Debt free by 2024

QuietOne

Sorry I'm terrible with titles but I am going to use this as a record of my progress. Around this time in 2017 I was around £35k in debt and not earning a great deal which made it much harder.

Fast forward a few years I am just over £11k and I want that to be £0 by the new year

Here is my debt as it stands now.

Tesco loan - £6,408.66 and paying £376.98 p/m + £691.13 over payment from May
Barclaycard - £329.69 - Will pay in full in May
Virgin credit card - £1,900 - Paying roughly £300 to £400 a month
Currys Your Plan - £549 - BNPL and needs to be cleared by Dec before interest is added
O2 tablet - £940 - £23.50 a month
O2 watch - £266 - £9.50 a month
O2 phone - £612.48 - £21.88 a month

Loan - I am hoping to have this cleared by the end of Oct'
Barclaycard - Will be paid off next payday
Virgin credit card - Hoping to be cleared by end of Dec'
Currys BNPL - Cleared by end of Nov'
O2 tablet - hoping by end of Dec'
O2 watch - hoping by end of Dec'
O2 phone - hoping by end of Dec' and not planning to upgrade

So yeah.. Let the journey begin

enthusiasticsaver

Good luck on clearing the debt.  Presumably you will be paying around £1500 each month to debt then? Have you done an soa (budget) and do you have emergency savings?  You seem to be on top of it though so look forward to cheering you on. 

QuietOne

Thanks, ES

I haven't done a SOA as my monthly income always changes depending on how much overtime I do. But usually between £2200 and £2600 a month.

For example, My last pay was just shy of £2,300.

Paid my phone bill and device plans, my monthly payment on my loan, Broadband goes out at the end of the month as well as Spotify, Rent and other bills have gone out.

So total outgoings a month (excl credit cards and bnpl) is £1,015.71

Acc balance was £2301 exactly which left £1,285.29 to play with.

At the beginning of the month I had marbles balance of £680.32 which is now paid in full and paypal credit was £303.98 which I've paid the remaining balance off. They are a nightmare to pay. and finally Virgin credit which was £2,200 and paid £300 off that leaving £1,900

I have no savings as I want to go head first into getting all this cleared haha.

QuietOne

Today I had a nice surprise

Checked my bank account and found out that Santander has paid £200 switching incentive into my account yesterday. They told me in branch that it's not being paid until the 8th of May so I will keep that to one side and use that to pay a chunk off my Barclaycard when the statement comes through and pay the rest off when I get paid.

I'm on 2 weeks holiday but not really doing anything so I've offered to work today, tomorrow, Friday and Saturday as overtime. That should boost my May's pay significantly and will boost my payments.

I had issues with MSE Credit Club yesterday, Experian couldn't verify me but could log in via experian directly. So I deleted the Credit Club account and re-registered and now verified and working.

I have nothing else to report now until payday.

13thlegion

A tip for a SOA or budget when income is variable is to look at what the lowest your income could be / has been in the past 6/12 months. If everything can be covered off by that figure all your other income from overtime is available for extra debt payments.

Well done on the journey so far, look forward to seeing the rest.

Siphoning off just a small amount each month into an emergency fund is often a good idea, and prevents any of the figures going upwards in the event which can hurt motivation. If you'd rather not then it is absolutely your call. I just know what has helped me and I'm sure many others on here will say the same.

FootyFanDan

good luck on your journey, look forward to seeing you busting the debt!

QuietOne

Thanks guys.

As for SOA, I'm probably looking at lowest income for the month of £1,900 but I've had two pay rises and haven't taken home a basic pay for at least 12 months. I usually average between £350 to £500 in overtime a month. As it stands now my overtime for this month is around £1,750. That doesn't take into account additional holiday pay. 

I'm on two weeks holiday and I've worked four days of them this week 

It's difficult to calculate what my take home pay will be in May but I'm hoping between £3,300 to £3,500. If its around that mark then I can pay off a nice chunk of my loan and hopefully clear it a month or two earlier than my predicted target.

I will wait until the 15th and go from there.

QuietOne

Barclaycard statement came through today. I had some spare cash so I've paid £190 off that and pay the other £139.69 on payday which will clear it before the 22nd of May.

Had an email from Marbles yesterday offering a credit limit increase from £900 to £1,650. I've accepted it but will probably never use it or if I do it will be just to maintain it and clear in full. 

Once Barclaycard is paid off. I will be closing the account due to low credit limit due to a fault of my own. I had £6,300 limit then got into persistent debt with them. I've cleared the balance then they reduced my limit to £350.

So this is how it stands now.

Tesco loan - £6,408.66
Barclaycard - £139.69/£350
Virgin credit card - £1,900/£3,000
Marbles - £0/£1,650
Paypal Credit - £0/£800
Currys Your Plan - £549/£1,000
O2 tablet - £940
O2 watch - £266
O2 phone - £612.48 

Total = £10,815.83