The Journey Starts

frostie101

Hello
At the moment I cannot declare the full debt total, it's just too much, so I am going to start with what I want to achieve in 2020.
Which is to repay:
CC1 £150
CC2 £250
CC3 £600
Loan 1 £718
Loan 2 £2300
Total £4018
Repayments currently £200 per month
(£2400 for the year have a further £1618 to repay which is £31 per week £135 per month
or Daily £4.43)
Think I am going to work on the daily figure and try to repay that extra using money from ebay sales etc.
Should I start with the small CC1 £150 first?

Iwantanewlife

Hey!
Happy New Diary!

I know you said you dont want to declare all your debts, but are these ones your smallest? is that why you've chosen these?

There is two methods, smallest amount first or highest APR first. By doing smallest first then you get quick wins that can make your motivations better, by attacking APR first you should pay less interest. I had to do a mixture of both as my biggest also had a ridiculous APR attached, so i hit that first, then when that was gone i moved onto smallest, then worked my way through! May be worth being brave and listing them all, with APR's then the kind people (who are far more experienced than me) will be able to help you as they did me. Good Luck!

frostie101

Hi
Thank you for replying.
It just happens that these are the smallest but also the loans are the ones with the highest APR. Everything else has a lower APR than these.
Thank you for your best wishes.

Iwantanewlife

Well then if it were me, and they have the highest APR, start with the smallest, then once that’s done roll the money onto the next one plus that ones minimum payment, then keep going with each one as you pay the last one off. It’s called snowballing. I’m not great at explaining but google it, there’s loads of info and even calculators to estimate your debt free date. It gives you a bit of a plan and direction!

When you feel a bit better about it, post a SOA on your thread, the guys here will really be able to help you to make sure you are getting the most out of your money that you possibly can. Honestly, they were a god send to me!

frostie101

This month is truing out to be a not much in the way of paying debts but more surviving.
Hopefully next month I will be able to start repaying over the minimum amounts and making progress.

SillyBovary

January is always tough but with your change of mindset you are on the right track. That first over payment, no matter if it's small will feel so good. I'm only at the beginning of my journey but it's been great to see the numbers going down. I should be under 18k next month which is good progress for me.

savingholmes

Good luck on your journey - keep posting - it will help you stay on track.

Eyebright

Keep going with it Frostie and keep posting. Logging onto MSE everyday reminds me of what I want to achieve and keeps me focused on clearing my debts and building up an EF. :money:

I'm at the start of my journey too, and for January I focused solely on 1) Clearing my small overdraft 2) Not adding to my debts/ending the month in the black.

I've been paid today so now I can concentrate on the next steps, which for me is creating a budget that I will stick to, to stop me overspending and to find areas I can cut back to create money to go towards saving for an emergency fund and then start overpaying my debts. It can feel really frustrating at the start of your journey as all you (or I certainly do!), is want to throw lots of extra money at the debts, but it's so important not to rush into it, and to ensure you have a solid budget in place, so that when you do make an overpayment, you know you aren't going to leave yourself short at the end of the month. Otherwise you will struggle, and end up adding to your debts, which defeats the purpose of what we are doing!

You've set yourself some clear and achievable goals for this year, which is the first step. Now sort out your budget so that moving forward you are in a good position to meet your goals. I'll be cheering you on and will subscribe :j

frostie101

Yipee
One down CC1 Gone made some extra money and rather than spend it I paid off this debt.
5 more to go in 2020
Feels good. 

[Deleted User]

My way does not work for everyone......  you have to be really dedicated; with the help of my bank manager I consolidated  all our debts, which at one point were £20,000+ Paid off everything with the loan and then started chucking any spare money at the loan. I kept one credit card and made sure I paid it off every month.  I cut our food bill down to £25 a week, just two of us we managed fine. Cut our meat consumption by having at least 3 meat free meals a week but I always did a roast Sunday meal, that often gave me enough meat for at least one other meal and if it was chicken or lamb the bones went into stock for soup which we had at lunchtime. I also put the same amount of fuel in the car every month, if the fuel ran out we just did not go out. It was hard and I did think at one time we would never get there but we did. I bought a bottle of Bucks Fizz when we paid the last payment on the loan. Once the loan was paid I started putting the money into a savings account for any emergencies.  
Last year I was able to pay for POA's for both of us, the year before we prepaid 2 funeral plans.......so all eventualities are covered. Our family will not have to face what we did when my MIL died and we had to pick up half the £4500 bill for her funeral.

Sarahwithlove

Well done on that quick win. I'd recommend tackling the highest interest ones now.