RTB's *stop cluttering up the challenges* thread

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I am addicted to the challenges on here, but I'm cluttering them up, so I thought it about time I started a diary to keep proper track.

I'm on 10% battery though so am off to charge, collect some info and then start filling this bad boy out properly.

New Years resolution, don't start things when you don't have the battery power to finish them

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Current debt totals

Sofa Finance
This is interest free and has either 4 or 5 months left at £48 a month
£240

Unsecured Bank Loan
This is costing a little under £118 a month and has 19 months left
£2242

Car Finance
Just over the halfway point with this, a budget busting £259 a month and has, I think, 22 months left
£5698

Very Account
This is interest free on their buy now pay later scheme, money is in a separate account ready but I figured there's no point paying it until they ask for it.
£120

Mortgage
Has 7 years and 3 months remaining at £458 a month
£39,846

I think that's everything, giving me a total debt of £48,146

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Mid to late 2012 we ended up in a bit of trouble with our credit cards. Through one thing and other going wrong we needed to balance transfer when our rate ended instead of being able to pay it off. And then, due to bad management, we never cancelled the old card and began spending on that too. In the end we filled both cards, only just making the minimum payments but then spending the tiny amount that doing so freed up on the balance. We were, put simply, idiots.

It totalled £10,000 in the end.

At the same time we also had total overdrafts of £1500 (split over 2 accounts as £1k and £500) we were just clearing them each month but that was it.

It was so stressful that in the end I went to the bank and asked if I could add to the mortgage.
I was, and am, aware that this is NOT a cost effective way of sorting debt, but as we had such a massive equity in our property, it worked for us. It put our payment up, but by £100 less than our minimum CC payments, and did not increase the length of the mortgage at all.
For us it was the right thing to do, but I would urge others thinking of the same to be very careful.

In the end we asked the bank for £12000, to clear the credit cards and the overdrafts, plus some to put into savings. I also reduced the £1k overdraft down to £500 to still leave us with a £1000 emergency buffer, but to make it so that I could have a chance at cleaning it.

And it's a good job I did. Because, as stated before, we're idiots!
And thanks to Christmas and having a completely crappy attitude to money, we maxed out our overdrafts again.

At which point I came back onto this site, signed up for pretty much every challenge going and prepared to pull my socks up.

Then my husband got lucky. He won £1000 in the christmas draw at work and I immeditely snaffled it for the overdraft. I left him £120 for a new phone (but made him give me the money from selling his old one so it only came to £55 really) and the rest went in the bank.

So now we are overdraft free! For bloody good this time!

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So my (our) monetary goals for 2015 are:

[STRIKE]1) Clear the overdrafts[/STRIKE] DONE

2) Pay off the sofa finance

3) Pay off the Very account

4) Pay off Bank loan

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1) :beer: bask in the glory of all my, errrrr hard work? Well it was hard convincing the husband that his win was already allocated to our debts

2) I'm just going to let this run down as per schedule. It's interest free so no benefit to paying off quicker

3) Pay off as soon as they ask for it. Money has been put aside but as their buy now, pay later scheme is interest free, it's better off in my bank account than theirs until I really have to pay them

4) over pay, over pay, overpay.
Should be 20 months left but due to my 2 overpayments last month, I've already brought the term down by a month and saved myself a not-insignificant amount of interest! I'm so chuffed I've taken and kept screen shots of the overpayment and transaction screens, AND am keeping the letters they send me about my overpayments (I don't even keep my kids' artwork so this is a BIG DEAL :rotfl::cool: )

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Overpayment #1 saved me £15 in interest:


Overpayment #2 saved me £38 in interest:


So it was £140 physically lpid by me, but a total of £193 taken off the final balance of my loan :j

I want this page to be so full of credits that it implodes their system:


And I want a folder full of these! (I do hope they send one for every overpayment...)


My aim is to pay off at least £120 extra a month, which will bring the term of the down by an extra month each time. It will be gone by the end of the year if I keep to my goal.

