Debt Free 2014

climbingoutoftheabyss

Well here's a lesson for you, never let the ******** grind you down.

So, I was £350 down from my car sale, but I've been chasing HMRC for some time as I've been overpaying tax. My persistence has paid off, I'm getting a refund of £1495 for 2011/12, I've then got to supply some supporting paperwork and will get a refund of £1621 for 2012/13 and I'm then due £472.00 for this year - plus my tax code will change giving me an extra £157 per month in my pay packet.

So, £3500 - 10 times what I lost on the car

I think the point is, persistence. This tax problem has been ongoing for 3 years and I've pushed and pushed and finally won. Never give in!

catriona79

climbingoutoftheabyss wrote: »

Well here's a lesson for you, never let the ******** grind you down.

So, I was £350 down from my car sale, but I've been chasing HMRC for some time as I've been overpaying tax. My persistence has paid off, I'm getting a refund of £1495 for 2011/12, I've then got to supply some supporting paperwork and will get a refund of £1621 for 2012/13 and I'm then due £472.00 for this year - plus my tax code will change giving me an extra £157 per month in my pay packet.

So, £3500 - 10 times what I lost on the car

I think the point is, persistence. This tax problem has been ongoing for 3 years and I've pushed and pushed and finally won. Never give in!

Hello :j

Just caught up on your diary so far. Sounds like you are doing really well, and the end is in sight - which must be amazing after such a long journey!

Ill keep checking up on you in the future - keep posting

climbingoutoftheabyss

Another month and the DMP is paid. Now £12,487 and sub-£10,000 is in sight which would be a massive achievement.

I'm still planning on repaying the full amount in July 2014 and have 14 Payplan payments to make and working, working, working to be clear.

climbingoutoftheabyss

Grinding down that figure, now sub-£12,000, which is a lot of money, but in the context of where I began a huge improvement.

My part-time business is flying now and I will be able to take £5,000 after tax in November to pay-down debt. I have got a chunk of tax back as well which will also go towards the debt. I'm hoping at the beginning of 2014 to have reduced the debt to under £4,000 with 8 months left which is then £500 per month to clear.

Is that a small piece of light I see? :j

climbingoutoftheabyss

Well, 3 months since my last diary update.

Things haven't panned out as I had hoped in November, the business is doing well and work is great too, but I kept the £5,000 surplus in the business on future projects.

The tax overpayment was returned, that is in my account. So, I've got about £2500 saved to pay off debt in 2014.

The part-time business, however, is flying and bearing in mind I've built this from scratch with no debt has assets worth about £30,000 and in November turned-over just over £12,000.

In addition, we've got things like £100 on our nectar card (used to buy fuel) and other bits and pieces.

Debt is down to £10,644 now, so within 2 months below that £10k figure (which will be a huge landmark) and I still think that by August 2014 we'll be debt free.

As an aside, the Financial Ombudsman sided with me and requested Lloyds TSB back-date the 2012 default on my account. Lloyds have said they will do it (although are stretching it out as long as they can before they do it) so at the end of that I'll have that clear and my credit record should be much improved.

So, all going well. We've been able to treat the little one to something nice for Christmas (from saved funds: quidco'd, O2 priority moment and cash back!) so looking forward to 2014 and getting this debt sorted once and for all.

climbingoutoftheabyss

I've just spent my lunchtime reading through my diary. I hadn't realised that it had been a year. How time flies.

Well, January started with a bang. We received a letter from a company that we had a mortgage with 7 years ago. At the time we appealed about the PPI on the basis that we were self-employed. At the time it was rejected and we had forgotten about it. Unbeknown to us they ran a review of old claims in 2013 and our original rejection was overruled. Just shy of £3000 was paid in to our account yesterday!

On top of that I received a £1000 work bonus (after tax), so our savings now show £7500. Our outstanding DMP at the beginning of February will be just under £9800, so I sit here writing this knowing that our plan will be repaid in full in about 5 months.

I am wrangling whether to offer full and final settlements, part of me thinks this makes sense, and part of me knows that I built up the debt and the ethical thing to do is to pay it all back. That's something I have to reconcile myself.

In addition to all the positive news, Lloyds finally removed my default that I disputed with the Financial Ombudsman - so my credit score is squeaky clean - not that I intend getting in to the mess I got in before.

I can't describe how I feel, numb I guess is the main emotion. It's been a long hard road and the end is firmly in sight.

The interesting part is that when I had nothing, everyone wanted a part of me, bank charges flew in, interest piled on. Now I'm getting straight I seem to have money coming in from all angles.

Not that I'm complacent, you don't know what's around the corner and even when I clear the DMP we can't relax. If we clear our savings I'm all too aware that there won't be any savings left and I want to build a cushion of savings.

Not long I'll be a saver not a DFW, I'm getting emotional thinking about it.

Rainbow8585

Hi I am just starting out on this journey and so nice to read things like this. Well done