How do you stay motivated when paying off debt?

GaLa15

As a former 'bury my head in the sand' kinda girl, I am just wondering how other people stay motivated when paying off debt?

I am doing my best to stay on track but occasionally it gets tempting to put the debt to one side and spend money like I actually have it!!!

Any advice welcome 😊

Sazzie23

My motivation comes from spreadsheets, and celebrating milestones of going down from £21k to £20k, or losing one creditor - or only 40 payments to go, that sort of thing.


When I say celebrate, I mean I usually post in the DMP thread, I don't actually buy anything to celebrate.

tealady

Hi
I can sympathise as at times it can seem like a long hard slog.
Like Sazzie I used to occasionally look back and see how far I had come and celebrated milestones.
Also I looked at how easy it had been to get into debt, and how hard it was to get out and swore I would never let it happen again. It stopped me from frittering money on all sorts of stuff.
HTH

Ellieseleven

I'm another one that sets milestones along the way, they help me to keep focused and I can look back to see how far I have progressed. The overall aim is to be debt-free but setting smaller achievable milestones along the way helps to make you feel that you are getting somewhere.

Ellie x

kaggi

I use Microsoft money (there's a free download available) and it gives graphs and reports so I can see how well I'm doing over time. Seeing the improvement in black and white feels like a reward in itself to me.
Good luck.

gallygirl

Another one who votes for spreadsheets, % paid, months to be debt free, how much to knock another month off it, how many months 'saved', how much interest not paid etc.

How about what you'll do with the monthly payments? Sensible things obviously , with a little bit of fun. Think about your future - how much of the payments could go into your pension, an ISA etc. It's much easier to make the monthly payments when they're being invested in your own future, rather than paying off debt :T.

Keep the faith :beer:.

January2015

Everyday brings some form of celebration for us

• our bank account in is credit
• no panic at any point each month that we might not have enough (even when we had an overdraft) to pay the debts
• majority of debt payments going towards clearing the debt now (just B'card not playing ball - but 3% APR is better than they were charging us;))
• paying for everything on a debit card and knowing there's no problem with enough money to cover the payment
• buying things that have been budgeted for, e.g. we had to buy a new frying pan this week - not a huge expense I know - and we have a small repairs/maintenance/replacement budget each month for household items. We had more than the £20 saved in that category than we spent purchasing our new frying pan. So it was a totally guilt free, but much needed purchase

Like Sazzie says - I love pumping the numbers into our spreadsheets and seeing the total debt go down. We are very new to this DFW and DMP life so are still very motivated. I hope it doesn't change - we've turned around our views and instead of thinking and feeling life in debt is a weight around our neck - we are now in the thinking mode that life without credit is a positive change for behaviour and lifestyle for us and we are feeling very good at the moment:j

andyfromotley

Very early days for me at the moment, but just messing with YNAB helps. Not being overdrawn at all gives me a big lift. The lack of financial chaos in my life is very soothing.

I hope this is enough to help me maintain momentum but i am planning to take on more challenges in the coming months which seem great for motivation.

shopaholicz

I just use a word document, but make sure that I update every little bit that I pay off. Seeing the amount reduce, every time I make an over payment, helps to keep me on track.

When I first started doing this, I got a bit over enthusiastic and really worried and regretted spending any money I didn't have to, but I've relaxed a bit now (it was unrealistic and un-achievable to not spend anything extra). Also, my sights have been lowered, ie instead of going out for a meal with friends, we now do coffee, you still get the company but for a budget price.

Another big one for me was not putting as much, or anything at all, in collections at work. Someone is collecting for something every day!

supermum1988

Still early days for me too but I hit my first milestone last week and it really boosted my confidence in being able to do this. Milestones are great for me along with my son.
My parents were never able to help me out financially and I want to provide my son financial stability (help towards learning to drive, renting his first home, stuff like that). I also look at my surplus income at the moment then look at my future surplus once I have my debts paid off. Something to look forward to at the end of it.

katy_ann

I try to see my friends for coffee or round theirs/my house once a month I'm struggling at the moment though, had a lot of outgoings this month and have spent every weekend/evening in the house watching TV/using the net. Feeling very low at the moment, next month will probably be the same as I've got to tax the car at the end of April! Oh well, not long left on my journey hopefully and then I can move on