Paid off £800 overdraft in 2 months. Wish I'd done this earlier!

Taucher

My debts at the beginning of Januray were as follows

Credit Card (35%) - £2100
Credit Card (18%) - £950
HSBC Loan - £2040
HSBC Overdraft - £800.

My finances were stable - I paid everything (bills, minimum on credit card and lots of money on going out!) but always had about £5 left at the end of the month. Found out my wife was pregnant at Christmas and that really made me think about my finances. Did a detailed budget and realised that I could save about £400 a month.

So now I have paid the overdraft off and I reckon that before the baby is born (early September) I can pay off another £2000 or so.

However, I will still have some debts when I become a Dad and I am sure I will have to go back to paying the minimum.

The thing that REALLY annoys me is that if I had thought of this a couple of years ago, I could be completely debt free by now. And that thought makes me quite angry with myself.

But I guess the anger will help in not making financial mistakes in the future!

I'm not going to be my own worst enemy again.

Money_maker

Well done you. Never mind about what you could have done - we all have these moments when clarity hits. Sounds like you're right on track to shift a big lump of debt.

How about posting a SOA so the good peeps on here can help to see if they can save you any more money to put towards your debt?

twiggy86

Well done on clearing £800 in such a short space of time! We can all think if I'd realised this sooner I wouldn't have built up debt or paid debt off but it doesn't help your motivation - so that way of thinking is banned!

I know this will sound very strange, but I'm glad I got in to debt in one way - it's taught me how to be sensible with money. I know that without that kick up the proverbial I would have just continued on not really thinking about it and wasting money where I could have maybe saved some!

As MM said, post an SOA and I'm sure the helpful folk on here will do their best to help you save even more!

Good luck!

On_my_way

Wow that's amazing - well done

DebtFree2012

Congratulations - on all counts

andyfromotley

Wow, nice one. Get to work on that 35% cc!!! Perhaps when the baby comes you could transfer them all to a 0% cc. If your credit rating is good perhaps apply for one now? It makes a huge difference to clearing your debts. Good luck mate.

967stuart

No point looking back.
Look at what you're doing now.
Good for you for clearing your debts and good luck with the new arrival.

symphonies

Wow, congrats! On clearing that overdraft and the baby! :T

Like andyfromotley suggested, grab yourself a 0% B/T card and get that card debt shifted over so it's more manageable. Try checking out the Barclaycard deals.

Best of luck!

Taucher

Thanks for your reaplies and words of encouragement everyone!

I will do an SOA at some point as it would be nice to get any advice althoughI have stripped back my spending so much I honestly don't think there is anymore I can do.

Unfortunately, I cant get approved for a better CC. My credit rating is excellent with Equifax, good with Experian and poor with Noddle but I have been refused 0% cards (I have applied for 2) and the applications have now appeared on my report. It's frustrating.

Thanks again!