Debt Free by THIRTY!!

debtfreeby30:S

Our ATP certificate arrived on Saturday All coming together now!!

Got a lovely £1000 bonus at work which I have scooted straight over to my house buying fund. I have also left all other accounts in credit (usually use my £250 interest free OD from 1st Direct each month) so technically I have a few spare pennies hanging around should I need them at short notice. Plan now is to get the house buying fund as close to £2000 as possible in the next two pay days and then all being well we should be moving. Once we're all settled I'll start concentrating on getting rid of the my last £1559.54 of debt!! I feel I've come along since January 2013 especially with the impending house buying :j

debtfreeby30:S

Just got some cash back made payable and rounded my 1st Direct account down so now my house buying fee fund stands at £1190. This doesn't include my £250 interest free overdraft so I have a little bit of a safety net should I need it. Exchange of contracts was delayed this week because of the HTB agent being slow but our £10,000 deposit is sat in the Solicitor's account ready and waiting now. SCARY!! My bank balance looked ever so healthy for a moment or two yesterday!!

Just want to get all this over and done with now, very very busy at work so starting to feel it a little bit - I'm sure I'll survive!! I've been a bit snappy at BF of late but he seems to be letting it go straight over his head, I hope that doesn't change any time soon and he starts thinking buying a house with me is a bad idea!!

debtfreeby30:S

So we exchanged last Thursday!! I've been pretty hectic at work over the last couple of weeks and with all the house buying stuff I've been a little bogged down. Now things have calmed I'm not really sure what to do with myself!! Moneywise I'm just trying to keep spending to a minimum which is proving a little difficult with impending hen dos, weddings and birthdays. I am still on track to have £2k in the bank for fees come June payday though so happy with that. Need need NEED to sort my head out and start losing some chub, its really grating on me and just making me feel gross at the moment. Just a weird vicious circle of feeling really unmotivated which makes it harder to start which in turn makes me feel even more pants!! Grrrrrr :mad:

debtfreeby30:S

Oops it's been a while since I last dropped by to update my diary!!

We were meant to be in the new place at the end of June, we're currently still waiting to hear that it's ready and now face the prospect of being homeless come the end of July as our (already extended) tenancy finishes :eek: Action plan is in motion with a storage container being booked and being graceful guests of friends and family for a few nights!! We've been given about 3 different estimated completion dates so far which have all fallen by the wayside so now I'm just trying to not even think about it - I won't believe it until we're actually in through that front door!! Fun and games of purchasing a new build right?!

At least the bit of extra time means we now have the £3k house fund sat ready and waiting in the bills account and depending on how long until we're actually in we could potentially have a bit towards our emergency fund!!

Debt wise I am currently have £1450 total debt remaining on the BC. As we haven't moved house yet I have £400 "spare" this month which I'm going to chuck onto the credit card. I then have an 18month BT offer on my HF which I'm going to utilise. After the overpayment and my £50 fixed DD I will be left with £1000 which I will let tick down over the offer period. Just means I have a bit more readily available cash for towel rails and light fittings! Quite exciting to think all my CC debt will be gone relatively soon, I never want to get into that same situation ever again!! At least I'll be able to start attacking my mortgage/equity loan debt pretty darn soon after moving in!!

Going to have a good snoop around and see what everyone has been up to...

Poolie

debtfreeby30:S wrote: »

Oops it's been a while since I last dropped by to update my diary!!

We were meant to be in the new place at the end of June, we're currently still waiting to hear that it's ready and now face the prospect of being homeless come the end of July as our (already extended) tenancy finishes :eek: Action plan is in motion with a storage container being booked and being graceful guests of friends and family for a few nights!! We've been given about 3 different estimated completion dates so far which have all fallen by the wayside so now I'm just trying to not even think about it - I won't believe it until we're actually in through that front door!! Fun and games of purchasing a new build right?!

At least the bit of extra time means we now have the £3k house fund sat ready and waiting in the bills account and depending on how long until we're actually in we could potentially have a bit towards our emergency fund!!

Debt wise I am currently have £1450 total debt remaining on the BC. As we haven't moved house yet I have £400 "spare" this month which I'm going to chuck onto the credit card. I then have an 18month BT offer on my HF which I'm going to utilise. After the overpayment and my £50 fixed DD I will be left with £1000 which I will let tick down over the offer period. Just means I have a bit more readily available cash for towel rails and light fittings! Quite exciting to think all my CC debt will be gone relatively soon, I never want to get into that same situation ever again!! At least I'll be able to start attacking my mortgage/equity loan debt pretty darn soon after moving in!!

Going to have a good snoop around and see what everyone has been up to...

If they gave you a confirmed move in date at the End of June, I hope you made them aware that they will be pay for the storage unit and any other costs till they have your property completed. Is there really much left to complete on it?

debtfreeby30:S

Ah Poolie if only! The little tricksters don't give a fixed completion date - they work off forecasts and serve 7 days notice of completion in their own good time. And what a headache we've had about all that over the weekend!

After being told categorically it won't be ready by the end of this month and we should make other arrangements for the end of our tenancy we went and sorted the storage, vans, people to help us move etc only for the pesky developers to turn round and serve the completion notice to our solicitor on Friday :mad: I guess they have actually stuck to their word as it will technically be August! We happen to be at a wedding on that day and still have to be out of flat on Thursday. I'll be honest I was pretty fuming for about half an hour when I should have been excited but now we've cancelled the storage (refundable deposit - PHEW!), hired a different van so we can store our stuff in it over the two nights while we're at the wedding and we're booked in for our home demo on Thursday afternoon so everything is looking rosy!

Now we've made yet more plans I'm finally feeling excited, and a bit nervous if I'm honest! Both of our families are just being absolute diamonds - they all want to come and help us move and everyone is offering to pay for this and pay for that and it's all just overwhelmingly lovely I can't wait to get in and start making happy memories as home owners! These past 18 months have generally been spent with our heads down trying to get debt paid off and get money in the bank to fund this purchase so I'm so so ready to just shake off the CC debts and get back to enjoying life - well within my means of course! I still want to put money aside every month and aim to pay a big chunk of the equity loan off when it starts to attract interest in 5 years time. It's just nice to think the money coming in will actually just be mine

A quick one about my remaining CC debt - I overpaid £400 to the BC and BT'd the remaining £1000 to my HF CC which is 0% for 18 months. I'm not sure whether I'll clear it ahead of time just to be rid of it or let it tick down as originally planned. As it won't be costing me anything I should probably concentrate on filling up savings accounts but we shall see we shall see!!

debtfreeby30:S

Ahhhh so we're in the new place!! We've had a mad busy few weeks but it's all just lovely!!! There's been lots of Ikea trips and discussions about new sofas but it's all coming together. Ideas of being incredibly patient and waiting to do everything bit by bit have fallen by the wayside over the last couple of weeks but I'm reeling it all back in now and starting to get back into money saving mode.

Thankfully we ended up with spare pennies in the bank after solicitor fees and with everyone's very generous help we've been very lucky in being able to get lots of new and shiny nice stuff!! I have also managed to put away £300 into my 1st Direct regular saver - something I want to get in the habit of doing every month. I have set my Halifax DD to minimum for now as the £1k BT I did in July is at 0% for 18 months. I may as well let it tick over and fill up my savings account. In fact that will be my aim over the next 10 months (opened the account 2 months ago!) - fill up the regular saver to its full capacity of £3600. I think that's fair for my first year as a homeowner!! I shall go and update my signature accordingly!!