NikNok's Road to £0

niknok_2

Hi everyone

Well here I am. I have been a reader/lurker for a lonnnng time and finally 2 weeks ago I had my LBM!

A little about my situation.....

2 years ago I got myself a shiney new car on finance.....this is where it spiralled out of control!!

I already had debt and so buying the car made things a lot lot worse.

Then my OH got made redundant and had to borrow off family to pay the mortgage. He was out of work from December until March so 4 payments....

So, a couple of weeks ago I got a loan to pay off everything AND I took my car back. I was in negative equity and so had to pay them £2500 to give the car back!! BUT I now have all my debt in one place and it has made me £400 a month better off as I am not pay loads of little bits every month.

I have to go and buy a new car and have approx £2000 to buy one...hoping to get this up to about £3000.

My OH still has debts so the plan is to pay my loan every month and then the extra money pay off his CC or little loan he has and then focus on reducing the term of my loan.

So as of today I have £15,991.47 (includes interest)

I earn £1,072.63 after tax.

My loan is £333 per month.
My phone bill is £48 per month.
My gym membership is on hold £5 (to save extra money)
My cinema card is £15 per month (saves us lots of money as this is now out entertainment)
My contact lenses £15 per month.

Total outgoings: £416
Left over money £656

I have a shed load of jewellery which me and OH make. Probably a good £500 of stock which all needs selling!!

Here goes my journey....

mummytogirls

Well done on starting your diary Niknok, im glad you were able to consolidate and send your car back. Did you have credit cards? If so please cut them up and cancel the accounts!!!

Does the £600 remaining include rent in? xx

niknok_2

I had credit cards galore! And I owed my aunt £1800, my nan £1000, and had various littlewoods/next/ikea accounts/newlook accounts.

I now have 1 credit card with a balance of £28.99. I have closed 3 of the accounts and once I pay this £28.99 on pay day I'm closing that one too.

My OH pays the mortgage at moment as I haven't properly moved in yet, but intend to in a couple of months.

The £600 left is for the food shopping (I buy this as OH pays all he bills at the mo) overpayments on OH's loan, and eventually car insurance.

mummytogirls

Well done on closing the accounts! I say it because in the past ive consolidated, run the CC back up to the max and regretted it ha!

I think £600 is a good amount to do what you need to do xx

niknok_2

Thanks hun

Feeling really positive.

We also have a £2 jar which is so heavy already, lots of stuff to put on ebay and lots of stuff for a car boot!

I'm thinking of breaking the £656 down as follows....


£200 - monthly spends eg food shopping, I will take this out £50 a week and any left will go towards the savings.
£200 - OH loan
£200 - car fund
£56 - Emergency fund

I'm hoping we can get rid of his small debts before Christmas 2012 and then start making big overpayments on my loan and then overpayments on the mortgage.

I'm pretty sure there are other places we can cut back on but I get paid on Friday and this is the first month of the new payments, so lets see how I do! x

niknok_2

Ok, so i've been gone ever since I made this page.

BUT i'm back and i'm ready to tackle head first!

niknok_2

I am pretty useless when it comes to keeping a diary...

So a little about the last few months since i was on here....

Well 2 days after my last post (20th September) we found out i was pregnant!! Its now only 7 weeks until due date and to be totally honest we havent done too bad at all.

The loan is £3k down since the last post BUT we have some little debts knocking around again, literally only £200 here £400 there and then £28 on next account, £200 on very buy now pay later on baby's bedroom furniture and £170 which was due to my phone being stolen and buying a new one.

As you can see from my sig my aim is to get £1500 and i'm doing this at 1% at a time. We have managed to save £400 + a £300 gift for baby stuff and even though I am on maternity leave I have 1 full months wage left, then 2 at 90% and then its down to 50% so need to get some extra cash coming in

Seems daunting but now im on mat leave i'll be on here trying to update and help us see the light at the end of the tunnel.

niknok_2

Have spent today feeling rather sorry for my self. Baby seems to be in an awkward position right under my rib and it aches like crazy so i've had a sofa duvet day whilst trying to look online for ideas on making some extra cash.

I'm not 100% sure where we are with the whole debt thing but we are much better off than were put it that way.

I might start PADing as soon as I get paid this month. This is my very last month with full pay and then its just going to get less and less so I need to be money savvy and its going to be hard!!

I've just signed up to textbrokers so hoping that I will might get a few pennies in from that and I have a load of jewellery which I have made but have struggled to sell it. I reckon there is around £600 of stock!

I also have to write up a letter for my OH to claim his bank charges of nearly £500 back, its for santander, has anyone had any luck claiming back from these?

niknok_2

Just been fiddling with the CC. Its an MBNA one and part of it gets interest on July 1st and the rest in September. Have just had a letter from M&S and there balance transfer offer is 13 months from transfer so think i'll transfer over and try not to worry about it whilst on mat leave. Then when im back at work i can focus on paying it off in big chunks.

DFD should be May 2016 but will try my hardest to knock 12-18 months off this!

niknok_2

Ok so since I last wrote 5 days ago ive discovered i will not be able to get child tax credits whilst on mat leave!! A relative has offered to pay my loan which is 10k and then have me pay back when im back full time at work and will save me 2.5k in interest!!!

In other debt news I have added up around 12k which includes the following:

Family member £950
CC: £4620 (this will probably go up when I balance transfer due to the fee)
Mortgage arrears: £2321.20 (upped mortgage payment by £23 a month for now whilst im on mat leave!)
OH's refinance loan for overdraft: £2946.42
OH's sainsburys loan: £1000 rough est

ODDS AND ENDS

My halifax card: £126.33
OH's halifax card: £279.26
Next: £28.50
Very: £147.69 (BNPL Sept 2013)

Aim one is to get rid of the odds and ends and then start on the mortgage arrears!!

niknok_2

Been busy making things for my FB page this weekend and hoping that this will bring in some revenue to make my first aim of £1,500. It feels like its going to be a long hard slog to be honest, I would really like to be getting around 20-30% a month!