My debt reduction log

boltneck123

So it has been a while since I have posted, kind of fell off track a little bit and I have been to busy to post with work and moving house.

Sig needs a massive update so for now I have just removed all the inaccurate data and I can update this once I have sat down to recalculate things.

A quick overview of what has been going on.

Halifax credit card 0% term ended in October, so that has been transferred to a MBNA 0% card. Did not time the transfer well with the last direct debit of my Halifax card so ended up in £75 credit with that, which knocked my budget a bit for the month. Since I don't have the pin, I could not just simply buy what I would normally need, but fortunately I did need to buy some books online so I used the credit for that.

Recovered from the shock of buying the Taylor Swift tickets, so when I get paid at the end of the month I should be back in the game, fingers crossed with the overdraft holding steady at no more than -£1000.

Doing a shed load of over time, and I should get that paid to me on Dec the 10th which is going to be great, because it will all go into reducing the overdraft or on the cc. Not decided which to pay down with it, overdraft is my focus but it is still technically the longest 0% debt I have, even when compared with the new CC. The overdraft, with the exception of last month, has a £100 contribution to it each month anyway.

Designed my self a excel sheet, I had done this before, but it was overly complicated and I went overboard with it. This new one is very simple, instead of entering every little thing I buy out of my disposable income I allocate my self - I have simply placed an estimate on the things I spend my money on the most and given my self a kind of buffer budget for anything else. Which when gone, is gone and that is that. No tweaking.

Oh also, the new CC can do money transfers to my account, so I am clearing my iPhone with that feature and my small student debt which is being collected by a recovery team for a bursary over-payment. They want to up payments because circumstances have changed, so I am going to just clear the £325 with them and consolidate it with everything else all in one place at 0% for 16 months.

Roughly, without calculating I will be looking at a total debt on the card of about £1200. The amount going out for the iPhone and student loan payments is equal to £23, my last credit card was at £75 P/M. So I am going to just add the amounts and make a monthly payment of £98, I will round up to £100.

And.... I am rambling.

Hope all the other debt reduces here are on the right track keep going.

boltneck123

Interesting month so far, seem to be doing ok so far . Fingers crossed.

All my debt, accept the car finance, car insurance and mortgage is consolidated now.

Old CC debt, iPhone finance and student loan over payment repayment all on one interest free card now.

Really, really, really going after the overtime at work now too, did practically nothing but work last week, averaging over a month, around 50-60 hours a week at work in total.

With the overtime, and projected overtime in the new year, I plan to have the CC paid off by March/April, and hopefully still reduce the overdraft a little at the same time by then. Once this has gone I can plow everything into my overdraft and really hammer it down at a very fast rate. I will continue to snap up what overtime I can even when the CC is paid off, because I really want to get the CC and overdraft gone by August at the latest. I do not want to be starting my Masters degree with CC and overdraft debt.

I have decided that, although, I will be making over payments on my mortgage and treating as a debt, I will be classifying it as a good debt. I.E. money owed, but ultimately I will own a property at the end of it and have a place to live for the foreseeable future. I accept its a debt, but I do not feel saddled by it.

After the CC and overdraft have gone, I will be turning my attention to my car finance. By the time I start my masters, my monthly income will have to be reduced due to a reduction in working hours. It is my hope also that I can put some cash to one side for emergencies, so I will not put that into my car finance. Since if I need to fix the car during my course, an outlay of something over £50 could send me back into debt, so I will be increasing my buffer, I hope, no I will, I will work every hour I can get. I will not be beaten!

After the CC has been cleared, I should get the time table for the masters course which starts next September, from this I will be able to determine if I can 100% do the course around work. If I can, then I will be applying for my career development loan at which ever bank is offering the best rate. Fingers crossed my credit rating is still excellent and I can get it.

Yes, this is more debt, however I will only use what I am given to pay for my course fees (investing in my self, which I see as positive debt), and then put the remainder in which ever account I can find that pays the best interest rate and leave it there and forget about it. If anything should happen that requires a large sum of cash it will be there.

At all times I will be aiming to live off of my budget of between £800-£900 P/M and where possible even save £50 P/M (probably from overtime here and there), so when I finish my course I can give back any money left from loan at the start + £1200 saved. This is of course all ifs, buts and maybes and a future that may or may not happen, but writing it down helps me think.

I realise I may bore people to tears, however just getting things down in text on this forum is a great help to me and although I have fallen off the wagon here and there, I have been able to get back on it quickly because of this forum.

