The DF journey diary of ilovelondontown

ilovelondontown

I'm -2 days away from being paid and I'm hugely relieved at this fact.

I've got about £4 left in my bank account and I'm really pleased that I've managed to make it to the end of the month without borrowing any money.

In fact I'll probably have to "borrow" £10 from my DH just to cover off, food tonight and tomorrow, and to get something for lunch tomorrow, which may well end up being something left over from tonight.

All in all a very sucessfully managed month for me. I'd go as far as to say this one has been the most successful since I started. No hiccups, nothing unexpected to come up and absolutely NO luxury spending.

After next Month I'll only have my credit card, 2 BNPL's and my overdraft. THAT feels amazing to me!

ilovelondontown

So it’s that time in the month when I get paid and get poor in the space of about an hour J at least it’s starting to feel like the numbers are falling faster and faster. This time next month my bank loan will be PAID OFF and I’m too excited about that!

I plan to pay off my sofa’s in October and then the laptop in November. For December admittedly I will be taking a hitus from making massive pay offs, not because I intend to spend a fortune at Christmas this year, but mostly because December is a long month pay wise and whether or not I like it, it’s also an expense month.

So that pretty much breaks down my payment plan all the way to the end of the year. By January 2013 I will have just £2000 on a credit card and my overdraft which will be down to £400 which I think is a great way to enter in to 2013. I will at this point start looking to save a bit more so I have a reserve rather than having to use credit to pay for things that are unforeseen but are not considered an emergency, so to speak.

So for now, I leave you with my monthly summary- my spread sheet tells me I’m now under the £4000 mark! :j

For a reminder to those reading my original debt about a year ago was in excess of £11,000 and now stands at £3978 . The break down is below:


Credit card- At highest £3200. - This is now £2599
Bank loan- At highest £4700. - This is now £788!
Next Account - [STRIKE]At highest £560[/STRIKE]. -PAID OFF!
Bank of Dad- [STRIKE]At highest £630.[/STRIKE] -PAID OFF!
Sofas- At highest £1780. -£390
Laptop- At highest £550. -£175


Happy Friday everyone :cool:

quidsy

woop woop. so close, so close. You can get through these next couple of months I am sure. Just look to the end.

ilovelondontown

I've been activly ignoring the fact that I need to up date my diary and I've had to get the courage up to write this post as it feels as though I've gone against the grain of everything I've learnt here lately. Allow me to explain.

I’ve got to the usual point in the month where I’m trying to stretch a few pennies and make them last as long as I can to the end of the month, but to be honest I’m now at the 1 year mark from when I had my LBM and I’m running out of steam with this DF journey.

Having managed to chip away at a huge amount in a short space of time and I’m proud of that, and maybe arguably I’ve been stretching myself too thin and was inevitably heading towards a motivational burn out, which is where I’m at now and so I’ve done something rather radical and controversial.

I consolidated some of my debt on to my credit card. *runsunderarocktoavoidjudgement*

Here is my logic.

I was/am down to:

· The bank loan is due to be paid off next month in full and with no defaults. Bye-bye biggest single debt of £4700. :j
· The 2 store loans which cost me £60 a month
· A Credit card with less than £3k on it. I regularly pay over £200/£300+ a month on it.

I put the store loans on my credit card and so now I effectively have

A loan
A credit card.

Once the loan is paid off in about 5 weeks I’ll have one debt. My credit card which I still intend to make big over payments too.

However once I’m also down to just the credit card I feel like I will have a bit of liberation about my payments. You see with all the loans I’m forced to make fixed payments every month even in months where I can’t really afford it, at least if I’m down to the credit card I can make big payments to the card most months and make minimum payments (around £27 pm) in months were I know I’ve got a lot to pay out for.


In financial terms, when I get to November’s pay - once the bank loan is paid, I will be down to a TOTAL debt of about £2700 which is granted still higher than I’m comfortable with but knowing I’ve only got one creditor, I can choose how much I pay a month, accordingly, and I can focus on shifting the debt when the 0% interest runs out. It feels a whole lot more manageable than the original 8 creditors I had!

It doesn’t mean I’m about to ignore all the MSE advice I’ve come to learn either, I’m still going to do my trusty yellow label shopping (get such a buzz from that!) I’m not going to start splurging on new clothes, gadgets (I’m not into technology at all) and I going to teach myself the good old fashion rule of save up and then buy. Nothing is going on credit any more.

I don’t miss having a frivolous financial lifestyle and I’m not trying to get that back, I think I mostly want to get through the month without cringing at the checkout a week after pay day and wondering if my card will get declined.

