Head out of sand time! £63k to zero!

Sunkencosts

Hi there, we look like similar amounts /time scales, so will join you on your journey - good luck!

Bigskies

Well, this week has been fairly busy so far, I’ve not doing any massive money saving, but have sold a few bits on eBay which has gone into the general money pot as this is along month and things are always tight. There always seems to be an odd £10 here for something with one of the kids, and an extra £20 for a trip, or something we need to buy here and there.
The clothes I’m selling are ones I’ve slimmed out of, and am buying a few replacements, also on eBay, but seem to be in profit, so that’s okay!
Things feels bit slow at the money as I’m quite busy with home and family, so no real time to hang around on here, but also nothing is shifting in the debt stakes as waiting for the next lot of statements so I can post reduced totals (hopefully!) Problem is, with the number I am dealing with, the reductions are likely to be in the tens of pounds, certainly to start with, which is also depressing when you are paying huge amounts of repayments.
It’s all about keeping that motivation going, which is hard.

Bigskies

Have decided to put some targets for 2018, to try and keep me on track.

2018 Targets
Reduce debt total by £10,000 to £58,000 (which is still MASSIVE, but less!)
Move mortgage to new fixed deal in April
Move repayments from loan 1 (222/month) to emergency savings fund when loan end at end of March and not fritter away on crap! :cool:
Not to book any holidays AT ALL, even ‘cheap’ ones for 2019 until finances sorted at the end of this year and we know what we will be paying for Uni from Sept 2019 :eek:
Use eBay sales of the endless stuff we have cluttering up the house to pay for house jobs that need doing, and not put on credit.
Do mileage/expenses claim EVERY month at work on time.
Not to buy any new books until read all the ones I have in ‘to read’ pile.
To save money EVERY MONTH for Christmas so don’t end up putting it on plastic. :mad:

Repayment 0/10,000
eBay sales £0
Mileage/expenses claims FMAMJJASOND
Christmas 2018 savings £0
Emergency Savings Fund £0

EscapingTheAlarm

I think your goals look really good! You should work out how much interest paying off the £10,000 will save you! That sort of thing keeps me motivated mid month! I’ll be cheering you on!
ETA x

Bigskies

Well things are going okay, still have money left at the end of the the month so far so good! Normally we’ve started on the plastic by this time of the month.
Have been selling a few bits on eBay and Facebook, which is covering a few bits and bobs like Slimming World fees and the odd coffee out. Went to London wit’s my son on Saturday for a classical concert that was part of his Christmas present and some of the eBay money paid for the train and a meal out, which ordi airily would have come from the grocery budget, leaving us stuck for the last shop of the month!
So all in all, feeling quite positive.
Waiting for the last credit card bill to land so I can tot up how much weve cleared this month off our total......every single card has reduced this month. Not by much, but none of them will have gone up, which is amazing!

enthusiasticsaver

I thought I had not seen you posting for a while. Sorry the debt has gone up but you are doing the right thing by just focusing on getting back on target. Clearing £10k this year would be great.

My suggestion would be you focus on building up an emergency savings account and stop using the cards altogether. Your debt is too high to continue using them regardless of what you are spending on them and you won't then be tempted to spend because you will not have access to plastic apart from one debit card. You need the emergency savings account though as a backup for when you have unexpected bills. I would also urge you to post an soa.

Bigskies

Thanks enthusiasticsaver. I agree that an emergency fund would be great, actually is more like essential. We have a loan that finishes in March, and I’m considering using that money to put away for emergencies such as dead washing machines and so on! At least to accrue a couple of thousand and then the funds can go towards overpayments on debt. I absolutely agree that we need to stop using cards completely, and at the moment we don’t have any buffer if anything goes kaput.

Treadingonplaymobil

Great idea to build an emergency fund - we haven't (yet) and it has scuppered us at several points over the past year, as we've never been able to build up savings pots for annual expenses because they keep being used for emergencies! Our new budget has a paltry £50 a month or so going towards emergency savings, so hopefully it will start to build this year.

Bigskies

Treadingonplaymobil wrote: »

Great idea to build an emergency fund - we haven't (yet) and it has scuppered us at several points over the past year, as we've never been able to build up savings pots for annual expenses because they keep being used for emergencies! Our new budget has a paltry £50 a month or so going towards emergency savings, so hopefully it will start to build this year.

Yes, for us it’s things like my eldest’s bus pass -£180 a term. Previously we’ve tried to put money away, but had to use it for something urgent, then needed to put the bus pass on plastic. I’d planned to use the £200 from the ending loan to throw at the debt, but after listening to you and enthusiasticsaver, I’m definitely going to use it to build up an emergency saving pot.
We do save, hubby’s work run a 10 year saving plan that you pay into every month and each year you start a new one. Think we’re up to year 7 now so in 3 years time it will start to pay out annually which will be nice! But obviously the money is tied in for ten years so no use for emergencies!

enthusiasticsaver

Ideally you need at least 2 savings pots. One for emergencies - which is just what it says really. Something that goes wrong that is essential like a car repair when you need the car to get to work or boiler repair, washing machine breakdown etc.

Things like bus passes, Christmas, school trips, insurances, birthdays are all foreseen. You know when you are going to need to pay out so you need to budget and put money away for it.

That is as important as paying down debt as paying off a lump sum from the credit card then spending on it because you have nothing put aside is self defeating.