I've done it before so I can do it again!

mf0u1098

2.5yrs ago it was Nov 11 and I had my LBM. At my highest, I had been over £43k in debt from loans and credit cards at the very young age of 25. I slowly (almost unconsciously) plugged away at this mountain until in Nov 11 I had approx £17k left. This is when I had my light bulb moment when I realised that I could be debt free in just over a year if I lived like a hermit and paid off every penny I could to my debt. Over that year I met some amazing people who joined my challenge (Pay ALL of your debt off by Xmas 12) and collectively we all paid a HUGE amount off our debts. It's so lovely that many of those people are now on the Debt Free Roll of Honour and have even mentioned the challenge as something that helped them. Others have now taken over from me and the challenge is still running. It's very humbling and I'm very proud of each and every one of those fantastic people.

I came very close myself to being debt free but my HSBC loan was an old style loan where you couldn't overpay AND there was a cashback incentive of over £1521 if I let it run it's course. Even though I had saved up enough money alongside it, I made the decision to get the cashback when it finishes.

Fast forward a bit...

I left my job in June 2013 to join the family business as a Director. At this time I had no debt apart from the aforementioned HSBC loan and was saving for a house deposit... It was all going well but I took a £15k pay cut to join the family business with a view that I would help it grow and reap the rewards in a few years. Somethings just don't work out the way you plan do they! When I joined we were firefighting, keeping the wolves at bay. I honestly thought before I joined that the business was doing ok, just a few teething problems here and there and that the tightness of money was just unexpected bills hitting and poor cash flow. Turns out this was only partly true! The situation was a lot more dire and in the last 9months I have put over £27k into the business to keep it afloat :eek: This was partly my house deposit savings but most on credit cards which are definitely NOT 0% except for one. I've had to pay my employees wages out of my own and juggled business debts by deciding who to pay first with the small amount of cash we had left. We've had people hacking into accounts and cloned cards making it really hard to keep going at times. I disappeared from life and have spent every waking moment trying to turn the business around with my family. We're finally doing it. The fundamental problem was that we weren't making enough to cover our overheads so all the profit we thought we were making was going on our bills but there wasn't enough and our buyer just kept buying. We had a worse than expected Christmas period and still had a warehouse of stock to pay for. Then the tax man comes and takes his share too...

Now we have paid off most of the "old" christmas bills and are hoping to be able to pay the £5k Corporation Tax bill due at the end of the month but it's going to be tight! We have a new strategy and it seems to be working. I know now all the bills and how many items we need to sell and for how much to cover all the bills and make a profit! We'll get there...

In the meantime, I have almost £20k of debt again in my name on personal credit cards (all for business reasons) and need to clear it. I live at my parents house so they have offered for me not to pay any rent until I am at least not paying interest anymore! This means my total outgoings are only £85 per month so I can make a huge impact in my debt from day 1.

There are several things I'm going to do:

1) Pay off my Tesco Credit Card first as it has the highest interest (and is also the smallest balance so it'll feel great when I can clear it quite quickly)

2) The last payment of my HSBC loan is in August so I will be £260/month better off to go against my other debts AND I will receive cashback of £1521 within 30days.

3) Try and get at least 10 NDS's per month and increase that number if I can. I used to get 20-21 NSD's 2 yrs ago so I can do it again.

4) I now work 3 miles away so my fuel bill is a lot less and I'll try to walk to my local shops instead of going to Asda, saving money on mot buying things I don't need and helping local businesses.

5) Buy frozen veggies and buy chicken fillets once and week and freeze them. Saves waste!

6) Sell sell sell on fleabay. I have soooooooooo many things that I can get rid of, I've just been so busy from the business that I haven't had chance. Now is the time when another free listing weekend comes up on Fleabay.

7) Make birthday and christmas cards. I have ooodles of crafting things so it's time to get them out and save money whilst making someones day a little more special with a handmade card.

8) Save 50p's. I don't know why but I find them easy to save and my grandma saves £2 coins so I can't pinch her idea...

9) VSP. Loved this challenge the last time. Every Thursday when I get paid I will round my accounts down to the nearest £10 and put this money in my savings account (along with my 50p's) until I can make a lump payment to my credit cards.

10) Aim to pay it all off by 30th April 2015. This is a huge goal but one I know I can do if I keep my head focussed and it would help if the business could start paying me some money back!


Well this is the start of my new journey. I've done it once so I know I can do it again. I WILL be debt free in 12 months. Here we go again... :rotfl:

GunWharf

Hello from the South Coast and welcome aboard!

Good luck and I will follow your progress.

mf0u1098

Hi GunWharf! :wave:

Looking at your signature you have paid off a huge amount in a very short space of time! Well done


Well today I worked through all my finances and then had to go to T3sco. I paid with cash and only bought what was on my list. I had a scrummy tea and spent probably 25% of what I normally spend so I'm chuffed with that.

I couldn't work out why I used to be able to overpay very small sums to my credit cards before but now I can't. I think it must be that before, all my cards were on 0% whereas now they are on a %...? Does anyone know? Unfortunately I cannot get another 0% credit card and transfer so that isn't an option and to overpay my T3sco credit card I will need to make a payment of £65 or more as this is my minimum payment...

I've also done a load of comping today so fingers crossed

Jemma xxx

mf0u1098

Well this week I've had my mot and it wasn't too bad for a 9yr old car... was £115 for the test and 2 roll bar suspension thingies... I've been hearing a rattling thunking noise for a while so nice it's now fixed. I also had my road tax at the beginning of this month so it's taken a lot out of the debt busting coffers. Today I did manage to make an overpayment of £125.49 to my tesc0 card which I'm happy about but wish it could have been more. Next weeks money should all be able to go on overpaying my credit card.

I've got £2.50 in my 50p savers tin! It's not much but it's a start. I wonder when the next free listing weekend is so I can start trying to sell some things?

mf0u1098

Today I was going to take my grandma out for the day and also be mse and take back 2 jumpers to Nexxt....but...my damned IBS has reared its ugly head again so I guess I'm off milk etc again for a while. On a brighter note, I got another 50p for my tin! Xxx