Silverbird's Diary

Silverbird

Well I haven't updated in a while, as a lot of things have gone on.

My poor Dad had a heart attack and was in hospital for a week, which involved a lot of upset and travelling up and down to visit him. Thankfully he was discharged and is trying to take it easy now and recover.

I also had a flare-up of my bowel disease and have only just come off a 2-week course of steroids, which messed with my head (felt like a zombie).

Added to this, because I was off work in July, August and some of September due to recovery following a foot operation, I was paid sick pay and my wages this month have suffered a huge £200 drop. I wasn't expecting this (had worked it out wrong and so I wasn't prepared - my fault) and it was a bit of a shock, but I'm just not spending and clearing the cupboards and freezer of food and only buying little essentials that we need. It's working OK so far and just 2 more weeks until I get paid! I'm hopeful I can hang on. If not, OH has said he has an emergency pot of money that can be used, so I'm safe there.


On a much brighter note, I have enough money to clear my final credit card when I get paid in 2 weeks, thanks to selling of competition wins. This means I will have just 1 debt, which is my loan and this debt will be under £2K. It seems surreal! I thought it would be much longer before I got to this stage.

Due to clearing my last card next month, I will also be setting up a standing order to take £100 out of my account each month (my disposable income) and I will keep saving this until I have enough to pay off my loan early. I was working out the figures last night and had a look at how many Premium Bonds I had ... and I was very pleased to find I have £650 in Premium Bonds, which I have always kept as an emergency (but not used).

I will obviously use these to put towards the final 'clearing my loan' figure and if I do this I should be DEBT-FREE in June or July 2011!

To say I'm excited about this is an understatement. Very, very pleased. After all debts are cleared I shall be setting up standing orders for half of my disposable income to go towards a baby fund and half towards helping my OH clear his debts. We had a long talk about it last night and he's not happy at all about accepting my money for nothing and he feels it was his stupidity that got him into the mess in the first place, so he should clear it, but I made him see sense and that his debt affects the both of us and that I knew full well he would do the same for me if the situation was reversed and he finally admitted he would. So I shall put it all to one side and then when there's enough for him to clear another debt he can withdraw it and use it and we'll be debt-free as a family a lot, lot sooner and can then start planning our family. OH seems really excited about it and I just feel like we've made huge steps this year and next year is just going to be fantastic financially.

Very, very pleased with things at the moment and just got to hope my meagre wages can last us until next pay day right now!

Silverbird

I am very, very pleased to say that I have paid off my very last credit card today! I now just have a single loan left. Just ONE debt! I'm so, so, so pleased and proud of myself. It's been hard work, but the results more than speak for themselves.

Also, this now means I owe less than £2,000, which is another huge step.

I've also set up my standing order with Premium Bonds so that £100 is taken from my bank every pay day and put into there. I shall be using this to help pay a lump sum off my loan, hopefully by or before June next year - leaving me debt-free and incredibly happy.

I am feeling very positive about things financially!

Unfortunately my husband is still wading in his debt, but it's been much decreased and I know that I can start to help him out when I'm debt-free. It's looking like he should be totally debt-free by July 2012 according to the snowball calculator, but obviously I'm hoping we can bring that forward and we're going to get our heads together soon and see where we stand and what we can do.

Silverbird

Very strange indeed, but I'm not complaining about this!

I called A&L to get an up to date settlement figure and as it turns out it will cost me around £50 more to pay it off early than to pay it off over the full term and this is because they have pretty much just re-jigged my loan and started the term all over again following my PPI claim.

However, I also asked for my current balance on the loan and was told it was £1656.25, which is £266.19 less than I believed it to be. I'm not quite sure how this happened, but I'm most definitely not questioning it!

This would mean that I could be debt-free by as soon as May or June of next year. :T

Silverbird

Well, I've been doing a lot of thinking and calculating recently and next year looks like it will be a very good one, financially.

With my help and according to the snowball calculator, my OH should owe only on loans by April/May 2011 and this is an amount that would be affordable to us both, as well as paying all the bills whilst I would be on maternity pay. Theoretically this could mean starting to try for a baby from the middle of next year! To say I'm excited about this prospect is an understatement. OH has recently been going on about how excited he is about us starting a family soon and how he wishes we could try now, so it's all coming together and looking very good. However, I did plan to go to Lanzarote to celebrate my 30th birthday in February/March 2011, so perhaps we would have to delay for a few months in order that I can still do this, should I be lucky enough to get pregnant quickly. All very exciting though.

This credit-card free date for him doesn't include any competition wins, working Christmas hours (which he plans to do next Christmas), selling unwanted things from our loft etc and any cash wins. So it could be that he only owes on loans a lot sooner. I can only hope!

As for me, I'm looking forward to an exciting Christmas with my OH, parents and siblings and enjoying a very happy New Year's Eve with a lot to be grateful and hopeful for. It's been hard work and a bit disheartening at times to get to this stage, but we did it and we're better for it and each year has gotten easier and easier and it'll all be worth it in the end.

Silverbird

Happy New Year folks. OH and I were very excited after it became 1 January 2010 and had a lot to talk about. This year is going to be financially fantastic for us and next year (2011) OH is hoping to become debt-free. We did a lot of talking about babies and starting to save for them, which I will be doing as soon as I've cleared my last debt.

