Stop wasting money and be debt free in 2019!

FlamingoGirl

Hi Everyone,


I am a very longtime lurker on these boards since I paid off my first lot of debt over 10 years ago (I also used to lurk on the Motley Fool forums if anyone remembers those).

Anyway, I have got myself into a bit of debt due to general overspending over the last few years and not really doing anything to tackle it. There is no reason why I shouldn't be able to pay it off this year if I focus.

My current debts are:
Halifax CC - £444
FD CC - £3,617 (0% interest for another 18 months ish)
Total - £4,061

I have budgeted £500 per month to pay towards the debts with a DD of £250 going to FD. The main challenge for me will be sticking to my budget so I can pay off the £500 and seeing if I can save in any other budget areas to throw the extra at my debt. Once the debt is paid off I want to save up a nice healthy emergency fund.

I am terrible for frittering money away so I have tried to implement a no spend January. So no clothes, books, going out or expensive work lunches, which has worked well and I have been able to pay a decent chunk off this month. I would really love to get down to the £4k mark in January so am trying to continue the no spending to be able to throw another £61 at the debt!

February's challenge will be to see if I can clear the Halifax CC (£250 payment budgeted and the rest will be by saving in other areas)

It's hard to keep up the frugal motivation so I hope that having this diary will keep me on the straight and narrow

doingitanyway

Wishing you well with your ventures

pidge04

You can do it! Smash this!

enthusiasticsaver

You sound focused so I wish you well. When you have cleared the debt or even alongside clearing it building up some emergency savings might be sensible. From the sound of it though your debt has come through general overspending on wants rather than putting emergency costs on credit. You can clear it in 8 months if you keep up that level of repayment then effectively you get £500 back each month after that. Will you be upping the DD to FD to £500 once the Halifax credit card is paid off?

Sea_Shell

If you're disciplined, save the money and earn interest rather than pay off the 0% card now. Then pay it off in when the deal expires.