DFW - Final Hurdle support club!

citizenkitten

Roger - 117k in 10 years?! wow! you are an inspiration to us all.

I cleared out my wardrobe yesterday, got strict with myself, took me 4 hours but 5 bin liners ready for my first ebay foray when the next free listing comes up! i have never sold on ebay before so i am going to do some dummy templates etc and have a go before i start to go mad. this gives me time to get packaging for it all.

havent written any letters, planning that for friday.

nor have i done any art....

but cleaned the kitchen yesterday and cleaning the bathroom now.

i have decided clearing my OD is more important than my debts as they are 0% and that way if i change bank accounts to first direct, they will give me 100! so that is positive. unless ebay makes me rich then i am not going to make my original deadline but 1 month later I definitely will :j

seriousDFW

This is a great thread.

Our progress has been much slower than it could have been if we had been more focused throughout the whole process. My LBM happened in Feb 2011 although we had started to pay off before then.

The most debt we've ever been is about £18k total, but bits have added to it and bits have been paid off a fair few times along the way. We're now about £6k in debt and the current plan is to be DF by end of Jan 2013. It does feel much closer than it ever has, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed everything goes to plan between now and then.

My visualisation is to delete the 6 rows of 'credit card repayments' from my 'outgoings' list on my budget spreadsheet, along with the 6 rows of 'credit card balances' below. I look forward to those rows going so much! Then I will see our savings balance grow, as we want to start saving for a house deposit.

We will go out for a celebratory meal knowing that for the first time in about 10 years we have no debt. Then knuckle down to saving. I just can't wait, it feels so close and I know it will feel so good I'm getting paranoid that it just won't happen because something unexpected will come up in the meantime (job loss or big expense). Our debt free date has been pushed back SO many times due to various things, either big expenses or us deciding to go on holidays (not looking for sympathy as clearly we could have got there sooner without all that). But we are so focused now, I just couldn't bear it if it had to be pushed back again. I would actually cry!

citizenkitten

i hear you serious DFW, each time i thought i would make my DFD sooner than later, boom something happened, car completely died, 3 weddings to go to, my sisters 21st etc.

my celebration of being debt free is going on holiday (it will be on the credit card, but compared to the 22k debt i had, i will be able to pay it off in 3 months and yeah i really needed motivation to get it back down to zero as each time i have gotten near, i did a lot of spending ((D'OH!))

then i am saving for my own wedding! WOOOO! SO i really cannot afford for my DFD to be any later than it already is!

ben80

What a lovely thread and well done to all of you/us!

My last payment is going out in Feb... or possibly spilling a few hundred £££ into March depending on how much I owe (getting confusing messages form the credit file/statements!)

I'm finding it really hard going and I know what's done it. I went to the dentist for a check- up this week and in my mind I said "My last check-up whilst on a DMP." I said the same for my MOT, car insurance renewal etc... And it's making me impatient Really impatient. I'm also close to managing my own finances again and I have already planned my spending from now until December 2013 to the penny - including putting a lot away for emergencies/savings and I just want to get on with it, stop throwing my money in this pit! I want to spend money on my other half for putting up with me, my parents for being brilliant and spend more time with my friends.

I've been so lucky on my DMP, only 1 reduced payment because of expected maintenance on the car, and I've gone from something like 5yrs 11months to 4years 2months.

Come on all of us, we can do it! (Even if you're at the start and reading this, you can and will get there!)

citizenkitten

ben80 - wow i have never said this will be my last dentist etc whilst on DMP etc, i may try this as my next dentist appointment is the month before my DFD.

and yep i am already planning my new budget after debt repayments, i am so excited by all the money being mine!!! and saving for things like holidays!! I NEED MORE HOLIDAYS! lol

clearing out the back cupboard this weekend for more ebay stuff to give myself a real boost to DFD

:j:beer::j

3/4 months to go, one halloween, one bonfire night, one christmas eve, boxing day, new years and if i am unlucky one valentines day.

