LullaBelle's long road to being debt free!

LullaBelle

Hi everyone,


Payday was on Friday and our debts are now below £25k. Kind of feels like a little mini milestone! Next stop... under £20k.


Debts now stand at:


Loan: £14231.10
Virgin: £4380
DH Virgin: £5433.20
Sofa: £628.80
Total: £24673.10


Next month the loan will be below £14k too. I'm finally starting to see it coming down a bit more now! I have moved some money around into my various pots. I have £100 in the car fund. This will cover my car tax that is due in April. Emergency fund is now at £486.94.


I cashed out on 2625 nectar points from esurveys over the weekend so just waiting for it to load to my nectar card. I'm going to try and save all my points for Christmas this year. It only took me about 2 weeks to get these points so hoping to have a good bit by December.


It's my daughters 3rd birthday this week. We are having a little party in the house for family. I'm off to the bargain shop at lunch today to stock up on sweets, crisps etc. I find it is cheaper there than in supermarkets.


Hope everyone is keeping well. Speak soon :-)

LullaBelle

Hello everyone,


I am getting really bad at updating my diary. I must make more of an effort as it really does keep me motivated.


We are nearly at the 1 year mark of not getting into any more debt. That is a big achievement for us. So I am delighted.


The debts are still coming down but not as much as I would like. I feel it is time to tighten the belts even more now. I have managed to get some cash in hand work starting in May. it's just 1 day a week but it will be £40 a day. I am thinking I will use the cash for the weekly food shop and transfer the money I would have used from my account into the loan. It really is a priority now. Payday is on Friday so it will be under the £14k mark. My aim is to get it to £10k by the end of the year.


I am due £100 in expenses from work so I hope they pay that quite quickly as that could go off debt too. There is no rates to pay in March and April so that saves me nearly £250. I'm going to put that into the emergency fund. DH's car tax is due in April but I have that saved in my car fund (thanks for the tips on having separate pots - it's working great)


I am still carrying on with the e-surveys. I now have £25 worth of nectar points. I'm trying to save these for Christmas. I don't really shop in Sainsbury's but I'm thinking I could use the money to some santa toys for my daughter. Imagine planning Christmas in March.


That's all for me I think. I will definitely be back on more often so I stay accountable. Speak soon!

kindofagilr

LullaBelle wrote: »

We are nearly at the 1 year mark of not getting into any more debt. That is a big achievement for us. So I am delighted.

That in itself deserves a massive :j:beer::T

Well done!!! xx

LullaBelle

kindofagilr wrote: »

That in itself deserves a massive :j:beer::T

Well done!!! xx

Thanks so much! :T


Payday was on Friday so the debts have come down again. The loan is now under £14k! :j


Loan: £13997.57
Virgin: £4330
DH Virgin: £5343.20
Sofa: £597.36
Total: £24268.13


So next month the total debt will be below £24k. We are getting there. The emergency fund now stands at £600 which is great.


Our mortgage deal expires in a few months so we spoke to an advisor and we are able to take 2 years off the term of the mortgage and it will only cost us an extra £2 a month. Plus we will get £300 cashback - some good news.


Still waiting on expenses coming in from work. I'll have to chase that up as £100 is better off in my pocket!!


Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. It was a bank holiday here yesterday so we enjoyed a lovely long weekend.

LullaBelle

Hello,


Back again. I really should update my diary more often. I come on and read other diaries/threads but very rarely update my own.


I don't really have much to report. I am trying so hard to save and pay off debt. The emergency fund is coming along well. It now stands at just over £600 so I am nearly at my £1k target.


I'm also trying to make money in any way I can. I am still doing my surveys that earn me Nectar points. I had over £20 but I needed a new swimming suit to bring my daughter swimming so I used my points for that. I now have £10.26 again. I'm completing as many surveys as I can.


I noticed in the community paper that there is a car boot sale being held on the May bank holiday. I am delighted. I have SO much stuff suitable for a boot sale. MIL is 70 later that week so hopefully I can make a few £ to put towards a present.


April and May are my busy months when it comes to expenses. DH car tax is due this month and my car insurance is next month. luckily I have been putting money in a separate account for this so it's covered. I have so many birthday's coming up in May too so I am going to be as organised as I can before then.


I'm a bit late this year but I have started saving my Tesco stamps for Christmas. I only have £3 so far but it's a start. I'm hoping that by Dec I have 1 card filled which would give me £50 and then have about £50 on my nectar card from doing surveys. That would be a massive help this year.


