Journey to reduce my £30k debt to Zero by 24th December 2024

MakingMoves

Hi All,

Short intro as I'm running out of time on my break. I've been lurking on and off over the years, since 2016 (so the site tells me) but I don't think I've ever posted. My debt has managed to creep up to £30k which is completely my fault and I have very little to show for it. Its a number I'm really uncomfortable with and need to do something about. Sounds silly but I realised only now in my early 40s that its not going away on its own, no lottery wins have/are likely to come. I'm going to have to take stock and deal with this now before it grows anymore.

I'm a single parent, I currently rent and I work full time. I have a decent salary, bringing in around £3100 per month so I feel like with some self control and sacrifice I can pay this debt down. My DD is eligible for free childcare hours come September so I will be saving around £900pm on private nursery fees from next month...the extra money will help me get back on track. I need something to help me stay accountable so I don't spend it on nonsense and dig a deeper hole for myself. So this is me taking the first step...

Thanks for reading

MM

Spinayarn

Welcome and well done for taking the first step. Can I ask, how are you planning on tackling this? Freeing up £900 per month will definitely help, especially if you use most of it to throw at the debt.

MakingMoves

Thank you Spinayarn, Nice to meet you! I'm currently using YNAB and excel. I'm trying to write down all my outgoings and will share my budget, debt totals and payoff plan later this evening.  

MakingMoves

Evening all,

Hope you are all well. So I've put together a list of debts and have decided to attack it using the snowball method. I'm a sucker for small wins, so I'm hoping it will keep me motivated. I've also put together a budget for the month, I haven't included my universal credit payment, I think this will be my last as I wont receive it once bubs stops private nursery. This should hopefully cover my car insurance that's due at the end of August. I also havent included any funds I get from my daughters dad as its irregular and I never know how much it will be.....So here goes:

Debts	(Paying off using Snow ball method)	#
1	Credit Card 3		£107
2	UC advance repayment		£400
3	Emergency Fund		£1,000	<< Not Debt but incl as I need a baby emergency fund
4	Tax-HMRC Repayment-due31.01.24		£1,009.9
5	Nan IOU		£2,150
6	Loan		£7,223.3
7	Credit Card 2-0% til 01/05/24		£7,420.6
8	Credit Card 1-0% til 01/04/24		£10,865
	Total		£30,176
Income
	Salary		£3,157.91
	Money Left over		£629.00<	Remaining from last month
	Income:		£3,786.91
Expenses
	Nursery Fees		-£ 871.00
	Credit Card 1		-£ 822.13	<£322.12 min plus £500 overpayment
	Credit Card 2		-£  73.71
	Credit Card 3		-£ 107.00	<Paid of Debt 1
	Loan		-£201.00	<Min Payment
	Tax-HMRC Repayment-'24		-£  25.00	<paid to saving not due yet
	UC advance repayment		-£  95.91	<Paid to saving account not due yet
	Internet		-£  27.51
	My Mob		-£ 7.95
	Mums Mob		-£ 4.95
	Council Tax		-£ 92.00
	Rent		-£725.00
	Car Tax		-£ 15.50
	Life Insurance		-£ 52.36
	Electric		-£ 65.00	<Approx from last month
	Now TV		-£ 2.99
	Amazon Prime		-£ 8.99
	Amazon Kids		-£ 4.99
	Netflix		-£ 6.99
	Baby Stuff		-£ 40.00	<spend for days out with bubs
	Money Box- LISA		-£ 20.00
	Charity Giving		-£ 35.00
	Petrol		-£ 80.00
	Food		-£100.00	<cupboard pretty stocked so for top ups
	Gifts/Birthdays		-£50.00	<Birthdays upcoming
	Beauty		-£50.00	<Inc Contact lenses
	Clothing		-£ 50.00
	misc.		-£ 50.00	<Unforeseen costs, will be used to paydown debt if remaining
	socialising/personal spends		-£ 80.00
	Remaining		£  21.93

MakingMoves

Today I paid DD's childcare fees, cleared CC3 and paid an over payment of £500 on CC1 using what I had remaining from last months funds. I did this before I'd decided to use the snowball method, so from now on will be paying the minimum on all cards and concentrating on clearing smallest to largest. Anything I have left over will go to debt in the order above and I guess to hit my goal of Dec 24 I will probably need to generate some extra income and limit my frivolous spending. 

