Slowing after a sprint start!

MissyS · 27 March 2021 at 8:55AM

My true LBM was December 2019 with an aim to be ‘debt free by 2023’.
There have been numerous false starts over the years - I have printed off so many repayment plans and never stuck to any of them but this time it’s been different. So far.

After calculating a snowball and really looking carefully at our finances we adjusted to a pay off date in the first half of 2022.

Well so far we have stuck to it rigidly but it’s starting to get tricky!

All of the ‘easier’ small debts are gone. All the ones where you really see a quick win are repaid and we are left with two big credit cards and the dents in them each month are not very big and this is what I’m finding hard.

We started off with debts of over 34k!
So far we have paid off:
Overdraft 1 - £1000
Overdraft 2 - £2250
Sofa - £700 was left
Car - £7000
Credit card 1 - £2750
Credit card 2 - £1750
Credit card 3 - £800
Store card - £3500

We now have £19k left on two credit cards.
One has 9.5k on it with a limit of 10k (0%)
The other has 9k on it with a limit of 12k (not 0% and the one we’re focusing on first).
It really does seem never ending at the moment which is the reason for starting this diary. Hopefully having to update this will keep me going for the next year. I am so used to sending my £1500 a month to something and then being able to close it or knowing there’s one more payment left and seeing it barely change the balance each month is much harder but I must keep going!
Thanks

[Deleted User] · 27 March 2021 at 9:02AM

Good luck on your journey x

ste82 · 27 March 2021 at 9:09AM

Great work so far, impressive list you’ve crossed off!

astrocytic_kitten · 27 March 2021 at 9:45AM

You’re doing really well! When I was in the slog of paying off a big balance I found focusing on mini goals was really helpful to keep me going - hitting milestones of percentage paid off, getting to the next 5k bracket, that sort of thing.