£100k Debt Free in 4 1/2 years - My Debt Diary

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

Well....

Its been 10 days since my last post, and things have progressed well on some fronts - unfortunately; not on others ....

Im still waiting to be told if i have been successful on the job application - im hoping no news is good news, but its draggin on and on ....

On the money front, our debts have gone down over 1% in the last 10 days; and GF is still to have her wages paid into the account. GS's first payment of £210 has come through. Got some bills coming out the beginning of next month, but we have contained spending to a bear minimum so next month should be a real bonus!! - Im due approx £1.2k before Tax in o/time payments so the debt should continue to reduce at a nice pace...

I've £225 in the Quidco account and have also become a 'PlayTrader' on play.com - sold £90's worth of DVD's / Games / CD's - both due to come through end july.

Planning on keeping a tight hold over the shopping budget; although i have made a few recent 'bulk purchases' of BOGOF's - which will reduce weekly spends for the next couple of weeks. We've started buying a few 'own brands' to taste the difference. They are sooo much cheaper and really dont taste any different. Trying a new product each week...

Things are definately going in the right direction.... :j

SarahNeedle1872

ThankYouAndEnjoy! wrote: »

Well....

Its been 10 days since my last post, and things have progressed well on some fronts - unfortunately; not on others ....

Im still waiting to be told if i have been successful on the job application - im hoping no news is good news, but its draggin on and on ....

On the money front, our debts have gone down over 1% in the last 10 days; and GF is still to have her wages paid into the account. GS's first payment of £210 has come through. Got some bills coming out the beginning of next month, but we have contained spending to a bear minimum so next month should be a real bonus!! - Im due approx £1.2k before Tax in o/time payments so the debt should continue to reduce at a nice pace...

I've £225 in the Quidco account and have also become a 'PlayTrader' on play.com - sold £90's worth of DVD's / Games / CD's - both due to come through end july.

Planning on keeping a tight hold over the shopping budget; although i have made a few recent 'bulk purchases' of BOGOF's - which will reduce weekly spends for the next couple of weeks. We've started buying a few 'own brands' to taste the difference. They are sooo much cheaper and really dont taste any different. Trying a new product each week...

Things are definately going in the right direction.... :j

Hi TYAE, I'm glad things are going well for you, you seem really positive!
Quick question tho.... whats it like being a 'Play Trader'? Do u get a lot of interest? I've been on Amazon for w hile, but things are going quite slow atm.

Thanx

Sarah x

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

SarahNeedle1872 wrote:

Quick question tho.... whats it like being a 'Play Trader'? Do u get a lot of interest? I've been on Amazon for w hile, but things are going quite slow atm.

Thanx

Sarah x

Hey Sarah

Personally, i prefer it it over Ebay and other auction style formats. You list your item under 'quality categories - new/used etc' and then set a 'buy-it-now' price. The listing stays on site for 60 days (Fee Free) - When your item sells, you pay 50p sales fee + 10% of item sale price. You only receive the money into your account when you confirm the item has been dispatched. Unless you upgrade your sales status, you can only sell CD / DVD / Music + Books

I guess, with reference to sales, it depends on what you have to sell, and how much someone is willing to pay for it. PlayTrader allows you to undercut Play.com , and other PlayTraders own sales price' (which is a good thing) but obviously, the fees mean play.com dont lose out.

If you did want to give it a try, it doesnt cost anything and you can cancel your listings ----

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

Ok, so its monday morning, im off work having had severe headaches over the weekend - think its a combination of

1 - Working hard - 50 hours last week infront of a computer screen
2 - No sleep - Charlie' only going approx 3 hours before waking up!
3 - Grizzling Bear - Charlie (Again!) screeming right into both ears! (blesss him)

Its been quite a nice morning tho, sunny outside (for once!) and ive been able to take stock of our finances - things are looking really good - granted, we have gone up 4% (see sig) however, we have the following to look forward to upto and including payday (20th)

Expenditure -
* £180 of bills remaining
* £10-£15 food shopping (milk and bread mostly)

