Disco Dolly V's Debt

lcc86

Hi Dolly,

Just caught up with your diary after a long time being absent. Sounds like you're doing amazingly well, looks like we'll be reading that debt free post before we know it!

basketcase

Hello Dolly!

You must get that a lot but I couldn't resist...

I've just finished reading your diary. Well done on your progress so far. I've subscribed and plan to cheer you along.

London is a fantastic place. There's so much to see and do. MSE-ed of course! :rotfl:If you haven't found a place to stay yet have you thought of looking on airbnb? We found it waaaaay cheaper than an hotel.

Keep up the good work.

Disco_Dolly

lcc86 wrote: »

Hi Dolly,

Just caught up with your diary after a long time being absent. Sounds like you're doing amazingly well, looks like we'll be reading that debt free post before we know it!

Thanks lcc86! Getting there slowly but surely, it seemed like an impossible task 2 years ago, I cant believe how far I've come :j

Disco_Dolly

basketcase wrote: »

Hello Dolly!

You must get that a lot but I couldn't resist...

I've just finished reading your diary. Well done on your progress so far. I've subscribed and plan to cheer you along.

London is a fantastic place. There's so much to see and do. MSE-ed of course! :rotfl:If you haven't found a place to stay yet have you thought of looking on airbnb? We found it waaaaay cheaper than an hotel.

Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the sub basketcase - love your username!

We are really looking forward to London, DD is on a countdown and is busy doing up a list of places she wants to go to. We have 4 days so hopefully we can fit a good bit in. Thanks for the airbnb tip, we have hotel booked through booking.com but it has free cancellation so will check out airbnb too.

Disco_Dolly

Hi DFW's,

Happy Friday to you all! Payday is here again and I have made my debt repayments and updated my signature.

Well, I didn't quite make it to below €10,000 which is what I had hoped to do this payday, I'm €79.40 too short and I don't think I can pull money from anywhere else this fortnight. Never mind, I'll definitely hit that target for next payday.

We have only 51 days to London (DD's countdown) and I think I have most of our spending money saved so we are doing well. My mam is coming with us too, she had been ill lately but thankfully she is a lot better now and will be able to come, she is really looking forward to the trip too. It will be lovely to spend time with just her and DD.

I have no real plans for the weekend except to clean and declutter my house. And I am meeting up with an old neighbour of mine on Sunday, looking forward to catching up with her.

Hope you all have a lovely Friday :cool:

Disco_Dolly

Eeeek I haven't updated this since April but I'm still here & still debt-busting! I am full of good intentions for the first few months of the year and then I fall off the wagon and that goes for diary updating and debt busting!

However I have managed to get back on track and my debt total now stands at €9092.38 so not too bad, over €4150 paid off debt last year, it should be a lot more but at least it went in the right direction. Its actually the most I have paid off debt in a year so I shouldn't be too hard on myself. On paper I have myself much further along the journey but life just gets in the way sometimes, we had 2 holidays during the year which probably was a bit ambitious as I am on this debt clearance journey but one was planned break and one was an opportunity that came up and we really enjoyed both so no regrets! My debt free date was May 2017 but that's looking very unlikely at this stage but I'll keep plodding on and see how it goes. I have come a long way but still feel like I have a long way to go, I'm into the 4th year now of clearing debt now which sounds very depressing but it took years to rack up the debt so I guess it will take years to clear it

I have 2 debts left which are a very similar amount so not sure which one to snowball first. I also have to change the car sometime this year, its 14 years old now and whilst its not giving me any trouble and passed its MOT back in September I struggled to insure it last May, some companies won't quote cars over 12 year old, so will have to see what happens with that. In the meantime I will continue the debt busting. I am determined to do better this year, no frivolous spending and no holidays planned for this year. I usually do pretty well for the first few months of the year when I am all focused so just need to concentrate on maintaining the same focus for the rest of the year.

New Year plans:
- Snowball 1 debt (haven't decided which one yet)
- Start Car savings plan
- Be debt free this year

Hope you all had a nice Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Signature updated and here's to another year of debt-busting :beer:

Disco_Dolly

2 posts in one day! Just reviewing last years goals:

2016 new year resolutions were:
- build back up emergency fund - Done
- pay off smaller credit card - Done
- start saving more - Done
- carry on paying off debt!! - Doing!

I'm actually surprised that I more or less stuck to my goals

Disco_Dolly

Just rejigging the budget and think I will be in a position to pay another €150 off debt out of my most recent wages but trying to decide which one to pay off.

Credit Card is interest free until end of March this year so its probably a good idea to tackle that one first to get balance as low as possible while there is zero interest. Alternatively the loan is secured against €2000 savings so if I clear that first it would free up the savings towards my car purchase. Then I could snowball the credit card, argh ..... Decisions decisions!

Disco_Dolly

Morning DFW's!

Not much to report really. Yesterday was my 1st day back to work after Christmas and was so draining, I fell asleep on the sofa yesterday evening despite not doing much in work! Its so hard to get back into work mode but at least its a short week. I had 3 NSD's in a row so far this year and today looks like it will be the same, I have brought my lunch in, car is full of petrol and I am staying away from shops til the weekend when I will have to do a grocery shop, I could possibly need a few supplies before then but will try to hold out.

I still haven't decided on the debt repayment, I am going to wait and think about it some more, €150 is going off one debt in the next few days, I'm leaning towards the loan as I want to have that gone and free up the savings to go towards a new car sometime this year, now when I say new car I mean slightly newer second hand car .

Debating starting the Virtual Savings Pot thing, I have an empty online savings account that I dont really use. I like the idea, might start on Friday.

Hope you are all doing well and have a nice Tuesday

Disco_Dolly

Another NSD yesterday! I have to buy bread & milk today though but going into small shop on the way home to buy these and resisting picking anything else up.

Some good news on the mortgage front, my bank has reduced the rate by 0.2%, it only makes a difference of about €16 a month but better in my pocket than theirs and more money to add to the debt snowball, so that was a nice surprise. My rate is still ridiculously high in comparison to other banks but unfortunately I am not in a position to change as I'm in negative equity. I will concentrate on that after I clear the debt so I am not going to worry about it as there isn't much I can do about it right now.

Still have to make the €150 payment to debt but just waiting on 2 payments to come into my account, once they are there I am going to make the payment - have finally decided to pay it off the credit card as I just received new statement today so I might as well get that paid for this month anyway. Then next payday I will have extra to pay off my loan.

Slowly getting back into work mode, at least its Thursday already. Roll on the weekend.