Looking for some advice. as you know we consolidated some debts into a loan. (this was before I was sensible and read the advice on this site). Now we haven't got into any more debt since we took out the loan - 1 year ago this month so I believe we have our spending under control. I got a letter from virgin saying they are increasing my credit limit. Is it ever a good idea to use a money transfer in order to pay off a loan. It just really annoys me that we pay £130 a month in interest. I would love some advice incase I make the wrong decision!


Thanks to anyone reading xx

kindofagilr

LullaBelle wrote: »

I don't really have much to report. I am trying so hard to save and pay off debt. The emergency fund is coming along well. It now stands at just over £600 so I am nearly at my £1k target.


Looking for some advice. as you know we consolidated some debts into a loan. (this was before I was sensible and read the advice on this site). Now we haven't got into any more debt since we took out the loan - 1 year ago this month so I believe we have our spending under control. I got a letter from virgin saying they are increasing my credit limit. Is it ever a good idea to use a money transfer in order to pay off a loan. It just really annoys me that we pay £130 a month in interest. I would love some advice incase I make the wrong decision!


Thanks to anyone reading xx

Well done on your emergency fund that is going well xx

As for your query, I think it all depends on APR's, what is the APR on the loan, and what is the APR on the card?

Have virgin offered you a 0% money transfer? if not have you looked at the ones on offer here?

There is nothing wrong imo with moving money around to get the better APR's but that's as long as you can pay them off before the APR offer runs out or if you can then move it somewhere else xx

LullaBelle

Hi Kindofagilr,


Hope you're keeping well. Virgin are offering 0% on money transfers for 18 months. I'm thinking that I will continue paying the loan off for a bit longer yet. Then once I have my CC's down a bit more I'll move some money about. Just want it gone asap!


I got the selling bug back again. I listed 5 things on ebay yesterday. I just really need to start making more money. I plan on having a weekend in the house doing a big clear out. I'm sure I have loads of stuff I can sell. My ain is to try and make £100 by the end of the month. Every little bit helps.


I've made another £5 in nectar points by doing some surveys over the weekend.


This day next week is payday so looking forward to seeing the debt go under £24k!


And last but not least..................................


Happy Anniversary to me.... It has been 1 whole year since I started properly paying off this debt. We haven't got in to any more debt in 1 whole year. I am so so proud of this. We still have a long way to go but we are closer to the finish line compared to last year! So I'm really happy with that. I feel like I needed a wee boost!!

LullaBelle

Hi everyone,


I couldn't sleep last night so I had a read back over my diary so far. This time last year our debt was £29k. Next week we are going to be under £24k. That's a massive £5k difference in a year. I was actually quite pleased to see that it is coming down. Sometimes I get impatient and just want the debt gone asap but reading back over my diary made me realise that we are doing really well. Yes, we still have a long way to go but we are getting there. My challenge to myself is to get the debt under £20k by the end of the year. With a few overpayments to the loan this should definitely be doable.


I earned another 400 points on esurveys during my lunch break. Just another 600 to go and that's another £5 in nectar points. My balance now stands at £13.69. Hopefully that will be nearly £20 by the end of the week.


2 out of the 5 items I am selling on ebay have bids on them. The rest all have watchers and there is still 3 days to go on the listing. Fingers crossed I make a bit of cash!!


Today will be a NSD. I'm actually hoping to make Thursday the only spend day I have this week. I do my shopping on that day but I have been really good at keeping this between £30-£40 a week. I'm definitely noticing massive changes with my shopping bills. I'm having less food wastage too which is great!


That's all from me for today. Have a nice day everyone!

kindofagilr

Happy anniversary to you 5k is amazing it really is, you plan to get the loan down a bit and then move things to CC's sounds like a good idea xx

LullaBelle

Afternoon,


Payday today so the debts now stand at:


Loan: £13758.10
Virgin: £4280
DH Virgin: £5253.20
Sofa: £565.92
Total: £23857.22


So we have made it below £24k now. Another month or 2 and it will be below £23k!


I made £37 at the weekend from selling things on ebay so this went into the savings account. I'm getting closer to the £1k emergency fund! I also cleared out the attic and found LOADS of clothes to sell. I just need to find time to list them all. That will be my aim for this weekend.


I cashed out another 1000 points from my surveys so I now have £19 on my nectar card, plus I am half way towards anther 1000 points. Delighted with that.


Other than that I have no other news to report. Still trying to tighten the belt as much as possible. Can't wait to see the back of all this debt!