My Diary to Debt Freedom!

MrsSmith2013

I'm back on the payday countdown.... 6 sleeps to go!

On the plus side, I have sold a gift voucher for a fancy shop I would never shop in, so £35 for that either today or tomorrow. I think £10 will go for petrol and the £25 left can go against the credit card.

Need to find out about my student loan and see how I can make overpayments to get rid of that. I would ideally like to be free of it by the end of January but maybe thats a bit optimistic. I will see. Then that will allow more free money to throw at the credit card and loan.

Tomorrow is food shopping day so the change from the £100 that OH transfers to me for that will also go against the card. Will try and do a frugal shop at Aldi, although the weather has turned here and the closest Aldi is a bit of a drive on a road that is notorious in the snow, so may have to be a Tesco/Asda delivery.

Anyway, enough of me blabbering, I'm off to stick the kettle on.

Have a MSE Day,
Mrs S x

:money:

MrsSmith2013

So I have decided that I am going to blitz my student loanbetween now and 31st January, which is exactly 10 weeks if I start nextweek. I’ve phoned the SLC and got thebalance, which is sitting at £1,413.77. To do this over ten weeks would mean £141.37 each week, or theequivalent.

Obviously there will be still be deductions coming from mytax, which has been around £75 per month, so for November, December andJanuary, that’s £225, so takes the total down to £1,188.77 so less perweek.

When on the phone this morning to the Student Loans Company,I got my account activated for online so will be able to make payments etc online. I have also created a Spreadsheet so that Ican track payments and it also works out the interest, which is only 1.5% apr.

Feel like I need a mini project to work on just now so thatI can really kick start the big debt busting in the new year. If I hadn’t had silly payday loans this yearI could have probably had this paid off by now, so I really am going to makethe effort.

Watch this space!....

MrsSmith2013

Just a quick entry to my diary, although no figures to add tonight. Have sold a few things on FB Selling pages so they are being collected/delivered tomorrow. I will update once I have the pennies in my hand, or in the bank preferably! Think I will just chuck what I can at the Student Loan.

Have done a spreadsheet with a graph of paid vs still outstanding so that is quite motivating, have been playing around with it to see what the numbers are like, so I think my 31st January plan is going to work.

Mrs S x

MrsSmith2013

So I am feeling extremely positive and motivated today. One of the bundles I sold has been collected, £6 for it so that has been paid of the student loan!! :j I know its only £6 but its better than nothing at all. I did think this morning it may be silly paying small amounts at a time, but if I don't I just know I will spend it and then won't get anywhere.

2 more bundles being picked up tomorrow for £10 each, so that will be another £20.

I got £35 for the voucher earlier this week but that has had to be used as a sort of advance on my wages so when the pay goes in on Monday I will pay another £35 off the student loan for the voucher.

I am soooooooo gonna bust this loan by 31st January!!:money:

MrsSmith2013

Today is mostly going to be a clearing out / listing items type of day! Kids are still in their PJ's having a lazy TV day so that works for me.

Will hopefully manage to make some pennies in the process of my tidy up day.

Hope everyone is having an MSE weekend!

Mrs S x

MrsSmith2013

So payday has come and gone and I still seem to be short I don't know what on earth it is that I am doing thats going so wrong, but it means that our joint account will be £400ish short this month by the time it gets to the mortgage coming out. I will need to try and be careful while trying to get christmas sorted out - what a nightmare.

I think I am quite organised for christmas for my own kids so thats always a plus. I will just need to try and sell some of my stuff and see what else I can do to raise some funds. Another slight plus is that its payday the day after the mortgage comes out, which means payday is a week or so early in December, so hopefully I can budget PROPERLY and get off to a better start in the new year.

Off to do some brain racking to figure out what to do.

Mrs S x

MrsSmith2013

Have updated my signature here with my student loan, trying to look at the positives and not be so bogged down!! Would be fantastic if I could get it below £1k by the end of the year, but that will all depend on how I get on making up the shortfall in the joint account.

Onwards and upwards!
Mrs S x

MrsSmith2013

Hi Diary,

Have had quite a good weekend in the money department, sold a dress for a whopping £200 so have the cash sitting waiting to pay into the joint account to make up for the shortfall. This is the last month I'm letting this happen, I'm trying to make it up as soon as I can so that I can have enough to start next month afresh. £30 of the £200 has been used for getting a voucher for my neice for her birthday (£10), going to a coffee morning with the kids (£10) and petrol in the car (£10). The rest I wil pay in tomorrow.

So my shortfall is now £237.06 to be exact, and I need that to be in the account by the 19th. Out of the family allowance on the 11th I will use £100 towards it, and the £37 can get a few christmas bits and likely petrol. I have someone picking up a toy I sold, but not til Wednesday, thats £7 so that can go in as well. The other £130 will have to come off of the shopping budget, so maybe £15 a week, and then I have about £160 of gift vouchers that I didn't want to sell, but I will just have to.... then I will be breaking even, and won't have had to use the credit card, which I also don't want to do.

Not bad going, but also not that great - its just how its turned out and I'll just have to deal with it and make sure it doesn't happen again!!

2014 is going to be a new year, I WILL make a massive effort to be debt free, it just going to take discipline....

Wish me luck.
Mrs S x

MrsSmith2013

So today has been an okay day... trying to look at the positives. Had to put £20 of petrol in the car, and buy packed lunch stuff, nappies and bits and pieces for taking to work - so my funds from the dress are down to £130 - which is now safely in the bank. I'm off to transfer it to the joint account now.

I downloaded an app yesterday for confused dot com, because I thought you got £5 cashback for the first 200 miles that you drive using it. In the app, there was an option to "Claim your Cashback" and I've just clicked on it and its let me claim £30 cashback! So I will have to wait for an email to see how to claim it probably.

Also got an email from Sun Online saying if I signed up for the introductory offer of £1 for the first month, I'd get a £10 New Look voucher if I didn't cancel within the first 7 days. I have set a reminder in my outlook to cancel it nearer the end of the month, so will do that on the 19th, which is way before the next payment on 2nd Jan.

I think thats all I have to report, but will post back later if I can think of anything else!

Mrs S x
:money:

MrsSmith2013

I think to try and give me some focus and keep motivation up, I'm going to do 1 debt vs 100 Days. I won't be able to make any massive progress on this until after payday at Christmas time, but if I start today, it will help me keep motivation. So 100 days from now brings me to Saturday 22nd March... hopefully this is more than do-able for me. I should have some share profits that I can throw at this at the end of January and some cashback from Quidco too, so it will hopefully be cleared within 100 days.

That means that I would need to find £12.89 per day.... which I think seem realistic.

Will try this and see how it goes!
Mrs S x