Silverbird's Diary

Silverbird

I am very pleased to say that I now owe less than £4K, which is fantastic and I also owe over half of what I owed when I had my LBM 2 years ago.

My debt-free date according to the snowball calculator is July 2011, but I still aim to be debt-free by 30 (Feb/Mar 2011). I'm sure with the way things are going that this is very manageable.

Feeling positive :beer:

debtfreesomeday

Hi Silverbird :hello:

Just read your diary through from start to finish and wanted to say a huge well done on keeping up the debt-busting and reducing your debt by so much, you're doing great! The diary really is a great motivator isn't it. I have managed to keep one since last year now, amazed I kept it up, but I find it really helps me stay on track.

Sounds a little bit like we're in similar situations (although I have way more debt than you!) - I'm a couple of years older than you (hit the big 3.0. this year!) and as soon as me & hubby have paid off our debts we want to start trying for little ones. There's no way we could afford to at the moment.

I've had a little bit of success on the competition front, but nothing since April. I was wondering how long you spend doing comps a week? I go through phases of doing loads then losing the will!

Good luck with your continued efforts, you've spurred me on to enter some more comps!

DFSD
X

Silverbird

DFSD, thanks ever so much for your post and for taking the time to read my diary. I'm glad it's motivating for you and you're right, we do indeed appear to be in rather similar situations. I just can't wait for that moment of being debt-free and then we can start planning little ones. It's going to be amazing and I can't even imagine what it will feel like.

I spend about 1 hour a day entering competitions. It's great when you get a prize and well worth doing for the chance of some extra cash.

Good luck with your comping and thanks again. It's great to know there are others in similar circumstances. Best of luck to you x x

debtfreesomeday

Yes, it will be amazing to be debt free and to actually be able to make plans. I can't imagine what it will feel like to have an extra £800+ extra a month spare too!
Best of luck and will be reading your diary with interest x

Silverbird

Well I've just paid £300 off one of my debts, thanks to the loan repayment, some Amazon sales and £55 I won on the horses last week (70p bet!)

My debt-free date is now a month sooner (June '11), but I know I can get it to Feb/March '11 soon if I just keep plodding along as I am.

I've won a Netbook and some software in the past month, which will obviously bring me further money when both are received and sold on.

I now owe less than £1,500 on credit cards, which is a huge difference to what it was 2 years ago and I know that once the cards are paid off I can save, save, save any surplus income and pay off that loan with a lump sum.

I must say that compared to a year ago my OH and I have very many less 'money worry' days than we used to and it's lovely. We still worry, of course, and it's difficult sometimes, but we know we're doing really well and that the end is in sight and it makes it all worthwhile and there are consequently less of the dark days.

Silverbird

I cleared a debt today!

It was what was in my signature as 'OH's Credit Card' and was £278.

The reason is that I had a letter from Alliance and Leicester telling me that they'd transferred around £250 into my bank and closed my loan. Sure enough, the money was in my bank. I called them, as I was sure it was a mistake (although obviously hoping it wasn't!) and they said that whilst the PPI reclaiming was underway the loan had effectively been suspended and had ended, but during the time this was happening I was obviously still paying them the usual amount every month. Then they provided me with a fully re-worked new schedule of payments, which I agreed to. The money they'd transferred to me was repayment for the 'extra' money I'd paid them - what a lovely surprise! :beer:

I now have just 2 credit cards and have made an extra payment to Citi cards in order that I can now officially say that I owe under £1K on my credit cards! Yay! What a breakthrough. I'm so chuffed I can't stop smiling.

My debt-free date on the snowball calculator is now reading April 2011 and somehow I think my March 2011 self-imposed deadline is looking rather promising To think that I thought it may not be possible when I first came up with it and figured it'd be a real struggle. OH thought I was pushing myself too far. Yay!!

Tomorrow is a free listing day on eBay and I have lots and lots of things to put on there and it won't matter if they don't sell cos it won't have cost me a penny.

Oh and I won a 37" TV and DVD player at the end of last month, which is due to arrive within a week, which will be sold in order to make more cash. Things are looking very promising indeed and I'm a very happy bunny.

Silverbird

OK, I'm feeling very overwhelmed and absolutely overjoyed!

The TV and DVD player that I won arrived and were sold on eBay and I sold lots of other items (mainly clothes) using eBay's free listing day (very MSE of me!) and ...

I made around £530 total!

This means that as soon as the money is in my bank account I can pay off one of my credit cards (will be paying off Egg I think, as it's more complicated to pay online, whereas Citi I can pay directly through my bank).

This also means that my debt-free date according to the Snowball Calculator is ...

JANUARY 2011!

I've did it! I've finally beaten my 'debt-free by March 2011' target! It seems like it's taken so long, but my dream to be debt-free by 30 seems very, very real and I can't stop grinning.

I know I've still got debt, but the fact is I in no way intend on adding to my debt and so I know that the debt-free date is easily achievable as long as things stay the same and I'm just over the blinkin moon about it! :money:

EDIT - Just checked back through my posts and in December 2008 (last year!) my debt-free date was April 2012. Talk about a great reduction!

Silverbird

Gotten paid and I've just paid my Egg card off and if felt so damn GOOD! I've also paid quite a chunk off Citi thanks to some Amazon sales, bringing my debt-free date down to December 2010! That's next year!

I'm on cloud nine! :beer:

skint_spice

You never know - maybe you'll be able to bring the date even further forward! well done on what you've achieved so far though and on winning the tv etc.

Silverbird

skint_spice wrote: »

You never know - maybe you'll be able to bring the date even further forward! well done on what you've achieved so far though and on winning the tv etc.

Thank you for reading and the reply, skint_spice! Yes, I really am hopeful I can bring the date even further forward. Fingers crossed