Pay off £20,000 (ish) by Xmas 2008

moneysavingmumofone

thanks andan

pandapaws

Apart from a £2 chq for a survey that I paid in to an overdraft, I haven't made any headway on this challenge in the past month, until the regular payments that have come out over the past couple of days since we were paid. That brings my total for the challenge up to £5181, so over a quarter of the way there and a quarter of the way into the challenge - got to be happy with that!

Just a thought - are we actually counting the £20k as a £20k reduction in total debt, or in amounts that we're paying? So if you pay £100 to a credit card, but £10 of that is interest, are we all counting it as a £100 or a £90 that we've paid? Or am I thinking about it too much?!?!

happy_chick_3

hi pandapaws

i think it should be total paid towards your debt because the interest is still going to need to be paid off at some point. plus, if you go for a £20K reduction you'll actually need to pay off more than that to allow for the interest, if that makes sense?!!

I've been a bit naughty and decided to have a holiday in April which will cost about £400 all in. We've done it the moneysaving way by getting cheap flights and staying in a family members villa for a very good rates but I still feel torn about this because I know it will delay my debt free date.

Is anyone else having a holiday while completing this challenge?

alimac23

Made a couple of payments so updated my sig. Big payment to my loan comes off at the end of the month so I'll update again then. Still not much overpaying happening here. Jan/Feb are a bit lean for earnings. Hopefully do better next month!

Well done everyone, the totals are amazing and are putting me to shame

pandapaws

happy_chick wrote: »

hi pandapaws

i think it should be total paid towards your debt because the interest is still going to need to be paid off at some point. plus, if you go for a £20K reduction you'll actually need to pay off more than that to allow for the interest, if that makes sense?!!

I've been a bit naughty and decided to have a holiday in April which will cost about £400 all in. We've done it the moneysaving way by getting cheap flights and staying in a family members villa for a very good rates but I still feel torn about this because I know it will delay my debt free date.

Is anyone else having a holiday while completing this challenge?

You're probably right about the interest - although it is much harder to keep track of that as when you pay £50 off something you have no idea how much interest you've saved by making that payment and so on. Think I'm confusing myself here! I think that I can make £20k in repayments then I'll be happy anyway, interest or not, otherwise I'll get in a right muddle!!! Given that I'll be losing a bit of pay for maternity leave and we're about to move to a house that will need quite a few essentials, chances of making that target are looking less likely even though we're on track at the moment!

We're having 2 holidays this year, both courtesy of The Sun! Off to Scarborough in June for a fab 4 day caravan hol, and then to the Lakes in Sept for more of the same! My 3 yr old loves caravans, but not so sure how it's going to work taking a young baby with us - hence we're not venturing too far or doing anything too exotic just in case!

poorandindenial

pandapaws wrote: »

Just a thought - are we actually counting the £20k as a £20k reduction in total debt, or in amounts that we're paying? So if you pay £100 to a credit card, but £10 of that is interest, are we all counting it as a £100 or a £90 that we've paid? Or am I thinking about it too much?!?!

I was thinking about this a while ago and I made a deal with myself that I would do £20k in repayments but if by some fluke I looked like I was going to hit that reasonably easily (I was obviously in a pretty optinitstic mood at that point) I would extend it so that I would go for a £20k reduction in the balance of my debt to make me try a bit harder.

alimac23

I've been taking it as overall debt reduction as well, not taking off my complete payments, just what the det has been reduced by after interest.

jpwhittle

evening all. i havent been on here for ages due to be quite ill with my pregnancy. found out im expecting in september so i might find the challenge a bit harder now. i have kept up wit my normal payments though, plus made overpayments and reduced my overdraft by £200 and paid mil the £200 i owe her and a cheque for just over £1000 wich means i have some to keep to one side for emergancies or bump. so uped my total quite abit and doing quite well although not as great as others.
hoping to clear the overdraft next month then start really clearing the other debts.
oh and just realised iv paid £60 of the second overdraft. so all in all not a bad run.

thriftymoo

Hi

Can i join please?! I'd like to join to try and zap £10K i've got about £16K to get rid of but dont earn shed loads at the moment

lys

WendysWorld

happy_chick wrote: »

hi pandapaws

i think it should be total paid towards your debt because the interest is still going to need to be paid off at some point. plus, if you go for a £20K reduction you'll actually need to pay off more than that to allow for the interest, if that makes sense?!!

I've been a bit naughty and decided to have a holiday in April which will cost about £400 all in. We've done it the moneysaving way by getting cheap flights and staying in a family members villa for a very good rates but I still feel torn about this because I know it will delay my debt free date.

Is anyone else having a holiday while completing this challenge?

I've been even naughtier - we've just booked a holiday costing £1200 for the four of us.....It was a bit of a sanity check as we haven't had a holiday for a couple of years. And as we have to go during school holidays, we haven't been able to get anything cheaper. I'm justifying it by saying I've gotten a promotion and a good payrise in work. I know it's weak but we've been good with cutting back and if anything, we are now really focussed on saving money as we have the holiday to pay for!