Journey to £0 by 2020, with a few bumps along the way

chelseablue

Right, back again!

Sainsbury's card balance is now down to £436. I WILL pay it off next week, and the day after when the balance shows as £0 I WILL phone them and close the account.

That will leave me with 2 cards to pay off; Barclaycard and Lloyds.
Lloyds is 0% so I have rejigged the direct debit to just do the minimum each month (£43) and will concentrate on Barclaycard first

When Lloyds is paid off I will close the account.

I've also been contemplating closing my account with NEXT (balance currently £0). That will force us to buy clothes with money we actually have in the bank!

My only dilemma is I like NEXT for work clothes but I cant see an option on their website for being able to order things and just pay on a bank card, it seems you have to have an account with them to order?

chelseablue

I've set up the direct debit to Barclaycard for £1,000 a month :eek:

This will mean its paid off in November, then will move on to Lloyds.

Hoping we will be ok paying off a grand a month.
Things will improve again in September as son starts school so no more nursery fees! Will be about £230 a month better off

chelseablue

Just paid off the Sainsbury's credit card :T £436

When the balance shows as £0 tomorrow I will phone them and close the account.

That leaves 2 cards to go

[Deleted User]

Hi Chelsea,

Just caught up on your diary.

Congratulations on your wedding, I'm glad it went well.

Well done on the payments, you're doing great and will be debt free before you know it xx

chelseablue

Deleted_User wrote: »

Hi Chelsea,

Just caught up on your diary.

Congratulations on your wedding, I'm glad it went well.

Well done on the payments, you're doing great and will be debt free before you know it xx

Thank you! I've always hated debt, its only in the last couple of years that I've owed money on credit cards (I'm 35)

I really would not recommend getting married, buying a car and going to Australia in the one year!

When I've paid off the 2 cards I'll start on my car loan. Might not be as aggressive with that one, thinking of sending £500 a month to it (on top of the £136 standard payment)

Then when all unsecured debt is gone I'll start on the £218,000 mortgage............! xx

chelseablue

Lovely to see a card with a zero balance at last! Will close the account today.

Had the water bill through today, payments will be going from £17 to £22 a month from September.

Husbands birthday on Saturday and he wants to do a bbq.
I've got £45 worth of Nectar points to use so might get the food from Sainsbury's.
If that's not enough I've also got £30 on a M&S gift card.

Husband gets paid next Wednesday and I've already got a list going of stuff I need to buy:

School Uniform (son starts Reception in September)
Tyre for my car
Breakdown cover

Would love a month where we only have to pay the usual bills and nothing else but there always seems to be something else that's needed!

chelseablue

Sainsbury's credit card now closed :j

chelseablue

Husband got paid today so its the start of a brand new month!

Already spent quite a bit and its only just gone lunchtime

£92 on school uniform (son starts Reception in September so had to buy everything)
£74 on a golf club for husband (I don't understand golf but apparently he needs this particular club. 74 quid for just one!)
£20 on diesel for husbands car.
£45 on petrol for my car (this fills the tank and should last me a month)

Feeling deflated all ready I must admit.

£1,000 DD to Barclaycard comes out on the 31st and I'm determined not to change it.

Would also like to try and put £300 in savings as currently have £1,700 and would like to get it to £2,000 but we'll see

Looking forward to September when we'll be a bit better off.
Current nursery bill is £460 a month. I pay them £243 in childcare vouchers and I then send them £217 from the bank.

From September he'll be going to after school club every day, which is £170 a month.
I'll still be getting £243 vouchers so I'll pay for it out of those and will have £73 of vouchers left a month to save up for any holiday club I need

How people afford more than one child I'll never know :rotfl:

chelseablue

Had my diary a year now and in that 12 months the debt has increased

But last week I was accepted for a Virgin Money card that is 0% for 30 months on balance transfers and money transfers so have managed to shift most of our debt onto it.

I did a money transfer from it of £5,000 to pay off the car loan I had with Nationwide.
I have paid this off today so this frees up the £136 a month I used to pay off it.

So now all debt is split over 2 cards as follows (both 0%)

Lloyds: £3,928
Virgin: £10,579

Direct debit is set up at £370 to Virgin which will mean its clear before the 30 months end.

chelseablue

I moved £500 to savings this month so now have £2,200 saved in a easy access account.

Plus my S&S ISA hit £6,000 this week.

Husband wants to meet me at Sports Direct after work as he 'needs' a golf jacket.
He saw one on their website he liked for £32 which isn't too bad I don't think??
Hopefully its in store!

2 weeks until payday and there's £566 in the bank, but there's still a couple of bills to come out.
Child benefit gets paid on Monday so that'll be £82 coming in