Just Keep Swimming...

dfwprincess

as a little wise blue fish once said just keep swimming, just keep swimming - what do we do we swim. I feel this has been our mantra for a while - and will be so for the future, as we will need to just keep swimming along this debt free path and knowing at the end is a debt free future and the ability to save for our own house!

But first more about the situation - I'm not sure where to start I've had my lightbulb moment a few times - I guess in the past it's been more of a flicker, or the dimmer switch not being fully on but now I believe it's fully on (or at least I hope so!)

My and my OH owe quite a bit, in fact I'm not sure I can even bring myself to type the number out yet so for now lets just say it's **,***...

The frightening thing is I can't see where all the money has gone, some went on our wedding and Honeymoon which was scarily over 3 years ago (this is in a loan paying that back) and we do have a newer car, we also had to move house due to our old neighbours causing issues which has added and also means our income to go towards our debt has lowered as these increased our normal everyday costs, but they were needed so I don't begrudge those. The remaining **,*** however I don't know where it's gone - which is very upsetting.

However now the switch is firmly in bright positioning lets look to the future... I am currently sat with bits of paper everywhere and a cuppa, trying to work out where we owe, minimum payments, interest, end dates of deals, and loan end dates. Nearly got all of this so can now re jig and do our budget with the aim of clearing as much as possible in 2019.

I'm not going to post a SOA - we're already doing as much as we can budget wise and we're left with a nice chunk to pay of the debt - it's just now figuring out the order to pay it in.

Reading everyone's diaries on here I feel much better for knowing a) we're not on our own and b) some have had higher figures then us and have got rid so it really is possible!

This is more then likely a rambling so for now I shall leave it here - I can't promise it'll be a very exciting diary, not much does go on and only really my cat who can cause crazy stories but I'm hoping by having this it will help make me more accountable for the pennies. After all the pennies look after the pounds...

thanks for reading if you got to the end of this! x

dfwprincess

So after siting and crunching the figures, seems some of our 0% deals will end before we thought they would, we also can't get new ones as our credit scores and files are awful (used credit club to check)

We have two loans (one wedding related, one from before me and OH moved in together) that end in early 2020, once these end we will have nearly £600 a month to plough on the other debts, we just need to get to that part.

Moving in the past six months hasn't helped our scores, but hopefully if we chip away as much as possible in a year or sooner we will be able to move some around and just lower the interest we're paying.

I've signed up to yougov to try and get some extras this way, and I've just sat and done a chart of 1% so I can see when we've paid it off - will colour in each one.

So far this month we've paid 2.5% off, which is great, small, but slow and steady will hopefully get us there in the end.

Good luck to everyone in there journeys!

teafor2

Hi dfwprincess. Just popping in to say hello. You seem to have a grip of everything and know what you need to do so I'm sure you'll make good inroads into your debt in 2019.

I do Prolific surveys and it mounts up quite nicely and like you say the pennies look after the pounds. I like the idea of your 1% chart, think I'll make something like that for myself. I like a good visual especially in pretty colours

dfwprincess

The chart is good, loved seeing that two had gone straight away. Plus helped make me feel like a dent had been done in the debt.

motivated

Hi dfwprincess

Also popping in to say good luck in your journey.

You seem to know what you need to do to take you in the right direction. I like the idea of the chart too. I have bits of paper and note books and with everything written down it helps keep me motivated when I can tick another months payments off etc. However small the payments you make it's a payment off the total so progress is progress.

I have subscribed and will be swimming alongside you on our debt free journeys Now and again the air might leak from my arm bands and I may go under under couple of times but will paddle away until I am treading water again

Good luck
M

H.DebtFreeWannabe

Good luck, it sounds like you're moving in the right direction.

I was so scared of seeing the number and admitting to it but now I'm focused on getting it down every month.

Mum.Wife.Me.

Hi,

Just wanted to pop on and say hello! sounds like we have had very similar days, as I have also been sat with my note pad working out a plan for the next few months. I think the 1% chart is a great idea, I find that small targets seem a lot less over whelming and more manageable! Good Luck, I looked forward to following your journey x

pidge04

Good luck! Have you got anything you could sell on eBay/Facebook marketplace? I found that helped me to feel like I was doing something everyday to try and reduce my debt when I first started here.
I agree - I think those visuals can be really helpful. I always have a list of figures and totals in a notebook which I find myself looking at constantly! I like to see those numbers going down!
All the best.

dfwprincess

Mum.Wife.Me. wrote: »

Hi,

Just wanted to pop on and say hello! sounds like we have had very similar days, as I have also been sat with my note pad working out a plan for the next few months. I think the 1% chart is a great idea, I find that small targets seem a lot less over whelming and more manageable! Good Luck, I looked forward to following your journey x

Thank you, it really does, and it's nice to see the small amounts are making a dent and slowly getting us there! Good luck on your journey x

pidge04 wrote: »

Good luck! Have you got anything you could sell on eBay/Facebook marketplace? I found that helped me to feel like I was doing something everyday to try and reduce my debt when I first started here.
I agree - I think those visuals can be really helpful. I always have a list of figures and totals in a notebook which I find myself looking at constantly! I like to see those numbers going down!
All the best.

We're going to go through things today and see if there is, I've tried eBay before and ended up losing a little as didn't work out postage right (my own fault!) but will give it another go. Good luck on your journey

motivated wrote: »

Hi dfwprincess

Also popping in to say good luck in your journey.

You seem to know what you need to do to take you in the right direction. I like the idea of the chart too. I have bits of paper and note books and with everything written down it helps keep me motivated when I can tick another months payments off etc. However small the payments you make it's a payment off the total so progress is progress.

I have subscribed and will be swimming alongside you on our debt free journeys Now and again the air might leak from my arm bands and I may go under under couple of times but will paddle away until I am treading water again

Good luck
M

Same, I have glitter pens in a hope sparkly ink might make not seem so scary :rotfl: I made a rounding down payment last night only £2.04 but all helps!

ThNank you, I think mine may go down from time to time, but if we just remember to keep paddling hopefully we I'll come out pros the other side :beer:

dfwprincess

H.DebtFreeWannabe wrote: »

Good luck, it sounds like you're moving in the right direction.

I was so scared of seeing the number and admitting to it but now I'm focused on getting it down every month.

It is very scary I was a bit like :eek: but now I know what I need to aim for it does make it not as scary. Good luck on your journey

dfwprincess

So yesterday I made a rounding down payment of £2.04 only small but all helps! We also checked our Euro million ticket... we won :T only £2.70 but means we technically are 20p up yay! :rotfl: every little helps! Going to have another go and pop the 20p in our loose change tin.

Today's plan of action is to take the Christmas decs down, have a good clean up and sort out of our things and see if we have anything we can sell on eBay/facebook. My OH suggested a car boot one day so we shall see what our sort out brings!

I'm hoping the cat stays out the tree whilst we're sorting it, whilst we was putting it up the silly cat was trying to climb up it... not sure what it is about xmas trees and cats but they sure do love them!

Today will be a no spend day so that's good, aiming for a fair few of those over the next few months! Will report back later, have a good day everyone!