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My Debt Free Journey
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Hope you manage to sort it.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £2.6K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £24.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 30.1/£127.5K target 23.6% 29/7/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/252 -
I don’t actually have any interest free money transfer offers so I’ve no option other than just having to pay it with the interest. Alongside my other debts I could have this paid off (even with the interest) in around 14 months. It’s not ideal, and it will slow my overall progress down. But I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. I’m actually of the opinion to just pay it off(interest and all) even if I do get the windfall. Be a costly but hard lesson to myself and I can use that pain to remind me to never get in this mess again!3
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Fingers crossed your inheritance comes through! If not, hopefully with all the great progress you have made you get a money transfer offer soon! I used one to pay off my overdraft that had high interest rates. It charged 4% fee but saved that with the interest I no longer had to pay. Felt similar to you I should have got rid the hard way at one stage though.
It is easy to beat ourselves up in these situations and say we deserve to pay interest to teach a lesson but I really think you don’t want to be giving a penny more to these companies than necessary! Think they often are purposely designed to be confusing and difficult to decipher and at the click of a button you accidentally have signed up to terms you don’t recognise as it seems has happened to you here!Hope it all gets sorted for youDebt free November 20223 -
We've all made mistakes along the way. We call it 'stupid tax' and laugh it off.Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £2.6K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £24.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 30.1/£127.5K target 23.6% 29/7/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/253 -
I've paid so much 'stupid tax' over the years it's unreal
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Debt Free Diary:- The Mental Debt Struggle
(Original Debt on 15/07/2016 was £33,056.76) 🙈 but Debt Free on 09/02/2025 🎉
2025 SAVINGS: Emergency Fund (£604.30/£5,000) 12.09% saved
2025 CHALLENGES: #16 Sealed Pot Challenge ~ 18 || #9 50 Envelope Challenge 22/503 -
So has been a few days since I've posted an update. It's officially the day before payday and I have around £150 left (a virgin card payment of £50 due to lift tomorrow, and then I'll also pay £100 off my PayPal....After my discovery of the PayPal interest rate kicking in on August it's became my priority debt at this point. However, it can't be stated enough how big a development it is for me to finish the month with a positive balance, I don't think I've ever managed to do this in about 15 years so this is something I can be very proud of.
Next month will be more of a struggle as I don't think I'll be able to match the money I made on sales again...I do have two sales pending for around £585, but I might be able to make around 7-800 this month, but every little helps....Plus I'm still hopeful of my inheritance coming through which will help ease my main pressure of the PayPal.....I also plan on cutting the PayPal credit down....It's too easy to fall back on it, I think I've managed to clear that thing three times in about 4 years and each time I swear I won't use it, but it somehow bumps up each time....Granted the previous times, its only been 1-2k as opposed to the 4k that it stands at now.
Mixed weekend for me, car needed 3 new tyres for the MOT which cost £204 each so when I get paid I'll have to put my share back into the joint account to cover that expense. July is going to be a somewhat expensive month for me. It's my wife's birthday in October and we're going to see Robbie Williams in October so I'm going to buy the tickets. She bought them the day the came out so I will be giving her the payment as part of her birthday present....So I'm going to be down £175 already this month. Plus, despite my concerns/objections my brother/wife manage to talk me into going to a football game this season....I initially planned on no luxuries like that for this year but been talked into it....my brother was insisting her pay for the whole trip if needs be, but I wouldn't want to do that so if I put £100 away this month and next month, that should hopefully cover my share (match ticket is £50 and hopefully hotel/flights can be got for around £150).
So as I said, it was a mixed bag in terms of expenses....but the car passed the MOT and I do have something to look forward to (granted I would have preferred to put the £200ish pounds to clear the debt)........but today me and the wife managed to test positive for Covid!!! Both felt horrible yesterday but didn't think much of it until today and I decided to do a LFD test and it shown as positive....I am horrible today so took today as a sick day but I am able to work from home so if I feel better tomorrow, I'll at least be able to work.5 -
Hope you both feel better soon."Good financial planning is about not spending money on things that add no value to your life in order to have more money for the things that do". Eoin McGee2
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That's not good news about PayPal. Hopefully you get your inheritance soon so you don't pay any interest.*Dad loan - £5300 - £7200
*Virgin Credit Card - £3552.50 - £0
*Natwest - £1828.35 -£0.00
Barclaycard - £2315.25 - £0.00
Creation Finance - £960.32 £840
*Total debt - £8040/£11641.17*
Savings
*Savings Buffer - £100/£1500
*Emergency Fund - £1500/£1500
New diary- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards/2 -
Hope you both recover quickly.
That sounds expensive on the MOT and tyres but necessary expense. I had that kind of luck in the last 6 months too!Achieve FIRE/Mortgage Neutrality in 2030
1) MFW Nov 21 £202K now £174.8K Equity 32.77%
2) £2.6K Net savings after CCs 6/7/25
3) Mortgage neutral by 06/30 (AVC £24.3K + Lump Sums DB £4.6K + (25% of SIPP 1.2K) = 30.1/£127.5K target 23.6% 29/7/25
4) FI Age 60 income target £16.5/30K 55.1%
5) SIPP £4.8K updated 29/7/251 -
Day 2/3 of Covid. I feel somewhat better than yesterday. Still very drained and have periods of feeling feverish and my head still feels very sore! (Like the worst hangover ever). Unfortunately my wife who was doing better than me yesterday is doing much worse than me today.
Today is payday and whilst I knew it was coming I can say I went a full month without spending all of my wages!!!! So I made a £90 payment to PayPal credit this morning which takes that to £3928. (Nice to see this come down from a 4 to a 3!!.
I also paid it in the 102 I owed for the tyres back into our joint account and paid for one half of the Robbie Williams tickets for my wife’s birthday. I’ve also made my minimum payment on Lloyds (68.33 which is annoying as it’s still accruing interest, need to get the balance transfer done soon but still waiting the physical card I need to do the transfer) and a £25 (minimum) payment of MBNA. I won’t be clearing this just yet as the focus will be on PayPal which I will be able to clear as soon as my inheritance comes in and then I can switch my focus back to my lowest debts!
I am due to get £85 tomorrow for a sale of pair of boots and £500 for a large ticket item I’m selling to a friend. So whilst I won’t be able to do what I done last month, I’m going to be able to make some “dent” into the PayPal credit, which will mean I won’t have to use as much as my inheritance as I hope. (Realistically I’m not expecting that to come through until end of July now, as there’s been no update since last week and N.Ireland practically goes into shutdown for a 2 week period around the 12th July. It could happen quickly before then but I doubt it as nothings been quick thus far!
I will do a full breakdown on my debts on the 1st July to show the current balances. It will be nice to see (for my own benefit)it compared to the 1st June to show the progress I’ve made!8
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