Im serious this time; the debt has to go!

Archer0710

Eyebright wrote: »

Great idea regarding Parks vouchers DF2014. I just worry about companies going bust and losing my money, like one did a couple of years ago. That would be devastating

The post office do a Christmas savings scheme which you can add to but by bit. Not quite as structured as Park but still a good idea! Park is regulated now do I think it's pretty safe:T

We tend to plan a weeks worth if meals and then have them on whatever night we choose but the couple of weeks we have actually done it it works well. Not very good with leftovers here though as they tend to go in the dog.

Both DH and I get paid on the 31st but my first job will be to add £15 to my supermarket savings. Looking forward to getting organised too though. Only downside is spending all day behind a computer I hate working on spreadsheets at home

Eyebright

That must be awful coming home from being at a computer all day, then having to work some more at home. Still it's a necessary evil I suppose. I need to finish transferring all my money around but I'm so tired I'm finding it hard to motivate myself. Might finish doing it tomorrow. I have a few days grace as I'm normally paid on the 25th of the month and my DD's go out on the 1st of every month.

That's useful to know re: the post office savings scheme, and Park. I feel a bit better knowing they are regulated better. Might be something to consider for next year.

Eyebright

:xmastree:Happy Christmas Eve Everyone!!!!:xmastree:

Good morning all, hope everyone is ready for Christmas? I'm just about ready now...still got to get through work today then 2 lovely days off.
So I worked out my total amount of debt last night... :(:(granted most of it is the house deposit money we owe OH's dad, but it's still money we are debt to someone. Are you ready? Dun, dun dun....

£12,778.68

Seeing that figure makes me feel physically sick, and couldn't sleep again last night due to my churning thoughts. Still I have now seen what I'm up against, I have all the facts, and I'm now ready to start getting this figure down. My main target is to clear the Credit Card, which currently stands at £1193.63. That's my primary target for next year. Once Christmas has passed I'm going to do a balance transfer to a new card, as not all the money on the card is at 0% currently. The break down of my debts is:

1) Credit card: £1193.63
2) Money owed to OH's Dad: £10,000
3) Arrears to E.ON: £106.55
4) DFS Sofas HP: £1184.12
5) Money owed to the joint account: £294.38

Technically I could write the last one of, as we had the money (the dregs of the PPI money), but that money was spent because we weren't organised and prepared for the crap life throws at you, so I want to pay it back.
The DFS HP loan is at 0%, and we currently have 27 payments left to make. That one is the least important, it can tick away and I will worry about that one later. The E.ON arrears is incorporated into our montly DD and will be paid off in May according to the info in our last quarterly bill, but I have been sporadically making overpayments, and I will now do this regularly to help get it cleared sooner. Then our monthly DD can drop wohoo!
OH's father, has stressed that he doesn't expect us to pay all what we owe him back, but we have both agreed we would like to. Once the other debts are cleared, I will add that money towards what we save for him to help get it cleared quicker. We currently save £100 a month for him, and give it to him once we reach £500 (this was what he wanted).

Right need to add this info to my sig to follow me round wherever I go. I hope everyone has a jolly, merry day! :beer:

EB xx

debtfree2014

brilliant eyebright on getting a total owed figure, you can now watch it go down and down and down.

I paying all I can off smallest loan first and then work up them :money:
or do I work off highest and work down ?

Have a fabulous Christmas :xmastree::xmassmile:xmassign::snow_laug:snow_grin, I will be on tomorrow still lol

Eyebright

I will try to nip on tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I will be able to post anything, as I will be at my SIL's house from about 8am onwards. We prep the dinner together, then at 10am everyone starts to open presents. Will be there all day, so will probably just check my subscribed threads from my phone.

I can already knock some money off all the debts as I have made my January payments this morning. Will update the total later.
I'm thinking of joining the 1% challenge for my CC debt to try and motivate myself to blitz it. Nothing like a good challenge to get the juices flowing. I think psychologically tackling a small debt first is good DF2014, as you get that sense of acheivement in getting rid of one! I've just picked the CC as it annoys me the most, and I hate having a credit card! Also it is the only one I'm currently paying interest on, though will BT the sum in the new year.

