This Diary Will Keep Me Motivated!

How_Did_That_Happen?

Hi Everyone,

I've been lurking on this forum since my husband and I had our LMB around Christmas time.

As of 1.1.13 our debts were:

Joint Account overdraft: -3000
Husband's Account overdraft: -1800
Mortgage Reserve Account: -5750.93
My Credit Card: -4966.27
0% finance for new kitchen: -6738.06
Total: -22255.26

Also a mortgage of approx 135,000

The reason for my username is because this time last year we had about 50,000 in the bank (An inheritance.) We frittered a bit of it away and then decided to have an extension built last summer. This ended up costing a bit more than expected and we made up the shortfall with credit. We are so very cross with ourselves for the initial frittering away, as we would have comfortably had enough for all the work if we hadn't done this.

Well, we've learnt our lesson, that's for sure!!!

I'm confident we can become debt free, and have gone budgeting crazy in January and have managed to knock 970 off the total. We're proud of this but it is only 4.4% off the total. I guess this has really highlighted to me just how big the debt is, and I just want it gone as quickly as possible.

So far we have:

Transferred my credit card balance to a 0% for 16 months.

Checked our utilities and insurances. Made a huge saving on buildings and contents insurance, but not so much on others.

Made a strick grocery budget and stuck to it. (My husband can get a 5% discount through his work when he puts money on a Sainsbury's gift card.) I know Sainsbury's is not the cheapest by far but this method has really helped us out this month. I can review this later on I guess if I want the debt to move faster.

Transferred the kids savings accounts to a 1 year bond. A, so the money gets a better interest rate and B, this is their money, not mine so I morally can't use it for debt repayment.

I started doing online surveys for vouchers. I've been using Valued Opinions but I'm getting disheartened with this as I don't seem to qualify for many surveys and have only made 1.50 so far. I was aiming to make about 10 per month and put the vouchers away for Christmas. Can anyone recommend some other sites where I might actually be able to make some money?

Our mortgage deal ends in February so I'm in the process of changing to a different deal. This will give us about 50 more per month.

Take packed lunches to work every day.

Things I still need to do:

Ebay as much as possible

Car boot fair in March

I'm aiming to park offsite at work to save the 2.50 carparking charge at least one day per week. I haven't really managed this month due to the awful weather putting me off the 1 mile walk!

A large portion of my husbands salary is commission based. He's had a good couple of months recently but sometimes he doesn't get much more than his basic salary, which is very basic! I need to re-arrange our budget so that everything is decided on the 15th when he gets payed. I'd started off on 1st Jan so will change this for Feb.

We've got an 'enforced' holiday coming up in May as a family member is getting married abroad. We payed for the flights on my credit card before the LBM. Accommodation is payed for but car hire (its quite remote) and wedding clothes have yet to be payed for. This is really going to impact on our debt repayment, and I'd like to minimise this as much as possible.

Anyway, I think this is getting rather long. Thanks for reading if you've got this far! I'm just going to keep updating in order to keep us on track, but if anyone has any advise or similar experience it would be great to hear from you!

beanielou

Great sart.
Keep going

How_Did_That_Happen?

Thanks beanielou!

So totals today are:
Joint Account overdraft: [STRIKE]-3000[/STRIKE] -2850 (But husband needs to buy petrol and BT bill still to come out before my payday on weds.)
Husband's Account overdraft: [STRIKE]-1800[/STRIKE] -1269.87 :T
Mortgage Reserve Account: [STRIKE]-5750.93[/STRIKE] -5721.55
My Credit Card: [STRIKE]-4966.27[/STRIKE] -4993.10 (Had to add balance transfer costs but will go down next month.
0% finance for new kitchen: [STRIKE]-6738.06[/STRIKE] -6417.20
Total: [STRIKE]-22255.26[/STRIKE] -21251.72

Very pleased so far!

StressedSteph

Hi hun,

Well done for starting a new diary. I love my diary and rant away on it on a daily basis.

Make sure you keep your signature updated with your progress, I find it REALLy helps.

Have you joined the "Pay off 1%" challenge? It is really good.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4016713

You print off a table with 100 boxes. Divide you total debt by 100, to get what your 1% is. And then as you pay off your debt you slowly colour in the boxes.
I find ths really inspiring and it keeps me going. i have the table stuck up on the wall next to my PC. I love it every month when I get to colour in more boxes

I will subscribe to your thread and follow your journey.

Make sure you log in each day and also follow some other peoples diaries, it really helps.

i have a similar amount of debt as you and I am paying off a £3000 OD. Its really tough but we will get there.

Take care
stressedSteph xx

How_Did_That_Happen?

Hi StressedSteph. The 1% challenge sounds like a great idea. I'll have a look at it as I haven't joined any challenges yet.