To all the other debt free wannabes, keep slogging on!! I refuse to stop and slow down till I am free!! .

boltneck123

Things seem to be going well.

I get paid my wages from my second job on the 10th of December, so hopefully the overtime has been worth it. With a bit of luck, I will be able to reduce my CC by around £350 and then take some to buy my girlfriend something to unwrap on Christmas day. She has had her main present as part of her birthday present, so I wont be going mad .

Overdraft also going to be reduced by another £100 come pay day this month, I get paid on the 24th of December for my main job, so that is good for me since I wont be going anywhere to spend it. I can sit around families houses and get fat for free there lol.

Over time next week also, which will come in handy when that pays me on the 10th of January. It wont be loads about £140, but all of that will go to paying more off of the CC. Also at some point that month or maybe in February I will be taking £200 back from the joint account, that I added in, to fund the bathroom tiling, so that will also go on the CC.

Oh and some money out of the joint account for a bottle of Bacardi and some electrical supplies I got out of my own pocket when the joint account was a bit short. I have yet to claim them back too. There is about another £50 there .

Car MOT and full service next week, car has done less than 20k miles and is only about 4/5 years old so fingers crossed it wont have any problems and I am determined to have annual services on this car to avoid unforeseen costs - put £100 to one side for that, could spare more from my personal weekly spend allowance, but I hope not since I want to use my personal weekly allowance for my family xmas presents. Luckily I only have Mum, Dad and Brother to buy for and I spend about £10 on them each - then there is my girlfriend who gets what ever I can give her, because I am a soppy sod. I cannot be bothered with all my other family members, waste of time. They send me a lynx pack, i send them a set of boxers, we have both spent £5 - pointless. I would rather just not bother and save the £5 and get things when I need them.

I am not a scrooge, I promise, I get much more fulfillment from just spending time with my family, eating and drinking - reminiscing about family members no longer with us. That is what Christmas is to me and I have been raised accordingly so.

Feel like I am just babbling incoherently now, so I will call it a day on this post.

Hope all you other debt free wannabees are doing well , if you are just starting out, do not fret things really do start to snow ball .

Domayne

I am not a scrooge, I promise, I get much more fulfillment from just pending time with my family, eating and drinking - reminiscing about family members no longer with us. That is what Christmas is to me and I have been raised accordingly so.

This is great! I also feel the same when it comes to xmas but it doesn't help that my family are quite materialistic so I feel like I HAVE to splurge rather than look like a scrooge I think most people have forgotten the true meaning of xmas and its just more about gifts now...what you got, who gave the best etc. Kinda depressing when you think about it! I enjoyed reading your diary though, you sound determined - I will subscribe and look forward to seeing how you get on with your debt busting

boltneck123

Yeah, Christmas is very materialistic indeed. It does make me laugh some what, when people say oh I got some designer shoes or something for my present and I bought him or her an iPad or something. When really neither part gains. I know Christmas should not be about gaining, but there is a sense people see it like that now.

I have parts of my family that are materialistic, very much so in some cases. But I just simply do not buy anything for them, if they buy me something I call them and thank them and send my appreciation and gratitude because I am genuinely grateful. Usually, the following year they send me nothing, probably because I sent them nothing the year before. This suites me just fine, since I get no joy from receiving gifts, I am always grateful though - but my happiness levels prior to receiving a gift remain the same afterward.

My brother for instance, his wages are lower than mine, not much, but enough to make buying presents an expense he could do without. A few years a go I spoke to him and told him that the best present he could give me is to not buy me one and avoid making the same mistakes his big brother did (yours truly ) and stay in control of his finances. Now, we put £10 each in cash in a pot at around Christmas time and go halves on some beer and chinese food and just chill out together. That is much more fun than having a novelty item each of us would never probably use.

I guess it all depends on individual peoples philosophies. I would argue that if, deep down you do not want to buy people presents to compete in the materialistic culture and you are happy to not receive because you are content and just want to see people at Christmas. Then take that action, you may worry about what they say about you, but so what, they are probably jealous at how happy you are with what you have.

