Let's Do This....Debt Free Before 2019

ShiftThisDebt

Been a full on day today. Up at 5:45 for bootcamp, right next to the rough sea and cold winds. Really enjoy it though and helping me get into shape. DW has signed up for 10 weeks of Zumba for £30 so that's a bit more money gone but I think that's okay.

Then onto work which was great today but now marking books & planning! All part of the deal though I guess.

I've also signed up for YNAB's free trial. I like the look of it actually after being a bit sceptical about it. What it's made me really realise is that the overdrafts *really* are a debt (Derrrrrr!) and need paying much more quickly. we have £1700 between us (£400/£1300) which is ridiculous to be honest. Mine is lower but I get charged more. Hoping to pay it off sooner rather than later.

ShiftThisDebt

I've been waiting for all the credit card balance transfers to go through before posting a SOA. That's almost happened now but I do have a question if anyone can offer some advice.

It's about credit ratings and in particular 'age of history'

Basically my wife has a credit card which we've just cleared the balance from to another card. She has had the card for about 12 years. I've read that your credit score can take a hit if you close a long length card.

But then is there any point keeping a card open that we don't plan to use. Presumably not using a card will also have a negative impact on credit score?

I also have a credit card which I've had for 8 year that I've just cleared the balance from. Same question apllies here.

Really not sure the best thing to do.

It's very unlikely that we'll be applying for any credit again, at least until we remortgage in a couple of years.

We have stopped spending on cards now too, the only thought we had was to keep one open for holiday, not to use, but in case something goes wrong and we need to pay for something unexpected.

What should we do?

ShiftThisDebt

Been an interesting week or so. Had a couple of NSD's however we also have had to pay for some home improvements which have come in at around £600. This has obviously affected overpayments this month, so I now plan to begin the snowball in February.

In a way, this makes things easier because the new credit cards with the 0% deals have been set upand the first payments are all due in February so we can begin paying those off.

Now I am a person who definitely fell into the camp of "oh an overdraft doesn't really count as debt"

That was until about 2 weeks ago!! And after watching Martin's show last night about Money Transfer Credit Cards we applied for one in my wife's name and she ended up with a Virgin 32months 0% Money Transfer Card with a 1.69% fee. So to transfer the £1700 which our overdrafts amount to will cost £1730.43 over the 32months.

That's £54 a month, however with the snowball it'll be paid off before that.

I have been paying anywhere between £0 and £20 a month in daily fees for usingmy arranged overdraft and my wifes acccount costs £7 a month which has benefits we never use nor knew about until I looked last week. Although I think we need to make a decision about whether to keep her account because we could use breakdown cover (and cancel the one we have with The AA) and also insure 2 mobiles. Anyway I digress...that's upto £27 a month we're paying in 'fees and charges' which is upto £324 a year (frightening when you work it out!!)

I think I need to see if mobile insurance is part of our home and contents insurance and ifit is that £7 a month for that and breakdown cover is probably decent. Currently paying The AA £20 (that doubled from last year's £10) and I hadn't realised,or know why. Do I have a minimum contract with a breakdown company or can you just cancel it anyway?

Anyway, off to bed as it's late but just thought I'd post a quick update:

Summary:
TOTAL DEBT: £36,703
Amount of debt currently 0%: £31,703
Other debt: £5000 (@17.8%)
Target Snowball payment: £1000 per month.

ShiftThisDebt

Hi there!

Got the annual mortgage statement yesterday, our first ever one! Anyway, the mortgage has just under 35 years to run :eek: but I've decided once I'm debt free I'll be heading over to Mortgage Free Wannabe and trying to get that paid early too! Fingers crossed by the time I'm 45 (13 years away!)

However one step at a time!! :rotfl:

Today has been okay, stressful at work and tbh I should be working right now but all I can think about at the moment is clearing debt. I'm very much a man on a mission right now.

Getting the Money Transfer Credit Card the other day was a huge buzz tomeand I've spent the weekend looking at which bank account me and the better half can switch to once we have paid those darn overdrafts off! (And by paid off I mean switched to a 0% credit card of course!!)

For our current situation I'm liking the look of the Halifax account which offers £125 to switch plus £5 a month. If we both do that, that's £250 to put towards paying down the debt and also an extra £120 a year. I think that's pretty good and I will look forward to ditching Santander who I've been with all my life.

As I've learned over the past coupleof years there's no point being loyal to any of these big businesses.

I'm now at a point where I've been offering my Sister in Law and Daughter (14) sound money advice. It feels really great to educate people so they don't make the same mistakes me and DW made.

However in 3 years time I WILL be debt free :money:

12_month_challenge

ShiftThisDebt wrote: »

Hi there!

