Aiming to pay off overdraft by 2021

ToPostAnon

Hello :wave:

I am hoping a diary will help with staying on track. I currently have an overdraft of £1400 which is about to increase to 40% and I need it gone.

Also have very £350
Lloyd’s £1500
M&S £1800
Aqua £150

Trying to be :A but not very good at doing the right thing and very lazy.
No spend day today and not very much money left to pay day.
Bills are about £850 and income is £1850 so I should be doing much better than I am.
Need to get a handle on this and get things sorted.

Socajam

If bills are £850 and income is £1850 how do you use the 1000?
You should be able to save 300 towards an emergency fund and use the 700 to clear you debts.
You could clear Very and Aqua in one month - that two bills gone in one month

charlotte1988

Good luck!

I find keeping track of what I spend (App or with pen and paper) helps me cut down and pay more towards debts.

ToPostAnon

Thank you. I know I should not be in this situation. I am going to pay the aqua this pay day and reduce the overdraft by £125.
The very is 0% so I am going to leave that for the moment but it’s day will come soon.

no spends today and hoping to get out of going out on Saturday which would help a lot.

ToPostAnon

Charlotte 1988 what app would you reccommend please. I don’t tend to have a lot of apps mostly just food ones but I imagine this would help.

charlotte1988

ToPostAnon wrote: »

Charlotte 1988 what app would you reccommend please. I don’t tend to have a lot of apps mostly just food ones but I imagine this would help.

I have tried a few, but I prefer the app 'spending tracker' (it has an image of a brown wallet). I like that I can set up my incoming/outgoing payments and see where I will be in a week/month/year.

Undoubtedly I will probably try a different one in a week though :laugh:

FtbDreaming

With the new interest rates coming in April id probably prioritise getting rid of the overdraft prior to then... £400 a month left on it would have it clear for April.

When i asked to reduce it years ago they said they would do a full credit check every time they reduce it: i don't know how true that was but i ended up just keeping my overdraft. Im seriously thinking of bringing it down to something small in time for April though.

ToPostAnon

Thank you. I got the spending app. Will see if it helps.
I would quite like to get rid of the small aqua card and then get this cancelled. Then focus on overdraft. I’m not sure I can manage £400 a month.

Spent £16 on food shop earlier but didn’t get very much. Trying to keep February free of unnecessary spends.

ToPostAnon

2X no spend days today and yesterday
Small payments to aqua and M&S to round them up - not strictly necessary but works better for me.

Going to reduce the overdraft by £100, it’s a small start but looking at next months spending it seems the best thing to do.

Doing the 365 days penny a day challenge, seems to be going well. Hopefully a low spend weekend and week then payday Friday 24th and a much needed night out in London. Having said no to everyone for what feels like foever I am really looking forward to going out and letting go for a night but need to be tight for the next week.

enthusiasticsaver

I would definitely focus on the overdraft and get rid asap if the rates are going up to 40% in April.

badmemory

What are your charges now for your overdraft I'm sure it isn't free? If you were in it for the whole month at £1400 it will cost you less than £50. So yes get rid of it (you can keep the overdraft limit without ever going into it).


The charges you save can then be snowballed into your other debts. The most important thing to remember about overdrafts is that a bank can call them in at any time, they are not like other debts where you need to pay a minimum per month & as long as you stick to that you are fine.