travelbugs challenge to clear 27k in 30 months whilst still having a life!

TRAVELBUG_2

Hi There,

I'm a long time lurker and have plucked up the courage to finally start my own diary to try and keep myself motivated on whats gonna be a tough couple of years.

A bit about me .... I'm female early 40's and live with my long term partner, between us we have managed to run up just under 27k on credit cards (26,798.61) to be exact. We also have 2 loans that we have taken out to do some home improvments that total aprox 20k. The debt we have is managable but i just want it gone as its just so easy to keep adding to it. So i've done my snowball calculator and if we can overpay by £400 every month then we can be (credit card) debt free in 30 months (april 2016) So after looking at my monthly budget we can do this, it will be tough but definatly do-able, but there is one slight problem.......... we love love love our holidays and are not prepared to sacrifice this precious time together.......... so my challenge now becomes slightly harder ( well noone said it was gonna be easy). our next planned holiday is hopefully april 2014 so i have given myself the additional challenge of saving 2k for this aswell!! I've a few ideas on how i'm gonna make this additional 2k but i'll save that for another day. Right now i'm off to browse the boards and get some further insperation. The rest of my life starts here.......wish me luck? xx

Upsidedown_Bear

Good luck

Look forward to hearing how you get on - sounds like you have a good plan
You'll definitely find plenty of inspiration here. I love MSE :cool:

farnesbarn

Hi, just wanted to say how similar this sounds to my crusade! My oh and I have approx £20000 credit card debt and I honestly do want to get rid of this ....but we have booked to go on holiday next summer so have a savings target running alongside!! I realise that this delays my debt free date but holidays are just too important for our family. I will read with interest to look out for tips:D

good luck

fb

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Good luck and welcome

HOK3Y

Best of luck to you!

roxy7699

Good luck. Following you on your journey.

TRAVELBUG_2

Thanks everybody.............

Moneysaving activity for Monday....
Didn't put heating on this morning
cut the top off the empty toothpaste tube (managed to get 1 more use)
tried to educate oh on turning off lights/tv when not in room (partly succesful)
took lunch into work
went to gym after work (to use membership)
watched my portion sizes when preparing tonights evening meal
put £1 into sealed pot.
a nsd (apart from 20p for locker in gym)
checked bank balence (all as should be)

sorry to anybody whose reading this, it all sounds dead boring but i need to remind myself of all the baby steps that i'm taking and hopefully they will all make a difference in the long term. one thing i struggle with in all areas of my life is motivation/willpower/determination, if something dosnt come easily or quickly enough then i loose interest so i really need to work hard on changing my mindset.

here are some goals i have set myself for the rest of this month,
to stick to my grocery budget for October (£250)
to stick to my personal spend budget of £30 per week
to make £100 on e-bay (any money made to sit in paypal acount to go towards holiday)
find out how long is left to run on home loans
make an additional overpayment to one of the credit cards (£50 would be nice)
take lunch to work every day - no exceptions
update my diary daily!

hope you have managed to stay awake if youve managed to get this far.... untill tommorow

Upsidedown_Bear

Baby steps are good

TRAVELBUG_2

Not much to report today, quite a stressy day today in work and let it ruin my plans to go to a new exersise class this evening when really a bit of stress relief would of done me the world of good, opted for a relaxing soak in the bath instead but really must stop my job ruling the rest of my life.(fat chance).

baby steps taken today....
no heating on again this morning.
kept on with my campaign of hounding OH to turn of lights/tv when not in room.
took lunch into work
a nsd
evening meal made from stuff from freezer.
started to use up my stocks of toiletries (partly to declutter)
refused OH when he offered to buy me a bar of chocolate (good for waistine)
checked e-bay, i have a bid on 1 item i'm selling hurrah!!
found 13p (staight into sealed pot)

its gonna be a looooooong 30 months:rotfl:

TRAVELBUG_2

Another quite stressy day in work today, however i didnt let it ruin my plans to go to the gym!!! so feeling quite pleased that i powered through..

heating did go on this morning 20 mins max.
lunch taken into work
a low spend day (20p for locker)
tea from freezer
sold someting on ebay for 99p,

its funny im enjoying not spending money more than spending it !!

TRAVELBUG_2

I've been awol for a week or so due to an unexpected work trip so have been totally neglectfull of my diary and also more importantly my budget and my moneysaving mindset.....

work trip sprung on me at last minute which i couldnt get out off but required a smart/profesional look, spent aprox £80 updating my exsisting wardrobe of which has blown my personal spend buget to pieces, now have aprox £20 to last until 8/11 when i next get paid..... why does going to work cost me ££££
also overindulged quite a bit on the food and drink front whilst away so have gained llbs too........boo.
the positive was quite a bit of paid overtime was worked, a rare thing to be paid, we normally have to take the time back in lieu.. so happy days!!!

other updates.. still can't quite master the grocery budget, £250 per month for 2 adults is realistic isn't it?? ive already spent over £300 and still have 9days to go....this is for everything, all meals,cleaning stuff and toiletrys. I shop in one supermarket (t&sco) so maybe need to change this, when i shop around though i find i spend more.. need to really tackle this next month, im hoping i can get to next payday with spending no more than £30.
i've paid an additional £25 of my highest interest credit card.
i've decluttered quite a bit of my wardrobe on ebay and have £60 in my paypal account, dont really want to dip into this if possible.
i have been offered a 0% deal on a balence transfer to another credit card so need to persue this later today.
tv licence due tommorow £145 (bugeted for)
need to post some ebay items that i sold last week and try and muster some enthusasim to list some more today.

feeling a bit run down and flu-ey so gonna rest today, have 2 days off so time for some rest and relaxation i think ,,,,,,,, have a good day if you are reading!!