13 months to freedom (sort of)

knightley

Not a very inspirational title, I know

So I've made a great start on the NSD and Xmas 2015 challenges... but that is not enough. I need to stay focused and on track to kill ALL my credit card debt by December 2016. I like bullet lists so here we go.... my debt-related goals for the next 13 months:

• Do a SOA - by end of 2015 IN PROGRESS
• Pay off the MBNA debt (currently £3000) and cancel the card - by end of 2015. SOON TO BE PAID OFF - BY XMAS 2015
• Tesco CC debt payments [STRIKE]Dec 2015: at least £150[/STRIKE] DONE
• Tesco CC debt payments Jan-Dec 2016: £500 each month. This HAS to happen no matter what TOUGHEST ONE: STARTING JAN 2016
• Annual bonuses Dec 2015 & Dec 2016 - use these for CC debt payments. Both. 2015 BONUS COMING SOON
• Work lunches - no more buying crappy sandwiches and soups, when I can make them myself at home and bring them into work ONGOING. REDUCED FREQUENCY, NOT STOPPED YET
• Credit cards and overdraft limits DO NOT EXIST. No exception to this. No excuses, no temporary or emergency or convenience use. There are no extra money to be spent. There's a huge deficit to cover. DONE. LAST TIME I USED CREDIT: NOV 2015
• Last but not least, make at least one overpayment to my mortgage. It can be a present, or a a refund, or part of the annual bonus... whatever it is, I'm making my first overpayment, and no, it can't be less than £100... :-) NOT YET SURE WHEN
• Switch from Tesco to ASDA and try to go down a brand. DONE. SWITCHED FROM DEC 2015.

Hope I can stick to this... I'm desperate and stressed and depressed about my debt and can't live like this anymore.

I'll be posting often. I need to stay on top of this. Hope to get some words of advice and encouragement. Thanks and good luck to you all!

knightley

Just got an email from MBNA with 0% balance transfer rates offers and "Did you know you can request a credit limit increase online? You'll get an instant response and, if approved, your new credit limit will be available to use immediately."

A couple of years ago I was looking forward to getting these offers... they're not offers, they are traps for me... so thank you very much, I will NOT be doing any of that any time soon. In fact I will pay off my balance and cancel the card by the end of this month. Fingers crossed that annual bonus is enough (heard rumours of our group exceeding targets so it might be higher than 10%).

knightley

First draft SOA done, need to finalize by end of the year.... and stick to it!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/69636045#Comment_69636045

knightley

Not much happening in my accounts... currently looking at my SOA and trying to budget for things. I've also started tracking every single expense that happens in my spending account, and will sit down at the end of December to try and come up with a realistic budget for the next months.

Basically this is where I am:

• £2000: bills, travel card, child expenses (child care, school lunches, piano, etc), and savings (uni, holiday, presents, emergency)
• £500: daily spending money (food, clothing, entertainment, haircuts, medicine etc)
• £500: credit card payments (minimum payments are currently £117 but I NEED to pay more than 4x that amount to clear off debts)

This sounds very doable but looking back at this year alone.... I've gone way above - for groceries, holidays, and eating out - mainly because I have not tracked expenses and not budgeted at all.

I'm off Christmas shopping today and IF I stay on budget, I should have about £275 left to spend until the next pay date (25th). Fingers crossed.

knightley

Just checking in, I'm still on track, not much spending this week apart from Tesco online groceries yesterday. Christmas shopping didn't happen as my child was unwell on Tue... I can't stand shopping during weekends in December, it's too insane, so need to do Christmas presents shopping in short sessions at lunch time next week. That can be good and bad at the same time... I need to buy 3-4 presents for family and I'm done.

knightley

Quick update from me. Feeling meh with the cold weather and December work madness, and when I check my finances spreadsheet, debt still very high! so not many reasons for being happy but still... the glass is only half empty

positives:

• my Tesco debt has gone down by £150, just made a payment.
• I'm doing very well on the work lunches - bringing packed lunches from home almost every day now.
• also doing well on not using CCs and overdraft! This is a big thing for me as I've been using my fee free overdraft every month, and my CC debt kept increasing earlier this year, so yes, this is BIG.
• Christmas presents spending went very well, I still have to buy 2 presents but those won't take me into overdraft, it's all from this month's salary
• mortgage debt - although one can argue this should be in the 'negatives' section, as it's so damn high.... I'm trying to see the positive in it... my mortgage debt will soon go under £200K for the first time, after the next payment. I know it's high anyway and call me silly... but I really like the idea of seeing 199K instead of 200K

negatives:

• Not doing so well on the SOA, have not been tracking all expenses as I said I would... I keep forgetting about it. I gave myself until the end of the year to come up with a realistic SOA - well, for the daily spending part, the bills & regular stuff is already done/
• have not contributed to my emergency fund yet, I need to do that on pay day
• have not changed anything about grocery shopping - I need to budget, to go down a brand, and prob I should switch from Tesco to ASDA (online shopping as I don't drive).

Captain_Bluebear

Hey Knightley.

Well done on getting started! Please don't dwell on the negatives, you are doing so well already by thinking in the right frame of mind. We all want things to happen immediately when we start but it often doesn't happen as quickly as we want.

You are doing the best thing you can by starting NOW!

Well done you!

I'm not even at your stage yet! Not started a diary or written a SOA on here yet - I have one here in front of me on paper but not got around to posting it yet. (Been thrown into a bit of a mess due to a toerag of a partner (now ex) doing a moonlight flit last month leaving me reeling!)

I know He's done me a favour in the long run but the next few months will be *cough* "financially interesting".

Good luck with your journey hun!

knightley

@1derwoman: thank you! You too!

It took me a long time to get here. I've actually been debt-free before, in 2011 and 2012, completely debt free - and before that we had debt as a family but it was never that high, and it was always two of us, so not that stressful - I always thought - if one of us lost the job, we still had one income to fall back on.

Hope you manage to keep your head above water, and more!