Debt, debt and more debt

debt29140

Hi all you lovely people. I have been an stalker on this forum for some time now, but decided that its now time to waffle and start my own diary. I don't expect to entertain you all with witty stories, but I am doing this more to keep myself on track.

I will aim to update my diary at lease once a week, most of my debts are paid by DD and I will be overpaying 1 debt at a time. This over payment will be made at the start of every month (eliminating the change of spending it). Therefore I don't expect much more to happen throughout each month. But we will endeavor to shave a bit off our shopping budget, elec and gas, any savings will go off the debt.

So as the name suggests we are currently in £29,140 in debt! :eek: But the good news is that we hope to have this completely clear by Christmas 2016 :xmastree:- so 24 months. Not much of a sacrifice to live a frugal live for 25 months and then I plan to book a holiday without adding to debt. :dance:

So hear goes, if I don't update on a regular basis, someone come find me and give me a good kick :T

So hear is a break down of our debt and the priority order in which they will be paid.

Debt Balance Min Payment Priority
Loan 1 £3,341.31 £159.11 Finished Aug 2016
Loan 2 £3,121.95 £208.13 Finished Jan 2016
B'card 1 £6,352.75 £145 Priority 2
B'card 2 £1,986.16 £50 Priority 3
Virgin £3,989.01 £45.09 Priority 4
Overdraft £304.48 £150 Priority 1
Halifax £2,275.65 £22.76 Priority 5
MBNA £3,953.44 £39.53 Priority 6
Credit Union £3,110.00 £150 Priority 7

Ok good to see it all down on paper, from my SOA i will have £1000 a month to pay off the debts, if will be a hard slog and may need adjustment after the first few months, hopefully to reduce the DFD and not to lengthen it :cool:

Looking forward to starting my journey and coming back with 0 debt in 2017 - that should be a good new year.

If you've read this far, fair play! I've bored myself!

midlander81

Hey, well done for tackling your debts. My wife and I owed 40K at the start of our journey and we are also aiming for a debt free date of Dec 2016 so we are paying around £1300 off our debt each month! Like you said, a couple of years is a small price to pay.

enthusiasticsaver

It will be worth the sacrifice to be free of all the debt and you will then be able to spend your money on things you really want and need.

debt29140

Thanks for the support and encouragement. Just need go knuckle down and get it sorted. First thing is to clean the house, believe a clean environment will make this easier and will halp to declutter.

Also going to do some batch cooking as one of my biggest down falls is eating out. Its just laziness. My freezer is fit to burst!!

Right off to land of nod. At least I can't spend money when sleeping!!

Levi-

Subscribed and good luck!

debt29140

OK so I have done a quick look over finances again. Figures aren’t as bad as I previously though. Although credit Union figure may be slightly out, but not by much

So as off today the debts are as follows:
loan 1

£3,341.31

loan 2

£3,121.95

b'card 1

£6,352.75

b'card 2

£1,986.16

virgin

£3,989.01

overdraft

£62.01

halifax 1

£2,275.65

mbna

£3,953.44

credit union

£3,110.00

halifax 2

£114.25


£28,306.53

I get paid on the 20th of each month and Husband on the 3rd last banking day of the month. As I have 9 days to pay day and a few bills still to be paid, I do expect the OD will increase. The bills to be paid accumulate to £149.90. On top of this I may need to withdraw a small amount for fresh bread/milk etc. all the rest of the shopping is in the house.

From pay day on the 20th Nov I will also be aiming not to go shopping until after Christmas. I am lucky that I have all Christmas shopping sorted bar one present to buy, there is a set price to the present and this is budgeted for within my monthly budget. There are also a few birthdays coming up, but the adults will be getting a card and already have small present bought in for the kids – again this is from an amount that I budget each month for presents/Christmas.

Tonight we are out at the football, this will cost a total of £20 – we had the choice of going tonight our Sat, so are going tonight, this is a cup game, so hence the cost, we are season ticket holders, so normally this cost is not there. The season tickets are bought out of the present money we set aside each month. Normally at the football would buy a burger/tea etc., but I have homemade soup in the fridge and a flask in the cupboard, so that’ll be us sorted and will help to heat us up!!!

Tonight I also need to do a load of washing, seems to be never ending, think if it’s on the floor it needs washed, so in order to save money I need to start hanging up clothes up at the end of the day!

Ramble over and back to work I go.