I've set myself some personal challenges though:

Groceries: 400 per month. I've just added up January and it came in at 394!!! :j
Take lunch to work every day. Have managed this every day except one in January.
Keep up with my spreadsheet.
MAXIMUM of one takeaway per month. (This is a major reduction from the 4 plus we were having each month before Christmas.) I'd like to reduce this further as time goes on.

Petrol came in at 374 this month, with probably another tank-full to buy before payday. :eek: We've not done any long journeys in January and haven't really gone anywhere 'fun'. This is just on work commutes so I'm really not sure how we can reduce this???

My ultimate goal is to get rid of these debts asap. Realistically I think this will be summer 2014 although I'd like it to be earlier than that. Then I would like us to be mortgage free by the time my eldest daughter is 18, so we can support her through university if she goes. Only 12 years to go!!!!

StressedSteph

Aaaaw Takeways ....Yum yum.

I can't wait until we can afford to have a takeaway.

We have banned them completely. We like Indian, but even with sharing a curry & rice, with a few side dishes comes to nearly £30 by us :eek:.

Just can't justify that at the moment. Maybe next year

Sounds like you are getting the foundations of money saving etc up well.

These challenges are fab and work wonders at keeping us on our toes.

xxx

How_Did_That_Happen?

Luckily won't need any more petrol until Thursday now.

Official totals for Janaury are:

Joint Account overdraft: [STRIKE]-3000[/STRIKE] -2895.32
Husband's Account overdraft: [STRIKE]-1800[/STRIKE] -1269.87
Mortgage Reserve Account: -[STRIKE]5750.9[/STRIKE]3 -5721.55
My Credit Card: -4966.27 [STRIKE]-4993.10[/STRIKE] (Had to add balance transfer costs but will go down next month.
0% finance for new kitchen: [STRIKE]-6738.06[/STRIKE] -6417.20
Total: -22255.26 -21297.04

4.3% payed off in January :T:T:T

I've just set up a standing order to pay off just over the minimum on my Barclaycard, so I don't need to worry about that now. I haven't had a statement from my old card yet and I think I transferred a bit more than the balance. I'm not sure what happens if you have a credit card 'in credit'! Its never happened to me before!!!

Husband has had a good month commission-wise, so we should be able to pay off more this month.
BRING ON FEBRUARY!

How_Did_That_Happen?

Just testing out my new signature!

Getmeoutofdebt

Hi there,

Just wanted to say well done for starting your diary and good luck for your journey to becoming debt free!
I am 11 months into my debt plan and am hoping to get out of debt in about 25 months time. I too have a diary on here, it keeps me motivated and I have got some good advice from readers.

I used to use valued opinions buy now use mysurvey and opinion outpost. Yes its tedious at times but the opinion outpost one lets you withdraw to your paypal account which is good and theres usually quite a few surveys on there. I use mysurvey to top up my nectar points which I save for the xmas shopping.

I also have a £2 jar to save for xmas. It really helped last year and you don't really miss the odd £2 here and there.

Also, as you mentioned e-bay, I e-bayed all my stuff that I hadn't looked at/ worn/ used in the last year and then put all the bits left over in a box to save for a car boot, but then I mentioned to some friends I was looking for stuff to e-bay and came to make a deal with a friend who is not computer friendly but had a huge amount of stuff to sell. He gave me all his junk and we split the money made 50/50! I found that a lot of people want rid of stuff but can't be bothered. It's worth asking the question!
Don't throw anything out until you've tried selling it on there. I've sold old rust padlocks, pen nibs, old postcards etc for a fortune! People collect all sorts of junk! Try everything you get!

That's just a few tips for now, I hope they may help

Good luck!

How_Did_That_Happen?

Thank you so much for the ebay tips, Getmeoutofdebt. I've got so much random stuff clogging up my house, and I really need to do something with it. I haven't got much experience of ebay. Is it really worth selling all kinds of little things, or would a car boot sale be better? I guess I really need to get my act together and just try it out.

Getmeoutofdebt

Hi again,
Personally I think eBay is better due to the fact that people bid up and you get more money. If you car boot it, yeah it's easier and faster but people bid down so you just get pennies for stuff and not what it's really worth. I just save all the real tatt for car boots. If you're car booting take loads of change because people try it on by saying for a 50p item "oh I've only a twenty pence piece or a tenner" to try and get it for less. They think you'll accept it to save change. Also it may be worth sharing a stall if you don't have much because then you can split the fee for the stall. I usually do car boots with my sister to split the cost. . I've found on eBay too that you make more splitting items that you have a lot of so rather than sell a bag of ten key rings for example sell ten individual ones. It's more work but if you're determined to pay your debt off its worth it I think. If you need any more advice just ask.
Good luck x