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It's late so I'll finish this tomorrow, night all x

Pepperoni

They do send one for every overpayment

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These are the forum challenges that I am currently undertaking to help me along my debt busting journey!

* The £1000 Emergency Fund Challenge

My emergency fund is currently empty, however I have set up a standing order of £190 every 4 weeks. This is my child benefit amount and I have set the standing order to go across to my ISA the same day as the child benefit hits my main account so I never know its there to spend. It will be tough for the first 3 months, yes, but I want to get into the habit of that money not existing in my budget.

* Make £10 a Day in January

I love this challenge. It seems so daunting at first but even if you don't hit the target you are always surprised at just how much you are able to make! I include any bonuses from work (won't be getting any of these for a while though as missed my target this month ), survey sites, app download sites, selling clutter from my home, money off my shopping, bank account interest (will be nice to have some coming in rather than going out!) Etc etc! I'm always on the lookout for more ways so please let me know!

* January No Spend Days

Because I am taking a lot of money out of my account for the first time this month, I need to ensure that I don't spend too much money! So I have set a challenging target of 20 no spend days this month and I'd like to hit 5 in a row too. Even if I 'fail' in attempting this challenge it will hopefully change my shopping habits a great deal.

* Debt Free By Christmas 2015

My aim in this challenge is not to be debt free by Christmas but to clear £4000 worth of my debts (as per my goals in s previous post) however I am tempted to change my total to include ALL of my debt, and therefore all of my payments. Then at the end of the year I can see exactly how much money I have been able to spare to pay my debts and I can do the same in 2016.

* January Grocery Thread

Here we set ourselves, weekly, monthly and/or yearly grocery budgets. Mine is £70 a week. Once upon a time we would easily spend £150-200 a week. Shameful amount of money. We are a family of 5 (2 adults, 3 children aged 8, 6 and 5) and 2 cats. My budget is to include all animal and pet food, and for January is also to include any meals out / entertainment (because I don't have a separate budget for it at the moment, if we want to have a drink with friends then we need to cut back elsewhere. Tough titties!)
Each week I am taking the £70 out in cash and when we go shopping my debit cards stay at home. If we have money left over it then goes into savings (well, the money physically stays in my purse but I only take enough out of the bank to make my purse back up to £70 and the extra in the bank will go into a savings account)

* Sealed Pot Challenge

My pot is not sealed so I'm already a rule breaker I figured best to use what I already have than spend money buying something else.
Because my grocery budget is cash, I am not putting all change into it, I am only potting 20p, 10p, 5p, 2p and 1p coins. Either through road kill or from change from shopping, it all goes straight in. It will never be a huge amount, but getting used to those coins going in builds another good habit.

* Roadkill Rebels 2015

This is a new one to me, but it goes hand in hand with the make £10 a day and the Sealed Pot challenges so I shall scour the streets for those discarded pennies that I'd usually walk by. Might get the kids onto this
I have no space for it in my signature so will keep track in my diary instead

So far that's everything in the challenge department. If you know of any others that might work for me, PLEASE let me know!

RTB

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Pepperoni wrote: »

They do send one for every overpayment

YEY!
It's rather pathetic how happy that makes me!

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Bit more about me (well, us)

We are a forces family, so we move a lot. There are 5 of us (3 young kids) and 2 cats. I did have a horse but he had to be put down in November, which has utterly devastated me. Not least because the crematorium I paid has turned out to be a dodgy company (Swan Pit In Staffordshire) so I still haven't got my boy's ashes back and if I did, I wouldn't know they were his anyway

We live in forces accommodation but own a house that has family living in it. We bought the house way under market value so they don't pay rent.

I work for a home finance company (similar to provident) as an agent, which I find very challenging, however I love meeting new people and the majority of my customers have become firm friends.

I am doing a degree with the Open University with the view to getting into secondary teaching. I am only doing it part time though so still 5 years left at least!

Think that's it for now. No doubt will find more to add as I always do!