StressedSteph

Hi there,


I have subscribed to your diary. It really struck a chord with me as we started our Debt journey with over 20k of debt with the plan of paying it off within 2 years. We also have 1k per (ideal) month to pay against debt.


By this December we will be half way through our debt journey and will have paid off 10k :T. 2015 will be us killing of the last 10k so will tag along on your journey if that's ok. Maybe we can inspire each other.


I know lots of different things work for different people but the main things I have found that have majorly helped me this last year are the following.


Dave Ramsey - He has a free app you can download and listening to his podcasts, helping people with their debt journey and his Baby Steps plan is amazing and gives me constant inspiration to keep going.


YNAB (You Need A Budget) software - This is amazing, I have used spread sheets for over 10 years with minimal success. YNAB is a super powered spread sheet and is life changing. You can use if for free for 30 days which is brilliant as it gives you chance to see if it will work for you. definitely worth a trial. If you do love it, you can often download it from Steam for a fraction of its cost. but even at its full price of £36 it is worth it.


YNAB teaches you to check your budget total rather than your bank balance to see if you can afford something. A small change but crucial to debt free success.


Balance your bank statement against your spread sheet EVERY DAY - I often used to forget to do this and then I would find myself in town, not knowing if I had any spare cash and just hoping I did and I would start spending money. Balancing your account every morning with a coffee updates you with your financial situation and hopefully stops you from spending.


MSE Diary - Posting on your diary every day and getting support from these wonderful people is key to success.


Sorry I have wittered on too much. Its just that this has been my third attempt at trying to get debt free and this time round with all the above in place I am finally winning. Hope it helps.
xxxx

WhiteRose2014

Hello debt29140 well done for starting your diary - now subscribed Good Luck! x

debt29140

Morning everyone, and thanks Steph – will def check out the apps mentioned. Well done on how far you have come so far – not long to go either.

The good: well went to the footy last night and was a good result.

The bad: Went to shop after, did spend some money, there was £4 on ham, £2 on yoghurts and £0.88 on cream to go in a nice soup for lunch on Saturday as I have some family visiting. No dinner needed on Saturday as the family members are treating us up to dinner J

The Ugly: 8 days to payday, so going to write a plan of action – this will include tasks to complete each day after work – none of which will include visiting a shop, out of sight out of mind. I am beginning to think that I am a serial spender!!

Wednesday 12th November

• Tidy away all unhoused items in spare bedrooms
• Clean bathrooms upstairs
• Hoover all floors upstairs.
• Post birthday card.
• No dinner to make as hubby should do this today
• Make soup for Thursday and Friday lunches (bacon and lentil)
• Do a load of washing
• Iron at least 1 shirt for hubby work on Thursday

Thursday 13th November

• Make dinner
• Tidy kitchen and hoover kitchen floor
• Tidy hall and hoover floor
• Clean downstairs bathroom
• Iron at least 1 shirt for hubby if I only ironed one on Wednesday

Friday 14th November

• Make dinner
• Clean living room
• Mop all downstairs floors
• Get together stuff for DIY on Sat ( family are coming to help out with a few bits that have needed done since we purchased the house at start of year)
• Have a large glass of wine! If I get all this done I will need one.

Saturday 15th November

• Make a homemade cream of tomato soup for lunch as thank you for family doing DIY
• Have a nice relaxing dinner out with family (they are paying)
• Relax

Sunday 16th November

• Do a load of washing
• Iron all the washing done in the last week and put away (really need to put it away , normally lies on table until we wear it and ends up back in was basket again, any wonder my wardrobe looks so empty)
• Give house a quick tidy (going to try and do this every day to ensure that I don’t have to spend a full night on one room)
• Relax and watch a good film
• Make a soup for lunch on Monday and Tuesday lunch – all suggestions welcome. Normally make veg broth, potato and leek, curry soup, bacon and lentil, tomato, carrot and coriander.
• Make dinner for Monday night – this is the night I am most tempted to eat out, so need to be prepared for this night (might do a pepper chicken pie for Sunday dinner and this will also cover Monday)

Ok think that is enough for now, or I will tire myself out and not be able to do the cleaning tonight. Thanks everyone for the support and encouragement so far, let’s hope that I can keep this going.

monz

Subscribed x

debt29140

can anyone help with how I would strikethrough the font on my post. e.g I am posted a to do list but what to cross of what I have done on it.


Thanks for your help