£37k to £0 in a (determined to make them wonderful) few years!

Ladybird.

We started our debt free journey last month, April 2012, so I have decided to start a diary just to help me look back and see our progress!

A bit of background...

My husband earns a good salary (now £60k+) while I am a full time mother to our two pre-school children. I used to earn a good salary too but once child No.1 arrived we decided we couldn't bear to have a baby in full time childcare and we lost my salary. Before the baby arrived we bought a bigger house, so we had more expenditure than we had previously too. Sold my horses (:() which lowered costs but, apart from that, kind of kept living as we were... which we couldn't afford.

So here we are, 2 children now, and £37k debt.

Our debt is a combination of credit cards and a loan. Some of the credit cards are pricey (up to 26.9%) so we are snowballing; by sticking to the £1100 we pay on our debts currently we should be debt free by June 2015, hoping to do much better than that though!

So far we have...

• Cancelled Sky (god I wish we had done that ages ago, don't miss it!)
• Claimed PPI- nice £1500 off the CCs this month!
• Actually BUDGETED! Wow, now there's an eye opener!
• Now living within our means, have about £500 after bills for food and extras
• Been clearing out loads- eBay and Gumtree, all profits off most expensive CC
• Started Swaggbucking- have nearly £20 worth of Amazon vouchers already for not that much effort- might pay for Christmas?
• General care with gas/elec
• Meal Planning and careful shopping
• Few other things I'm sure...

So, we have managed to get the debt down to around £34k already! Don't think we could achieve such a big overpayment every month BUT it does go to show what you can do when you put your mind to it!

As the diary title says, I am determined not to write these frugal few years off... we are 100% going to make the best of them and build wonderful memories our children will have forever- money doesn't buy happiness, we shall do just fine while we scrimp and pay, I am sure of it!

Emzilla

Best of luck Ladybird. Sounds like you have made a great start already .

Emz xx

Ladybird.

Thank you Emz! Pleased with how we have done so far, just the tip of the iceberg though!

First goal is to get sub-£30k, should do it by the end of the year but be nice to get there in the autumn if we can.

I have just been accepted online for a £1000 Virgin 0% card so hoping that arrives soon so that we can transfer a bit of our most expensive CC to it. Every little helps! OH apparently has been pre-approved for a 0% card with his bank too, waiting to hear how much for although will believe it when I see it! Seems advisors in banks are quick to promise things they can't always deliver on! :cool: Getting rid of our expensive cards would make a massive difference as so much of our payments currently goes on interest!

Someone hopefully coming to pick up another bit of old furniture flogged via Gumtree so some more money for the pot :T

Another glorious sunny day here so a NSD with the children in the garden I think!

Ladybird.

I have a huge smile on my face as the postman just delivered a shiny new £5k CC for my OH with 0% for over a year! This will make *such* a difference to our snowballing strategy!

We will now be able to balance transfer and cancel our most expensive card, take a bit off the next most expensive too and maybe lower the limit on it. Basically means at least £100 per month that we are currently paying will actually go towards paying off debt rather than being wasted on interest charges :T

:beer:

please-let-me-be-lucky

Hi :hello: and happy new diary!!

Well done for what you have achieved so far, you will find no end of help on here and it's very theraputic to keep a diary/log of your process.

Best of luck with your journey.

Ladybird.

Thank you please-let-me-be-lucky! :wave:

It really is therapeutic isn't it, I'm having a nice evening reading everyone else's inspirational diaries too. This forum really is a fantastic place full of such generous empathetic people who really know their stuff!

Been fiddling about with snowball calculators and spreadsheets this evening (I fear I am becoming slightly Excel obsessed) and reckon that if I can aim to bring in an extra £200 every single month to throw at our debt then that would bring our DFD at close as Oct 2014... think I'll be hanging out on the Up Your Income board in my spare time tomorrow

Must admit, there is something very satisfying and dare I even say enjoyable about tackling this debt? So rewarding seeing figures go down.

please-let-me-be-lucky

Ladybird. wrote: »

Been fiddling about with snowball calculators and spreadsheets this evening (I fear I am becoming slightly Excel obsessed) and reckon that if I can aim to bring in an extra £200 every single month to throw at our debt then that would bring our DFD at close as Oct 2014... think I'll be hanging out on the Up Your Income board in my spare time tomorrow

You should join us over on the 'Make £10 a day in May' thread on Debtfree Wannabe forum. It's a monthly challenge full of ideas and inspiration on generating extra funds and there will be a new one started for June but there's no time like the present to get started!!

wants.to.be.debt.free

Hi Ladybird,

I would love to join you on your debt free journey.

I had my light bulb moment about 3 weeks ago and i will be debtfree in just over 4 years. I want to make it a happy debt free journey for myself and my son.

Anyway bye for now

Ladybird.

please-let-me-be-lucky wrote: »

You should join us over on the 'Make £10 a day in May' thread on Debtfree Wannabe forum. It's a monthly challenge full of ideas and inspiration on generating extra funds and there will be a new one started for June but there's no time like the present to get started!!

Will take a look, thanks!

Hello wants.to.be.debt.free :wave:, welcome along! All this sunshine really does make frugal fun with kids so much easier don't you think... free walk to the park this afternoon I think and then more playing in the garden.

Reminds me, keep meaning to look for some reusable cheap ice lolly maker mould things... easy to fill them full of juice/fruit and shove them in the freezer. Healthier than the cheap Lidl ice pops mine have been enjoying and even cheaper I expect.

Samantha22

Hi Ladybird,
I would be very grateful if you could tell me what 'swaggbucking' is please? I've never heard that saying before.
Good Luck with your challenge, you're well ahead now )
Sam22

Ladybird.

Hi Sam!

Swaggbucking is a made up word (and, I have just realised, a spelt wrong made up word to boot)... just means that I have been using http://www.swagbucks.com where you can earn 'bucks' (points) for doing various surveys/internet searches/bits and bobs. Good fun and very easy! Now that I am into the swing of it I earn about £5 (in Amazon vouchers) every 5 or 6 days just by doing some morning and evening

There is a good thread here- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3883703