Sy's Challenge to be Debt-Free by Christmas (I'm new here!)

Sy1

Hi All,

I have been a lurker at this site for quite a while and have to say how fantastic it is - and addictive! I have finally decided to register and post a thread to help motivate me to clear my debt!

A brief history of me...

I am now 23 years old. When I was younger I was not great with money. It started badly when I was 18 and studying for A-Levels full time and my bank offered me my first credit card with a £2000 credit limit which I accepted and promptly spent.

I then decided I wanted to upgrade my car and saved up for exactly what I wanted but saved so much by spending for other outgoings on credit cards (stupid I know). I also bought a speedboat and spent money on going out, buying clothes etc etc.

Things spiralled out of control over a couple of years until the point where I couldn't afford to make all the repayments and was withdrawing cash on one credit card to pay another. Eventually I had to tell my parents who were surprisingly supportive and got me a loan for £12,000 to consolidate a large amount of the debt and lower my monthly repayments. My spending was kerbed to a point but I still continued to spend more than I could afford to for a while and at the worst point a couple of years ago I owed approx £20,000. Luckily I have no missed payments/defaults/CCJs.

The Last 18 months...

I had my Light Bulb Moment about 18 months ago and have worked hard to control my spending which I have done successfully, and I have been putting as much as I can to paying off the debt.

I've been really lucky in the last few months as a few things have happened for me allowing me to reduce the debt dramatically:

- I have sold my speedboat
- I have reclaimed over £1,200 in Bank and Credit Card Charges (and helped friends and colleagues to successfully do the same - and been a case study for Which? in the Mail on Sunday!)
- I have finally got the job I have wanted for a long time (started 2 months ago) with a very good company resulting in a pay increase of £7,000 and a company car
- As a result of the above I have been able to sell my own car and no longer have to pay for car insurance/tax/servicing/MOTs/fuel (inc fuel for private use)

As a result of the above events which have occured recently I have seen large amounts of my debt paid off and have become HIGHLY focused on becoming debt-free (it's becoming an obsession!)

The Situation NOW...

All I owe now is £1,500 interest-free on a credit card until January 2008 and £6,400 which remains on the loan my parents took out on my behalf a few years ago.

My ultimate goal is to be debt-free by the end of 2007

This is a tight timescale and will take practically all I will earn for the rest of the year, and some more!

I'm totally focused on doing this now and really want to make it happen so I can save for a deposit on a house.

As such, I would really appreciate your support/ideas as to how I can make extra cash to help me to achieve my goal.

Currently...

Luckily my current situation with regard to outgoings and spending is really good.

I earn £1,200 basic a month after tax/company car tax etc plus bonuses, and I am paid every 4 weeks (13 times a year). I have 5 paydays left before the end of 2007 and will take home £6,000 before earning bonuses etc. I am disregarding bonuses as this pay will be used for miscellaneous spending such as buying Christmas presents, going out etc.

The loan I am paying is £246.74/month with £200 of that being repayment and the £46.74 interest (11.9% APR - quite high - I am looking to move this to reduce interest).

The only other outgoing I have is o2 mobile phone at £30/month (and I am locked into this tariff for a further 5 months). I live with my parents and luckily don't pay rent (I know, I know!). I work in field sales so I'm always out and about but I either take lunch with me or buy sandwiches etc using points I collect with all the fuel I buy on my company fuelcard, so that doesn't cost me anything either.

I have recently sold a load of stuff on eBay and made £400 and am searching out more stuff to sell. My company is sponsoring some events this summer and I've volunteered to work some weekends doing promotional work which pays £100/day so I am hoping to make a few hundred £s over the next couple of months there.

By Christmas I will have made 5 more payments to the loan and will owe £5,400 there. If I pay £100 off the Credit Card each month I will owe £1,000 there - £6,400 total.

Of my £1,200 take home each month, I will pay £246.74 loan, £100.00 credit card and £30.00 mobile phone, totalling £376.74 and leaving me with £823.26 (over the 5 remaing paydays this year this will total £4,116.30).

Therefore, I will owe £6,400 at Christmas, and will have earned £4,116.30 I can put towards the debt.

This leaves a shortfall of £2,283.70 and hence why I am here (finally got to the point!!!)

SO.....!

So if I round that up I need to make an extra £2,500 in 5 months - or £500/month.

This may be a little unrealistic but I'm willing to give this everything and do whatever it takes - and try my very best to get there or very close.

Basically I would really appreciate your ideas as to how I can make as much extra cash as possible - Ideas as to what I could do as a 2nd job at weekends and evenings, mystery shopping perhaps (I am field-based for work so could maybe fit in some assignments there) etc etc

I feel really bad posting as I know I should never have got into debt when I never had any outgoings to start with, and I know people are in much more difficult situations than me - with families to support, mortgages/bills to pay etc but I am here now and keen to start over.

