Deliciously Dreaming of Being Debt Free by 40

kittycashcake

So yeah, this is me KittyCashCake.

Right now I am 37, I have 30 Months till I am 40, which is also around the same time I get married. I really would love to be debt free and to enter married life feeling great with a lifted burden for the next chapter. I also want to improve on my diabolical credit rating of 142 so that I can co-take the mortgage on my OH's house.

So heres how the land lays. I have 5 pots of debt / goals I am slowly working on.

1) Emergency savings fund. I did start a diary and plan last year and did great, saved up £500 but spend a lot of it on an actual emergency (boiler and washing machine both dead in the space of 2 months. I want to build this up again.

2) Pay for my share of the wedding. Yes the OH is paying for half too. We are aiming for 5k for the whole shabang, although I am the least bridezilla woman that ever lived, I would be happy with a quicky in a Primark dress but the OH is adamant. The things we do for love!

3) Pay my Immediates. I call them that because these are the scary things I have letters for, some are on my credit file, a few arent. I want to stop these from going to bailiffs / CCJ stage so I am prioritising these.

4) The ccj's. These are my lowest priority, quite frankly I am kicked in the fannie by these, with the worst one dropping off in 2020 so I may as well keep chill about these unless they come yelling.

5) Making Christmas 2016 as Free as Possible - I did this trick this crimbo and I did really well, I stacked up rewards, cashed in on double events, did surveys, and used the data I accrued using my FITbit to earn rewards. I also enforced the penny jar; all change gets thrown in at the end of the week no matter how much. I worked out all in I got around £180 which paid for a very large chunk of Christmas which took the stress out of it a lot.

6) Paying for my first holiday in 6 years, this summer, OH has already paid it but I want to pay my fair share

The totals right now are

Emergency Fund £0.00
Wedding Fund: £0.00
Immediates Paid: £92.38 / £1206.95 (5 accounts)
CCJs Total: £5103
Free Christmas 2016 Fund £17.67 /(£200 Goal)
Holiday £0.00 / £550
Total: £9967.57 / £10059. 95 (£110.05 Paid)

Thats it for now, I will witter on about how I am going to find 10k in 2.5 years another time!

kittycashcake

Been thinking about that 10k.... Wow that's such a big target!!!! Over £300 per month is a lot for me.

I think I am going to tackle it the same way as I tackle my weight loss (50lbs down, 100+ to go!!!) and just focus on the small goals, small rewards when I get there. The Christmas fund is fairly easy and just takes care of itself.

The goal for January is to pay £100 each into my emergency, holiday and off my immediates. I already have DD's set up for the immediates for that much anyway so it just means me squirrelling away £200 out of my salary for the rest. If I can squirrel anymore I will throw it at the immediates.

So that's the plan.

Other goals for this week are:

- eBay some bits, I've already done 7 small items, I don't have anything major to sell so going forward it's a sea of bits.

- Stay on top of my surveys etc, I have done a few this weekend and earned a few pound for the Christmas pot

- Restart doing competitions again. I did this solid around 10 years ago for maybe 3-4 years. You can't earn an income from it but I would say I trawled in 2-3k a year in prizes. I either kept, sold or gave it away. I did keep the week all inclusive to the Bahamas though, that was amazing. So I am going to start that up again, during my lunch break.

- Go to the bank on Saturday and set up a joint account for bills and for the wedding fund!

By my rough maths my holiday and emergency fund will be paid by May and my immediates by September/ October, I haven't factored in that I might be able to negotiate smaller settlements with some of those if I pay in full, which I was able to do with some of my other debt.

Feeling positive!!

Tall_order

I am in the same position of wanting to be debt free by 40, so want to pop by and wish you luck!

I will be following your journey and cheering you on

lincs1205

Hi kittycashcake, just wanted to stop by and say hi :hello:.You seem really organized I'm sure you'll be sorted no time. I also want to get my debt sorted by the time I'm 40 so I'll be tagging along for the ride, I'm 37 now so times ticking on.

kittycashcake

Thanks guys!! I so want to be debt free by then!!

Although I haven't included my old student loans or my overdraft, but as they don't seem to effect my credit file and no one is screaming for them I am shuffling those out to be a distant memory and filing under F for "forgetaboutit " till I am good and ready. I'm concentrating on improving my credit rating and not getting any scary letters to my house!

Debt_free_by_2020

Hi kittycashcake,

Just being nosey and realised you have a DFW diary too so thought I'd say hi and I'll cheer you on with your debt busting from my little corner in the forum

Kitten868

Hello!

Found your diary. Just wanted to say hello and with the wedding as your booking so far in advance try and guarantee prices as they are now rather than paying 2018 prices. They sent us out their old prices by mistake and it saved us about 2 grand! They have bizarre ideas on inflation in the wedding industry.
You're good trying to juggle so many different goals! I just hammer one at a time and it's hard enough. Going to change tack soon and it scares me! X

kittycashcake

Yeah I'm might be nuts but I will be prioritising my wedding before my CCJ debt, so if something has to fall by the wayside it will be those; they have already stung my credit rating so come at me bro!! I will try my best though, it will be very liberating and grown up thing to do.

I have had a quick look and I can't see any threads about weddings specifically.... Hints and tips etc. I will take a closer look later but if there isn't one I'll start one! We have already decided in the theme; Dr Who meets vintage / 50's dollyrocker..... It's gonna be a hoot!

Kitten868

Well I can't help with doctor who but I love lindy bop for 50s clothes. And they have a sale on now. Great for you and the bridesmaids!
50s/doctor who in a zoo. Yes, you are nuts but I love it!
Wedding tip would be try and get it all done by the venue. When they do the wedding service, the breakfast and the party you get a lot of wiggle room on price without making the effort yourself.
No one remembers favours or bunting or chair covers so don't bother unless it's free. I didn't bother and no one noticed. They said how welcoming it all was. Yes you want it to be a wedding not a party but you don't need all the hall marks x

kittycashcake

Yes love Lindy Bop and Hell Bunny! Must not look though!!!

Soooo today was pretty okay. I did around 40 competitions a couple of mini surveys and added £1 to my Christmas fund.... I'll do another tot up on the weekend as that pot is a slow trickle but I quite like that.

Other things; I picked up a bundle of items I orders last week in the New Look Sale. Mostly work clothes, a LBD for £6 (whoop) and my most exciting purchase, 2 pairs of pyjamas!!!

The reason for my happiness is I've never really owned pj's, it's always been relegated tshirts with stains, hair dye or faded design that are too damn comfy to throw away, paired with dodgy leggings with hole in the knee. Bless my OH, seeing me clambering into bed like a hillbilly with a banjo, it's incredible his bits work near me with my old scruffs on.

So yep, fallen in love with proper jammies, I am returning 2 items, I think one might be refunded as a gift card though, I might go wild and get more jammies if that's the case. Honestly that's as wild as I get. I'm sure New Look will be really quiet tomorrow, right? Pah ha ha ha

I still have a huge list of things to get done which is pretty exciting . OH and I have decided to not go out for NYE which is a relief. It's s massive rip off and a waste of cash. I'd rather pay bills and not have a massive hangover.

So I'll buy a nice steak, have a few drinkies at home and we'll go out in a few weeks instead for half the price.

SuperAllyB

Hi Kitty, good luck with your plans. Don't want to be negative but you may want to rethink the joint account if OH is likely to need to remortgage while your CCJs are still on your credit file.