Operation Debt Clearance

Lacherlich

Hi

I had a thread on here that was deleted as someone had reported it for no reason - and apparently the forum policy is just to delete with no option to recover it.

Oh well - I wont go into all the details now; but essentially I started my debt clearing plan in July after I bought my own apartment. I had around £25k of debt; but since then it had creeped up to around £30k with purchases for the apartment and a cheeky holiday. My current debt now stands at around £21k; so i have still managed to clear some vs what it was in July. The plan is to have it all paid by April next year - so just over a year. I can pay off around £1600 a month towards the debt - but means i need to stick to a strict budget. (Which i tend to go over....) Im allowing myself £50 a week for 'additional' spending such as meals out and socialising; but have been struggling with this!

I dont have any additional big spends planned for this year as my holidays are all booked etc. Plus everything is now done in the apartment. Time to really focus and shift this debt

sapanda

Nice - Sorry to hear about your other diary, from reading a few it seems to have happened quite a bit.

I've just started my diary and planning on using it as a public account of actually getting this debt cleared!

Hope you manage to shift it before your expected date

Lacherlich

Yeaah - a bit frustrating but oh well. Still feeling pretty focused - but a diary does help! Although when I think that 8 months has passed already since I put together my plan it makes me feel a bit disheartened that i still have over £20k debt!

April will be a good month as it should drop below £20k

Good luck with your debt busting - ill have a read through your diary

TeaRex

Sorry to see your thread got deleted. I would be a bit disheartened if that happened to me!

Good luck with the debt busting! Once there is a 1 in the front of the total instead of a 2 that will give you a boost!

Looking forward to seeing your progress

Lacherlich

Hey.

Thanks - its going to be a couple of months before it drops to a number starting with 1; but still feeling pretty determined.

Im looking at consolidating my debt now. I wasnt going to at first as thought i could manage what debt i have separately and snowball it; which I can - but I have debt across 10 different sources so its a bit crazy to have all those numbers whizzing around in my head. I think having the one would be so much easier. My current debt is split between interest and no interest; whereas the new loan does have interest... but only marginally more expansive than what my current debt would cost me over the same time period.

So im going to do that. Plus... Ive kinda been kidding myself a bit as owe a couple of close friends money which I wasnt including in my totals; as was putting that off until the rest was gone. Silly I know.. but now i have everything considered in this; will close down all of my credit cards etc and then focus on the one loan. I can still may off by April/May 2019 which is the same as my original plan.

And i know - I WONT accumulate any more debt elsewhere; as often is the trap after consolidating. Ill close down all available credit sources open to me once consolidating so I cant be tempted to dip in future.

Lacherlich

Wo - its been a while since I last updated this!! But i have been working on the debt since my last post. Ive still been motivated to clear my debt; but been distracted by my summer holidays since etc (which to be fair i did stick to my planned budgets more or less). I did overspend a bit on other things (birthdays trips etc) - but this has now been paid back and I've still reduced my loan.

The loan is now down to just over £20k; so £5 down since consolidating everything. Now going forward each month ill be clearing an additional £1000. So £1400 in total.

Planning to have the majority of the loan paid by July next year. My friends all turn 30 this/next year so were planning a trip. But i wont be booking anything until 50% of the debt has gone; then continue to clear it before we go away. That way I can celebrate being debt free more or less and being 30!

But overall i feel a lot more in control than I did before; im honest about what i really owe; and its all in one place which is way better!

Lacherlich

Overpaid £1300 this month. Potentially more to follow.

Means it will be a tight month but i have put in place some cheap plans so im not tempted to overspend.

Roll on next payday! Only 12 months to go now to clear it - which doesn't actually feel that long now!

beanielou

12 months is not long at all.

ftbwannabe

12 months will pass in a flash! And we'll be richer with more spending cash each month, hurrah! Well done, hope your tight month is going ok.

Lacherlich

Woo so after my overpayment of £850 this month my loan is comfortably below the £20k mark; mini-milestone!

Ive adjusted my spend budget a little to allow a bit more breathing space as found i was struggling to stick to the old one. Last month was tight and unfortunately had to put a couple of food shops on the credit card... so have factored this to pay this off too. But with the bigger spend budget i wont need to use it again.

Lacherlich

So I have been pretty quiet on here; but have been working on paying off my debt in the background

My loan now sits at just over £16k; and will be below the £15k next month. Overall, slower progress than I anticipated but its definitely coming down from a total of around £27k back in April. I dont have any other credit card/ OD debt any more and am focusing on keeping my debt in one place. Rather than move it from one place to another!

Still a long road ahead and aiming to have it cleared by the end of this year now.

A few changes to finances over the last couple of months; firstly I have my 3% payrise (every little helps); plus I have switched most of my day to day spending onto an AMEX card. I wasn't going to do this at first as the thought of a credit card didn't sit too well with me given my issues with debt! However I am using it in place of my current account; which I pay off in full each month. The benefit is the accumulation of points; especially some of the introductory offers. I've also found spending this way has helped me budget more effectively. I know how much I have spent each month and then clearly know how much is left over to pay towards my loan on payday. The only trouble is that AMEX isn't accepted everywhere so I have to take that into account on my budget tracker. But all good so far!

Im also starting to look at moving jobs this year. Long story short I wasn't given the pay/job title review I was promised; and have been told this could take up to 6 months to be reviewed again. Given the fact I am already doing the job but without the title etc; has annoyed me somewhat!

Anyhoo; lets see what the new year brings! I have already had a few calls; so who knows - maybe this could help with debt busting in the future!