Debt Free by THIRTY!!

debtfreeby30:S

Just dropping by to post on my new toy... I was very lucky and got an iPad mini from BF for Christmas! He loved all his presents too so I was a very happy girl yesterday!!

Just had a really chilled day today, got friends coming round tonight and then we're going to attempt a spot of sale shopping tomorrow. Will see how that goes! I generally lose my patience very quickly when shops are busy and messy

My fixed DD to the BC goes out in the next few days so I'll be updating my signature accordingly, then it's the old countdown to payday in mid January!

Hoping anyone who is reading has had a lovely Christmas Day and gets to make the most of the rest of December!

HOK3Y

Lucky girl! So glad you had a nice Christmas with your BF. I think most of us have felt the debt smashing slow down a bit over the season but 2014 is going to be a great year! All the best DFB30!

debtfreeby30:S

Thanks HOK3Y I'm glad it's not just me then! As long as I'm frugal in January I'm sure I'll be ok It's BF's birthday at the beginning of Feb and my present account is looking a little empty. Will sort something I'm too close to being debt free to throw it all away now!

Just starting to think of my goals for 2014, obviously to be completely debt free is one of them and I'd also like to have a savings target for then end of the year. That will be made a little harder by the fact I want to go on holiday as we skipped going anywhere for longer than a weekend this year in an attempt to be good! I also want to treat myself to the posh designer bag that is nothing but a frivolous purchase but I will save all the money before buying it so it will be nothing but hard work and determination that gets it! I think that's allowed. I shall have to have a think and come back with some thought out aims that are somewhat achievable if I put my mind to it!!

debtfreeby30:S

So I'm back to work tomorrow for a couple of days before NYD, got a big nigh planned for NYE so looming forward to the start of 2014! Not got much to do in the office mind so will be a relatively chilled couple of days after super stressy times before Christmas.

Had a letter in the post from Natwest saying I went over my overdraft on 23rd December, completely lie as I remember paying in cash and the logging on to transfer the money. It was blatantly there and available otherwise I wouldn't have done the transfer. I also have the transaction slip showing the credit and it distinctly says "your cash will be paid in today" Looking at my online banking now they've re-dated the credit to the 24th December but I shall be sure to argue my point tomorrow. Not my fault their systems showed it all as available and then they decided to change it! :mad: Silly banks.

Fixed DD to my BC goes out tomorrow so it'll be signature update time!

Decided on my goals for 2014 and shared them on NYD's thread in the DF forum. I feel good about this next year being one of accomplishments, even if they are relatively small! Just so I don't lose track here are my aims...

1. Become debt free
2. Save £2k
3. Book a holiday
4. Go to the gym 3x a week and in turn get below 10st
5. Drink at least 1L of water a day
6. Teach myself a song on a guitar
(7. Sly aim that's very selfish - save enough for my dream Mulberry bag. Not very MSE but I want it! It will be a hard earned treat)

debtfreeby30:S

Signature update day! The BC is now under a grand!! And I'm round about 2/3rds of the way there! This bit should be fast and relatively painless though as my loan finishes in a mere three paydays which will free up an extra £200 per month to chuck at anything that remains. I'm thinking I could have the BC gone by then too freeing up even more money to decimate that NW balance! Boom! Come on you pesky little DFD!

Rang Natwest this morning about the letter they sent about using my overdraft when I blatantly didn't. I barely had chance to finish explaining and he was apologising, saying it was a known fault and had everything reversed. He also reassured me there would be no impact on my credit file so will be keeping an eye on that to make sure he's not telling fibs!

Had a pint of water so far today so just another one to go and I'll be heading into 2014 all prepped and primed to reach my litre a day goal! Got to start somewhere!!

debtfreeby30:S

Hello 2014!!

Had a great NYE, we throw a huge do where I work and everyone was so merry and spent the whole night dancing away!! Very happy with it all as I though I'd overdone it with the ticket sales but no big problems at all

Back at my desk, with a pint of water! Just need to drink two of those a day and then any more is a bonus. If I hit that and it becomes habit I will be more than happy as I've got by drinking next to nothing for so long and often get headaches which I suspect are down to being dehydrated. Need to get my !!! to the gym tonight too, hope it's not too busy with folk trying to keep to their NY resolutions!!

Got a couple of meetings today to try and get dates in the diary for big events in the coming year - as soon as Christmas is over we're there planning the next one! Got to be that way though.

Planning on being on lock-down spend wise for the majority of January, need to do a meal plan and big shop for the month and getting my hair done on Saturday but other than that I should be spending very little. Saying that it's BF's and my Mum's birthday at the beginning of February so need to sort something out for that. Think I'll keep spends to about £100 for BF and £30 for my Mum. I spent quite a bit on BF over Christmas so he can't complain!! I best start as I mean to go on and get in my good money saving habits again - will aim for 20 NSDs. Didn't spend anything yesterday so I'm on with it already!! Need to get my spending diary back up to date too, I've been naughty and ignored it since November

Going to do a little adding up and figure out how much I've paid back during 2013....

debtfreeby30:S

Just to reflect on how far I've come and hopefully kick start the New Year with the same motivation I started 2013 with!! Here are my debt repayment totals for the year...

NW CC - £300 (on minimum payments for the entire year while on 0% interest)

BC CC - £3526.94 (this has been my main focus throughout 2013 and has received any overpayments I've been able to afford. My fixed DD went from £180 to £220 in August so by my reckoning my fixed payments were £2360 meaning I've paid around £1166.94 extra :j)

Loan - £2400.84 (this has been servicing itself at £200.07 each month and thank god the end is in sight with only 3 payments left!!)

Laser Surgery Loan - £734.28 (I've not really included this in any of my debt busting ways but it's ticking its way down nicely. This also finishes this year but I'll probably consider myself debt free before it actually officially ends.)

TOTAL £6962.06

:j :j :j :j :j

debtfreeby30:S

So I'm pretty happy with those totals - makes me a bit sad that I could have had all that money sat in a savings account going towards my house deposit but hey, I'm doing ok and being debt free will feel just completely wonderful!! As mentioned my laser surgery loan is not something I have really included in my debt free diary and I consider it more of an optical bill that finishes later this year. It's not included in my DFD target and happily looks after itself in the background, the big bonus being I can see and I get free check ups!!!

Just one more big push for the next few months and then it's hello holiday and hello big time savings for our house!!!!! :T

debtfreeby30:S

(and just maybe HELLO to my big Mulberry bag shaped treat but ssssssh!)

debtfreeby30:S

Really really struggling to concentrate today, my brain is not switched on at all! Think my silly busy December is finally catching up on me. Only a couple more weeks and then I'm off for a fortnight. Can. Not. Wait. We haven't even made plans, all I'm going to do is read my books, finish watching the last two series of Dexter on Netflix (they've just been added!) and get my !!! to the gym during the day when it's not too busy. Plus I'll have to try some of the recipes from my Christmas cookbooks and anything else I can find that's free or very cheap to do Lush.

Not been to the gym yet this year but I have been drinking at least two pints of water a day so far. Need to get into good habits so I can lose some chub. Count down to payday begins - hopefully I can muster some overpayments somewhere along the line and get my BC moving down pretty swiftly! I'd ideally like to be rid of it after March's payday as that is when my loan ends too. Easy as pie