Under 6 months to get debt free!

LessCake

I have just under 6 months to clear my credit card debt of £2627 (thankfully all on 0% interest) and I believe that, if I really put my mind to it, I can get this all cleared within this timescale. Who knows, I might even be able to start saving!

So here I am with a nice new diary to keep me motivated and on track :hello:

I have already got a few things listed on ebay and Gumtree and I will be digging out some more bits to list. I just need to make sure the money I make goes straight towards the debt, even if it is just a few pounds!

I am also going to aim to have as many NSD's as I can, which will help me to lose the lb kind of pounds as well as saving the £ kind! As my username suggests, I need to stop buying and eating so much junk food! I also have a weak spot for charity shops so I will make a point of avoiding these (unless it is to donate of course).

Any encouragement or tips are wecome, or even a competition of who can clear their debt first if anyone has a similar goal to mine!

LessCake

Well, I have just joined the 0% challenge and I wanted my 1% to be a nice round number so I have just paid £27 off my debt to bring it to a total of £2600, making my 1% £26

I should mention that I already have a DD of £200 per month set up to pay off this debt. This means that £1200 will be paid off from March-August, which means I need to make £1400 worth of extra payments, which is an extra £233.33 per month/£53.84 per week/ £7.69 per day. Now that makes it all seem much more achievable, especially if I get lots of things listed on ebay and gumtree!

Sorry for waffling...my OH refers to it as me 'brain farting' :rotfl:

LessCake

Yesterday was not a NSD and I am now looking back and thinking why didn't I use that £10 towards paying off my debt! :mad: Even while I was spending it a voice inside my head was saying 'nooooo, put this towards your debt!' I should have listened to that voice!

Today will be better! It will be a NSD and I have some expenses to claim which will be set aside for my holiday so I don't need to dip into my normal budget. Travel costs are in my budget but I don't account for the amount I can claim back and, after the holiday, I will be using the money from any future claims towards my debt. As the claimed money is not in my budget this makes sense and I don't know why I haven't done it sooner tbh!

LessCake

Progress has been made! I have paid off 1% of my debt, had an enquiry about some items listed on Gumtree and today is my second NSD so far :j

I have sorted out some work expenses and the money should be in my account at some point next week. I will withdraw it as cash to use on my holiday as I think I will spend less of it if I can actually see it. The rest can then go towards the debt when I get back.

Lunch break over...back to work I go!

janeypoo

Good luck with the next months. Subscribed

LessCake

janeypoo wrote: »

Good luck with the next months. Subscribed

Yay, a visitor :hello: Thank you for subscribing

Today was not a NSD but I've had a pretty bad day so will let myself off this one. A couple of my ebay items have watchers so, fingers crossed, I will make a few sales in the next week or so.

I need to relist my items on Gumtree tomorrow to get them back to the top of the list. I have had so many people contact me asking if items are still available, I email them back to say yes and to arrange suitable times for collection/delivery and then they never get back to me! It's so frustrating! :mad: Does anyone else get this?

LessCake

Well, I have finally sold a couple of things on Gumtree :j I am waiting for payment for one item that I agreed to post and another will be collected on Thursday. This will bring in.....wait for it.....a grand total of £18 to go towards my debt! I guess it all helps though!

We are moving in a few months time so, once I have some time (and energy!), I am going to go on a major decluttering spree. It will be good to not move our [STRIKE]crap[/STRIKE] excess stuff from one house to the other and to have a nice fresh start in out new place. I have loads of clothes that I keep hoping to fit back into one day but I think I need to accept that it is unlikely to happen I also need to be brave and have a sort through my books. They are all reference books on subjects I am interested in so I dip into them now and then, but there are very few that I have read from front to back. As most information can be found on the internet nowadays, do I really need a book containing it? But if I will have enough storage space in the new place, why not keep something I like? Oh I don't know! :rotfl:

The NSD's have gone out of the window at the moment but none of it has been stupid spending. I do need to be a bit more careful and get focused on this debt clearing again. I should be able to pay another 1% towards my debts by the end of this week though, and seeing the number come down should give me a bit more motivation. I will do better :A

HarrysMummy

Good luck with your challenge. You sound very motivated and that's the biggest hurdle!!

Keep going and I'm sure you'll get to your goal

LessCake

Thank you HarrysMummy

I received payment for one of the Gumtree items today and, after checking my account online, realised I could make a bigger payment towards my debt than planned. I paid £52, which is 2%, so I can now go and update my progress on the % payment challenge :j

I have seen a couple of nice bits of furniture on Gumtree and will be getting them on the weekend. I know I'm meant to be stopping spending but the seller accepted my offer of £20 for two decent items that will look good in the new place, plus I will be selling the old stuff they are replacing. Excuses over - I do need to stop looking at stuff for sale on there!!

Today was not a NSD - more like a HSD (high spend day) but I am still making progress with the debts and the direct debit for one is coming out in a few days. That will be a satisfying signature update :rotfl:

LessCake

I picked up the two bits of furniture from the Gumtree seller today. They are both in excellent condition so I definitely got a good deal paying only £20 for both. It just goes to show that it is worth looking for second hand things. I don't understand people who obsess with everything being new.

I got a nice surprise when I checked our joint account. I forgot that our council tax is paid over 10 months so we have a couple of hundred £'s more than expected in there! I'm not sure if we should use this money for our holiday (food and petrol expenses) or if I should put it into our joint savings and still go with the plan of both using some of our own money?

If we use the joint account money I know I will be sensible and use all of the money I had budgeted for holiday to pay off some debt. I'm not sure the same can be said for my OH though. He also probably won't be as worried about spending money if he isn't seeing it coming out of his own pocket! I will need to think about this one!

LessCake

I had written a lovely long post but the browser froze and crashed so I have lost it all!

Well, my debt is now down to £2422. I called one of the 2 companies my credit card debt is with and found out that I owe less than I thought on one of them. I called because my DD had not been taken out and apparently it doesn't get taken if you pay enough via alternative payment methods....Huh? I want to make overpayments on top of the regular DD but it looks like I am going to have to do it all manually now.

So far this month I have an extra £100 to put towards debts, £80 of which is from selling stuff on Gumtree - so a nice bit of decluttering done too! This is on top of the usual £200 monthly payment, so I just need to find another £123 to overpay and I will be down to £1999 - below the 2K mark!!!!! :j