Now I have had this experience I will never borrow again except for a mortgage so maybe it will have benefitted me in the long term as I will have come through this safely before having real commitments and with a knowledge of what can happen!

I look forward to your suggestions and promise to keep you updated with my progress...

Sy

Crown

Hi and welcome. What took you so long to post?

It looks like you have already made some major changes to your lifestyle and seem to have worked out a realistic approach to your debt elimination.

I too work in field sales but have recently started a second job at Tesco at the weekends as I cannot sell anything from my company at the weekend.This is bringing in around another £400 a month. Could you do something similair for 5 months until you clear the debt?

Also you could try Matched Betting what I have seen people make a fair enough amount of money although I do not do this myself. Please be aware that this option requires some reading/research and shouldnt be rushed into. I am not suggesting you make "mug" bets as trust me when I say you will end up in far more serious debt than you currently are in.

I wish you the best of luck with it

Sy1

Thanks Crown,

I've been planning to post for a while but knew it'd take a while to put everything down in text so didn't get round to doing it for ages!

2nd job in a supermarket is a good idea, I used to work in retail and still have contacts there plus I know they take on temporary seasonal staff soon for the build up to Christmas so I'll definitely look into that.

Have been reading the thread on Matched Betting too as you suggested and may give that a go but I think I need to study the thread more to full understand it before I get started.

Watch this space!

pania

HI SY!!! Good to read your post, and good luck for the future to , you're certainly in the right place!Hopefully your journey to debt freedom will be a quick one but stick here and you'll get loads of valuable advice on how to stay debt free once there. Big hugs P xx

Sy1

Ahhhhh the famous Pania!

Hi there, have been watching your thread for a while and seen your comments elsewhere so I know you are a regular here and have given lots of support to others.

Thanks very much for your post, will keep you updated with how I'm doing!

Gemmzie

Hi Sy, welcome aboard officially. Why not pop over to the Olympic Challenge thread? There's lots of tips on there and our Silver challenge is £2k. It's running until 19th December, might help on the motivation.
It did for me, I cleared £2.5k from Jan - June this year!

Tashja

Good luck Sy

Sounds like you have really pulled yourself around and I look forward to seeing you become Debt Free !!

T xx

Sy1

Hi All,

Just a brief update as I haven't posted for a few days.

Have discovered Quidco this week and have £31.09 tracked already and planning more transactions there to increase this figure - that site is amazing!

Also made an order this week with a certain website which gives you points to spend in store, however they do not retract the points for returned goods! This means I have over £100 of points to spend in store and it has cost me nothing! I will be spending these points on items I can eBay to make some extra cash.

Also received an offer of a savings account from ING Direct today which I'm tempted to do as they give you £100 for opening by 31/08 and the money is applied to your account by 05/10. You have to credit £2500 but I have this money now to pay off a loan next month which I'd accounted for so was thinking I could credit the savings account with this money and take it straight back out to the pay the loan the money is for - in order to get the £100 ING Direct are offering.

Am off to an event today to do some promotional work for work which will earn me £200 extra this month, so more there!

Also really interested in getting into Matched Betting but approaching it very very cautiously, and am still studying the thread in this. If anyone who has had good success with this has any tips please let me know!

And am watching every penny I spend still with a 'do I need this or do I want it' attitude!

Also had a tidy up and clear out of my bills folder last night which is very therapeutic and is now super-organised! Felt great to get rid of most of the correspondence of all the cards/accounts I have closed recently (although I am keeping letters confirming accounts closed and final £0.00 bills just in case there is ever any comeback!)

Thanks everyone for your advice so far, back soon!

HairyHandofDartmoor

You've done really well to pay off so much.

The ING thing sounds good I would go for it. Lynzpower has some great Quidco money making tips on a recent thread which you could look for. Lots of people do mystery shopping although I don't myself (no time) so I would definitely do that if I were you.Someone will come on and give you some tips on how to get started soon I am sure.

Good luck with your challenge. I wish I could pay off by Christmas but sadly I owe too much!

Sy1

Thanks HairyHandofDartmoor. Wonder if you live in Dartmoor as I am quite close in Torbay and travel around Devon for work including Bere Alston in Dartmoor!

Yep think I will def go for the ING Direct thing - just need to ensure I'm super organised to transfer the funds back out quickly - but nothing to lose as it's a savings account anyway.

If anyone else is interested I don't think it's an offer unique to me but it's not actually advertised by them on their website - although I think anyone can qualify for it - maybe worth giving them a call first to say you have heard of the offer and would you be eligible for it.

Will have a look out for Lynzpower's thread on Quidco - keen to do more Quidco it's awesome!

Also still considering Mystery Shopping just not had time to look through and register on the websites yet - there's so many it looks like it may be quite time consuming to get started so I need to take a day out to research it!