A Payment A Day Keeps The Frustration Away

Legacy_user

To explain, I am really frustrated at how slow this debt free journey is. My head is finally in the zone, I have a budget, and numerous piggy bank accounts. I have paid off a couple of smaller debts in the hope that it would give me momentum (which is has), but I am seriously annoyed that I'm not seeing much progress. I am thinking about trying to make one payment a day towards my debt. Maybe a week (weekly pay) would be more manageable? Does anyone else do this? And if so do you find it helps to keep you motivated? :wall:

sourcrates

Hi,

I assume your on a debt management plan, it can be frustrating seeing the debt slowly coming down, I too found that, as I have little in the way of patience, so I opted for insolvency instead, however my total debt at the time was nearer to 60k, so I would not recommend that route for you.

I suppose it’s the old advice really, try to increase your income, and/or lower your outgoings, pay it off quicker, no magic solutions unfortunately.

Good luck with it.

tealady

Hi
Just a couple of thoughts.
Firstly have you read the opening post in the threas Eleven years a slave, I found it inspirational (I am no longer in debt but could easlily put myself back there)
Secondly there is a thread for payment a day, have a look on there. It is on the Debt Free Challenges board

HTH

Jayfam

I use percentages as a motivational tool, when I make a payment it gets entered onto my graph but seeing it slowly increase helps me see how far I've have come :j:j:j

System

Sour, no not on a DMP or any sort of plan. We're a one income family and already paying as much towards our debts monthly as we can afford. Over paying our credit card by 3 times the minimum payment a month.I'm starting to feel really deflated though because it's not coming down quick enough. Juat want it gone. I feel that if I could see the debt decrease daily it might make me feel like we're making progress.

Tealady, yes I've read it. 11 years is a frightening amount of time. Have not seen that thread. Will find it immediately. Thank you.

Jay, that is a brilliant idea. Our car finance app shows how much we've paid off in percentages and this actually really helps to keep us positive. Will do the same for our credit card. Thanks!

System

Heya,


Yes, I would say make a PAD (Payment A Day) if you can. Some ways that may help include skimming your bank account, so for example if one of your bank accounts reads £100.85 available, you could 'skim' the 85p and pay that towards your credit card, or if it read £105.90 you could skim the £5.95 and pay that towards your credit cards.


Or if you used your credit cards and had a balance on it before you used it, you could pay back the money used at £5 extra, or maybe make £5 daily payments (or whatever number suits you_ - I do this. Same applies to making payments towards other debts you may have


Hope that is useful, do let us know what you decide, and definitely have a look at the Payment A Day thread.


Also, could I ask what your different piggybank accounts are for?


I have quite a few myself and always open to new ideas.

System

Thanks Sweetcake, this is what I was thinking but we have lots of NSD. Last week we had 4 NSD. I can definitely do this on the days we do spend money. I used to have one of those savings account that automatically saved your loose change.

I really would like to do some surveys but I don't know if I can be bothered with the whole tax side of it.

We have 5 bank accounts and 1 savings account:
1. Spending (our pay goes in here but I only keep enough in there for the week)
2. Bills (DD come out of here so we put enough money is on here to cover those and a tiny bit extra)
3. Yearly Payments (put money in here to conver yearly car payments and insurances inc home and pet)
4. Christmas/Birthdays (money is paid in here every week)
5. Personal (again paid in every week to cover clothes, hair and dentist)

I have worked out our budget based on my DHs lowest wage (it varies depending on hours worked) and then any extras goes in a savings account.

Eventually I'd like to have a rainy day fund and an emergency fund but we haven't got that far yet

System

DebtFreeDreams wrote: »

Thanks Sweetcake, this is what I was thinking but we have lots of NSD. Last week we had 4 NSD. I can definitely do this on the days we do spend money. I used to have one of those savings account that automatically saved your loose change.

I really would like to do some surveys but I don't know if I can be bothered with the whole tax side of it.

We have 5 bank accounts and 1 savings account:
1. Spending (our pay goes in here but I only keep enough in there for the week)
2. Bills (DD come out of here so we put enough money is on here to cover those and a tiny bit extra)
3. Yearly Payments (put money in here to conver yearly car payments and insurances inc home and pet)
4. Christmas/Birthdays (money is paid in here every week)
5. Personal (again paid in every week to cover clothes, hair and dentist)

I have worked out our budget based on my DHs lowest wage (it varies depending on hours worked) and then any extras goes in a savings account.

Eventually I'd like to have a rainy day fund and an emergency fund but we haven't got that far yet

Hmmm, I guess it depends on what you count as NSD's? If I've understood correctly, are you saying you want to make PADs only on NSD's?


For me, I count going a day without physically spending money as a NSD, but that does not include bills that may come out, so I take lunch from home with me to work, and go to work come home , and provided i'venot spendmoney on petrol or bought anything (th, that's a NSD for me.


I do have an EF account, and for every NSD I have I had an extra £1to my EF (on top of what I put into it monthly).


Regarding NSDs on payday where quite a few things have gone out, then I deffo don't count this as a NSD even when I have physically bought anything.

System

NSD are days where I don't spend any money from the spending account. Most weekdays are NSD as I'm a SAHM and DH takes his own lunch to work.

System

I'm saying that if I send my loose change over to debts there will only be loose change on spend days.