Washing Away My Debts By 2024

LittleMissDetermined

Bloody fabulous update! Well done you and congratulations on the pay increase 
LMD x

Squirrelz92

Once again it has been quite a while since I last posted regarding my debt free journey! As always, life happened and I have been so indulged in getting my debts paid off I have neglected my diary I can safely say that this will be the second to last post relating to my journey as I am now on the final stretch to banishing my debts for good, 2 months ahead of my goal time too! 

Right, onto the monthly good stuff ...

Mortgage Overpayments
I have decided to temporarily stop making £50 overpayments to my mortgage. I feel this extra money is better suited to being put into paying off my debts.

Capital One CC1 - PAID OFF IN FULL!!!! 
Original starting balance - £2300
Paid off in 3 months. This £100 DD was cancelled and added to my minimum payment to my last remaining debt, CC2.


Tesco CC2 - £4397.74/£3106.73 Paid Off 70.64%
I have been paying £140 a month minimum DD made up of all the other DD payments from previous debts once I had paid them off. The debt snowball has worked wonders and I can definitely see why so many people praise the Dave Ramsey way of doing things! Since my last post in July, I have managed to pay off a huge £3,106.73 from my balance leaving me presently with only £1,291.01 left to pay!!!! I am soooo damn excited to be so close to the finish line! Every last penny from the last 2 months worth of pay day eve's has gone into clearing this clingy disgusting debt and it feels sooooo good to kill it off in huge chunks!

Emergency Fund
Reading my goals for my emergency fund from my last post, I did just what I said I would and I opened a high interest savings account and transferred my £500 into there. Its easy access which I much prefer as I still intend on throwing all my pay day eve leftover funds into this for the few months after becoming debt free to build my 3-6 month EF in full My target fund will still be around £4,000 which will see me through 3.5 months worth of essential bills. I am deliberating whether to stretch this to £5,000 to account for food shopping also for the same time period. With my new salary increase I believe this should take me 3-4 months now but as we all know, a lot can go sideways in that time so I think I may end up stretching it to 5 months just in case. 

I have tried a few ways of earning a little extra money, mainly being Prolific. I have earned £15 over the last day or so which I shall withdraw closer to the time of paying off my last batch of debt on 24th October. 

Cannot believe in 23 days I will be officially debt freeeeeeeee!!!!! It cannot come soon enough as I have sooo many plans which I am dying to get my teeth stuck into.

LittleMissDetermined

It's the final stretch for you now, these 23 days will fly by!  Then you can enjoy your money, because it's yours! 
LMD x

Squirrelz92

Back with a small update  

Managed to get to £24.40 on Prolific and gave in to withdrawing and putting it onto my last remaining CC. My DD of £140 is due to also hit the CC tomorrow bringing the leftover balance to £1126.61. 

Hoping I can get a few more surveys in to lessen the final hit on the 24th Oct when I pay the balance off in full. It will be a tight one this month as I took my partner and the kids out to a lovely restaurant we have been wanting to try for a while so that set me back £93. I also decided that I was no longer going to wait to buy myself some new knickers and a pair of jeans. The one pair I do have I sadly cannot fit into anymore and I have been putting off buying a pair that fit since starting this debt free journey. I have felt soooo guilty for buying myself a pair its insane. You get so used to not spending anything because you are determined to throw everything at your debts, and the one time you know you need something and purchase it, it feels as though you have just cheated and broken all your efforts At least I know that this only confirms my determination to beat these debts and soar onto the stage stage of my FIRE ambition!

Edging ever closer to writing my debt free post ..... 15 days and counting!!!!

lucielle

Not long now!
L

Squirrelz92

Another tiny update.

Managed to make another £8.27 on Prolific so have just sent that across to CC2. This leaves me with a balance of £1118.35 to pay on the 24th Oct to become debt free forever!!! 

Cash is looking to be very tight so I am praying I can find the extra pennies needed to clear it. Might have to do a few extra studies! Every little helps. Luckily I still have a fairly decent buffer of £340 in my energy pot so worst case scenario, I will use some of this to clear the debt as I have more than enough to use as a buffer through winter alongside my regular monthly contributions.

LittleMissDetermined

Only a week to go... it's fantastic how well you have done

Sarahwithlove

Almost there. Hopefully you'll be able to make up the difference. 

Keedie

I'm just catching up with diaries, and it's so good to see how far you've come @Squirrelz92! I can't believe (well I can), that you're so close to the finish line. Keep going and enjoy the freedom of being debt free (I can't wait to get there myself). Did you get some jeans? I hope so.

Squirrelz92

LittleMissDetermined said:

Only a week to go... it's fantastic how well you have done

Thank you!!! It has definitely paid off grafting like a workhorse saving everything I can to pay these awful debts!

Keedie said:

I'm just catching up with diaries, and it's so good to see how far you've come @Squirrelz92! I can't believe (well I can), that you're so close to the finish line. Keep going and enjoy the freedom of being debt free (I can't wait to get there myself). Did you get some jeans? I hope so.

Hiiii @Keedie! Hope you are keeping well! Thanks so much I shall definitely enjoy writing my post on the Debt Free board and having an extra £140 a month freed up to put towards the start of my 3 month EF! I definitely did buy those jeans Still feel guilty for spending it though as that would have made up part of the last funds I am trying to scrape from somewhere to pay it off in full on the 24th. x