Working Hard Debt Diary - Here goes

amyandjon

Hello working hard... get them things listed on ebay !! every little helps im tired out ohgets paid tomorrow so will be able to bust some debt by paying some bills hehe :P all fun :P

hypno06

My focus and drive has driven right off down the road and round the corner :rolleyes:

But you can have what is left!!

WorkingHardDFW

I have a lovely day out with the children yesterday.

Only cost was the petrol which my inlaws did want to pay for but I refused. After all they are having 2 of the children next week for a few days which is a massive saving on childcare :rolleyes: .

I'm still a little phased by my target of an extra £400pm but I'm focused and motivated now and hopefully we'll achieve it. To be honest even if we only manage to bring in an extra £200 for the next 16 months that brings our DFD forward at least a month.

Of course the other issue aside from increasing income is to reduce outgoings. Again I'm not sure there is much to achieve there but you never know.

One last thing that I've not factored in is the reducing interest as the debts fall and that we will be paying more off each month. Of course as we clear each target card that leaves us more scope for better deals (dare I say it 0%) which again will have an impact on how much is cleared next week.

I think I will put all earnings from a month into the debt busting account and pay it off in a lump sum rather than as and when it comes it. I think for me the reward of paying a big extra lump off the debt will reward the work in getting the extra income.

amyandjon

morning missy ! sounds like you know what your doing so positive... lump sums do make you feel better and when your seeing intrest charged getting reduced youfeel like yourachieving something yes dont kill yourself trying or go into burnout you will be df one day and at the date you said its admirable how far you have come so very well done..... keeep it up and i enjoy seeing the ramblings of it alll x

WorkingHardDFW

Thanks for the support. Its such a long haul and although we've made fantastic progress we're still got £36k of debt to shift and we want it gone!

amyandjon

Well im thinking of trying differnt looks at it, maybe just identifying credit card debt and then loans will just deal with themselves wont they.... at a set intrest rate... only thing we need to focus on loan wise is the homeowner loan.... what do you think ?? 2 of my loans end in 2010, other loans end 2012 ? is it reasonable to just focus on credit card and home owner loan ??im feeling fed up today hehe :P hehe hows you x

WorkingHardDFW

Its what works for you amyandjon.

As you say the loans are taking care of themselves since you've got regular repayments set up for them.

The credit cards are where you can make the difference.

I've always got a target cc which is the focus of every spare penny. This is usually the one with the highest interest rate but it may be one with the smallest balance. On all the others I pay just above the minimum and on the target one I pay whatever I can plus any extra that comes in. This has helped us actually clear some cc. The feeling of a cc with a zero balance is :T .

I guess the order you pay off your CC is about how it feels to you. But getting a few debts off your list is a great way to feel motivated particularly is a debt is more achieveable.

My CC's all have hefty balances now so motivationally (is that a word) my progress will be slow in clearing one completely which is why i think i need the £400 pm to keep me motivated.

Its really about having targets which are achieveable and realistic. I know you are also trying to focus on your wedding as well as debt busting which is a difficult but you'll get there. Each day you are a day nearer your wedding and less in debt:cool:

hypno06

So do you have a particular cc in mind for your next target? If so, what card and what is the balance.....?

(sensing a bit of a head to head challenge here......:D )

amyandjon

Hiya hypno... i was starting to read your diary got lost among the pages yours sounds like a new diary i shall subscribe to get reading also i like abit of upbeat convo keeps me positive .... anyway :P thanks working hard for the advice its taken on board and i will be devising a plan later and seeing what works etc etc ... the aims to get the intrest to a reasonable cash amount each month he he x

WorkingHardDFW

My current target debt Hypno is our MBNA card which currently stands at £1,527. The reason that this is the target is that its got the smallest balance and will have from the 1/9 the highest apr (something scary now the low rate BT is ended).

After this our debt stacks up as:

• 3 cards @ circa £5k a piece
• 1 card @ £8.8k this is the next target with a int rate of 16.9%:eek:
• 1 loan @£2.8 bal & 1 loan @ £7.6k

Therefore after the MBNA card is cleared we'll be aiming to BT what we can (£5k prob) from the IF card to the MBNA card and make the remaining balance on the IF card the target? Make sense.

What sort of challenge are you thinking of Hypno?