This Duo's debt free journey 20 September 2017 at 8:43PM in Debt free diaries 841 replies 43.1K views

DebtFreeDuo

I had a previous thread but having problems locating it so thought I would start a fresh one. Brief intro, the duo is me and my little one, just over a year ago my debt was at a figure of around £12k, as of today it stands at £6124.40. This is made up of 2 loans (one car) and one credit card which is 0% until April 2019.

My aim is to save up over the next 6/8 months so that I can overpay 6 months worth on the loan with the shortest term, this will clear the loan completely as the last payment is December 18. Then I will tackle the second loan which is due to end April 19, I aim to clear this by around December 18 and then clear the 0% card last but well in time for the 0% ending.

I can't do much until January, I'm currently studying and therefore get my income 3 times per year which I use to overpay, I have just cleared £1500 which is all I can manage until my next payment. This includes a monthly saving to my Help to Buy ISA. I have around £4k in my ISA but I am reluctant to use this to clear my debts as I will earn more back on this then I will save in interest with the governments 25% bonus.

I have gone over all of my monthly bills and I am certain that I cannot make any further savings than I have made recently. I am currently listing as much on ebay as I can to give me a little extra money for treats that I haven't included in my budget up to December.

Will update my signature shortly but as it stands my debt free date is April 2019, I aim to bring this forward to Dec 2018 at the very latest.

UncannyScot

Hello and welcome aboard
All here to help each other
You need any advice or info or support on something just post up and someone will be along to help out, we're kinda good like that ;D

Hiddenidenity

Hello

Good luck on the journey look forward to following x

DebtFreeDuo

Nothing big to update but I feel like I need to keep on top of this diary to keep me focused. I haven't had a great few days (not money related) but I'm doing what I can to minimise my spending. I have a limit of around £500 to get me through the next 3 months, this is to cover food, fuel, gas and electric and any other day to day spends plus christmas presents. Hoping to sell things on ebay and also use swagbucks to try and increase this, almost have £25 on my swagbucks account to cash in. Today I am feeling stressed and fed up.

Tea&Kittens

Hi Duo
Sounds like you're doing a great job managing things, look forward to following! xx

beanielou

Happy shiny new diary
Keep posting!

Rachel24

Hi debtfreeduo, try prolific academic too for surveys as it pays well. You're doing great getting your debt down so much.

DebtFreeDuo

Thank you all for your responses, I will have a look at prolific academic as I have seen it mentioned a couple of times on here, swagbucks can be a bit hit and miss but I've earned a fair bit from there, I have around £100 sitting in my amazon account to use for Christmas from the last few months of doing it.

I've had a couple of NSDs, feeling a little bit lost so I haven't been tempted to spend money on anything. We are going to see my dad this evening who has suggested he will order us some pizza so today will likely be another NSD and I imagine tomorrow will be too. I go back to university on monday and plan to use my bike as much as possible to save on the cost of parking and fuel although I am a little nervous about this as I haven't used it in such a long time and especially at busy times on the road. I'm still feeling a little down but I think going back to university will help, it doesn't help that I have come down with a cold that has really knocked me.

My goal until January is to not go out of budget, all of my bills are covered so just food, fuel (hoping to keep to a minimum with my bike), gas and electric (hoping to use my swagbucks each month as I am on a pre payment meter) and then day to day costs.

I have the following to make it through:
£373.74 moved over to savings account so I don't touch my current account
£50 coming back from plusnet from changing broadband provider
£108 in amazon account to hopefully get me through christmas
£25 due from my brother as we went halves on my dads christmas present

Its going to be tough but hopefully I can make a little from ebay to help boost it a little. Worst case I do have a 0% overdraft which I don't want to touch if I can help it. I'm going to get myself out the house, this should help improve my mood a little.

DebtFreeDuo

I'm feeling much more positive today, think I've managed to pull myself out of my low mood. A NSD yesterday as planned and today I'm only leaving the house for 10 minutes to make a quick drop off so will be another NSD, will also be able to cash out on swagbucks today which I will use to top up my electricity, this should give me around 60 days on my smart meter as I already have about 35 days worth, just another 30 days or so to get (another £25 on swagbucks should do it), I also have gas to work on too and hopefully I can get a little more put into my amazon account for Christmas. Swagbucks is really helping fund 2 of my big things I had to tackle within such a small budget.

Monday I need to grab some food bits which I'm hoping to keep to a minimum, I always struggle with my food shop, I can never resist buying things that I just don't need. I'm going to write out a shopping list for monday and only buy the things on the list, I will remind myself how much of my budget I will lose if I give in to temptation.

DebtFreeDuo

I'm winning today, wanted a coat for my LO for school as his rain coat is a bit thin now its getting colder and I didn't want to send him in his lovely (quite expensive but worth it because its going to last at least 2 winters) winter coat from last year now that hes in reception (I know these things get ruined or lost), so I got on ebay and won one for £4.10 including postage, the best part of this is that I had an email from paypal a couple of weeks back giving me £5 to spend before the end of the month so the coat was free! I just wish I could have upped my bid to the whole £5 to give the seller a little extra seing as I won't use the extra 90p.

In about february/March I decided I was going to attempt the £2017 in 2017 challenge although I haven't wrote this anywhere just my own spreadsheet, I'm currently on £1073 so I'm doing pretty well considering I thought I would start it and then give up after a few weeks. Been having a look through some of the challenges and think I've decided that I'm going to go for the £10 a day one in October although I will probably start smaller, this will certainly help me achieve the other goal plus give me extra spends for Christmas.

HairyHandofDartmoor

You're doing well DFD. It can be hard to be upbeat when you've got debt and a tight budget. I had a low mood yesterday and I know that spending always cheers me up, but managed to resist and I'm glad now.

It's not easy when you're studying and have a little one but you seem really focused and you WILL get there .