THEN DEBT FREE

I WANT TO BREAK FREE! BREAK FREE FROM MY DEBT RIDDEN LIFE AND LAL ALLALAL LAL LA (FORGOTTEN THE LYRICS LOL!)

InsertWittyName

citizenkitten wrote: »

Insertwittyname - wow kudos to you, so you must be almost another week down?

Thanks, a week down and another £600ish paid off! Less than £1k remaining

citizenkitten

1k!!!!!!!!! touching distance!!!

today I paid another £200 off my car, doesnt count as a debt as i used my savings (unfort a necessity) still at least less to pay back to get my savings back.

over paying these months since I am used to being strict on myself so that when it comes to my wedding, I can forgo paying myself back if random emergencies turn up or I have not calculated my wedding costing correctly.

I always try put a 10% buffer on budgets like this as they always seem to cost more than one predicts or budgets for.

seriousDFW

Well done to everyone on progress made and the positive attitude!

citizenkitten - I think a holiday is a great way to celebrate the start of a debt-free life. A chance to look back and look forward. Where are you planning on going?

ben80, I know what you mean about getting impatient! I feel the same.

I must admit I'm getting a bit obsessed with my spreadsheet again. The way mine works is that each column represents a week, the first column being the current week. It has start balance, all income/outgoings for that week and an end balance, plus balances for all credit cards. The bottom row is a "net worth" number - with the exact amount of debt I've got once you've taken money in accounts and money owed on CCs.

Anyway, that row is conditionally formatted to be bright red if the 'net worth' is negative, i.e. that I'm in debt, but it's white if I'm overall in credit. Well when I started my DF journey 18 months ago, you can imagine that I had LOTS of columns with a red cell at the bottom, and I used to have to scroll quite a way to the right to see the first white 'debt-free' value. Now I'm within a few months, I don't need to scroll right to see the white box, so I'm getting into the habit of just opening the spreadsheet and staring at it. It's quite worrying, I must stop! It just feels too good to be true that in 3 months there won't be any red boxes and I can delete the 'credit card' rows.

citizenkitten

seriousDFW wrote: »

Well done to everyone on progress made and the positive attitude!

citizenkitten - I think a holiday is a great way to celebrate the start of a debt-free life. A chance to look back and look forward. Where are you planning on going?

ben80, I know what you mean about getting impatient! I feel the same.

I must admit I'm getting a bit obsessed with my spreadsheet again. The way mine works is that each column represents a week, the first column being the current week. It has start balance, all income/outgoings for that week and an end balance, plus balances for all credit cards. The bottom row is a "net worth" number - with the exact amount of debt I've got once you've taken money in accounts and money owed on CCs.

Anyway, that row is conditionally formatted to be bright red if the 'net worth' is negative, i.e. that I'm in debt, but it's white if I'm overall in credit. Well when I started my DF journey 18 months ago, you can imagine that I had LOTS of columns with a red cell at the bottom, and I used to have to scroll quite a way to the right to see the first white 'debt-free' value. Now I'm within a few months, I don't need to scroll right to see the white box, so I'm getting into the habit of just opening the spreadsheet and staring at it. It's quite worrying, I must stop! It just feels too good to be true that in 3 months there won't be any red boxes and I can delete the 'credit card' rows.

honestly, i think if there was a spreadsheet addicts thread, it would be filled with every single member of MSE, i dont know any member of MSE who doesnt have 100000000+++++ spread sheets, with every single different figure added in to it. chaging payments by 50p at a time! :rotfl:

well we didnt to sacrifice this years holiday with a big splash out holiday in january, we are having trouble deciding where to go.... we want a relaxing beach holiday for 7 days. wouldnt go to the far east thailand etc. so has to be kind of the other way... sometimes there is too much choice to be had.

citizenkitten

100 off my OD! this month should have it down to 200! If I am very frugal I may get it down to 0....

I CAN DO IT!

i made myself laugh today as because I wanted to get a NSD and only had 90p left in my spending budget i ate stale biscuits i found under my desk.....

stale sweet success LOL!