours. So now I'm going to have to dip into the holiday fund (which isn't anywhere near as full as my sig suggests anymore) to feed us whilst we're away :eek: So it's Mr A's for 3 bottles for a tenner and watching dvds on laptop for evening entertainment.

It was supposed to be a thank you treat for looking after his sisters this weekend and a chance for me to relax - RELAX?:rotfl:

Thanks Jemma, you reminded me I need to book a hair appt too