D - 16 Months

savingholmes

The important thing is that you are still heading in the right direction. Well done.

Money_mess

Thank you all for taking the time to reply! You are right that it's all going in the right direction and so that is the main thing.

To update since my last post I've now cleared a debt of £225.
This means that from when I started my debt free journey in January 2018 to today I have gone from 13 debts to 6 and paid off a grand total of £11,131.48!!

My current debt total is £15,863.03!!
I can't believe it. Getting close to 15k feels like an enormous milestone and it's spurred me on to keep going, once the debt is gone we can really save for a house deposit and buying our own home is so important to us. I really feel like we can do it!

Current situation is that we are 10 days away from payday and have 100 for groceries and 15 pound to top up the petrol. This will be doable as I barely use the car now it's school holidays and DH will use the buses for work (his seperate budget).
The groceries will be fine if I stick to the plan and only use Aldi. We have so much food in including batch cooked meals in the freezer. £10 per day is more than enough.

Next month will see us reduce the debt by £236. I'm not sure what overtime will be paid but if we can find an extra £127 then we will reduce the debt to 15,500. Which would be nice!
However as of next month I've seriously started with my savings pots
100 to yearly savings for the car mainly as the Mot and service due in October
50 to the credit union to start the EF back up
150 to the Lisa for the house deposit savings

There is also 2 big birthdays and uniform to buy so I'm being generous with my budget to account but hopefully will come in under budget and be able to put that towards the extra 127.
I do feel quite happy to have the challenge ahead of me anyway to keep me focused.

Have been through all my uniform I have put away and so only have a short list to buy. Thank God for hand me downs!

Money_mess

I have a debt of £3298.14 that was very but is now with pra group.
For a long time I paid £1 com but have more recently paid £10pcm. Anyway I got in touch and offered a full and final settlement that was ridiculously low and they counter offered with a 20% discount saying I could partially settle for £2638.71.
Anyway I have asked if they would accept £2000 paid over 6 months. I'm not sure if they would go for that but I thought it's worth a try. I'm.going to.lower my payments back to £1 in the hope it will help.me get a settlement figure. This was for Very where I know a huge amount of this debt is their 40% interest so to get a discount would be really good. Will keep trying.

I plan to do the same with my debt for next eventually as well as I've been paying them £1pcm for over a year and it's defaulted so with any luck can get a discount.

Money_mess

Still not been food shopping. Put £20 in the car in the end, so £95 for food shopping with 8 days until pay day.
Won't need anything until Friday, as using up stocks in the freezer etc and it's amazing what you have in when you actually look!
So will do a plan for next week and shop at Aldi on Friday.

Still feeling great about the debt progress, it's made me feel really positive reaching the 15k bracket. It's the lowest our debt has been in years and years.

So just have to keep plodding on

Money_mess

Update on the debt I mentioned above that I was trying to get a discount on , is actually with Lowell not Pra group. But anyway. They have offered me a 20% discount which would save me £659. I asked for more but theybwont budge.
I'm in two minds now as £659 is a lot but maybe I could get a higher discount if I wait it out a bit longer?
As in continue to pay £1 pcm until January and then try again?
That way I can focus on cleaning the 2k overdraft on the meantime instead.
Ok I think I've made my mind up and will wait and see, it's just so tempting to reduce my debt total but the £659!

I'm paying £1 pcm and £5 pcm on two other debts as well so if I wait it out until new year maybe I could negotiate with them all.
Going to have to buy a few bits food wise today after all but no more than £10. Will shop at Aldi tomorrow. Only 7 days until my new budget starts

Money_mess

No real debt busting updates except for spending minimally.
Made easier by dreadful weather all week.
Been using up food, freezing bits and trying not to waste anything. Had lots of bits from stuff we grow ourselves.

Have my shopping list ready for when Sainsburys 25% goes live next week, for school uniform. Will save a lot. Bought a kids pass trial for £1 today for a couple of cinema treats for the rest of hols. Put a reminder on my calender to make sure I cancel it in time.

Everything just needs a lot of thinking about. I just wish I'd always thought about it out of choice instead of waiting until it was necessity and then we wouldn't be in this situ. But hey ho.

Going to go BlackBerry picking at some point today and fill the freezer as well as make some jam.

DebtFreeMonkey

Sounds like you have a nice Sunday planned! Enjoy it

Money_mess

Debt total 4th August was 15,863.03
Today one month later is
£15,630.11
Not down as much as I'd have like however it's DOWN and that's the main thing. There was no overtime pay in August but will be in September.
We have 6 seperate debts now.
My next target is the £2000 overdraft this is charging the most currently and my plan is to pay it off and close it by reducing it each month.
My forecasted budget doesn't take into account any overtime pay but has this overdraft reduced to £1200 by christmas. However with overtime im hoping to be under 1k.

Savings totals
Emergency fund £30/£1000
LISA(for house deposit) £0/15,000 (not a priority atm but will start to add small amounts for morale)
Yearly expenditure £70/£5000 - this is for over the next year however will fluctuate as different bills are due. We have decided to put £450 aside monthly to cover all car related costs, Christmas and birthdays, school trips and uniforms, and holidays/trips. This is an over estimate but I'm sick of not having enough to pay upfront for tax and insurance and panicking about car services and Christmas. So we will see how we get on. I've managed £70 this month dueto to only decided this new plan of action mid way.

Not much to say really. I'm hoping to make more headway with the debts and the EF in September. Trying so hard to be frugal and make conscious financial decisions. Will be easier now the kids are back in school I think.
Hoping the weather will perk up as I'm getting nothing dry without the tumble drier atm.
Cooking from scratch and lots of product from what we've grown so that's helpful but will start drying up soon.
Need to start thinking about Christmas and buying things to.put away bit by bit

Money_mess

Just worked out that we have paid off £11,364.40 in 18nmonths.
More than that in total but I only started tracking it properly 18 months ago.
So pleased and it motivates me that we can get the majority or the outstanding debt gone in the next 12 month's.

[Deleted User]

Great progress, and it's normal that the debt repayments slow down once you start saving. However, it's so reassuring to have some savings - and it stops you from increasing debt by dipping back into credit cards or overdraft when unexpected things happen.

I got rid of my overdraft about a year ago and it's great - so nice to see your actual bank balance all the time rather than just a big fat minus a couple of days after getting paid!