Almost there..

Scientist_DFW

Well here I am coming to the end of the last essential extra hours duty. Essential because it will allow me to make the final payment on my CC at the end of July. The timing is very good because we may be cutting back on voluntary out of hours work as a protest to a change of our working conditions and pay. I knew this was coming and was really worried that I'd have to miss some of the extra hours I'd budgeted for but I've managed to make it, phew!

So now I can be more relaxed about work and vote to join the protest without having my own, admittedly selfish, reasons for not joining in. It's for the best long term.

I've been reading about the minimalist life style on theminimalists.com. It's truly inspiring. I'm not sure I could go to the lengths they have but I could definitely do with cutting down on some of the stuff in my house.

Originally my plan was to empty the loft and sort it out but as my OH pointed out I did that only a few months ago - due to some mad form of OCD I have - and the stuff that went back up is the stuff that we'd definitely be keeping. I'm not so sure about that. There are some things I'd get rid off. A lot of it is stuff that goes up in the loft when I can't decide whether to throw it out/donate it or not. Well, now I've decided.

But, anyway, I don't think I have the energy to tackle the whole loft at the moment so I've modified my plan. I will bring down all the soft toys (2-3 bin liners full) and try my hardest to only allow 5 of them to go back up. My OH is the worst for letting things go. I could probably persuade Curly and Cutie is too young to care but once OH says he wants to keep something Curly is suddenly very attached to it.

In addition to this I've made a list of little clear out jobs I can do around the house around work. I don't have any extra duties planned for a while and may not be allowed to do any for even longer so I can fill my spare time with a little job a day.

I'll try to make the jobs make money as well by selling anything I can. Firstly, I'm going to take all my jeans that are from pre-Curly that I don't stand a chance of getting back into to the clothes bank. They give you about 50p per kilo and as jeans are heavy and I have quite a few I might get a few pounds for them. Better than them just sitting in my wardrobe taking up space.

I'll be back with an update as soon as I've got something to report.

Scientist_DFW

I've managed quite a few little jobs around the house - clearing out various cupboards and closets. I even managed to get rid of two whole bin liners of soft toys so now we're down to keeping one bag full and three of Curly's favourites. I was being far too optimistic to think I would only keep 5 items! There were more than five that I wanted to keep for myself let alone my girls things. I took them all to the charity shop. I like the idea of selling things as it appeals to me to create space and try to get back even a small percentage of the money I spent buying all the stuff in the first place but it's quite time consuming for so little profit and also, there's the risk that if the items are still in the house someone will then decide they want to keep them.

I've still got a couple of jobs to do, one is to sort out a bedside table but that will involve a trip to Ikea to buy some little boxes with lids. The big job is still to go through the stuff in the loft but I'm going to do it a box at a time. My OH likes to keep old newspapers and I'd like to get them organised in date order and put away safely so they aren't a fire risk and so they don't get damaged. At present they are spread around a few boxes in the loft and a cupboard in a bedroom. This job I can see taking a few weeks but that's fine, there's no rush. Anything I find that I'm not going to keep I'll consider selling but only if I think there is a high probability that it will sell.

I'm making the penultimate payment on my CC today :j.
I checked the statement online to check everything was how I thought it was with balance amounts and dates etc. and had a bit of a surprise. All this time I've been operating under the assumption that all the balance transfers had to be paid back by 1st October 2013 when the 0% interest period expires so I was very surprised to see that for one balance of £875 the 0% runs out on 1st October 2014 . I'm still on schedule to make the final payment at the end of July so I'm going to stick to this plan and not let the balance sit there for another year with only the minimum being paid off. This is for psychological reasons now rather than financial. It'll feel so nice to be debt free. Once I am I just need to make sure I don't build up a debt again which is so easy to do when spending on a card. I've got 3 cards at the moment so when I'm clear I'd like to just have one and preferably a cashback one. I'll have to investigate next month. It's not as straight forward as it sounds because all the cards have different features and serve different purposes. One is for spending on holiday with no fees, one is for balance transfers with 0% interest (this one can go as I hope not to have to transfer any more balances) and the last one has annual family travel insurance, free drinks vouchers, a points system to get money off vouchers etc but costs me £15 a month. I might be better off getting a card with no fee and cashback and buying my own drinks and paying for insurance only when I need it.

