Our Journey to a Debt Free 2016

PinkPoppies

Thanks CF! I'm sure you can do it! The last 9.5 months have absolutely flown by here and I'm sure you will find the same!

At the moment we are hoping to have more in savings than we have in debt by April next year, and will clear the last of our loan in August, which doesn't feel all that far away now considering how high the mountain felt looking up at it in the beginning!

PinkPoppies

In other news I'm grumbling a bit this morning as our tenants were short on their rent again this month. They owe £200 in total which isn't megabucks but still frustrating as it is £200 I would rather have paid off the CC!

Not much movement on the debt total this week, and I'm still waiting for a letter confirming that our offset savings account has been set up- be nice to finally put a figure for that in my signature once it's up and running. We have only requested a £50pm direct debit it to it for now but once the CC is cleared we will start contributing properly to it.

Quiet weekend planned here. The weather forecast isn't too dreadful so hoping to spend some time with the children pottering in the garden.

chasingfreedom

That must be so frustrating, 200 quid or not that's obviously a good chunk of their rent. I don't think we have ever missed a rent payment in the last few years of renting. We know its coming out and budget for it, I know times are hard but its usually the first thing you make sure to pay!!


Quiet weekends are sometimes needed, I heard its going cold again but my hubby is good at getting it wrong so hopefully it'll be reasonable. Have a lovely weekend x

danilee2312

Loved reading your diary you are doing brilliantly. I need to subscribe to this but can't work it out on my phone. Will try not to lose the post so I can do it tomorrow on laptop!

PinkPoppies

Looks like your husband was right CF- it's absolutely miserable out there, I'm freezing!

Thanks danilee! Have you got a diary too?

danilee2312

Yes I have a diary managed to subscribe now

PinkPoppies

Found you Danilee!

So... 10 days until payday, and £200 left in the current account for food and so on- would like to have half of that left over to chuck at the debt but there is a family birthday gift to buy between now and then so perhaps not totally realistic. We are off to a picnic with friends on Saturday too but should be cheap enough to bring our own food. Other friends brought round some more of their chickens' eggs yesterday so I might bake a quiche or something to take, using up odds and ends in the fridge. I reckon you can chuck pretty much anything in a homemade quiche and it will still taste good!

I should have some money coming in next week from my work (about £350) which will be transferred straight to the CC so we will be hovering around the £20k mark this time next week, and will be under £19k (and past the 50% point!) once our loan payment goes out at the end of the month. I'm also looking forward to the first little payment arriving in our new offset savings account. Exciting stuff! :j

I do love a milestone! Makes all the hard work worthwhile!

Next big milestone will be reaching a 4 digit figure rather than a 5 digit one... my spreadsheet tells me we could do it by October/November which feels so near and yet so far!

chasingfreedom

You are doing great How amazing to be out of the 20's and into the teens, I can't wait to be in your position. A while back it seemed impossible but now I know it's within reach!!

PinkPoppies

Definitely within reach CF! And I promise it will come around before you know it!

I can hand on heart say that I have actually really enjoyed the last 10 months and our lives have been no 'worse' since we knuckled down. If anything I think it has enriched our lives in lots of ways- we appreciate little things much more and have done lots of lovely stuff as a family without spending much money too.

When I started out I was imagining an amazing easy life with all this extra money to spend once we cleared that debt, but I now think that life won't be all that much different as we will be busy saving and trying to clear the mortgage- and the idea of carrying on the way we are doesn't phase me at all!

chasingfreedom

That's so heartening to hear, I sometimes worry I will get 'bored' of paying off the debt knowing I have at least 2 years of it to do. My end goal though is buying a house so once the debt is gone it'll be saving to the same extent as we are paying off debts and hopefully it'll only take 12 months to get a deposit.



There are always goals if you want to find them eh? Just imagine fast forward 10 years (no idea what your mortgage is so guessing!) and you could be mortgage free aswell and all your hard earned cash will belong to you to do whatever you like with