Wanna Be Debt free by Christmas 2016

1trainer1

Okay a little bit about me and my journey.

I am 34yrs old married and me and my beautiful wife are currently in debt in the realms of £30,000, not including our £95,000 mortgage.

But it is debt we have placed ourselves in for our long term future as we bought our house and then totally renovated it, extended it and bought a new kitchen and Bathroom.

Full Spend was as follows
Rear Extension including utility room and downstairs wet room
New Double Glazing windows throughout the house
New Carpets all over the house
New Bathroom
New Kitchen

The Debt is placed over two unsecured loans with Sainsbury's about £8000 each over 5 years, £9000 on an interest free Barclaycard which is until April 2016, £3000 on interest free Tesco card which is expiring March 2015 and £2000 on other credit cards which i'm hoping to pay off next month

Ideally would like to pay it off as soon as possible but now being realistic I need to pay off the my credit cards first.

I have about £800-£1200 each month which I am paying off but the minimum payment on the Barclaycard is £200 and minimum payemtn on Tesco is £50, each Sainsbury loan is £190 so the balance is used to pay off credit cards.

Is there better way to go about things?

monz

Hey

I would do a statement of affairs that helped me a lot, plus i made myself a spreadsheet of where every penny goes x

PinkPoppies

Hi Trainer :wave:

Spookily I'm a very similar age, we have pretty much the same amount of debt at the moment, and we too are aiming for Christmas 2016 as our debt free date!

Will definitely subscribe to your diary!

Have you tried putting all your debts into the snowball calculator? It's a really useful tool to help decide what to focus on and how to spread the money you have available for payments each month: http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

1trainer1

PinkPoppies wrote: »

Hi Trainer :wave:

Spookily I'm a very similar age, we have pretty much the same amount of debt at the moment, and we too are aiming for Christmas 2016 as our debt free date!

Will definitely subscribe to your diary!

Have you tried putting all your debts into the snowball calculator? It's a really useful tool to help decide what to focus on and how to spread the money you have available for payments each month: http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Not yet but will give it a go now,

I get paid on the 15th each month and one all my bills and mortgage have gone out by the 30th then I can see what I have left to pay off each debt.

Do people still have a rainy day fund in case of emergency, my wife has some money in premium bonds that she keeps for a rainy day but I was thinking how much should I put into that in case of emergencies

1trainer1

Just done the Snowball Calculator and its scary seeing so much money moving around all over,

its saying my credit cards will be paid off by April 2018, well I am going to prove them wrong.....

also will consider getting another interest free balance transfer card maybe in September 2015 to move some of the money around if need be....

1trainer1

Just thought I would post an update for December and Jan

Paid off £2000 from the Halifax Credit Card so now that is clear and only used for cashback deals that they offer and will pay it all off each month.

Paid £1000 off the Tesco Card from my January Wage which was good, only £1975 left on this card and interest free rate finishes in March so need to get this paid soon and then will canx the card.

still paying minimum payment on the Barclays Credit card and its now down to £8500

Going to get a remortgage in the next few weeks so that should help as my interest rate will go down from the standard 3.99%APR to whatever I can find.