6 grand in 6 months - my personal challenge!

cottage_retreatist

So, I'm a regular lurker on here but thought I'd make this my first post as I got quite excited - I just paid 360 pounds off a 500 pound-limit credit card!!!! :j It's a small step - my debt calculator is currently at 21,000 pounds but i want to get this down to 12 grand by Christmas.

It is me and my Hub's combined debt and we built it up stupidly with credit cards and store credits and it's been sitting on our shoulders for the past 2 years as he was unemployed for 6 months last year and I only earned enough to pay essentials so all debts got brushed under the carpet and ignored despite the numerous bailiff threats. Trust me - I know bailiffs - had to deal with one a few years ago due to Council Tax debt.

But now he has a job and I just got a pay rise so I've written all our debts into a spreadsheet and write down every small thing we pay off and it is so great to see the numbers dropping!

I have calculated that by budgeting properly and making ALL essential payments by direct debit on the first day of the month I have 1000 extra per month to put towards debts! Yay!!! :j

Sorry - It's a bit of a rambling post but I had to tell someone! I don't tell my hubs because he does NOT know how to budget so now when he gets paid I take all except 500 pounds from him - his 'spending' money and put the rest into a different account and through the month I pay things off.

So - 500 down so far this month - on the 15th I'm going to pay my brother 300 from a loan he gave us (takes that to only 2 more payments) and 400 to a stupid tv i bought on credit 3 years ago for 600 pounds and broke 3 months ago so we don't even have it anymore - pay it off and look to the next one!! whoop.

Follow my journey and i hope to achieve my challenge - i will update my signature now!

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UPDATE 23/11/2013: 6 months on and I have completed this first challenge in the quest for debt-freedom. For posterity I am including my signature here as I think it will change ready for the next step on the journey!

May the odds be ever in your favour!!!

My 6 Grand in 6 Months Challenge:
June 1384.02/1000:j July 1183.58/1000:j August 1301.26/1000:j
September 360.00/1000:eek: October 1837.92/1000:j November 1871.37/1000:j

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UPDATE 14/12/2013: we can make no more payments this year due to the OH's impending job loss so the final totals have been calculated and the December challenge has come to an end! So below is December's signature!!!!!

Wishing you joy for 2014!!!!

My December 2013 £13K Challenge :rudolf:: 13,777.15
My 6 Grand in 6 Months Challenge (June-Nov 2013): 7,908.15/6,000 :j :j

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UPDATE 23/01/2014: OH will be starting his new job soon so this interim signature will now be consigned to the archive!!!!! Hoping the next signature update will be the last one of this particular journey to debt freedom. Fingers crossed xx

My 9 Grand in 6 Months Challenge (Feb-July '14): 0/9,000 :eek:
My December 2013 £13K Target Challenge :rudolf:: 13,777.15
My 6 Grand in 6 Months Challenge (June-Nov '13): 7,908.15/6,000 :j

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UPDATE 2015: My last debt-related update during my final failed push when OH was having troubles with terrible contracts :

My 9 Grand in 6 Months Challenge: £3,986.12/£9,000.00

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Edit: I will also keep track of my challenge results here too!!!! I like to take part in the amazing NinjaSaving Kat's challenges so these will track my attempts at No Spending Days for these challenges!

September Step-up #58: NSDs-17/18
October Awakening #3: NSDs-18/20
Just say NOvember #7: NSDs-18/25
Debt Destruction December #20: NSDs-?/15 *Completely lost it this month - oh dear!!!*
Janus Illusion #47: NSDs-12/20
February: 28 Days Later #51: NSDs-16/15
Tortoise & MARCH Hare #4: NSDs-17/17
APRIL Power Shower #14: NSDs-10/19
MAY's Hunger Games #4: NSDs-19/15

cottage_retreatist

umm - does anyone know how to edit a signature?!!

Indebted2U

Good luck

To edit your signature click the arrow next to the Quick Links drop down box and select edit signature

if_at_first...

You go to quick links at the top menu and then select edit signature

Good luck!

Harri-bear

Welcome!! You sound so excited you made me smile .

I too have a hubby who is incapable of budgeting so I know where you are coming from...and, I have a similar amount of debt.

Will keep dropping by to see you progress :).

cottage_retreatist

Harri-bear wrote: »

Welcome!! You sound so excited you made me smile .

I too have a hubby who is incapable of budgeting so I know where you are coming from...and, I have a similar amount of debt.

