Pay ALL your debt off by Xmas 2013

triple_choc_chip

Ooh, so close now! I decided to ring fence the holiday pennies and stick to the regular repayments. It will be good to finish next month, exactly 5 yrs from starting my journey.

So figures for July:
no. 74: £7512 / £7860 95.57%

kerri_dfw

triple_choc_chip wrote: »

Ooh, so close now! I decided to ring fence the holiday pennies and stick to the regular repayments. It will be good to finish next month, exactly 5 yrs from starting my journey.

So figures for July:
no. 74: £7512 / £7860 95.57%

Not long now wooohoo I can't wait until I'm where you are xx

iclaudius_2

gail2802 wrote: »

Congratulations iclaudius, can't wait to be in your position. You must have worked really hard to get that amount paid off in a relatively short amount of time. Any advice you can offer to someone just starting out on the road to being debt free?

Hi Gail

Here are my pointers for what they're worth:

1. If you do just one thing get Dave Ramsey's total money makeover from Amazon (3 quid?) and listen to his free podcasts regularly. That's it. All I did. Ignore the religious stuff if it doesn't suit you... I won't recap his Baby Steps but you need to do them in sequence and totally destroy your credit cards first. Our plastectomy was ceremonial.

2. Get your spouse on board 100%.

3. Agree and stick to a monthly budget and use cash envelopes. I used an excel spreadsheet for the budget but also to forecast when we'd be DEBT FREE. really motivating.

4. Behaviour changes. We totally cut out all the things that were hardest to give up: telling friends no to going for dinner and on holiday; giving budget birthday gifts to family and at other kids' birthdays; eating soup every lunch time at work; regularly clearing out the cupboards towards the end of the month -

5. the same actions above were tough but brought us closer together as a couple. there is a fantastic sense of adventure and accomplishment when you get through a summer holiday for 300 quid only and can still make it a laugh. We're closer now than ever - having a single goal can do that.

6. Every one of those monthly debt payments I sent off felt like smashing a hamer into a glass door. The hole gets bigger and bigger as you go and those big payments feel incredible.

I could really go on and on. We've learned loads but most of all never to go into debt again - not for any reason. And resolve to ensure our two kids stay clear too

SpagBol

iclaudius wrote: »

Hi Gail

Here are my pointers for what they're worth:

1. If you do just one thing get Dave Ramsey's total money makeover from Amazon (3 quid?) and listen to his free podcasts regularly. That's it. All I did. Ignore the religious stuff if it doesn't suit you... I won't recap his Baby Steps but you need to do them in sequence and totally destroy your credit cards first. Our plastectomy was ceremonial.

2. Get your spouse on board 100%.

3. Agree and stick to a monthly budget and use cash envelopes. I used an excel spreadsheet for the budget but also to forecast when we'd be DEBT FREE. really motivating.

4. Behaviour changes. We totally cut out all the things that were hardest to give up: telling friends no to going for dinner and on holiday; giving budget birthday gifts to family and at other kids' birthdays; eating soup every lunch time at work; regularly clearing out the cupboards towards the end of the month -

5. the same actions above were tough but brought us closer together as a couple. there is a fantastic sense of adventure and accomplishment when you get through a summer holiday for 300 quid only and can still make it a laugh. We're closer now than ever - having a single goal can do that.

6. Every one of those monthly debt payments I sent off felt like smashing a hamer into a glass door. The hole gets bigger and bigger as you go and those big payments feel incredible.

I could really go on and on. We've learned loads but most of all never to go into debt again - not for any reason. And resolve to ensure our two kids stay clear too

Thanks for these tips Never heard of the thing in pointer 1 but did all the others last yearand was really successful. This year we have lost our way a bit but reading this has inspired me to knuckle down again until the baby is here in November :T

32b3in2013

I totally agree iclaudius. Dave Ramsey is great. I didn't follow the baby steps route, but I listen to the podcasts everyday. I am quite close to being debt free but I am still going to buy the book

I use spreadsheets and each time i make a payment i colour in the box and leave it on the spreadsheet for a few days until i hide entire row (so the figures are accurate but that payment is out of sight) i also use whatsthecost.com to snowball and I look at the snowball and the spreadsheets everyday,

32b3in2013

triple_choc_chip wrote: »

Ooh, so close now! I decided to ring fence the holiday pennies and stick to the regular repayments. It will be good to finish next month, exactly 5 yrs from starting my journey.

So figures for July:
no. 74: £7512 / £7860 95.57%

Woooo, so close

amr547

we overheard someone at the seaside saying "it costs a fortune to take the kids to the seaside, £70 per child..." what are they buying ?!?!? ice cream with a flake is only 65p and fish and chips are £3 for kids:rotfl: even the fairground is only £10 for wristbands!

however we went to the seaside and spent more than we wanted, also bought a new bed for the rabbit and some weighing scales... oops

minicooper272

amr547 wrote: »

we overheard someone at the seaside saying "it costs a fortune to take the kids to the seaside, £70 per child..." what are they buying ?!?!? ice cream with a flake is only 65p and fish and chips are £3 for kids:rotfl: even the fairground is only £10 for wristbands!

however we went to the seaside and spent more than we wanted, also bought a new bed for the rabbit and some weighing scales... oops

Were they staying in a hotel? Buying souvenirs? Unless they meant £17? For 4 kids, that's a lot of money!

Found a badminton club that meets 1 mile from me, while the nearest running club is 4 miles away, so have decided to give badminton a try. Bought a £10 badminton racquet, but then couldn't resist buying some workout wear that had been reduced to a silly cheap price. I will start running again, but I'm being challenged to find a way of getting out and being sociable, and MSEing has put me into a mentality that I won't drive 4 miles to run, when it's something I can do on my own doorstep.

SpagBol

minicooper272 wrote: »

Were they staying in a hotel? Buying souvenirs? Unless they meant £17? For 4 kids, that's a lot of money!

Found a badminton club that meets 1 mile from me, while the nearest running club is 4 miles away, so have decided to give badminton a try. Bought a £10 badminton racquet, but then couldn't resist buying some workout wear that had been reduced to a silly cheap price. I will start running again, but I'm being challenged to find a way of getting out and being sociable, and MSEing has put me into a mentality that I won't drive 4 miles to run, when it's something I can do on my own doorstep.

Good for you, sounds really good. My sister has just taken up badminton she loves it!

amr547

so any chefs on here?? what can i do with green and red lentils (the ones that come in a packet rather than tin). ive also got a tin of chickpeas and a bag of kidney beans!