I'm going to need to be more careful in the future anyway as my pay is being cut. We're moving from one way of working to another with a drop in pay. At the moment my pay is never the same from month to month but I have a spreadsheet to keep track of it and plan my payments. In the future the pay should be the same each month (I think) so will make budgeting easier but the amount will be lower than my average pay at the moment by about £500 a month . So I'll need to be really careful with spending on unessessaries for a while until it all settles down.

Anyway I'm going to stay positive and go and update my signature

Scientist_DFW

I've paid off my debt :j

I made the final payment a few days ago and waited until it had cleared to declare myself debt free.

Now I'm going to concentrate on overpaying the mortgage and building up some savings to help us in the dark times I suspect are ahead with my pay falling and our outgoings increasing.

We're having a holiday to Majorca next week for two weeks and this will be a nice relaxing time for us all - not a mad spend-up like it has been in the past - and then when we get back it's to start as we mean to go on. By this I mean reducing our spending on unnecessary items and stop using the credit card. If we can't pay for something in cash it'll have to wait until after payday, not "stick it on the card and pay for it later - go on, treat yourself" which is what usually persuades me to get into debt .

I've got three CCs at the moment, each for a different reason and I'm going to cancel two but keep one for emergencies. It might not be one of the ones I've already got actually, I might cancel them all and apply for a new one instead. I don't know. I'll think about it when I get back from my holidays.

I'm off home shortly to sleep the sleep of the debt-free .

If this carries on I'll have to leave this board and move to the MFW board.

Oh, and my sealed pot - I've been really good with it and even put in some notes! I don't get to put something in everyday so I try to make up for the days I'm missing by putting in a larger but hopefully not-missed amount in one go.

I'm going to update my signature.

Scientist_DFW

Haven't been on here in a while and things are not so good. We've just been on a lovely two week holiday abroad where we had a very nice time but unfortunately I've come back with a £3000 debt on my CC. I did the right thing and got the Hx card that doesn't charge a fee for using abroad and I had plans to only use it for a couple of excursions but whilst we were away a friend died and we thought life was too short to worry about counting the pennies. Consequently we had an excellent second week away. Now I'm paying the cost. I've transferred it all to a 0% interest card and will spread the payments over the full 12 month interest free period so I don't leave myself short and get tempted to use a CC again.
More later. Need to get back to work.

Scientist_DFW

Ok. So now I have to be very strict with myself. No unnecessary spending. This new debt has coincided with my income going down as our work conditions have changed and the pay is dropping by approximately £500 a month. We've won pay protection for six months based on average income over the previous six months so if I can be strict I will be able to make a healthy dent in my debt. I'm going to stop carrying my CC because there are some shops where I just can't resist buying things. I've just had a massive clear out at home and it's nice and tidy and spacious and I really want to keep it like this so this will also be an incentive to stop buying clutter. I've bought a lot of Christmas presents already for all the children in the family and I'm only going to buy for one adult with a price cap as well so that's all under control. I'm feeling positive about it. And after the six months of pay protection when my money drops I should be in the habit of spending less and so will cope with the pay drop better than I would if it happened now. I've only got myself to blame for this situation so it's up to me to take control and get out if it. I must be stronger at saying no to my older girl, who never appreciates anything I buy anyway, and saying no to myself when I see nice things in the shops for my home or my little girl.
Strength and confidence are the way forward!

Scientist_DFW

Ok I'm back after a bit of a dramatic time. We discovered after being on holiday that a relative who had been allowed to stay in our house had stolen a gold chain and pendant from me and pawned it. They had every intention of getting it back before we came back and noticed but every time they got some money they spent it on themselves instead. I managed to scrape together the £200 needed to get it back from the pawnbrokers so I have it back in my possession but now the relative owes me the money. I'm not sure I'll ever see it again. I couldn't really afford to lay out the money like that. It's left me having to use the CC to buy food and essentials to get through to pay day (monday). I intend to pay off the CC as soon as I'm paid but that will leave me short next month. And next month has four family birthdays, a weekend away (a regular annual occurance that's already booked) and half term! I'm not sure my money will stretch that far.

I've still got the £3000 on my holiday CC to pay off in 12 months. I was going to be strict and pay off £250 by DD each month and not allow anything to get in the way. But now already before my first payment it looks like I'm going to fail.

