I want to get there

theguvnor

Hi guys,

Been reading the forum on and off for years now, never really post. Here goes :

I want to be debt free and save for a deposit on a house. I currently rent.

Money I currently owe is £5400 across two credit cards. Both of them are at 0% one for 2 years, the other for a year.

I know they are at 0% but would love to get rid of them.

I currently do a "sharesave" with work. I save £250 a month, at the end of a 3 year period (got just over 2 years to go) I can purchase shares with them at a discounted rate

Would just like to get some peoples insight as to how I could pay off the debt quicker and save some more than what I already do.

I've read some amazing stories on here, some people have paid off huge debts :beer:

I really want to keep his diary up to keep me focused.

I look forward to your input

theguvnor

No takers

haybel19

hello my diary is pretty quiet too...

to make extra money i ebay, do surveys, use swagbucks and sometimes do carboots.

I find challenges really motivating; i am part of the sealed pot, make a payment a day, one debt 100 days and earn ten a day in february challenges- covers all bases; savings, debt reduction and making more money.

Good luck

FlacosFloozie

Okay, I'm sure wiser heads will be along soon but here are the things that have worked best for me.
Ebay- best source for making extra money. Once I got past the pain of selling things for a fraction of what I paid for them. Its amazing what people will buy and all those 99p sales add up.
Surveys- I do a few of these but I wouldn't say I make much. I tend to get amazon/itunes vouchers to treat myself.
Supermarket- Plan ahead, go with a list. Batch cook and freeze whenever possible- cut our spends and takeaway habit. Aldi is also surprisingly good.
Save a bit- a small savings fund for those yearly expenses eg car tax stopped me having to slap them on the credit cards.
Budget- work out what you can spend and keep an eye on it.

hope that helps

theguvnor

Hi thanks for the replies,

I see a lot of people doing challenges. Might have to give one a go. The payment a day one looks god to me. I know my cards are at 0% interest but I really want to get rid of them.

ebay is a bit of a non starter for me, I don't really have anything to sell, I tend to keep everything to a minimum!

Surveys might be a good way of making a little extra though

So, a bit about my self. I'm 31 years old and I currently rent a flat with my girlfriend.

I am just about to move to 200 miles away to Bristol (Got a new job) very daunting as I've never lived anywhere else!

I'd like to keep this diary going and use it for some motivation! hopefully others will want to join.

Any advice is Always helpful!!

Homemadehappiness

Hello

My diary is quiet too, infact its just me talking to myself most days haha

I think the others have already given some good advice, i also enjoy challenges, my faves are the payment a day, sealed pot challenge, £365 in 365 days and pay off you debts 1% a time.

You could post a SOA if you wanted and people could try and advise you of where you can save extra money and that can then be used to throw at your credit cards? I recently started shopping at @ldi, meal planning and doing a shopping list. We have now cancelled Sky and also cancelled our daughters nursery as my husband work pattern has changed so he is now in a position to have her during the day.

Good luck with your journey xx

theguvnor

Thanks homemadehappiness

I'm lucky that I work for a supermarket so I get 10% discount. I think my main problem area is eating out!! I tend to eat out quite a lot and eat food at work that I don't need to. It all adds up ( on the waistline too)

Where do I get the soa?

x

Homemadehappiness

We used to be really bad for takeaways / eating out too some weekends we never cooked a meal :-/ but now we have made more of eating in.

here is a link to the SOA - http://www.stoozing.com/msoc/soacalc.php if you do complete it you will probably be better off posting it on the main DFW board as more people will see it and will be able to comment xx

Figtree

So in just over two years time you'll have about £9k going into company shares (which will presumably be worth more as you mentioned you'll be getting them at a discount).

Are you sure you'll make money on them? If you haven't paid off your credit cards by then then surely the APR will be higher than any realistic return you'd get on the shares (especially as one of the 0% deals run out in a years time)?

DebtIsDumbCashIsKing

Personally I'd stop the sharesave scheme and allocate that £250 per month towards your lowest credit card balance- you'd soon see it go down. Build up a small emergency fund first in case anything comes up to avoid using credit cards (and cut up the cards- have a plasectomy!).

theguvnor

Thanks for your input guys,

Figtree, Yes I will definitely make money on them. The discount is great and that is my start to get towards a house deposit

I've just found out that I'm getting a bonus from work of around £900. so I will put all of that to my credit card.

Today was my last day at my current job, felt a bit odd to leave but looking forward to earning some more money!!