New Life, My DFW Diary!

Becks_in_Debt

A&L have just offered me £440.00 for one of my accounts bank charges, I am so Excited,

Sorry just had to share that with you, less than what we were going for but it is still more than what we have in our bank account at the min. . .

Where are you going tonight, chinese, indian, italian etc etc etc

Lucy1982_2

:T That's really good! I'd have accepted to. Sometimes it's best to get these things settle. Well it's another £440 towards something!

What are you going to do with it?

Becks_in_Debt

good question? I dont know, this loan we have took out is going to cover for everything, I might put it in the bank for xmas, it's a start, xmas isnt cheap with a little un. We should get it in 14day's, so we are skint at the min, but in 14days time the loan and A & L money should be in the bank, then shortly after OH wages again. . . I really think my life is about to be turned around, I feel so positive at the min. . .

Lucy1982_2

Good. I'm glad things are starting to look up. Eventually all the little things become worth while. How long did you take the loan out over?

I loved cutting my the card by the way. Very good feeling. I put it on the calender and everything :j

Becks_in_Debt

took it out for 7 years, but will hopefully pay it off sooner, I might even start a thread on here as I will miss this place, even though I wont see it as I have debt anymore, as long as we keep up with the monthly repayments all will be fine, where as I see it as we are in debt now as we get court letters though and all the creditors have closed the account's, it's weird as i know it is still debt but not bad debt, everyone will be paid off, I can do a course, get a job that i want once my credit is better as i need a credit check for the jobs that i want. Oh I am so excited.

Lucy1982_2

I would start your own, Becks in Debt free thread. That way you can still check in and get the motivation to get it down quicker.

I'm aiming for 2009. I'd love it to be before my birthday but I don't think it will be as I really need some new clothes so once the majority of the debts have gone (I'll only be left with one loan after March 08) I might stop over paying so much and put some into a savings account for a few luxuries before I start hitting the loan again.

Although hopefully by then I'll be nicely in credit and be able to pay some big lumps off the balance. Well that's the plan anyway. We'll have to wait and see if it actually happens though!!

At the moment I'm just taking it month by month I still have another 2 payments to go out but they aren't until the 1st June and sometime before the 15th. But your right it is encouraging to see it go and once your left with managable debt everything feels much better. I have managable debt, but because there is a store card I classify it as bad debt... far to much interest for it to be good!!! :rotfl:

But as OH and I are talking about going to Paris in September I need to start saving some money for that 2. But I looked at Eurostar this morning and if we book well in advance we should get tickets for £108 for both of us, which isn't to bad, then it's just money for a hotel and some to spend! But it will be something to look forward to and I can have it as a goal to have x amount saved for!

Rout

Its definatley worth doing, I put money away for nearly two years and went to America in February this year. It cost quite a bit, and could have helped pay off debt instead, but I decided that I'm 26, and I dont want to look back and have nothing to talk about, or even things like holiday photo's. Had a brilliant time and was well worth it!

You need a break now and again or you'll go nuts!

Michael.

Lucy1982_2

This is true and we are going to try and od it as cheaply as possible, but still have a good time. OH's sister has friends in Paris so they are going to let us know when good but cheap hotels are!

That and you can get a museum pass cheaply which gets you into places free. So we'll probably do that.

Lucy1982_2

Right not had the best spending day today, so I need to get my head back in gear. I'm in danger of over running my budget and I only have about £35 to play with if I want to pay another £50 off my overdraft (Ideally the £35 will go towards it as well).

I think I need to stop going to Sanisburys at lunchtime and cut down on trips to the pub during the week and at weekends. I also think not carrying much cash would help. If I don't have it on me I can't spend it!

But I keep thinking I just need to make it through this month and into next when I will feel the benefit of all the cuts and savings I have made. Even with all my debt repayments I should have about £100 left to pay off my overdraft, that's if I can stick within my £60 personal allowance for the month of course!

But actually saying that my car is due it's service so this might not be possible. Hopefully as it passed it's MOT it wont need anything doing. That or I could push it back a month and fit in another pay day? I'll have to have another think.

But I would love to get myself into the routine of keeping £5 of my weekly spend aside so that I can pay and extra £20 a month off my small loan. Or is this worth it? Should I just put £5 a week into my overdraft savings account and make sure I pay at lease £70 off a month? Any idea's anyone? I think my overdraft has a APR of 18.4% and my loan is standing at 16.9%

I'd like to hear your opinions.

trulymadlydeeply_indebt!

Hi Lucy - congratulations on still remaining upbeat about the changes you are making - I've got your diary in my "favourites" and keep checking up on you each day to see how you're getting on.

I think I am right in saying that although you are determined to get rid of your bad debt, you would still like to live a little.

I've tried to come up with some suggestions to help you, here goes:-

How many times a week do you pop into sainsburys at lunchtime and how many times do you go to the pub? Could you half each of these?

Do you take a packed lunch to work or is this why you are going to sainsburys? If for example you go to Sainsburys 4 out of 5 days, then aim to take a packed lunch for 2 days and have sainsburys for 2 days. On the 2nd packed lunch day, go to the post office and spend your saved "lunch money" purchasing a savings stamp instead (I mentioned this on another page). You'll soon get a buzz seeing your savings stamp card fill up I can tell you.

Alternatively, if you would prefer to set it aside to make £20 in-roads into your loan, then what may motivate you is googling "whatsthecost.com snowball". When you start playing around with the figures, its amazing how quickly your loan can disappear before your eyes when you chuck extra bits at your loans/storecards and may keep your momentum going.

(From memory, I managed to knock about £2000 in interest repayments alone and over 100+ months of my total indebtedness just looking at the website).

At the end of the day, do what suits your personality and is also best for your pocket and if it works out best for your sanity at the same time, then you'll be rocking!

Take care

Lisa x