Onwards & Upwards 2015

[Deleted User]

Happy New Year


I'm back again for the next bout of debt kicking.


The debt has risen although we have paid off nearly £2k in 2014. I need to get the totals together so that I can work out just how much I want to aim to pay off this year.


This year should be a better year, as it will be my first year in a long time being in full time employment as payrises are due in March


Lots to sort and do, if I'm to make any impact this year.


As a general rule, I don't make resolutions but goals and I have a few of these goals in mind, all of which should be achievable, these I will post on the second post as it will be easier for me to keep track of them.

[Deleted User]

My list of goals and other things to be updated.

Cut back on alcohol
Walk more/lose weight
Achieve a lot of NSD’s a month
Reduce MBNA card to £8K
Reduce BC to £7K
Meal plan properly and stick to it.
Avoid daily Tesco’s run only go when needed
Save for Christmas and Car Taxes - save all change towards them

MBNA : £10,176.76
BC: £ 8,171.52


Total: £18,348.28


My aim for this year is to reduce this to £15K/£14K.

[Deleted User]

Good morning,


So this is the last weekend before normality resumes. Kids have an inset day on Monday, so they're with the childminder and we are back to work. Looking forward to going back to work and making my mark.


So my aims for January are as follows:

• No more than £10 personal spends per week.
• Take own lunch to work, as I'm aiming to lose weight this will go hand in hand with the first one.
• Exercise more.
• Try and get some NSD's
• Do more at night rather than just slobbing in front of the t.v until bedtime.
• DH's birthday at the end of January, get some presents but don't go mad.

Menu plan has been done for the month, we only need a few more bits, the freezer is full so that helps.


Plan for today is to take the tree and the decorations down, I've been avoiding it as its such a chore. The house will then at least look reasonable.


DH needs to do his tax return, so my plans to reduce the CC's might be on hold depending on what HMRC say we owe. DH also needs to talk to HMRC about scrapping the CB, not really fair as we've paid in to the system like everyone else but hey ho not our decision.


I'm hoping that by the end of January, we will be on a better footing than ever. Should be achievable IF we can keep up momentum.

[Deleted User]

Morning,


On to our second full week of the year...can't believe that we're half way through January already!


Anyway, an update on last week...I had three NSD's last week took my lunch every day and barely spent anything. Aiming that this week will be the same.


DH has worked out how much tax he'll have to pay and that we'll have to pay back all the CB from last year, with the redundancy and two new jobs it took him over the threshold. 2015 is going to be a struggle again but no point getting disheartened is there?


Meal plan is going ok so far, so need to keep the momentum up with that.


Have a good day everyone x

Lily_rose_2

Hey purplemum.....good luck!! Your goals sound very similar to mine....;)

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary.
Keep going!

January2015

Hi Purplemum
Your goals are so similar to mine - especially the weight loss. I wonder how much of my debt has gone around our waistline :rotfl:

I've just subscribed to your diary and if you don't mind will tag along on your journey to becoming debt free :beer:

[Deleted User]

Hi,


Well as the title suggests, we will technically be debt-free in the next few weeks


How? Well, we've consolidated our debts...it's the second time we've done this and we took a long hard think and look at our debts and this was the only way moving forward.


This will clear both CC's and the overdraft, with both CC's we are paying £470pm, this didn't include the OD after consolidation, we will be paying £241 on top of our monthly mortgage payment.


I know that consolidation is not ideal for everyone but we both decided that as we are now both working full time and earning a decent salary, not is the time to draw a line under everything and start a fresh and more importantly....learn from it going forward!!!!


So although not totally debt free (due to the mortgage) we will have a bit of a breather.


DH doesn't want to get rid of the OD totally, so I said for the mean time, we'll reduce it. I want to reduce it to £2k and then towards the latter part of the year, reduce it again. So we'll see.

Archer0710

Could you not out your previous monthly debt payments into an account for a few months so that you have £2k there of actual money rather than the false safety net of an overdraft.

DH and I earn pretty reasonable money but the best thing we ever did was get rid of the overdraft......it was the biggest noose and it always just trickles up again. EVERYTIME I go the bank I congratulate myself on getting rid of it.

[Deleted User]

That's a good idea, we want to build up our savings once we've got this sorted, so that might be something to look at.

On the mortgage side of it, we have a sub-account with £630 left to repay, this is from changing mortgage people over the years, that is first to go once we've got the savings sorted.