6 grand in 6 months - my personal challenge!

Helyonnaise

im terrible for looking at clothes sites when bored espeically.. or i see the words "sale" or "free delivery" and next thing you know i have a £50 order coming !!!! SO... I got my hubby to "block" certain websites off my laptop/our router, so that when i look up say RI or NL it comes up with a big old "you are blocked" bla blah! now dont ask me how he did it, as if i knew i could technically unblock them but I tell you what, ive done NO online shopping for all of July and it feels good!! I dont think ive gone a whole month without ordering any clothes in YEARS (oh the shame!) and I dont miss it now! its def how i got into trouble!

x

cottage_retreatist

andrar wrote: »

Have you done a Snowball for your debts? It'll tell you which ones to pay off in which order so you can get your debt reduced quicker eg base on interest rates what to make bigger payments on first and what to make minimum payments on. You save money on interest too.

Here's the link - http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php Fill this out then click snowball under 'next steps' header.

Hi andrar! :beer:
Thank you for the link - do you know? I've read about people snowballing but never done it - more fool me!!

I've done it tonight and it has cut my debt free date from December 2014 by my calculations to September 2014!!!!!!!!!!! Whoop!! :money:

I am going to carry on this month as planned with my payments and in September pay off Wonga (don't get me started on payday loans!!!:mad:) as it is the only debt danger-flagged on OH's credit report and then follow the snowball's example. Wow! In 13 months (its august now in my mind!) I could be completely debt free! That is un-fricking-believable.

Just got to stick to it now. Come on iron-clad will - don't fail me now! Any over-time I'll put towards the MOT stockpile and also xmas/treat stockpiles e.g. haircuts and treats like a night out once a month or something. I think that's reasonable?

thank you again -you are wonderful :A
C-R xx

cottage_retreatist

Helyonnaise wrote: »

im terrible for looking at clothes sites when bored espeically.. or i see the words "sale" or "free delivery" and next thing you know i have a £50 order coming !!!! SO... I got my hubby to "block" certain websites off my laptop/our router, so that when i look up say RI or NL it comes up with a big old "you are blocked" bla blah! now dont ask me how he did it, as if i knew i could technically unblock them but I tell you what, ive done NO online shopping for all of July and it feels good!! I dont think ive gone a whole month without ordering any clothes in YEARS (oh the shame!) and I dont miss it now! its def how i got into trouble!

x

Hey Helyonnaise - thank you for dropping in!

I am quite good - I haven't bought any clothes so far since April (my mum bought me some from primarni for my birthday). So I always wear the same things day-in day-out but i'm starting to look pretty thread-bare as most of my clothes are now 2-3 years old (I do have moth holes and general holes in all my cardigans!) and at some point my wardrobe will need a major over-haul but I've got the date for that now - September 2014 - when me and the OH celebrate being debt-free (fingers crossed). And I splurge on a new wardrobe - because by then it will certainly be deserved - just maybe need some tights before then and the OH some pants :cool:

Its all in the mindset - as I'm sure you found too - i mean, sure I would LOVE all the clothes in the Hobbs sale but I just stop and think that 300 quid could pay off blah blah debt and that keeps me going. But when that drive is gone i'll be buying le cresuet cookware (my fatal love) like its going out of fashion!!!! But not with credit cards!!

hugs xx

andrar

Good to know I could help!

debtfreewannabe321

Hi C-R! you're doing fab I love the motivation! My clothes are threadbare too I've not bought anything major since Dec 2010 (just before my LBM!!) so the few bits i have bought i've worn to death in a few months because they become the only decent thing in my wardrobe lol! Roll on DFD! I will be saving a few quid and going on a nice big splurge for new clothes, can't wait and there will be no credit cards involved

P.s I keep my onions and potatoes in the fridge, they last for as long as we take to eat them! (sometimes forever in nice weather and never had to throw one out yet!) xx

cottage_retreatist

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

Hi C-R! you're doing fab I love the motivation! My clothes are threadbare too I've not bought anything major since Dec 2010 (just before my LBM!!) so the few bits i have bought i've worn to death in a few months because they become the only decent thing in my wardrobe lol! Roll on DFD! I will be saving a few quid and going on a nice big splurge for new clothes, can't wait and there will be no credit cards involved

P.s I keep my onions and potatoes in the fridge, they last for as long as we take to eat them! (sometimes forever in nice weather and never had to throw one out yet!) xx

Hey debtfreewannabe321!!

Thanks for popping by! We can be in tatters together until we are debt free!

Well, holding my breath for payday tomorrow which is 160 quid more because of overtime so I am treating myself for the first time to a visit to the hairdresser -I have dyed hair and go every 6 months to save money and found somewhere with 60%off - whoop!