According to my updated calculations, I should be able to pay off my loan in full at the end of April. Then I can start that baby fund and also helping OH clear his debts. My first aim when I had my LBM was to become debt-free by 30, which is March 2011, so I'll be debt-free almost a year earlier - I'm over the moon about this! Particularly as my aim to be debt-free by March 2011 was going to be a real struggle, as the snowball calculator actually predicted end of 2011 if I remember rightly!

On another note, I applied for 2 0% interest balance transfer credit cards in order to shift some of OH's debt to 0%, but was rejected for both! I've had a look at my credit report and it's perfect and accurate. I guess my rating is just too good for them and they want somebody in debt who they can inflict with charges and interest :mad:

I just can't stop thinking about being debt-free and what it will mean to me and us and how it will feel. It seems surreal and I won't believe it until I see that £0 balance I think. I'm so proud and pleased!

Here's to 2010 :T

skint_spice

Happy new year to you too Silverbird, and congrats on getting so far so quickly.

Hope 2010 is a good one for you.

Silverbird

Well I'm very pleased to say that as of 26 March 2010 I will be totally debt-free. :j There's absolutely no ifs or buts - it's a done deal.

OH and I will be trying for a baby from August, as his debts will have reduced by huge amounts too and we could afford a little one.

Life is fantastic and it still hasn't sunk in that I'll be debt-free next month! My disposable income will still not be 'mine' as such though, as I plan to save half towards baby fund and the rest will go towards our holiday in August/September this year. After I've saved for that I'll start helping OH with his debt (as well as continuing a baby fund, of course).

Can't wait!

Silverbird

I called my loan company today.

Until 6th April my settlement figure is a total of £1,546.64 including my usual 29 March direct debit payment.

By 26 March I will have in my bank £1,560 to use solely for A&L.

It's official. I'll be debt-free in 2.5 weeks.

She said I just have to ring up on the day and as long as the funds are in my bank account (which they will be), they will organise a one-off direct debit for the total settlement figure and this is a quicker way of doing things and is no problem to set up.

I'm so thrilled and so proud of what I've accomplished. I will be debt-free a whole year before my aim of being debt-free by 30.

It still hasn't sunk in and I think it probably won't until I've actually made that call. Even then it may take a while. OH and I have booked the day off and we're going for a lovely Indian meal in the evening to celebrate.

Silverbird

Oh my God. I'm going to be debt-free on Friday! :beer:
I am subscribed to the 'Debt-Free Roll of Honour' thread, as it's really helped spur me on and always makes me smile when I see another person out of debt. I just got an email to say somebody else has posted and I read it and suddenly realised that I will be posting there in a few days. Me. Me!

It still isn't really sinking in. I guess it will sink in once I've made the call that transfers the money to the loan company. I don't think I'll ever have wanted to make a phone call as much as I want to call them on Friday!

We both have the day off to celebrate. We're going to go to Subway for lunch (a treat for us), go and have fun playing unlimited bowling and then go for a meal at a lovely Indian restaurant. Then we'll be heading back home and breaking open my Moet and Chandon champagne, which I received for my 21st birthday and was always saving for that 'special occasion'. 8 years have passed since then, so we shall have a back-up bottle of Asti in case it's no good!

Maybe I'm really pathetic, but every time I think about Friday I get all teary-eyed and feel like crying. In a totally good way of course. It all seems so surreal at the moment.

Silverbird

I'm debt-free ladies and gentlemen. Debt-free. :beer:

Yesterday was a fantastic day, but very strange too. It still hasn't properly sunk in.

I called the loan company at 9.00am - the second they opened! - only to be told their system was down and could I ring back the next day to authorise the one-off payment that would close my account. :eek: I think she could sense the disappointment in my voice because she said I could try later on at lunch-time to see if it had been fixed.

At 12pm I was sat in our car in a car park when I made the call to them again ... and it all went through.

My husband said 'well done, I'm so proud of you' when I finished the call. I just sat there with a smile on my face, but couldn't quite process it. It sounds so daft, but it's true. It's so strange to think that I don't owe anybody in the whole world a single penny. I had my LBM 3 years ago so it's not very long compared to a lot of people, but it seems like a lifetime to me.

I can only imagine how people with higher amounts of debt must feel when they finally pay it all. They must go into a sort of state of shock.

We had a wonderful lunch, went and did a bit of shopping, played around 4 or 5 games of bowling (unlimited bowling, so we got our money's worth!) and then we had a wonderful meal at a posh Indian restaurant before heading home and opening a bottle of Moet and Chandon champagne. This was a gift to me on my 21st birthday from my parents and I had never opened it because I always wanted to do it for a really special occasion. So, just over 8 years later it was finally opened and I enjoyed it!

A few tears were shed yesterday and my husband was fantastic with it all and was pleased it was such a big step towards us getting on with life and starting a family. He's so close now himself and he said he can't wait for his own debt-free date.

I guess this will be my very last post in this diary and it's finally the end of my debt-free journey.

I couldn't have done it so soon without the fantastic advice and people on this site and I'll be forever grateful for that.

Good luck to you all with your own journeys. The feeling when you complete that final payment is surreal and exciting and ... bloody brill! :j