Domayne

My mum tried to get me to buy my dad an Ipad this year for xmas because he's a technophobe and gets annoyed with her when she spends all day on her laptop so she wanted him to join her but I was like er...NO! Do you know how much those things cost?! I bought him a wii and the fit board machine thing 2-3? years ago and he used it ONCE and it sat in the cupboard til he gave it away!! It would be the same with the Ipad so there's no way I was going to waste that much again! I got him a pair of sheepskin slippers. I bought him some a couple of years ago and he has lived in them since and now they are really worn down, so I know he would appreciate them a lot more than the Ipad. Luckily my dad is not one of the materialistic ones and would be happy with a few pairs of socks, but I wanted to get him something he'd love and enjoy!
My mum said she just wants money this year so she can buy herself stuff in the sales - everything I buy her just goes unused every year anyway so I'm alright with this, but how much do you give in cash without looking like a cheapskate?? :rotfl:
I have THIRTEEN people coming to my house for xmas this year and have done all of my xmas shopping, spent an average of £30-£40 on each person, plus my sister and niece who won't be coming but everyone else I'm hoping not to see til after new year and they won't be getting anything from me
I'm much like you - there's nothing I really want that I can't buy for myself so I'm happy enough with the family there with some good food/drink and I'm hating how much I've spent already, still have to buy alcohol/food things!
Next year I think I'm going to go on holiday and just escape it all!! :rotfl:

boltneck123

My dad is more or less the same, he is not a technophobe, he will go and buy himself technology that he wants when he wants. I buy him a box of short bread and watch his eyes light up, it costs a couple of pound and he is over the moon.

Without looking like a cheapskate? Well I guess that one is up to you, is it more important to you that people don't think you are a cheapskate or that you don't want to be a cheapskate? Personally if it was me, I would put £10 in a card and put it with a small box of my Mums favorite chocolates.

I am quite shocked that you have spent around £500 on Christmas presents, excluding my girlfriends I will have/going to have spent about £40. I exclude my girlfriend because she had hers combined with her birthday and I am not 100% sure on what I will be spending on her, if any, to have Christmas day.

Just buy the food, you are having them round for Christmas dinner, tell them to bring a bottle and make it like a fuddle type thing. There is no need to put so much social pressures on your self, to take from the phrase its all gravy, in this case, its all social constructionism.

boltneck123

Hi,

Well i cannot believe it has been three years since I posted on here. I was just browsing the website/forum for pension info (starting to seriously think about this now) and I thought I wonder where by debt diary is.

Well, it is still open and unfortunately I am still in debt! I just cannot believe I haven't got rid of it yet. For whatever reason there was always something that popped up that required the credit card. Thankfully, it has reduced and kept reducing, even if there have been times of temporary increase.

I have however taken on some new debt in the form of a career development loan (but I do not see this as bad debt since it is a direct investment in my self, not a CC being used for petrol, junk food and crap).

At the moment things are on track for some serious reduction now though. I recently lumped the car finance onto an interest free card and saved a few hundred there. Combined it with my outstanding CC debt and got it all in onc place and bumped the payment to £250 p/m. If I keep this up I am on course to be debt free (mortgage and development loan are exceptions) by the start of 2017.

I have spent the last three years investing in my new house (so i guess that slowed me down), of course I now have more bills to pay as well. My girlfriend has recently moved in though, so the food bill has been split in half amongst some other bills shared where possible, which has taken the pressure off.

I hope everyone else is still on track or now debt free! BRING IT!!

Cheers,

Ben.

boltneck123

Less than a week to go now before pay day and I could not be any more pleased about this, more than I usually am . I had a great reserve building up this month and was on track for a really great one (considering this was a 5 week wait until next pay day). However I had to buy new clothes for work which set me back a bit, cleared out all my hard saving and now I am left with about £30 for the week. Which is fine because all the bills are paid for and there is plenty of food in the house. Determined to get my self a little cash buffer back though, I will need it to survive Christmas. My MOT and car service is over Christmas as well so I will need to have at least £400 to one side by November. I was so close to having £100 already, but not now . Why do we have to wear clothes, why cant we all just be naked.

On top of this though, the TV has blown, I need some form of entertainment to see through those dull evenings not spending money. My brother has donated his PS3 to me so I purchased a classic game for £9.99 on the PS store - Metal Gear Solid 2 - great entertainment, hours and hours of it, so well worth it in my eyes. I have solved the TV problem though, turns out you can get HDMI to Scart conversion boxes! This is perfect, they cost about £15 and my GF's Dad has an old flat screen CRT in the garage he said we could have - so that is sorted and no need to claim on the contents (which I couldn't if I wanted to since the excess is £150 ). Of course there is a chance the TV might not work, if not I will get my self to the British Heart Foundation electrical store, they have loads of decent second hand CRT's.

That's it for this month I hope. May is a good month, only 4 weeks to wait until pay day again - so fingers crossed I can easily put £100 to one side for my Christmas buffer. If I can see that through until August I will be there, may as well keep going after that though if I can - it cant hurt to have some extra extra reserves.

Cheers