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Debt free by 40 -- 19 Months and counting

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Comments

  • bess1234_2
    bess1234_2 Posts: 419 Forumite
    AhA ! im getting there with ynab.

    is the national trusts 50 things to do still online. maddiemay made me think of it. loads of fab free things we've all forgotten like treasure hunts and building dams.

    cant remember exact title, was a couple of years ago it came out as a booklet
  • Have a lovely time away Steph :) xx
    Mortgage Overpayments 2024/25 - September-December, £152.46. J- £103.27, F- £115, M- £91.50, A- £100, M- £200, J- £200. J- £200. A-£200, S- £221.34. O-£200
    Total- £1783.67
    Goal pay off 1% of current mortgage in 1 year. £1650
    EF- £642.41/500
  • Shelski_2
    Shelski_2 Posts: 189 Forumite
    Hi
    Have downloaded the YNAB free trial today. Hope it works as well for me as it obviously has for you
    Number of debts between us - 3 (2 @ 0%)
  • Ciaerda
    Ciaerda Posts: 60 Forumite
    Hi I have been catching up with your diary and I think you have done marvellously well, big pat on the back.:T It is so easy to get into debt but it seems to take forever to get out of it it feels like quicksand the more you struggle the deeper you get stuck in (well thats how I felt). I have been using YNAB and am finding it really good totally changes the way you think of money. I have a budget in place but have found in the past that I still look at the balance on my account and think yipee I have lots of money lets go and spend it to find that actually that money is supposed to be for the budgeted items. YNAB means you don't really look at your bank balance you look at your budget.
    I just wanted to ask you do you spend all the money that you assign to your budget areas and do you carry that forward to the following month, I have not done YNAB for a whole month yet and some areas I haven't used all what I set as the budget amount I have also robbed some budget areas and increased others if you know what I mean.
    Also, your mortgage payment what a pain in the you know what have you thought of rounding your mortgage payment up say by an extra £50 so that you could build that up to the extra payment you need to make I know its only a little bit just a thought really.
    I feel your frustation sometimes I wish we had a time machine wouldn't be lovely to go back and not do some of the stuff we have done or go forward and it is all done and we are enjoying the result but it is the journey as they say and I think that once you have achieved it well what an achievement :j
    Good luck and well done again
    Ciaerda:T
  • Magsnoodle
    Magsnoodle Posts: 263 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Have a brilliant holiday and look forward to hearing about your adventrue. x
    E.F. #38 240.55/1000 SPC8 #375
    DFBXmas 2015 #162 18554 /18554 100%
  • debtfreeoneday
    debtfreeoneday Posts: 5,013 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Mortgage-free Glee! Name Dropper
    Hope you've had a great holiday x
    DFW (08/08) £64,346.53 Gone (02/19)
    MFW (08/08) £118k Gone (09/23)
  • StressedSteph
    StressedSteph Posts: 2,834 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    edited 15 April 2014 at 9:41AM
    Morning all,


    Wow what lovely messages from loads of you. Thank you so much.

    Well the holiday ended up being abit of an endurance race. I was so jealous reading about your relaxing holiday Maddiemay :D.

    Thankfully included in the cost of the weekend were Swimming and crazy golf, so we did a lot of that lol.

    The beach was about 1-1.1/2 miles away but when we did a little drive through when we arrived, I spotted that parking was £5 per day :eek:. So I made sure we walked to the beach each day.

    I did go about £30 over-budget but considering that the budget was only about £30 anyway I think we did quite well.
    We ended up in the club house on the first night and my daughter loved the kids entertainment with the usual large yellow bear that did dance competitions etc.
    I budgeted my son to £3 per night for the arcade which was annoyingly attached to the club house. (very clever). So he made a friend and spent the night pushing 2p's into the machine. I told the children that we had 1 coke each while we were in there and had to make it last. I did splash out on £3 worth of Bingo tickets each night as the BIG prize was £180. Of course we never won :(.

    Am totally exhausted today. I have a Dr's appointment at 11 as I have tonsillitis, but this always happens if I get run down. I don't know how single parents cope. Hats off to them.

    Had abit of good news. My CPP payment came back £175 :T.
    I might have to use abit of that to cover the holiday cost, but whatever is left will go against the Next bill.

    Hubby also did well at work and earnt an extra £790. Unfortunately we are also trying to build an extention and he thinks we should use that to buy doors and windows. Guess it sensible but would have been lovely to halve my Next debt.

    I notice a couple of people have started up YNAB. PLEASE stick with it. It made absolutely no sense to me in the beginning but I read the forums, watched the videos etc and it is now an absolute godsend. There is no way I could be making the 1k per month payment without YNAB.

    Keep going. If you have any tricky bits you can't solve. Feel free to ask me to message me and I will try to help.

    Better go otherwise this message will be huge.

    Speak better later. xx
  • Magsnoodle
    Magsnoodle Posts: 263 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary Combo Breaker
    Hi Steph,

    Sounds like a wonderful holiday and the walking to and from the beach will only help the sleeping. I think spending £60 is brilliant and you are doing SO well overall.

    Keep it up - xxx:beer:
    E.F. #38 240.55/1000 SPC8 #375
    DFBXmas 2015 #162 18554 /18554 100%
  • Ams40
    Ams40 Posts: 20 Forumite
    Hi, Newbie here. I have been following your story with interest and am rooting for you all the way! One thing I noticed though was your total debt figure doesn't match the individual debt figures listed. Might be worth double checking everything is put to date. Keep going. You are doing brilliantly:j
    MFW April 2014 £86,169 end date July 2032:mad: Interest only!

    April 2014 £86,125.04 :D
  • StressedSteph
    StressedSteph Posts: 2,834 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    Hi all,


    Just a little update.


    I have had a play with YNAB and it hopefully looks like I can make all my bill/debt payments this month without having to touch the CPP money (£175) that has come in.


    I posted it to the bank today, so should hopefully get it cashed by the end of next week.


    Hubby was also a star today and took a load of old lead and heavy metal to the Scrap metal people near us and got a cheque for £57.


    So I will post that to the bank tomorrow, so by the end of next week, I should be able to make my usual £120 NEXT payment plus £231. Total pay off £351.
    This will take the balance down to £1249. :T.


    I'm very pleased with this as I thought I had made all possible over-payments towards the Barclaycard to get rid of that this month, but it has now worked that I can also make a big over-payment to NEXT. :beer:.


    Will have to wait until the cheque clears end of next week to be able to mark it up against my signature. Patience :mad:
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