Our Journey to a Debt Free 2016

PinkPoppies

Should have a bit of money coming in before the weekend which will scrape us under! :j Then onto dreaded December!

Decided my goal for December is to get under the £29k mark... which should be easily doable really provided we are careful with Christmas expenditure. Think I might try and convince DH to have a REALLY frugal first few weeks of the month to try and balance things out a bit.

I'm feeling quite positive about everything today and very much looking forward to April/May when we should hopefully pay off the last of the CC and start saving alongside our loan repayments. If we were to keep going at the same rate we would have enough in savings to cover the loan balance in April 2016 which is not all that much time really- 17 months.

Resisting the urge to set up a shiny new spreadsheet for post-CC loan repayments and savings, bit early for that yet! :rotfl: I'm sure the months will whip by quickly enough though- just got to keep our heads down and keep going! :j

DebtFree2012

It's NEVER too early - trust me lol - you should see my documents for the next chapter (in my life)

PinkPoppies

:beer: Got there! Current debt now £29,988! :j:j:j

PinkPoppies

Have woken up to an e-mail with some good news! Remember the utilities refund I have been harping on about for weeks and weeks? The one we still haven't got? Well, a decent complaints advisor has taken over our case at the company and has hopefully arranged the original refund, and awarded us another chunk of compensation, AND worked out that due to some billing rules regarding accounts over a year old (this has all been ongoing for 19 months) they owe us almost double the refund that they thought they did :j

We aren't holding our breath given all the broken promises that have gone before but this guy seems genuinely dedicated to sorting it out once and for all and if he processes the refunds we should have over £900 on the way to us. Half is apparently showing as having left their system via BACS so should go into our account tomorrow, and the rest is being raised by cheque. Apparently.

Perfect timing just before Christmas if we do get it all as promised- perhaps we might make more headway in December than we hoped!

On a separate note, I'm going to sit down this evening with DH and work out a careful budget for the month, including all planned Christmas expenditure.

PinkPoppies

December loan payment has left our account so spreadsheet and signature updated for the fresh month. The novelty of seeing a number starting with a 2 rather than a 3 hasn't worn off yet!

Next milestone is getting down to £25k, which should be March, if all goes to plan!

Stripes_The_Elephant

Well done PinkPoppies :T

NebSnave

Well done. Keep up the good work. I need to do this myself in January so I will be trying with your motivation.

PinkPoppies

Thank you Stripes the Elephant and Nebsave! Are you just about to start your DF journey Nebsave?

Well, I'm in a grumpy mood this afternoon as I just got the monthly 'rogue' CC bill and DH has been running it up again, grrrrr!!! Last month we set up a standing order into his second current account to prevent him for having to use this CC for spending and still he has spent £400 on it! If the money in the current account we transferred is spent too I shall be most unimpressed!!!!! :wall:

The bloody thing wants cutting up I tell you!!! Thankfully the utilities money we are getting will cover it but it would have been far better not to have spent it in the first place, I honestly despair. It's so frustrating paying it off every month just to have it run back up again.

Have suggested taking cash out at the start of the week (once it's gone it's gone) might work better but he won't have it. Seriously need to nip this in the bud! :mad:

PinkPoppies

Still feeling a bit fed up today, and not enjoying December as the finances feel all over the place. Should be off having a busy productive day but I'm sat procrastinating and feeling glum!

Bit of a row over spending with DH last night. Supermarket top up shops seem to have been our downfall recently, not helped by the weeks when we were ill and not on the ball meal planning wise. Bottles of wine slipping into said top up shops have not been wise either.

Oh well, probably good to have a bit of a tiff over it all as we are both focused again now, I hope. Going to try and have a 'using up' week this week, and then do a big Lidl shop for the following week at the weekend.

DebtFree2012

Sounds like the tiff worked and it's always good to clear the air to refocus. A great outcome

I had a giggle over the procrastinating - that was me the other day LOL.