So there you have it, my current situation laid bare, I wait tentatively for the foray of “What have you done!” :doh:

quidsy

Didn't want to read & run & will post more later but suffice to say, it makes sense to me, you have a managable personal debt much less than the national average. You are'nt running away from it, you aren't planning to add more to it so however you get to the end is the best way for you.

ilovelondontown

Cheers quidsy, can always rely on you not to bash me when I'm down

I'm suprisingly optimistic about my decision, I just feel like a big fat failure for not managing to keep going at the speed I currently am. Almost like I've done 80mph in a marathon and getting to mile 20 and deciding to walk the rest of the way. Sure I'll still get there but it's going to take longer and won't be as impressive!

The strangest part is that the amount of debt I have vs the amount of credit I have available is huge now. Where I was previously maxed out everywhere I now have nearly £8k of credit that I can tap into, including 2 untouched overdrafts. It's strangly settling to think if something does require truly urgent funds I can deal with it without panic.

So what's the latest with you? Sold the land yet?

Indebted2U

Hi ilovelondontown. I've just read through your diary and I think you've done fantastically well so far :T

As for combining all your remaining debts onto one card, I understand that some may disagree but as quidsy says as long as you don't accumulate more debt, then whatever works for you is the correct route to follow. Having only one debt should make it easier to keep track and reduce the chances of accidental missed payments that can totally destroy your credit rating.

I've only been on my debt free journey for 7 months and can totally empathise with the marathon wall you've hit but you're so close now you can almost touch that Debt Free Day :j

ilovelondontown

Thanks Indebted2U, another poster kind enough to not bash me over the head with the what have you done bat J Funny enough I was reading your DFD earlier, you sound like you’ve been on quite a journey yourself!?

It’s been one hell of a journey I have to say, and having got as far as I have, has been tough, no luxuries, no holidays no anything really. Once my cash flow situation is steadier then I feel like I can stop having this money thing on my mind 24/7. I still want to be very MSE minded but I want to do without my bank account laughing at me every time I log in to check the balance!

Roll on November, can’t wait for the day I’m officially down to one debt.

ilovelondontown

Well it should come as no surprise to anyone who's read this far into my DFD that I’m frantically rubbing pennies together to try and make it to payday (next Monday) I’ve got about £30 to last me, and all I need to get with that is lunch for work and dinners. I have a few bases for meals in the freezer so I intend to utilise this with some trusty yellow label shopping, I get such a kick out of knowing I’ve paid half of what I would usually for items I would get anyway. I know I can do it, just hoping nothing throws me of track in the next 6 days!

I’m feeling rather excited about the coming months however, even though I’m absolutely shattered when it comes to this journey, I’m basically going to be in the best financial shape I’ve been in for about 4 years. Nothing out of control, nothing hanging over me. Nothing feeling too big to deal with. As I keep harping on about it, the annoying loan I have will be paid off next month and while paying it off won’t change my life dramatically, not having that debt to my name in any shape or form will feel SO GOOD J Will literally be doing this the day that finally goes away > :j and maybe a bit of this :beer:

Other than that, nothing to report from me, although while the rest of the world is annoyed that summer is coming to an end, I’m secretly rather excited, as I love cosy nights in and the events in the run up to Christmas, I’m a big kid about it all and this year will be no different! :xmassmile

ilovelondontown

Pretty much all of my diary entries include positive steps I’ve made along the way without any drama. I’ve been SO focused on the goal of getting rid of my debt it’s taken over my life in a way, and I’ve yet to find a moment where I regret facing up to this mess, even in moments where I’ve found myself in tears feeling overwhelmed by it all.

I’ve got good at checking my bank balance almost daily, to make sure I know where I stand, and I never get any nasty surprises. Well. Until today.

My balance 2 days ago was exactly what I thought it would, pennies left but in my limit with no other spending necessary until payday. I log in today still expecting £30 to be sitting there as a safety net between me and my limit and it’s actually over by 53p! :eek::eek:

Waitrose very meanly seemed to hold back on adding something to my account from last weekend, propelling me into the over – overdraft. Luckily (if you can call it that) I have an untouched, unused –except in an emergency situation, overdraft on another account and I swiftly moved £30 over just to appease the bank following which I called them, heart thumping in my chest, to beg them not to add charges for this oversight.

I need not have worried, the chap on the phone said that there were no charges pending my account because it had been under £1. The difference between me being charge and not was £0.47! _pale_ I’m still a bit unnerved about the situation and will check again later to see if this is definitely the case, feels too lucky to be honest.

I know I should be grateful for this near miss, but the whole episode has left me feeling deflated and blue. I thought I’d done well this month and now owe money that wasn’t scheduled for next month. RAHHHHH! The DF journey is hard enough, why does there have to be these blasted additional stresses added to it?

Anyway, rant over, roll on Monday, I don’t want to feel defeated yet!