Spent 8 quid on tobacco for OH but otherwise NSD for Sunday, Monday and Today I walked to and from work so saved the oyster trip.

Cupboard surprises for these past few days:
Sunday - a gnocci bake I made which I loved but the OH didn't
Monday - home made mac and cheese with a salmon fillet each from freezer - very nice!
Tuesday (tonight) - a 'found' bolognese from freezer that OH turned into a chilli which had too many beans for my liking but was still ok!!

Tomorrow - for suffering the cupboard surprises I'm going to treat us to a fish and chips supper form the local place as I'll be back late after having my hair done as well! It couldn't come too soon!!

I should put the onions in the fridge - last thing i want is for them to sprout - i used to have a pantry under the stairs i loved as nothing ever went off in there for months (oh those good times are long gone!!!) - i'll do it later I reckon - too tired now and ready to eat a Mr Freeze and collapse on the sofa! :cool:

until tomorrow . . .

cottage_retreatist

I have paid back my brother!!!!!! :j

The 8000 debt he (on my behalf) took out 3 years ago has now been finally cleared! Ah - what a weight off my shoulders! And a minimum 250 quid extra per month to put towards other debts.

I am waiting for him to confirm receipt of it but I am so pleased - it caused some consternation in the family in the past when the OH lost his job and we couldn't afford the monthly repayments to him and the family ganged up against me - really wasn't my fault and it wasn't like I didn't feel s*it about it - he understood but other members didn't. But it is the biggest weight off my shoulders - for me owing family is worse than owing bully-thug debt collection agencies so now - to focus on those b*stard other debts!

Onwards and upwards! Signature has been updated but I hope to update it further this week when other payments are made. Quarter of the way to my 1 grand August target and it's not even August 1 yet! Hehe!

debtfreewannabe321

fantastic news and a reason why I try never to borrow from family too. The guilt of owing them is far worse than any creditor! xx

cottage_retreatist

debtfreewannabe321 wrote: »

fantastic news and a reason why I try never to borrow from family too. The guilt of owing them is far worse than any creditor! xx

hey DFW321!

Absolutely! I've told him - never in my life will anything come on credit EVER AGAIN!!!! And I intend to keep to that! Most dd minimum payments went out today and paid a stupid 2.61 to finally clear the aqua credit card!!!!

So that's the key payments made - oh and a blooming 212 quid to British gas cause i gave them our real meter reading so at least no shocks for the foreseeable future and the boiler is staying resolutely off at the moment.

Finally - i called HSBC and asked them to open a second basic current account for me with a debit card - i'm going to use this for our 'spends' each month - food/tobacco/hair cuts etc which means we don't accidentally dip into money from main account which has all the bills going out of it. Should mean I can budget better - only take that card or give card to OH to buy stuff and when the money is gone - it's gone.

On the phone the man said 'we'll do a quick credit check' and i thought - oh dear! this won't go well!! but i passed it so -success!!

But it's not all sunshine and ponies because i failed today as well as succeeding - on the way home i walked into M&S food and dropped 27 quid on 'picnic food' :eek: I haven't eaten this well for months so it was nice but now i feel so bad!! Definitely going to the market and doing more basic meals this week and next! It was a good folly while it lasted but definitely no SFD!!!! :rotfl:

we're both off work tomorrow so might work on our 3-year plan together and then i'll post it up!

thanks for reading! x

cottage_retreatist

I have been having a tricky week this week-hence not posting as I couldn't really work out what was going on in my head about debt and everything but its official!!!! I've cracked in what you might call a pseudo-LBM!!!!

I just cut up MY credit cards! And I almost cut up the OH's cards as well!!!!! I think I'll cut up one and leave 2-500 and 400 budgets so not too drastic if we keep them for emergencies!!!!

I don't know if I've quite reached the point where I can express how depressed I am over all these debts and how I constantly feel I am going backwards not forwards (although I seem to be trying!!:cool:)

The crux is-we paid off the credit card lat month and now somehow it is at its 400 max again!!!!!!!!!!!! :mad: and it has just made me think what a waste of money it was and how I could have put that money towards a PDloan and got almost rid of it without a way of re-getting at that money .

So slashing of credit cards ensued!!!! And I want to try and say its not my fault but I contributed to some of the cost by not buying wisely on food for the month and allowing us to go to a restaurant the other night with a Friend where we footed 70 quid of the Bill then bought some drinks too and blah blah ......

Does anyone else just scream at the futility of trying to become debt free sometimes or does this just prove how incapable I am as we'll when it comes to money? .

Sorry-it's become a bit of a retrospective self-pitying post!