Our Journey to a Debt Free 2016

PinkPoppies

Morning MSE check in, just like I promised myself!

Going to have a day getting the house clean and tidy, and I have a cake to bake for a friend's birthday. Will aim to stick the bread maker on too.

Leftover chilli sat in the fridge that we can have this evening.

Only a week until payday.

crunch_time

Morning pink poppies!

So glad you are back on daily!!

Crunchy xx

PinkPoppies

Busy day working today, finished a project that has taken me way longer to complete than it should have! Hopefully a few £100 on it's way to me for it soon.

Will soon be October and another good chunk off our loan.

Pork steaks with hassleback potatoes and veg on the menu tonight. Looking forward to a lazy (cheap!) weekend at home.

PinkPoppies

Updated my signature for the beginning of October!

debtfreeoneday

Glad you are back, hope hubby is well on the mend. Don't fret, think we have all had those debt up, debt down times, main thing is you are still focussed and you are still here!

Onwards and downwards. x

PinkPoppies

So, some BIG news here. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet (keep wondering whether I'm dreaming) but we have inherited a significant amount of money, and have just used 100% of it to wipe out most of our remaining debt.

Just under £5k left to pay off now. If we are careful and continue working hard we could be debt free as soon as January.

Feeling extraordinarily fortunate and grateful, and more motivated than ever now to shift the last of it.

crunch_time

That's great news! Good for you for using 100% of it towards debt!!

Crunch xx

PinkPoppies

It is all a bit surreal Crunchy!

Been sat fiddling with spreadsheets half the day. Part (most!) of me is still gleefully staring at our current debt figure not believing it is real, and the other part of me is thinking about the next stage, and realising that even with this amazing boost we have a very very long way to go.

I think, when we started our DF journey, that I always thought 'WOW! Just think how much disposable income we will have when we pay off the debt! We'll be RICH!!!' But, the trouble with this journey is that you get into a completely different financial mindset? Once the last of the debt is gone life here won't change a bit, as work will begin on the next goal. It's exciting and sobering in equal measure?

Our next goal is to keep our current house (and switch it to a buy to let mortgage, which shouldn't be hard as there is plenty of equity in it thanks to the deposit and house price increases here) and buy our 'forever home'. So there is a hefty fresh house deposit to save up for, stamp duty, and arrangement/solicitor fees. We also have our old 'forever home' sat in negative equity, with tenants in, that we want to sell before we buy our next house. So... about £70k to save up to be where we want to be before we hit 40. Scary stuff.

We reckon if we keep on working hard we could do it in 3-4 years. Won't be easy, but it won't be bad either. I have said many a time in this diary that I don't think being frugal really has that much of an impact on our quality of life. We are very lucky that we have been able to choose to go without to overpay stuff rather than being forced by crazy minimum payments and extortionate interest rates, and I'm sure it would not be as comfortable a journey if the heat was on, but either way- I think we can stick it out for another few years to get to where we ultimately want to be, with the odd slip along the way I'm sure.

All positive

DebtFree2012

Goodness me I didn't expect that!!!! Well done to you!!

PinkPoppies

Me either DF!!! Not sure about well done, I didn't do anything!