Will keep dropping by to see you progress :).

Thank you Harri-Bear! I am a little bit excited! :rotfl:

Today is a good day - I also called Orange as my contract at 45 quid a month is up and i managed to get the sim-only plan for 11 pounds direct debit. He actually laughed at how little of my usage i have used - 3 minutes of calls a month for 24 months!!!!

I don't use my iPhone that much except to browse MSE and Pinterest (my other flaw).

I'm going to see if I can find your thread now! :beer:

Shelbi

Best of luck cottage_retreatist, I'll be subscribing to your diary to check how your going & to get inspiration...you can do it!! :T

joanne109

I'm subscribing too - I think some of us are married to the same fella:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Joanne

cottage_retreatist

Thank you Shelbi and joanne109!

Well, I got up at 8am today and have been moping round the house for the last hour trying to not disturb the OH who is still fast asleep - so I made myself a 'posh' coffee in the cafetiere!!!

We're going to the market later today to get our weekly supply of fruit and veg and hopefully going to have home-made fish pie for sunday lunch - we'll see how that turns out!!!

I have decided that having this diary I can use it to also push me and motivate me to do other things - so (deep breath) - i'm going to try and stop smoking on Monday!!!! I'm going to stop cold turkey - apart from my morning fag and coffee before I leave the house. I know there are some despairing faces right now but I think it's better than nothing and soon I should break the habit of that one as well. Once I get to work I don't smoke at all, only in the evenings so its the evenings when I need to stop. I hope that makes sense?

So wish me luck on that as well!!! Haha - maybe I should start exercising too?! But - no cutting down on chocolate, a girl has got to have some fun!!!!!

cottage_retreatist

So last night I spent a long few hours working out all our debts and repayments. I got a notebook out of the drawer and re-branded it - my 'home management notebook' - it sounds so American!!!

In the front I've got the front page with all debts written down and all direct debits written down so i can physically cross things off when they are paid off - I love that feeling almost as much as i love making lists. :rotfl: And I've then got a page a month to write down the in-coming payments and how much money is left over and where that will go and how much money is left for the 1000 amount. We get paid at different times so I need to calculate that into it - I get paid at the end of the month and OH gets paid on the 15th so I can't spend too much of either so we have enough to pay rent and other essentials. I've calculated up to the end of July - I don't want to shoot myself in the foot by planning too far ahead. I calculate that by the end of July/August I will have paid off all the 'small' loans and also my brother. That should be 4 or 5 debts crossed off. I don't know how but I added them all up and we have 14 different debts with different people. :eek:

In the back I have my food planners, I have a list of all our favorite dishes and also some new ones the OH wants me to try (he doesn't really cook!). So each plan is for 2-weeks and re-uses ingredients and hopefully big dishes like bolognese I can make enough for 4 or 5 portions so a single outlay should cross over successive fortnights.

I used to do once a month cooking but it was exhausting - although my eventual aim is to get back to monthly food planning but I'm going to start small. Plans will start from the 15th - the next pay day! So i'll keep you updated on how that goes and list my plans on here as well!!

cottage_retreatist

Went to the Market and very proud with myself - took out twenty quid for all fruit and veg and spent about half!!! So the rest went on some eggs and lunchtime snacks from the Ice Land and got some final groceries from Mr S - who had half price coffee so I bought 4 packs!!! I drink a LOT of coffee but I put a pack in my handbag because 1 pack will last me a month and it means no expensive lattes in the office!!

Got 4 salmon fillets for only 5 quid so fish pie is on (only use 2 fillets and other 2 go in the freezer for later this week), also got a whole chicken for tomorrow and then can use it for sandwiches for the rest of the week. I finish at 3pm :j on Wednesday so think i'll go to the butchers and pick up a kilo of mince cause I picked up all the veg for it from the market - that should make about 6 portions for the two of us to go in the freezer. I've got 4 pound in my wallet left over from the market and when i cleaned out my handbag another 4 pound fell out - result!! So that has gone away towards next week's market shop.

So apart from my 4 pound 'fun' money I only need to spend 5 pounds on wednesday for the mince and put some money on my oyster card tomorrow morning for trips to work and back.

Oh - and - the OH and I had a chat about money this morning and he has said he doesn't need 500 to himself per month so I'm going to take an extra 200 a month from him (mwahaha!) and put it into savings for any potential MOT requirements in September and to put towards our 'joint' C-word present of an Xbox One