Right lunch is over, so off I trot!

Eyebright

Haven't updated my signature to display my debts and how much has been paid off them so far, that will now be a job for after Christmas when I've got a bit of time to myself.

I'm also finalising my list of goals for next year.

Been a busy evening thus far, finished wrapping pressies and have been playing Santa and delivering them as well. I'm exhausted now, just going to dry my hair then flop into bed! Up early in the morning to get dinner prepped ready.

I hope everybody has a fantastic Christmas, we all deserve it! See you all on the other side! :p

Eyebright

Hope everybody had a lovely Christmas, and that Santa brought you some goodies! I had a lovely day at SIL's house, ate far too much, came home and went to bed!

Today will be more of the same, so I won't be posting much again today. Is it weird that a little part of me wants a bit of time to myself, as I want to go through my budget, make some financial goals, update my signature and just generally catch up with everything going on in the site??? I'm not going to get the chance to do most of this realistically until January 1st :eek::eek::eek: as my family are coming down tomorrow and are here until New Year's Day. I'm pleased to be seeing them, but they will occupy all my time. Gawd, I'm turning into a miserable Scrooge, but this is an important time as I try to set myself up to sort myself out this year! Bah

Anyways gotta go, time to spend boxing day at the in-laws. I miss you MSE!!!!!!!!!!

Archer0710

Glad you had a good Christmas Eyebright it's weird isn't it how once you set your mind to something it becomes a key focus.

I got a great present yesterday it's a money tin that I assume (given I can't find a way of opening it) you open with a tin opener! Brilliant idea as I am very good at raiding my Pot of dreams to the point where it's just a glorified purse. I think I will save notes in it as then it will be even harder to raid.

Glad you had a lovely day.

Eyebright

That sounds fab Archer! I use an old gift tin that used to hold fudge and was created with the purpose of being a moneybox when the fudge was eaten. I've just sealed it with some selloptape so that I can't easily access it. There's probably around £8 in it at the moment, though that's a bit of a guess! I've joined the Sealed Pot Challenge and won't open it until November next year!

I got a budget planner notebook, which I was soooooo excited about. It even has a holder to keep your receipts for each month. OH was bemused that I was so excited about it. He thinks I'm a sandwich short of a picnic I think!:D

Family are arriving tomorrow and staying until New Years Day. I'm very worried about my Food budget, and my Misc spends budget, which basically covers entertainment, eating out, doing stuff etc. I don't think they are big enough to cover everything they might want to do! :eek: Still hopefully they will contribute some money for meals out etc, so I will try to remain calm for now! I'm working tomorrow until 5pm, so that should keep me out of misery. Work also gave me a tub of celebrations and a tin of posh biscuits as thanks to my hardwork this year, so that will go someone towards covering my good hostess duties :jI've been pretty good though, as I have transferred out all my bill money, and saving pots money already, so that I'm not tempted to use them towards funding expensive days out with the family. I will stand my ground this year, and say if I can't afford something. OH has declared we need a new shed (ours if leaking badly and the wood is rotting alarmingly fast) as a matter of urgency, so I need to be as frugal as possible this month to put money towards getting a new one. OH reckons we need approx £300...I think the newly created House Maintenance savings ePot will be raided quite soon!

I'm also going to try and get a load of stuff on eBay ASAP so that I can raise some cash. It was going to go towards the debts, but now it might need to go towards keeping us from slipping further into debt :eek::eek:
OH now also has strict instructions to keep receipts for food and petrol, so that I can start to accurately assess what a realistic budget for these needs to be. It's so, so, so exciting to be getting myself sorted out and organised. :D:D

Eyebright

Just updated my signature, to incorporate all the info I wanted it to contain. A nice colourful reminder of where I started, where I am, and where I want to end up!