The long haul supporters thread...

mumto2monkeys_2

I'm not really saving much at the moment - £50 a month which has bought the Christmas presents over the last few months. Should we be saving - I mean, seriously saving up, not my £50 fund? ( That will go again by the end of February for the MOT. Joy of joys!) I'm putting everything on my card at the moment, but part of me wonders whether that's sensible.

TEK_2

I know what you mean mumto2monkeys, we are contemplating using CC to pay for Xmas, to try & build a bit of cash in bank account. Whilst we are paying everything, we seem to be coming dangerously close to our overdraft limit each month & we also need to get a bit of cash together to get roof fixed. Not done too bad this month, paid around £300 off & that includes forking out £175 for car tax. £300 a month is the minimum that we hope to pay off each month so quite pleased with ourselves there. Will update sig on Monday, the end of the month! All the best to you all & keep chipping away!

TEK_2

Decided to do another diary on the diaries board if anyone's interested, it is called TEK's things can only get better diary.

Keeping_Positive

Ill be taking a look TEK

Pay been and gone so latest figure for me is £12974 / £17900 so 27.5% paid off in 2 years since 1st LBM. Aim to get to below £10k be end of 2010 and if I can get to under 9k that will be 50% cleared in 3 years.

Ref saving I only have the £250 I try to save each month for the annual costs such as XMAS birthday car cost etc which does help but never enough for emergencies however Im lucky that I can still use a cc or OD in those situations.

TEK_2

Thanks KP! That is some going,not far off a third of your debt paid off in 2 years. I really think that we will clear quite a bit next year, with no major events to fork out alot of cash for, well there is one major event for me, as a close relative is getting married abroad. OH & I have agreed that I can go, as long as I save for it out of my own entertainment budget, so it isn't affecting our debt. OH & DD can't go as it is DD's last year at school & OH doesn't want to take her out of school because of her doing GCSE's. Saved £200 so far & he doesn't get married til next October. Been staying in & even turning down free tickets to football matches & it doesn't seem so bad making sacrifices when you have something to save for. We are in the same mindset now regarding debt, whilst still having the odd takeaway & a few drinks now & again, in general we are cutting back the best we feel comfortable with.

tlc123_2

Hi all

I realise this thread is a couple of years old now, but I'm wondering if I can become a long hauler? I owe £38k so my DFD will be about 2015 :-(
TLC

Happytogetdebtfree

always room on here isom will give you a number, why dont you tell us abit about yourself ? xx

sallymander

[STRIKE]
Morning all
[/STRIKE] Ahem good afternoon. Hope everyones still on the wonderful road to debt freeness :j.

I a look at my spreadsheets this morning as I get paid tomorrow and unfortunately my debts have gone up a bit this month.

Beacuse Im new to this DFW world I hadn't put any money away throughout the year for Xmas and my car insurance and I managed to pay for both this month outright (well almost). My debts have gone up by £180 but I made a budget for xmas presents and managed to get everything I needed for 25p under my total budget :rotfl:.

Although I was hoping to save more than that its a really great feeling knowing that I made a budget and stuck to it and Im really pleased with the presents i got/made for half the money I would usually have spent :T. And best of all beacuse im (always) on a diet and im going to my mums for dinner I don't need to do any extra grocery shopping.

I hoping that next month wont be as expensive as it usually is because Ive got Xmas covered already and I only have to pay for the social functions (not expensive ones thankfully!) and my cars MOT. Got my fingers crossed that the MOT wont throw up any problems but because my first go at budgetting worked out well I have made an MOT one too .

Hope everyones ok and welcome to the newbies

Sally x

Happytogetdebtfree

Hi sally well done on the budget keep up the good work, always cheap to go to mums for dinner hehe

tlc123_2

About me...

Im 26 work full time, engaged (wedding on May 15th 2010) to my fiancee of seven years and we have two dogs. My fiancee is great with money and always has been, but poor him ended up with me! In total the debts are about £38k including what we're now taking out for the wedding - daft I know to get more debt when I've just signed up to be a DFW!! BUt we've committed to the wedding now.

THe debts are all over the shop, CCs and loans with loads of different providers. We're currently looking at how to consolidate them into lower APRs - such as with Tesco - we already have a loan with them so having made all the payments successfully are elgigible for a good rate of 7.9%. Both our credit ratings are ecxellent but most credit is in my name, so theyll hae to shift to my partner's now as I only have 8% free. We are lucky enough to earn decent money so we can afford the repayments, so are currenty weighing up the best ways to re jig the finances.

THis my first and last LbM and I'm determined to be good from now on - to the point where I'm not going to my friend's wedding in Cyprus in June because I cant afford it.

The plan is to start 2010 with the right frame of mind and make it a fresh start. I have a second job doing make up parties which is all bonus money, which will go straight into a savings account - for car servicing etc, the debts and hopefully to save to top up our money as we'd like to try for a baby next year and we won't bring enough home to cover our outgoings.

All in all, I'm BAD with money, but the point is Ive realised this and it's now about moving forward.

Hi to all, looking forward to being part of the group - sorry to ramble!