Income -
* £97 from Quidco
* £111.85 from PlayTrade
* £750 from A&L Bank A/C -
- As part of the T&C's of the A/C, i have to transfer £500 a month into the A/C - im going to withdraw this along with the £250 Interest free O/D.
* £210 from GS
* £448 Sophs Wages
* £1600 My Wages

I have updated my S.O.A to include additional/change in expenditure, so from the 20th onwards (when the bills start coming out again! :mad: ) our Bank Balance should still reduce considerably!! :j )

Further Plus Points -
- We have managed to completely pay off the Argos Card :j
- The Lloyds CreditCard wil be completely paid off by the 28th of the month
- We also have 3 accounts to phone up and close down (Argos Card, Woolwich Bank Account and TopMan Store Card - which will stop temptation with spending on them!)


?????? - I should find out if i have been successful for the job within the next few days - fingers are still crossed!

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

MMMMMMM

Having realised that in the 3 months of being on MSE, GF and I have paid off nearly £4k of our own debt, we realised we had made a large number of sacrifices, most of them needed and not really noticed, however someothers have been.

With that, GF and I decided on a bit of wildness. We have removed the £250 Interest Free O/D from A&L, and along with the proposed sales of £560 (before Tax + INS) of shares, decided to split the proceeds in half and spend it. A little treat for ourselves, and one that notices all the hard work we have put in over the last 3 months. So, with my £300 in hand, i have spent it all on an ElectoAcoustic Guitar (online and using Quidco). I've wanted to take up guitar for ages; and recently a friend of mine who is lead singer/guitarist in a band offered free tuition - so i've taken him up on his offer. GF has yet to spend hers, but i have noticed a lot of hits in the shoe/clothes shops in internet history

The spends do not really affect our long term goal; the majority of the money coming from money we never really saw. And with the amount of o/time i have accumulated, and GF looking after Charlie, it gives us a nice little lift. We have agreed no more spends now for at least 6 months, when we will re-assess our finances and maybe give ourselves a similar treat.

SarahNeedle1872

Hi TYAE, nice to see u back again.

£4k!!! That is AMAZING in only 3 months, u must be soooo pleased. Ur treats were definately deserved! Perhaps u could sign up to the DFW Band too! http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=489690&highlight=DFW+Band

Sarah x

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

LOL

I have seen that thread, however; to begin with i will be lucky to get any noise out of the guitar that even resembles anything like music, let alone produce something like a whole performance

Practice makes perfect i guess

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

Im sooo looking forward to my guitar coming.

Next Stop - The purchase of an 'idiots guide to acoustic guitar' book - cashback via Quidco obviously :rolleyes:

I've sat down - AGAIN - and looked at our finances (it seems to be an everyday occurance) and come 20/08, our O/Draft should have reduced to .... wait for it .... £1950 :j - Soooooo , a £3050 reduction from where it is currently!!! - Obviously, all of our bills will subsequently come out, but even after that, its still a £1.9k (ish) reduction. Couple that with the fact that most of our 'bills' go toward reducing debt (Mortgage + Loans etc) then our 'net debt' reduces even further!!!

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

YAY :j

I sooo forgot about this - got a letter this morning from the Tax Credits People (taken their time!!)

We are getting £226 tomorrow (backdated from 20/04), £91 on the 01/08 then £91 every 4 weeks thereafter!!

Even more money to eat into the O/Draft, then into the rest of our debts!!

YAY :j

ThankYouAndEnjoy!

Oh Well

I didnt get the job, some 5 1/2 weeks after the interview, i had to phone them to find out!! - Im happy with their decision; yes the money would have been nice, but it was 2extra hours of travelling per day.

On the money front, i put in a request to sell my 'free shares' so thats £560 (b4 tax + ins) coming into my account mid-august. Friday is payday for both GF and I, so things are looking really healthy.
GSs second payment came through yesterday - shes doing really well, and by my calculations, she should stop paying interest completely by October!! - meaning on her £8.5k debt we have taken on, she has only had to pay £150 interest :eek: -

Had my first guitar lesson last night (totally free :j ) - my fingers are quite sore this morning, but i really enjoyed it! - worst thing - i've got homework!!!