12 months of hard graft to become Debt-Free.

RandomOne

Hi All

I'm new to the MSE forum and thought I'd start my diary to track my debt-free journey. I have a total of £11,324.37 debt that I want to pay off in the next 12 months.
I have written a realistic budget, but still have no clue how I'm going to pay all of this debt off in just 12 months.

£2.5k of that is interest-free, the rest is quite high interest. I'm aiming to pay the higher interest debt off first. 

I am married and have 2 older children from a previous relationship. I am a carer for my younger son, as he is disabled. This severely limits how much I can work. At the moment I can only work part-time, which is not helpful for paying off this debt. I'd like to come up with ways that I can make money from home.

I have a BIG problem in regards to how much money I like to spend on food. This is where I waste most of my money. Technically I should have £500 a month leftover after all of the bills are paid, but that almost always gets spent on extra food or Starbucks. 

So those are the 2 main areas that I'm going to tackle. If I tell myself that I can never have a Starbucks again, I know I'll want one. So I'm going to just limit myself to one every other weekend when my husband is at work. 

In regards to lowering the food bill, I've joined the grocery challenge on the OS board and am just about to write an inventory of what I have, and a meal plan for breakfasts, lunches & dinners for at least the next few weeks, using what I have in the house. 

In order to pay off £11,324.37 in 12 months, I need to make monthly payments of £945...YIKES!

LegoHead

I tried not spending money on mcdonalds, restriction doesnt work in my opinion.

Best thing I did was get a Monzo card and every friday I would pay myself an allowance into it. This card I use to spend on absolutely anything I want. Mcdonalds, amazon, ebay anything. I set myself a low budget of about £30/week. Once it runs out you have to be disciplined and just wait till the next friday for your allowance again.

Trying to completely cutout the little pleasures straightaway is setting yourself up for failure. I have now almost got to the point where I don't waste my money on rubbish each week. I still have my McDonalds on a friday morning but I also feel pretty good getting to end of week and still have some cash left in the pot.

It also completely removed the guilt of buying stuff I dont need. The reason being is a gave myself permission and a budget that is within my means to buy stuff I dont need. I know that if I waste the whole lot each week I haven't actually caused myself issues with the rest of my bills.

RandomOne

Hi Lego. 

I agree, restriction doesn't work for me either. That's why I think a Starbucks every other weekend instead of 3 a week will be a better idea. So I still get some yummy coffee, but not as often. 

shell16

Hi and welcome the the DFW forum.

Well done on posting here you will get some very knowledgeable people posting to help along the way. 

Im only 7 months into my debt journey and there have been wobbles along the way, but I am super focused and realistic.  To pay off that amount in 12 months is a risky target to set yourself.  I know why you have done this but I think you are setting yourself up for failure.  You already mentioned about limitations to working in view of being a carer.  You need to be aware of how that debt came about, what you need to do going forwards to stop using credit from now, day 1 and also to set yourself a realistic budget.  Budgeting is a difficult task I think it took me 3 months to get mine to work for me.  

Can you post a SOA so we can advise further?  You also need to factor in an Emergency Fund, most like to aim for £1K but personally I set mine lower at £500 and boy have I used that fund a couple of times already!

Starting a new debt journey is a positive one, so please dont take to heart what I post, all is posted with good intentions, but please in order to make this work for you, set realistic mini goals.  SOA will assist with further help from the forum.

I have subscribed and will be cheering you on.  Good luck!
Shell x

RandomOne

Hi Shell.

I've already cut all of my credit cards up and built up a 3-month emergency fund, so I don't have to worry about that thankfully. 

You are right, it's a very ambitious goal, especially when I can't earn any more money, it'll be all about cutting expenses instead. 

To be honest, it has taken me almost 6 months to get to this point of writing a realistic budget. I tried to cut out every single thing in the beginning, and that definitely did not work! The budget I have now is a result of the past 6 months worth of mistakes and figuring out what is actually realistic. 

RandomOne

Good Morning

I spent only £35 on food this week. Partly because my house is FULL of food, and partly because I meal planned for the first time in ages. I need to stick to my meal plan this week. I often get too tired by the time I get home from work, I just phone up for a takeaway. So I think I'm going to meal prep a little bit too. 

I'm sending out invoices today (I'm self-employed) and will put all of that money (about £400) onto my CC, which means I'll pay a total of £900 this month. The minimum payment is £300, so that's a good overpayment.

I also earned an extra £200 in March, as I picked up an extra job. This might become a regular job if I can fit it into my schedule. Because I haven't factored this money into my budget this month, I think I'm going to save it in my Emergency Fund as I want to build it up at the same time as paying off debt. 

I want to have a dedicated notebook to write my budget in every month. I think I'll have a look through all the notebooks I own already and find one to use every month. I also want to write down what my budget will look like when I'm debt free. Maybe that will inspire me!

joedenise

Could you do some batch cooking of meals so that you have HM ready meals in the freezer so if you feel too tired to cook when you get home from work you can get something out of the freezer to reheat rather than calling for takeaway?

If you can get yourself organised a bit more then you can get a HM ready meal out of the freezer before work so that it is defrosted by the time you get home so it will be even quicker to cook!

Good luck with clearing your debt but it's a big ask to do it in the timeframe you've set yourself.

RandomOne

Thank you @joedenise, that's a great idea about the batch cooking. I'll do that this week. Organisation has never been my forte, so I really need to work on this. 

Yes, it's definitely a big ask but hopefully, I can manage it. Honestly, it won't be the end of the world if it takes a little longer, but I want to aim high and go from there. 

RandomOne

Good morning, it's been a while since I posted! I have been paying my debt as quickly as possible, but the reality is that I need a new job.
I have been offered 2 jobs and am not sure which to take. 

*Job 1 is permanent, but only 25 hours a week. It's a long commute for that many hours (30 mins) and it's every weekend, both Saturdays and Sundays.
*Job 2 is only temporary (Christmas job in a supermarket) with scope to make it permanent if I prove myself. Plenty of overtime if I want it, but the main hours are early mornings. The commute is 20 mins, and I have Sundays off. 

I'm not sure which to take. My husband says to go for the permanent one, but I don't want to work every weekend (9-6 days) every weekend. But it is permanent.

It means I'll be able to pay an extra £500 a month towards debt, which is what I really want. I've managed to sort early morning care for my disabled son, so Job 2 would make life easier, especially if it turned into a permanent job. 

I'm still struggling to get a grip on food shopping, so that is a work in progress. But all in all, I'm ticking along, paying off debt, and life is good.

[Deleted User]

I personally think go option 2, remember its getting that work life balance right as well as working, and like you say if you prove yourself there's the chance of a permanent slot, and worse case there isn't then you have the experience to go work for a different retailer if there is one nearby...

vampirotoothus

Hi I think job 2 as well. Will you be able to reduce your shopping costs (is it a supermarket, or Christmas costs as any discount will add to the overall rate of pay if you are only spending on things you will buy anyway). Well done and good luck on the rest of your journey Vx