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Overdraft Free for the first time in 10 years

Today is the 3rd March. All my bills came out on the 1st of the month and I am £375 IN CREDIT with the bank. I have budgeted my food shopping (separate account) as well as all running expenses for the month.

I have cupboards groaning with food, enough to last the month and both cars have at least some petrol in them.

The main thing?

I'M OUT OF MY £1500 OVERDRAFT THAT I'VE BEEN LIVING IN FOR THE LAST 10 YEARS...yes folks, that isnt an exaggeration, I literally havnt been in the black in a DECADE.

My biggest tip....have a separate account for running money and do not touch the bills account. I started this is December and now, by payday February, I'm out...finally. There is further to go, I still owe £10K to various places, but I have made the first real step and it feels wonderful.
Debt Free! Long road, but we did it
Meet my best friend : YNAB (you need a budget)
My other best friend is a filofax.
Do or do not, there is no try....Yoda.

[/COLOR]

Comments

  • wiseupfast
    wiseupfast Posts: 12 Forumite
    Congratulations!:beer:

    That must feel AMAZING!

    :T
  • pogg000
    pogg000 Posts: 588 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts
    :T:T:T:TWell done:T:T:T:T



    Good luck for the next target!
    lbm 11/06/12 dept total 11499.47
  • beth3735
    beth3735 Posts: 499 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 100 Posts Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    edited 3 March 2013 at 8:23PM
    :j Really pleased for you :) I got out of my overdraft 1st before other creditors and just shifting that overdraft was a huge weight off my shoulders!

    Good luck for the next goal! :T
  • g.lewarne
    g.lewarne Posts: 13 Forumite
    Im so happy for you!

    Evidently you were in (almost) the same situation as me! I shall use you as my inspiration and set myself a date of July to get rid of the bloody overdraft :)

    It must be wonderful for you right now, knowing that "your" money isnt going to be eaten up by bank charges...its now YOUR money!!!!!!!


    Well done mate :)
  • bt1
    bt1 Posts: 443 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Amazing well done!! I shifted mine onto a 0% card, felt good not being in it every month! Will feel better once the card is paid off :p
  • FireWyrm
    FireWyrm Posts: 6,557 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker Debt-free and Proud!
    g.lewarne wrote: »
    Im so happy for you!

    Evidently you were in (almost) the same situation as me! I shall use you as my inspiration and set myself a date of July to get rid of the bloody overdraft :)

    It must be wonderful for you right now, knowing that "your" money isnt going to be eaten up by bank charges...its now YOUR money!!!!!!!


    Well done mate :)

    Well, it was more down to laziness to be honest. I didnt get charged bank charges as such because the overdraft was so old. Essentially, I get charged around £15 a month in interest but not a daily amount like Halifax for instance. It was more the fact that I had never been truly in the black before. I'm so used to seeing the 'D' next to the total column that I had forgotten what it looked like without. In fact I frightened myself the other week when reading the statement because there were strange entries. It took me a minute to figure out I was looking at the Credit column which is usually depressingly empty rather than the Debit.

    I have had a feeling for a few months that the Bank was intending to cut me off sooner or later so it has always been my ambition to get rid of it finally, but somehow, no matter how much I tried, I couldnt quite seem to shift it. I guess it's a bit like that Christmas weight you put on...no matter your New Year resolution, you just never quite seem to get rid of it.

    For those wondering, I officially started my DFW journey last year but it really took all of last year and then December to get a grip finally. As I say, the best thing I did was to separate the bills from the running expenses. I have various pots set up which are now receiving SO's each month so next year will see the end of the monthly insurances (paid up front), the yearly scramble to get the cars MOT'd & taxed (budgetted), Christmas (saved for after a very successful 2012 effort) etc. A switch to a new energy provider has yielded a small but welcome saving along with some basic loyalty points and a kick up the bum from me to myself got the storage box cleared and closed (saving £78 per month) along with cancellation of the dental 'insurance' (£725 a year - replaced with a SO of £50 into a saving account for treatment as and when).

    So far, my emergency fund stands at £104 and is comprised of 'excess' savings from the running account - basically, each month I zero the account and start with a fresh injection of money. Anything left over gets shunted onto the emergency fund.

    The next goal is to pay off the 0% credit card which is holding about £1500 of debt before it runs out of time in August. This frees up another £60 a month to go somewhere...I havnt decided yet.

    It feels like Im finally getting somewhere.
    Debt Free! Long road, but we did it
    Meet my best friend : YNAB (you need a budget)
    My other best friend is a filofax.
    Do or do not, there is no try....Yoda.

    [/COLOR]
  • Shovel_Lad
    Shovel_Lad Posts: 1,123 Forumite
    Eighth Anniversary Photogenic
    Well done :T

    Good luck with your next goal :)
  • kittiej
    kittiej Posts: 2,564 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Hey well done FirWyrm! :T

    I'm still thinking positive thoughts for you :D - your hard work is paying off, congratulations.
    Karma - the consequences of ones acts."It's OK to falter otherwise how will you know what success feels like?"1 debt v 100 days £2000
  • 32b3in2013
    32b3in2013 Posts: 2,470 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Thats really good news. Well done :money:
    SPC9 #125 - £816.85
    SPC10 #125 - £851.81
    SPC 11 #7 - £968.46
    SPC 12 #7 - £2682.90
    SPC 13 #7 - £4829.85
    SPC 17 #7 - £7313.63
  • sheilds
    sheilds Posts: 156 Forumite
    Well done FW.
    As someone who struggles to get out of theirs (laziness is definitely a factor!!) you have officially inspired me and I am going to go for it this time...giving myself 6 months.

    Thanks :)

    S.
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