I’m just a dreamer. 31 January at 11:53PM in Debt free diaries 7 replies 216 views

Bluelights22

‘After all, there's only just the two of us
And here we are, still fighting for our lives
Watching all of history repeat itself
Time after time’


Well, here we are folks, the road to financial recovery. 

I am a 25 year old male, and have had bad spending habits since I started working at 16. 

I have never budgeted properly, and have managed to accumulate about £15K worth of credit card debt. At this moment in time I have a few things going for me. 

#1 all of my debts are either 0% interest or very low interest. 
#2 I still live with parents 
#3 I have a good, secure job for my age. 

Feel free to join me on my journey to becoming debt free. 

My debts as they stand on what I am classing as Day 1 of the journey to becoming debt free are as follows. I won’t be including things like my car, as that is paid off in a little over 12 months, or things like my mobile phone contract etc, I’m just focusing on my credit cards. 

I also am saving to move out, so I will update that as we progress through the ranks. 

I have a few financial commitments that I had made for trips to Europe before I planned to get my finances in order, so I will keep a bit back for those. 

CC#1 £2716.77 0%
CC#2 £5248.03 0% 
CC#3 £7505.21 0%

CC TOTAL = £15470.01

HOUSE SAVINGS £2320.23
EMERGENCY FUND £709.20
TREAT TIME POT £0

I will update these totals every time I make a deposit/payment, and I will also post any tips I find useful as and when. Let’s do this! 

SueP19

Bluelights22 said:

‘After all, there's only just the two of us
And here we are, still fighting for our lives
Watching all of history repeat itself
Time after time’

🤣 I did chuckle because this is so us but we are 55 and 56!!! 

Good luck on your journey, look forward to seeing you beat them

Bluelights22

SueP19 said:

Bluelights22 said:

‘After all, there's only just the two of us
And here we are, still fighting for our lives
Watching all of history repeat itself
Time after time’

🤣 I did chuckle because this is so us but we are 55 and 56!!! 

Good luck on your journey, look forward to seeing you beat them

Thanks sue 😁😁 I think little and often is going to be my key to success! Thankyou for the support. 

Bluelights22

Step one, 

I am sacrificing my daily trip to the sandwich van at work and I have bought a packed lunch. There’s the first £4.50 saved 😁 

CC#1 £2716.77 0% 0.128% paid off
CC#2 £5248.03 0% 0% paid off
CC#3 £7505.21 0% 0% paid off

CC TOTAL = £15470.01

HOUSE SAVINGS £2320.23
EMERGENCY FUND £709.20
TREAT TIME POT £1

movement- 01/02/2023

0.128% paid off on CC#1
£1 added to treat time savings. 

SueP19

Yay your first steps 👍 on the sandwich van

Might be worth you doing an SOA (statement of account) to see if anyone can help trim your budget 

WinterWarrior

Welcome blue lights. You have become sensible a lot earlier than lots of us did 😁 For me, I would save a small emergency fund, then smash everything into paying off the debts and only then start the house savings. Starting with a clean slate you would soon get your savings back up. 

An soa is a good idea…and you can definitely save loads by avoiding the sandwich van ⭐️

foxgloves

@Bluelights22 - Just to say that deciding to make packed lunches for work days when my husband & I first started debt-busting saved us around £2k a year!! Shocking once we'd added it up!
You have had a wake-up call about the problem of debt way before we did. I was in debt from the age of 19 to 46. The lightbulb moment arrived in my early 40s. Clearing debts before looking to buy a property is the sensible way to go, as lenders look at your existing debt commitments & usually deduct that amount from what they are prepared to lend you. You are still living at home, you're working - this should give you an opportunity to hammer your debts hard & build some kind of emergency fund. Take this opportunity & nip the overspending in the bud before your debts increase......because they will, if you don't start budgeting properly.
Good luck with your mission,
F

shell16

Welcome to the DFW Board!

Well done on starting this diary, its a good first step and good that you are tackling this problem with Credit card debt early on.  Do you have a bank overdraft?  If you do, clear that as priority as the interest rate is shocking and banks can call that in at any time.   As others have said my LBM came in August 21 after being in debt for many , many years.  Im knocking on the 50's door next year so I wanted to be debt free before that date.

If I have any advice for you, It would be to budget properly.  Look at your bank statement spending for the last 3 months and those average figures will give you a base to set your budget.  These things are not set in stone, and will need to be tweaked along the way but a budget is the absolute key!

Good luck on your journey!
Shell x