100 STEPS TO DEBT FREE BY XMAS 2024

BudgetingBelinda

CMD79 said:

BudgetingBelinda said:

9.5/100
frugal week coming up and I’m welcoming it. Another step towards freeeeeedom! 

@BudgetingBelinda !! I can see you in your kilt with your dagger in hand inching towards that tenth step!!

I'm also here for a frugal week!!! 

Pahahhaaaa! Absolutely 💯 good luck 🙌🏼❤️

CMD79

I just reread some of the thread, and realised! What am I talking about "That's definitely all I can do for this month!" 

Nope!! I'm going to find an extra Step from somewhere in the next 9 days! I keep forgetting my PAD and now @Keedie is here, I must make more effort to look at each and every £1 to make a payment somewhere every day. And @Aso just reminded me to get my butt onto selling sh!te I don't need! And @BudgetingBelinda has just reminded me, it's the end of January! If the end of January isn't made for being being frugal - possibly out of necessity!! - then when is?!

PS - anyone else down to the last Quality Street that nobody likes but can't quite make themselves throw them out?! 

Makingabobor2

I keep reading all your efforts even though I haven't signed up for this challenge yet.  Think our debts are a bit high to clear in a year, but am trying to get it down asap. Problem is, its a battle between debt busting and savings. Don't want to put every spare £ to debt and find we have nothing saved for certain things.  I am still tempted to try and sign up to this, but don't want to try and fail. Will have another look at numbers and see what I can do

Hollie_Hobbie

I've decided to decrease my amount to £14,000 for the year, so £140 per step, as I think this will be more realistic for me.  No steps for me yet as my payments all come out at the end of the month.  Also any extra I make I keep in a virtual pot until the end of the month in case I overspend in any other areas.  

Keedie

I think @Makingabobor2, that you should set a target of how much debt you want to clear for this year. It doesn't have to be the whole lot, as the main thing is to be true to your budget and your circumstances.

Last year I did the Debt Free Before Xmas 2023 challenge and initially set a goal of £10,000 but realised that was too unrealistic so adjusted it to £6,000. And the best thing is that it was still a stretch goal but one that was more obtainable and I was actually able to exceed it slightly.  The £6,000 was not all of my debt, just what I wanted to focus on in 2023. This year I'm trying to clear the remaining £9,000, but that's a personal choice.

The challenges are meant to inspire you and support your goals, not to stress and trap you. So I'd say work out what is realistic as a target instead of what is idealistic. And if you want to push yourself, you could always add an additional say 5% to your target. So if your target was £1,000 and that was realistic for you, and you wanted to make a stretch goal with an additional 5%, you could make the target £1,050. Or Keep it at £1,000 and manage your steps accordingly.

Challenges are not meant to be too demanding or restrictive, just set your own equivalent pace and just make sure you have fun with it, as that's the main thing really 🤗.

Aso

@Makingabobor2 I am concentrating on my credit card at the moment and using that full amount as my 100 steps. I will have another debt (unsure of exact total) but I will concentrate on another 100 steps for that after the cc. 

The way my brain works/what would motivate me if I had a debt too large is to break the big total into leaps, say 5 or 10 leaps. Then I would do 100steps per leap if that make sense? So I have a sheet of 100 squares, I colour a square in each time I make a step, so I have a visual to motivate me. I would then have a 2nd sheet with the leaps, so once I completed the first 100steps I would get to colour in a leap. So you have your mini target and your big target and get to see how your efforts are making a difference.

Aso

Checking in with another 3 steps from the final DD this month, that brings me to 16/100 

Makingabobor2

Thanks @Keedie & @Aso, I agree the challenges do motivate me and I am doing ok on the ones I've entered into so far. Will see what I can sort out for this one before the end of the month

BudgetingBelinda

0.5 steps to add taking me up to 10/100

outoftheviciouscircle

Hey everyone!! I am still here and haven't forgotten I joined the challenge just there was nothing to report.

A few direct debits went out yesterday so I have now paid £748.04 so far in January so thats 3/100 steps. Not far to get that step number 4 in. I have also been saving all my extra earnings from Prolific, Mystery Shopping etc and have enough to pay one of my debts off completely, I'm going to do that later on so will check back in with that later.