Holy moly!!

Crikey123

Happy new year everybody. The christmas break went so quickly and I am gutted to be back in work, but also really looking forward to making 2018 my year of debt busting. I have also decided to have a major declutter this year, which in some way I hope will help with the debt busting because I will try to sell as much as possible. I have already put a few things on ebay again and when the weather gets a bit better I will do a few car boot sales.

On the debt note, my debt hasn't increased over christmas, which I am very pleased with. I have updated you need a budget and all looks good for this month, the standard bills have come out (mortgage etc) and the minimum payments are covered, so for the rest of the month my OH's weekly wages will go towards overpayments, groceries and fuel. I already have enough fuel in my car for the next 2 weeks though & we have enough food in the house to last us a while so I will keep some of these budgets to overflow into next month.

Drawingaline

:T this is for no new debt over Xmas

Mumoffourkids

Happy new year to you crikey. And well done on getting through Christmas with no new debt.

Also I wanted to say I got confirmation from Tesco that I am entitled to a refund of ppi. I got a letter between Christmas and New year saying they were going to give me £1811 and take that off my debt!. It was only reading your diary that made me find the letter and put in a complaint. So thank you for writing about it and reminding me to put in the complaint as it has really kick started my debt repayments!

Crikey123

Thank you both, I was so pleased with myself. The good thing is as well I have started budgeting some savings each month for Christmas too so this month I have used that money to get a few things in the sale to put away for next Christmas. Seems a bit mad shopping in January for Christmas 2018, but I already have 3 people finished for less than half the price it would cost later in the year, so I'm quite pleased with myself.

That's fab news Mo4K, I'm so glad I have helped somebody in a way It definitely all helps & hopefully it will keep you motivated now seeing that balance reduce.

I have found a few more things to put on ebay. I'm going to put them on there on Thursday evening on a 10 day auction. I've got some stuff ending this weekend, 2 of them have bids on but 2 have nothing. They've had views but no watchers, so I don't think they are going to sell. If they don't sell, I will relist them once but if they still don't sell after the second time I will put them aside for a car boot sale later in the year.

I've got all my you need a budget up to date and everything is looking fine. At the moment I'm on track to pay around £1700 towards the debts, that's without any ebay sales. I've already paid £280 of that because they are accounts that need paying before 15th of the month, but the remaining amounts are all due at the end of the month. All of them are on Direct Debit, most of them for fixed amounts which means I'm always paying above the minimum amount anyway, but 2 of them are set to pay the minimum on DD then I pay any overpayments manually. I do it this way because then if something unexpected happens & I need the overpayment money for something else, I can just adjust my budget.

Crikey123

Not much to report here at the moment. Some of the stuff I put on ebay sold, all posted and transferred the money to my account now to pay off a card. I will put some other things on there next week, I wanted to put some on last night to get use out of the 10 day listing and 2 weekends worth of views but I had a lot of running around to do last night so didn't get chance. I really need to get this debt down quicker, it's such a burden!

Crikey123

It's been a few weeks since I was on here, I'm surprised how quickly January has gone. It was payday for me on Friday so I have my budgets set for February. I have also made all January over payments towards my debts. Felt good paying a total of £811 off one of the credit cards this month. I also paid £920 off all the other debts, so a total of £1731 paid off altogether. I did sell a few things on ebay but ended up having to use that money for some other things that came up, but I'm pretty happy with how much I've paid off this month anyway so not going to stress over that.

I'm very pleased to report that I haven't used my credit cards at all this month. There were a few evenings when I did browse the internet & put a few things in my basket, but something stopped me clicking through to checkout.

It still feels very slow getting the balance down but I know I have to stay motivated and keep on top of this, so I've decided to set myself mini targets now & promised myself a small treat when I reach each mini target.

So my first target is:

The interest bearing credit card has a balance of £4.8k. When I get that balance below £3.5k I am going to treat myself to a new scented candle. I love having candles lit in my house & did have a few for Christmas, but I know that they will run out soon, so it will be a nice treat to have a new one. I think if I can make payments at the same rate as I did this month, I should reach this target in 2 months. I will then set myself a new mini target.

wishingthemortgaheaway

Excellent debt busting in January wo hoo. And mini treats sound good.
(What about trying to 'earn' the money for the candle from 3bay, or surveys or something? -double whammy and very mse???)

Crikey123

Thank you wishing, I was very pleased with myself. I've done my budgets for February and looks like I'll be able to pay around £1400 off the debts this month, but I might be able to increase this if I get anything else sold on ebay.

I started doing surveys just after Christmas & recently managed to redeem a £10 voucher for Amazon. I might start doing more surveys while I'm watching TV in the evenings, they're not difficult and it's just a little bit extra that I can spend on Christmas or birthday presents. In fact I might see if I can buy all family (not including OH & kids) birthday presents with vouchers. I have 6 birthdays throughout the year, not including my kids & OH, and they are all quite spread out over the year so I think that is achievable.

Crikey123

Very pleased with the £130 I got for sending one of my old phones to Envirofone. It was so quick, I set it up last Tuesday, got the prepaid envelope last Wednesday, sent it back Thursday, had a text yesterday saying it was processed & the money was in my account today. I know we have a few more knocking around the house so I think I'll get them sold as well. I know I could get more for them on ebay but with such high value items I would worry too much about all the different scams I hear about, so I'd prefer for my own peace of mind to just go through one of these phone recycling companies.

With that £130 I have given myself a little bit extra grocery budget because I know towards the end of this month I am going to run out of things like bleach, fabric softener etc so will stock up on all of that. I also put a little bit aside for a big school trip that my daughter has later this year & the rest I have allocated to debts, which means my original £1400 payment has now increased to £1480. I want to try & get this up to £1550 with some ebay sales.

I did a few more surveys today and on one of the survey sites I use I am close to being able to redeem a £5 voucher, however on this particular one it works out better to try & hold out for more points & get a £10 voucher because overall it uses less points per £ if that makes sense.

I also switched our gas & electric suppliers last week, which I forgot to mention. I have been meaning to do it for a while but just kept putting it off, but I had some spare time the other day & just got it done. Based on my annual usage they estimate I will save around £400 per year, which is amazing.

Crikey123

I put some things on ebay on Thursday night on a 10 day auction. Some of them have bids on already but I hope they get more throughout the week.

I haven't done a lot else towards debt busting. I've had a few no spend days and have joined a challenge on here. I've also done a few surveys but not redeemed any vouchers yet, hopefully I will get to one soon.