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

Ladybird.

:hello::hello::hello::hello::hello::hello:

Hello everyone, long time no speak!

Another few months have passed and much has changed here financially. When I last posted we had about £25k of credit card/loan debt to pay off, that now stands at about £4k- we ended up remortgaging a rental flat that I bought many years ago and using the equity released to pay off a big chunk of our debt. Something we probably should have done a long time ago I guess.

So, we still owe the £20k on that mortgage but as it has been happily rented out for the last or so 10 years I feel like we can put it to the back of ours minds really- the rental income covers the mortgage repayments and it's the kind of flat that is easy to fill, thankfully (touch wood!).

What an enormous difference it has made to us, such a change from this time last year.

We are still doing the bulk of our shopping at Lidl, trying to meal plan, and be sensible, but we have been able to enjoy life a bit more too. Nothing as luxurious as a holiday for us this year but we have had a few expensive day trips with the children (Legoland, the zoo, etc) which have been nice.

It is easy to be frugal when you are financially overstretched but not quite as easy when that pressure is not there I'm finding. We need to get a bit of focus back in order to get this last few grand cleared once and for all. All of our cards are sat empty and most of them are offering 0% so our plan is to shift the last amount over to one of them.

Once the card is paid off we will turn our attention to our mortgages, that's the plan anyway!

So, list of jobs for today:

• Balance transfer to 0%
• List few items on ebay/gumtree
• Sort through food cupboards and meal plan, maybe a using-up week?
• Submit meter readings
• Do some freelance work once the kids are in bed

Hope you are all well and making good progress on your own DF journeys x

Determined_diva

Hi ladybird!! Good to see your post! Please don't leave us for so long next time :-)
DDx

Ladybird.

Nice to see you too DD! How are things going??

Determined_diva

Ooh lady bird I've just added to my debt !!! I am re training for a new career so I am now £3k more in debt Than I was in January :-( on the upside (if there is one) my payments are over 2 years but I can start earning in 7-8 months where I can then charge £30-£50 per hour.

So after reviewing my finances with ninja saving Kat, I am accepting that I I am realistically becoming debt free in may 2015 rather than dec 2013.

I'm going to ask for more shifts in the bar and just keep ploughing away which tbh I haven't done at all this year!

That's me in the massive de brief!! More importantly how are you???
DDx

brizzledfw

Great to see you back LB!

Ladybird.

I'm good, happier than I have been in a long time.

Your new debt sounds like a positive debt, an investment! :beer: Good luck with your new career path, sounds exciting :-)

Ladybird.

Must have cross-posted yesterday brizzledfw, got an e-mail to say you had replied to my thread yet my last post is under yours!

How are you doing? :hello:

OrangeFairy

Hi Ladybird!

Welcome back!! I am so pleased you are in a happier place and have sorted out your finances to be more manageable!

I understand exactly what you mean about enjoying life a bit more and the spends increasing. Since I started work full time we must be spending a fair bit more on luxuries. My take home pay is now £700 more than it was last August but that £700 isn't there completely at the end of the month!

OF x

brizzledfw

Hi LB..all good thanks..onwards and upwards!!!

Ladybird.

Yikes! Another whopping great passage of time since my last post, and guess what- we have been utterly hopeless with our budgeting.

Things have been a bit too 'easy'... the pressure was taken off when we re-mortgaged the rental flat and payrises have made life comfier too. You'd think that without huge interest bills we'd have been ploughing through the debt? Not so. Over the last year our CC debt has been static on a 0% card, a bit of a pathetic effort given we managed £11k the previous year, under much more difficult and tight financial circumstances. We have overpaid £6k ish back onto our mortgage so we haven't been completely useless but it is time to refocus and pull socks up!

I have spent all morning going through our accounts with a fine tooth comb and I think, if we knuckle right down, we could find £800pm and get rid of ALL CC debt by September this year. Maybe sooner.

Feels SO good to have my beautiful helpful spreadsheet all up to date again, it has been neglected for a very long time. Back in control now :-)

Going to re-read my diary and others for a bit of inspiration and get going again.

:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j:j