MM x

MakingMoves

Afternoon All,

So I've worked out I need to pay £1680pm towards my debts for the next 18months to hit my goal. Its an eye watering amount. If I'm honest it made me feel sick when I saw it. It's such a large amount of money per month but I'm going to do this. My weekend was pretty quiet and I only spent £10 on DD cinema and snacks and £27 on a top up shop and £40 petrol. I've started looking at fun cheap/free things for DD and I to do at the weekends. I haven't paid anything towards debts over the weekend as I'm waiting for direct debits to be taken for the CC 's. From my budget I'm making £1324.75 towards debt payments so I'm £355.25 short of this months target. This means I'm going to have to try and save on personal spends, gifts etc and make some additional money this month. I will try and make up the shortfall as much as I can so I don't have to increase next months target. A little disheartening but I'm going to take this as a challenge. 

MM x 

bigbeff

Have you tried listing old clothes and things on vented? Old phones etc. It won't work every month but may whittle everything down a bit. Good luck!

Mortgage_Minimiser

Just popping in to say Good Luck! Sounds like you have a robust plan. I will follow your diary with interest.... you got this!

MM
X

MakingMoves

Hi All, 

Thank you both so much-Mortgage Minimiser & BigBeff...   I really appreciate the luck and support!! I haven't tried Vint3d yet but I will give that a go, certainly will be decluttering and selling off anything we no longer use, definitely worth a try!

 I've spent the week working, reading threads but haven't had the chance to update until now. I also realised that in order to hit this target some sacrifices need to be made, so I have given up vaping . I am currently 3 days 19 hours and 57 mins into it (so my app tells me-  it also says I'm now nicotine free and less irritable (an understatement)) lol. I figured it was now safe for me to update   

This week I've made a little headway on decluttering I  have a box with things I plan to list on Sunday when DD is at her dads. I went to order a take away on Wednesday then pulled myself up, cancelled it and made eggs on toast then sent the amount I was going to spend to debt 2. A little win!! 

I also updated my signature and then decided I wanted to round the debts to whole numbers, so paid off odd pounds and pence's on each...yes apparently I am that woman. 

So far my tracker is showing I've made debt payments of £1445.56, so I only have to find £234.44 to hit my target...
I also managed to get all of DDs uniform for nursery, it came in at £63 so £13 over budget but DD's dad said he will send some funds next week, so I will recoup the over spend there hopefully...lol

I think that's all I've got as far as updates are concerned.

Hope you are all having a fab evening.

MM x 

Baileys_Babe

That last post has lots of positives, stopping vaping, avoiding a takeaway, paying the debts with the money which would have been spent on a takeaway, rounding the debts. That is a brilliant week you should be very proud of yourself.

MakingMoves

Good Morning All, Thank you so much Baileys_Babe , I really am trying! I'm sorry I haven't been able to report in for a couple of weeks its been a combination of illness and then busy at work (busy period/playing catch up due to illness)... Just a quick catch up I have cleared the UC advance (debt 2) so now am working (debt 3) Emergency savings. This is probably the most important one to me as I have nothing to fall back on and would usually use my credit card when things go wrong. I'm really looking forward to getting this one saved! I have printed off a saving chart save £1000 in 30 days, so I can try and get through it quickly and hoping the colouring in each pot will make me achieve it faster. Have printed off two as Debt 3 and 4 are both around £1k. I've uploaded bits to sell, have watchers but no bites yet...will still keep going I'm enjoying clearing things out and eventually if someone does buy I can colour some extra jars. 
I'm still not vaping am on 19days 10hours 47 mins lol! Its been one of the best moves I've made so far, I also haven't drunk alcohol which has made the no vaping thing a lot easier and certainly saved me loads £97.25 according to the app Honestly not much else has been happening as I spent one week in bed the other running round like a headless chicken trying to catch up with work, spend quality time with DD..one habit I have tried this week was walking to the supermarket rather than taking the car. Good exercise and saved petrol. It's about an hour return trip on foot. It got my steps up and saved me overbuying/overspending- was very useful for my top up shop. I just took a rucksack and off I went. It was pretty good and I will try and do this a couple of times a week . Sorry that's all I have today. will update more later and more frequently. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

MM x