Debt Free by THIRTY!!

debtfreeby30:S

Ok so, I've browsed these forums for a while and thought it was about time to start my own diary! I definitely need somewhere to write down my daily spends and keep a track of where my "disposable" income goes from month to month. I have recently made some headway in trying to tie up bits of debt here and there, first one being the dreaded student overdraft which has been hanging around for 4 years, the last two of those not being interest free! The account is now £4.18 in credit and I'm waiting for an address change to come through and then I can cancel the £2000 overdraft, fiiiinally!! I also owed the bank of mum and dad £900 which I have just made the final payment on.

That leaves the two credit cards and a loan to pay off. Money I have just spent on bits and pieces throughout the years. Silly really but nothing I can do about it now. I have been making the loan payments of £200.07 for a couple of years and will have everything paid by March 2014. I'm making the minimum payments on the Nationwide credit card which is at about £2000 and is 0% interest on a balance transfer until April 2014, I'm thinking I ignore this and work on the Barclaycard balance. A nice big fat £3000+ aaaaargh! What have I spent all that money on!?!!? No clue. I am confident (well I am at the moment!) I can pay everything off by the time I'm 30, that leaves me with just over 3 and a half years. I have to live and pay rent in the meantime so hopefully it's not a silly target nor unreasonable. In my head 30 is that age when you should have life sorted, not sure it's going to be quite as easy as that as how the hell I'm meant to even think about having a deposit for a house I don't know! If only I'd known when I was in my teens, earning money and just spending it cos I had it. Hindsight is such a wonderful thing!

I intend to try and document every penny I spend as I swear the little things I buy, magazines, clothes and toiletries are my biggest downfall. Hopefully it'll shock me into not spending willynilly and allow me to throw more money at my debts, here goes!!

stacey2193

Good luck, I have just started writing every penny down in a cash book and keeping all my receipts in seperate envelopes for food , fuel etc etc so I can see where I fritter away my money !

Blogger

debtfreeby30:S
Good luck! I am sure you can manage as to be honest your debts are not as much and your "downfall" areas are easy to control with some effort.

debtfreeby30:S

Thanks for the good luck! I think I need a notebook too - I know I shouldn't buy things I don't really need but just find it so easy to ignore the little voice in my head telling me not too! Seeing it written down and making a conscious effort to keep a track of everything will hopefully just be a bit of a wake up call. I'm off work for the next two weeks after tomorrow and have two birthdays (mum and OH) which I have already bought presents for from my £50 per month present fund. Need to make sure I don't get bored with the time off and spend money!! Will have to see how many NSDs I can get away with! No food in the fridge atm so will have to go shopping tomorrow. Got the fit4life iPhone app recently which is a great little recipe juggler that produces your shopping lists too. Two week plan in the bag. £40 budget... Not good at supermarket budgeting so will have to see how that works out :-s

debtfreeby30:S

So first day after starting my diary. Last day at work before my two weeks off and I treated myself to a £6.50 M&S lunch. WHY???? I told myself going into the shop, you don't need to buy this, you won't even eat it all (which I didn't) and its just not healthy. All in all pretty stupid. Went to do the food shop tonight too, spent £38 and I will have to make all that last for two weeks. Got plenty of plans for the fortnight off, going walking and what not, hopefully nothing that will cost loads of money. Going to Paris on Friday, Christmas present for the OH. Planning on generally being cheap and cheerful while taking in the main sights. Budgeting a maximum of £80 for the weekend. Croissants for breakfast, lunch and tea!!

Got £40 cashback made payable today so putting that into the extra barclaycard payment pot. Time seems to pass slowly between pay days and making dints in debts Slow but steady, no point getting ahead of myself. Should be able to have 3 no spend days over the next 3 days, easy :eek:

debtfreeby30:S

Today I have been boring and not gone out as of yet, easier not to spend anything that way! Been reading though people's debt free diaries, so many have done so well in paying off masses and masses of debt. So impressive. Makes my inability to stop buying lunch from M&S pretty pathetic. Just thought about my planned no spend days for tomorrow and Thursday, I have a hair appointment and a treat to get my nails done before Paris, one on each day. I'm an unnatural blonde and I'm too scared to try home colouring, I go to a friend of the family's salon and she charges me a (relatively) cheap price of £55 for a cut and colour. Not sure it's something I can give up just yet, the nails however is definitely an appointment I can cancel. It's not necessary, I have plenty of nice nail stuff from QVC to do it myself, it's just a perfect example of me spending money on non-essentials.

On another note the washing machine broke today, it's full of water and it won't drain :mad: Hopefully our landlord won't delay in replacing it...

debtfreeby30:S

Don't seem to have done much in the last couple of days. Had to put £5 petrol in the car today to get me through to the hairdressers which was the expected £55. Wrote it all in my little spending notebook. Been in a bit of a mood today for some reason, going to Paris tomorrow so I have no reason to be grumpy, think I'm just constantly thinking about money and fretting about not going out or doing anything. Need to start running again or something. Went through a phase of running all the time so I have all the stuff, just not used it in a good long while, it's still sat in a suitcase after we moved last year. Hopefully running would make me feel better in general cos I should lose some of my festive chub!! We get back late on Sunday and I'm still off work next week so won't be able to say it's too dark after getting back late or any of that. Decision made, must start running on Monday! The first week is always the worst
My £150 direct debit (fixed amount) goes out next week to my barclaycard, need to figure out if there's anything else I can spare, the £40.40 cashback should be in my account by then too so I'll have to send that across. Just got a letter from Halifax saying something about having to be in credit at the end of the month to use the £10 Ultimate Reward account, will have to have a look at that as I generally use the £300 interest free overdraft as a normal part of my balance...

debtfreeby30:S

So I'm coming to the end of my two week break from work. Not done a lot at all, apart from a weekend break in Paris which was pretty much on budget of £80 spends. Went walking on Thursday and had a birthday get-together for my BF's birthday yesterday. Tried to spend next to nothing throughout the fortnight. Spending money is literally on my mind all the time and I think this is infecting my BF too! He seems far more bothered about his money and paying off his debts too. Don't think he's quite got the hang of not treating himself to new shoes and jumpers every now and again though! Looking for a BT card for him so he can start clearing everything quick sharp. Need to make sure I really engage my money saving brain, keeping my spending diary up to date and I seem to be spending quite a lot of money on random trips to the supermarket - I shall be doing a full meal plan tonight before I go back to work tomorrow. List for this week... (you might think I'd have done some of these things throughout my time off but no I enjoyed doing nothing!!)

2 week meal plan
List items on eBay
Clear wardrobe and drawers and take clothes to charity shop
Make doctors appointment
Look into Dentist plan

debtfreeby30:S

Ooooh, just had £9.99 cashback made payable so transferred that into my account and will pay it off the Barclaycard. Took the £40.40 cashback I got last week and made it up to £85 and paid that off the card so that's £235 in total this month. Little extra amounts better than nothing!

debtfreeby30:S

Just paid another £20 off the barclaycard - got £9.99 cashback and then transferred a spare £10 that I've had floating around in an old account. 2 week food shop last night at £38 for the two of us, started bringing a proper packed lunch to work too in an attempt to save more pennies there and help lose some excess weight! Ready to bash out 5 NSDs in a row now, well here's hoping!! Think I need to set a proper target for them per month as I just take them as they come at the moment. Spending diaries are good for making you realise how silly all the spending is!!

NewLeaf_2

Well done for all the repayments as well as for recognising that being debt free is the way to go before 30 x