Debit Free Diary Starting August 2021 - Target Christmas 2022! DEBT FREE Jan 2023!!

rigare11a

Good Morning All, 

I am planning to get debt free by May 2022 (excluding mortgage). This has been driven by getting refused for finance for a car based on the level of borrowing I already have. 

I have previously (in my younger days) got in some bother with payday loans and credit cards, I was borrowing one to pay the other etc. Eventually it all caught up with me and I entered in to a arrangement with Step Change (who were fab). Unfortunately it did still result in 1 CCJ which is now long gone from my credit report. 

I do not ever want to be in that place again so being declined made me step up my game and the spreadsheets came out. 

Steps I have taken so far are: 

• Money makeover including supplier switches and cancelling all subscriptions 
• Chased money owed from old Barclaycard fees - should have that in the next 30days
• Reviewed credit report for anything hidden - found a old store card with 0 balance, requested to be closed (I am sure it was) 
• Paid off one lender in full (Very) - and requested account to be closed 
• Planned my snowball / avalanche on remaining debts
• Printed Martins money mantra card and taped in to my debit cards
• Removed my card details from autofill / apple pay to avoid impulse buys
• Planned every months fixed spends until debt free
• Post it on my screen with the 'spare' income value per month I would have debt free as motivation

Additional things I will do in the coming days: 

• Look for an additional bank account to start piggybanking 
• Cancel future hair / beauty appointments - just completed
• Research boosting income - would welcome any tips
• Research saving money tips especially food shopping - this is a big expense and there is just 2 of us. 
• Unsubscribe from all those tempting marketing emails (I have started will be an ongoing mission)

I am unable to put a fancy signature at the moment so I have summarised my plan below


Very (Shopping) £796.16 Paid in FULL as of 17/08/2021

Simply Be £1463 (PP £200 PM until April 2022 last payment will be £59.86)
Overdraft £500 (PP 50.00 PM until April 2022 will pay £147.62 to clear)
PayPal Credit £600 (PP £50 PM until May 2022 will pay £198.25 to clear)

Likely Loans £2465.73 (PP £273.97 PM last payment will be May 2022)


Total debt £5824.89 at the very start of DFW Journey.
Current debt £5,028.73

Have a great day all! 

BlueJ94

woohoo welcome to your shiney new diary! I'm sure many will follow along on your journey and offer support and tips! My advice would be to boost income, look at surveys and reseach groups. Since January and until the end of this month I've made just over 1k in total. 

Where do you food shop?

rigare11a

Thanks Jade, 

At the moment food shopping is Tesco as nearest but there others in short driving distance too. Asda / Aldi etc - I have found in the past that supermarket change has not helped much on overall cost so I think I need to plan better, meals stick to lists etc. Stay away from the clothes sections too.

I will deffo check out the market research etc. I am out tonight at a friends for some food (free food yay!) but will spend sometime tomorrow hopefully signing up. 

I used to teach dance classes on the side of my 9-5 job, its not amazing money but helps so I am booked back on to cover someones maternity leave. Its just one class a week but still an extra £30 in the bank each lesson. 

shell16

Welcome to DFW! 

I too have just started my journey, I will favourite yours to keep upto date on how you are getting on.  

I dont have anything more to add as new to this myself, only I opted for snowballing and found an app on playstore to do this - debt payoff planner.  The only reason I opted for snowballing is that the interest was lower over a very similar period compared to the avalanche method. Hope this helps?

Good Luck!

rigare11a

Thanks Shell, I will follow yours too if you are doing a diary. The interest on SimplyBe is quite high so I really just need to try and plough through that first :-/ 

Good Luck to you too! 

BlueJ94

rigare11a said:

Thanks Jade, 

At the moment food shopping is Tesco as nearest but there others in short driving distance too. Asda / Aldi etc - I have found in the past that supermarket change has not helped much on overall cost so I think I need to plan better, meals stick to lists etc. Stay away from the clothes sections too.

