My Shopper to Debt-Free Saver Diary!

Gleeful

Hopefully you will all welcome me to your little corner of the board.

After a few carefree years, I have had a wake up call as I was made redundant the end of January but rather than leave the company, I accepted an offer to be redeployed on a slightly lower salary. We also want to start a family soon and I want to be debt free by then. It's prompted me to finally address my debts.

I'm not going to post an SOA as I have enough means to pay off my debts, I just need to keep a tally of it and hopefully keep myself motivated to put money to overpay the debts instead of frittering it away.

Background: I work full time and I also run my own business selling clothing on eBay in my free time. I earned a decent wage last financial year and my lightbulb moment came when I tallied up just the amount I spent on handbags in that time. It makes me feel a bit sick. I also spent a lot of my money on clothes, travel, entertainment....things I mostly didn't need. I think I've been financially irresponsible, enjoyed nice things a little bit TOO much....

I have the following debts:

HSBC card - £2500
Halifax - £1324.27 (interest free balance transfer card)
Creation - £445.32
Very - £130.89
Total - £4400.18

I have paid £200 so far since 15th May on these debts (reflected in current totals) and plan to throw at least £100 on the HSBC one, with regular smaller payments through my Paypal account card towards the Creation and Very ones until they are clear. At the moment I will pay £20 per month towards the Halifax interest free ones.

My debt hasn't really risen over the last 12 months, I am just ashamed that I have any debt at all as I really shouldn't have debts in my financial position, I have no need to be borrowing money off anyone!

I expect my income for this financial year to be more than enough to have paid as much as I can by the end of the year, if not cleared the debts completely.

I also have a £953.39 mid year tax bill to pay at the end of July from my self employment....I plan to just take that out of my salary and pay half in June and half in July.

Thank you for reading this! I know I am incredibly lucky to be in the financial position I am in and I hope you'll keep reading my little diary rather than thinking I am a complete irresponsible idiot where finances are concerned!

Gleeful

Had some eBay sales so just paid £30.89 off Very to leave me with a nice round £100 on it. I also checked my HSBC card and the total was slightly less than I thought.

New totals:

HSBC card - £2493.46
Halifax - £1324.27
Creation - £445.32
Very - £100
Total - £4363.05

Gleeful

Spending Bank Holiday weekend catching up with friends (not spending money!) and listing new stock on my eBay business account.

On my personal selling account, I have listed some of the handbags in order to convert that to cash to pay towards the debts. I have a buyer interested in one of them so wish me luck!

Gleeful

I didn't sell a bag. The buyers offer was too low.

I spent just £1.38 today and tomorrow I am working so there won't be much opportunity to spend any more. I spent £15 on Friday meeting friends in the pub but it was too loud (getting old!) so we bought drinks and ended up back at my house. Saturday morning I spent money on groceries and things. Today was a 'jacobs join type lunch at my friends house with a curry theme. Delicious food and good company.

Examples of some of the changes I have made to my lifestyle recently to help free up cash for debt repayments:

- Cut down my Diet Coke intake (in my defence I don't drink tea or coffee) from around £4 per day to one can. I know it's really unhealthy!
- Stopped buying lunch at work and instead am having cup a soup with bread I bring in from home
- Had an 'if I can't remember the last time I wore it, it's going on eBay' clearout of my wardrobe

Gleeful

A bit of background as to why I shouldn't be in any debt whatsoever:

I don't own a car. Work is 10 minutes walk away (partly why I decided to stay and take a pay cut)
My husband earns a lot more than I do. We pay proportionately towards the mortgage and bills. My contribution is £350 per month (we live up North so our mortgage payment isn't high) and we take it in turns weekly to pay for household shopping.

This is why I need to take control NOW and clear these debts. *facepalm*

Gleeful

Update:

Managed a small payment on the Creation card

HSBC card - £2493.46
Halifax - £1324.27
Creation - £432.34
Very - £100
Total - £4350.07

Gleeful

Sold a wallet this morning so the Very debt will be nuked this evening (can't get on their site at work to pay!)

LINKYPIE2009

Hey - I just subscribed to your diary, hope that's ok.

I understand where you are coming from in regards to your debts, and to handbags! I too have had an unhealthy addiction to bags!

Linkypie x

Gleeful

LINKYPIE2009 wrote: »

Hey - I just subscribed to your diary, hope that's ok.

I understand where you are coming from in regards to your debts, and to handbags! I too have had an unhealthy addiction to bags!

Linkypie x

Aww thank you for subscribing! Did you enjoy your Dubai win? I've never been as it would be way too hot for me, but I work in travel and we sell a lot of Dubai

Very is officially nuked. Will post my new totals below.

Gleeful

Very debt has been paid off! :beer:

HSBC card - £2493.46
Halifax - £1324.27
Creation - £432.34
Very - £0
Total - £4250.07

LINKYPIE2009

Gleeful wrote: »

Aww thank you for subscribing! Did you enjoy your Dubai win? I've never been as it would be way too hot for me, but I work in travel and we sell a lot of Dubai

Very is officially nuked. Will post my new totals below.

Dubai is stunning.....looking to go back next year! Well done on nuking very!