I'm now at a point where I've been offering my Sister in Law and Daughter (14) sound money advice. It feels really great to educate people so they don't make the same mistakes me and DW made.

However in 3 years time I WILL be debt free :money:

Hi and well done for doing so well and organising everything. I totally agree about getting a buzz when you do something positive with regards to your finances.

I too have found myself giving financial advice to my sister
After being on here for a year suddenly I AM Martin Lewis :rotfl:

We should be debt free around the same time so stick around and we will help each other over the finish line :T

ShiftThisDebt

12_month_challenge wrote: »

Hi and well done for doing so well and organising everything. I totally agree about getting a buzz when you do something positive with regards to your finances.

I too have found myself giving financial advice to my sister
After being on here for a year suddenly I AM Martin Lewis :rotfl:

We should be debt free around the same time so stick around and we will help each other over the finish line :T

Yeah, that's a great idea. Looks like we're on a similar journey. Almost can't wait until payday to start the snowball payments

12_month_challenge

The snowball is whats kept me going. I sometimes get a little impatient waiting for payday too. It feels good to alter your signature even if its only a small amount.

Once you have made your first payments you will be on a roll then.

Good luck and heres to a debt free life

ShiftThisDebt

Just a quick one today but another pretty encouraging day.

The money transfer from the new credit card went into my wife's account today which means that we have the £1700 needed to get rid of our overdrafts.

So, by the weekend hopefully we'll have closed our overdrafts and I can begin to look at moving us both to a new bank account which will mean a bit of nice free switching cash to put towards paying the debt off. It's looking like £250 will be coming our way when we do that.

I'm even tempted to turn into a switching tart, as MArtin say, and look at bagging the switching fees every 4/5/6 months. Does anyone else do this?

ShiftThisDebt

Evening!

I've officially turned into a money saving / debt free chasing geek!

Last night I redesigned my spreadsheet for the budget and I absolutely love it! It's got all income at the top, then outgoings (excluding debt such as credit cards) then Credit cards and debt followed by a 'Snowballing' section which helps me plot what i need to be paying and when by following the snowball I have setup. It's awesome and so much clearer than my old budget spreadsheet, which was more a general overview rather than month by month breakdown.

Anyway, enough of that boring stuff!

What else has been happening?
Well we had to pay the builder this week which really hit the wallet a bit and we also bought 2 tickets to go and see an NFL match in October with two friends. So expenditure was a littl higher than usual.

We also have a holiday to Disneyland Paris coming up which has all been paid for, but just spending money to sort out so we'll see how the budget looks when I work out how much we'll need for food etc.

After we have been to Disneyland the only other holiday we have is 2 weeks in France in the summer but we only have to pay £250 as my parents are funding the majorityof it so that the whole family can be together so that'll be fantastic.

Aside form those things the only other really potential big expenses this year are the cars MOT due in February and Christmas/birthdays which I now have an actual budget for for the first time ever.

Now on allmy budgets in the past I have put £240 for food. However when I analysed my bank statement over the past month I alone have spent £300 in supermarkets. This doesn't accoutnfor any cash buys we've made,nor what has been spent on my wifes card. This is clearly an area I have got wrong so I am going to make sure we stick to £240 from now on. Although in February, we are away for almost a week so I'll reduce it to £180-£200 and see how we get on.

I hope I haven't bored you!It's very theraputic for me to write all this down and know that perhaps even one other person has read my situation.

It's genuinely only occured to me in the last month that I actually have had my LBM for real! I've been on this board for about 3 years but this time I feel different. I feel on a mission and I feel absolutly hacked off with the amount of money we've squandered on debt servcing in the past and it won't happen anymore.

Also, my wife is loving the fact one of us has taken the bull by the horns to sort this out. We're talkingmore openly than ever about our finances and we're 100% on the same page about it all and our approach to it.

Orange_Ena

ShiftThisDebt wrote: »

I've officially turned into a money saving / debt free chasing geek!

It's genuinely only occured to me in the last month that I actually have had my LBM for real! I've been on this board for about 3 years but this time I feel different. I feel on a mission and I feel absolutly hacked off with the amount of money we've squandered on debt servcing in the past and it won't happen anymore.

Also, my wife is loving the fact one of us has taken the bull by the horns to sort this out. We're talkingmore openly than ever about our finances and we're 100% on the same page about it all and our approach to it.

:T This is brilliant. Well done for getting there I had my first LBM about 3 years ago but I soon got bored. I had my 2nd, and final , LBM in July last year and it's totally different this time. I will be debt free!

Wishing you all the best on your debt busting journey