I will deffo check out the market research etc. I am out tonight at a friends for some food (free food yay!) but will spend sometime tomorrow hopefully signing up. 

I used to teach dance classes on the side of my 9-5 job, its not amazing money but helps so I am booked back on to cover someones maternity leave. Its just one class a week but still an extra £30 in the bank each lesson. 

Yes I sometimes get that, I generally shop at Lidl, Iceland and Farmwoods. Sainsburys is my top up shop as it's on the way home from work. Agreed, definitely meal plan if you can! I find I save a lot of money meal planning for work. 

Oh, free food is always good!   

shell16

jadewest94 said:

woohoo welcome to your shiney new diary! I'm sure many will follow along on your journey and offer support and tips! My advice would be to boost income, look at surveys and reseach groups. Since January and until the end of this month I've made just over 1k in total. 

Where do you food shop?

Hi Jade. Just read some of your posts on your diary!!  Wow can't believe what you have earned in surveys!! A huge bonus!

Can I ask if your zoom ones are usually during the day? How do you get on with working and juggling surveys and zooms?

Thanks

BlueJ94

shell16 said:

jadewest94 said:

woohoo welcome to your shiney new diary! I'm sure many will follow along on your journey and offer support and tips! My advice would be to boost income, look at surveys and reseach groups. Since January and until the end of this month I've made just over 1k in total. 

Where do you food shop?

Hi Jade. Just read some of your posts on your diary!!  Wow can't believe what you have earned in surveys!! A huge bonus!

Can I ask if your zoom ones are usually during the day? How do you get on with working and juggling surveys and zooms?

Thanks

Hey

yeah I was pretty shocked also! No, more or less they’re after 4PM, I work 8.30 until 4.30 and the majority of zooms I’ve done have been around 5/6PM time, usually there’s multiple time slots so always useful

rigare11a

Good day Wannabes,

More positive steps today and yesterday included getting that extra bank account open for piggybanking, putting the spare room up for rent and opened another email to dedicate to market research etc, try to boost some more income. 

• Pending a bonus payment from work in the coming months but do not have an idea on the value yet. 
• I got a small compensation payment yesterday from Barclaycard £25 plus pending the charges back still (£148)
• I also had a ticket for a show which I can't attend which I have sold (£68) 

I don't want to jinx it but some of these steps (especially the lodger) may bring the timeline forward for being debt free! 
Righto off to apply to some of these market research companies now!  

Have a fab day all 

rigare11a

Good Morning Wannabes! 

 Had another review of my debts last night after realising that snowballing and avalanche(ing) had different approaches I also found a calculator that does it for you and my own maths was slightly off (not much) but either approach will mean my last payment would be in June 2022. 

Snowballing would mean that one debt would paid off in Nov 21 followed by the next in Jan 22 then final in June 22
Avalanche would  mean that the debts with get knocked off April 22 then May 22 and June 22 with a £86 'saving' 

* I have not included my LikleyLoan in this plan as even if I pay off early that agreed plan there will be no change in the final cost i need to pay back, plus its been really under control since I had the loan and a set amount is coming out of my bank the day after payday. 

I would be interested to hear peoples experiencing of either snowballing / avalanche. 

Positive things y'day / today: 

• Its Friday! YAY
• Swept all the loose change from around the house and collected to a jar
• Found another jar with coins (need to count and separate the euros out)
• Signed up to market research companies and applied for a few things
• Put an old printer and coffee machine on Facebook market place
• Had some interest in my spare room
• Had a good chat with my partner and showed him my plan, I am the better earner and deal with most of the outgoings as he paid the whole deposit for our house and refurbished the whole place (its just the way we work). Anyway he will be taking on all the food shopping etc

Have a great day everyone!
Rigarella

rigare11a

Just to add counted all the change £85.81 woohoo - this will be a bit of pain to get to the bank so I am going to just sit on it for a while and it will go in to an emergency fund.