I'm supporting my husband at home as well. He stays at home with the girls while I work. And he has a bit of a drink problem that sees him get through 8-10 cans a night. I'm currently paying for this and I'm so annoyed with myself for facilitating this. I feel such a mug keep giving him money when he asks. But he bullies me so much I feel as though I can't say no. I'm sure my finances would be in a much better position if he didn't bully me so. I feel as much to blame because I give him the money. I can't even express how that makes me feel about myself. I need to be much stronger. I'm going to try.

On a more positive note. Having my jewellery box raided spurred me into buying a new one with a lock. In transferring everything over I found some items that were broken or I just didn't want and I sold them to one of the gold buying places and managed to get £107 for it. So that's some money back from my £200 lay out. Only time will tell whether I see the rest of it back from my relative.

Scientist_DFW

As of Friday 31st January I am officially debt free!!

I've been able to pay off my holiday CC using the pay protection I've been getting from work. Now I can cancel that card.

I've also decided to cancel my M&S card. I've realised that it's a cause of massive overspend because of the points you earn using it and all the little rewards they give you. I'm due my next set of vouchers next week then I shall cancel it.

That just leaves me with my Sainsbury's CC. I pay that off each month and that helps build my Nectar points for money off my shopping.

This month is going to be more poor than I would have liked since we've got half term but it feels so good to not have the debt weighing me down.

Now when my pay drops down to it's permanent level after the pay protection ends I won't have to panic about trying to pay off my card. From now on I'm only going to buy what I can pay for in advance. Including holidays.

I'm off to update my signature. :j

Scientist_DFW

Things seem to be coming along nicely. I've been surviving without using my CCs and it all seems ok. I've cancelled one of the cards that I used to transfer balances onto. This removes the temptation of building up a balance on another card only to transfer it to my 0% card. Two cards left. One I'm waiting until I receive all my reward vouchers which will be about May now. I haven't cut up this card yet because I'm not sure if I'll have to use it to keep the account active so I'll be able to get my vouchers. I've got £37 in M&S vouchers due and a "birthday treat" of £10 off instore at M&S so I want to make sure I receive them as my parting gift from that CC. Then after that I'll be left with my Sainsbury's card. This I pay off each month and it helps build my Nectar points that I use for Christmas shopping so I think I'll keep this. Also I put an amount from my wages stright into an online savings account on payday to cover anything I spend on this card so I'm still ahead of myself.

After the traumatic and stressful time last year when there were changes made at work with our hours and pay and it felt like everything was crashing down around me it feels like I've been given a reprieve. The pay protection that the unions fought for has allowed me to sort everything out in preparation for our final pay cut. I'm eternally grateful to them for that. Life would have been very different without it. I've got two and a bit more months of the pay protection and then reality kicks in. By then we'll have changed our lifestyle to such an extent that the change won't be too traumatic. That's the hope anyway. Now I'm out of debt I might work out what my pay will be after the cut and put anything over this from the pay protection into a savings account for the next couple of months. This could then act as a buffer in case there are any problems. It's a plan, anyway.

killerpeaty

Hey Scientist, you sound like you're doing really well. I know it's a bit late but a massive congrats on becoming debt free!

Scientist_DFW

Hi,

I've been back to lurking on here for the last few months. I'm sure it's addictive.

Just a quick update. After becoming debtfree a few months ago I decided to change my credit card from one that had a monthly fee (although it does have benefits) to one that would earn me points but be free. (Although I didn't actually cancel the fee costing one).

And because I was feeling in control and up to date with everything I got a second card on my account and gave it to my husband so he could use it to buy food and essentials for my girls while I'm at work. Big mistake. He treated it like a mad free for all. He was buying what I consider junk just because he could. Sweets for my girls, bits and pieces. Just stuff I wouldn't waste money on. He said he wanted to treat me because I work hard and deserve it. I said it would make me happiest if he didn't buy me anything and I had a low credit card bill. But that doesn't work with him.

After one particularly bad month when at worst I feared my bill would be £400 and it actually came in at £750 I cancelled both cards on that account. I had to use money I'd put away for a job on the house to pay it off.

So now I'm back to having the one card with the £15 monthly fee. I'm in two minds about keeping it. I had my Oyster top up on this card but I've transferred it to my current account so I'm not actually using the card for anything at the moment. But I haven't yet cancelled it because I like the drinks vouchers and random money off vouchers I get. It comes with family travel insurance as well - although I'm not sure we're having a foreign holiday this year. And if we are we can get the insurance for a lot less than the card fee I'm paying.

I know it makes sense to cancel it but I just need you lovely people on the forum to give me the push I need

Back soon.