Hopefully debt free before Mortgage renewal in June 2026

Tezzadp

No money spent today
No Direct debits today

Debt payments

Natwest CC Daily payment £3.13 Total daily payments made this month £89.55

Total of all Natwest CC payments, including weekly and monthly payments made this month £225.23 leaving a balance of £3042.64

*This month refers to 30th June to 30th July (the day before pay day)

Spendless

By tomorrow (your day before payday)youre going to be less than £40 from that figure beginning £2xxx.

I thought of one of your quotes recently. Ive said before I like the tree ones. You did one about a tree not flowering for years then it eventually did. In the past week Ive seen 2 trees full of plums, both on my street. Ive either never noticed them before or theyve never produced fruit before. Today I think Ive spotted a 3rd in the grounds where my kids went to school. Unfortunately theyre too sweet for me - I tried one. 

doingitanyway

You have an admirable number of NSDs

Love the quote about discipline and what achieving a goal looks like...

Tezzadp

No money spent today

Direct Debits

Natwest cc MONTHLY direct debit came out today (second one in this (my) monthly accounting period) £32.19 Total monthly direct debits towards the cc now is £69.87

Natwest CC Daily payment £3.14 Total daily payments made this month £92.69

Total of all Natwest CC payments, including weekly and monthly payments made this month £260.56 leaving a balance of £3007.31

*This month refers to 30th June to 30th July (the day before pay day)

Tezzadp

I always get excited about this day, as its the last day of my accounting month which means i get to make a lump sum payment that i have managed to save out of my salary throughout the month and knock a bigger portion of my debt down in one go.

So i started this accounting month with my salary of £1829.91 and £27.01 left in my bank account from the previous month. 

I now have £256.76 left in my account. So i have just this minute made my lump sum payment this month of £250.00 towards my CC. Bringing the balance now down to  £2757.31 

Debts summary :

Debt balances when i started posting on this forum on 6th Jan  

Hastings Loan  £2962.60
Virgin CC £1230.00
Tesco CC  £2273.00

Total £6465.60
...................................................................................................................................................

Debt balances at the start of this month (July)

All debts moved (in April) to Natwest 12 month 0% CC £3267.87

Total £3267.87
...................................................................................................................................................

A summary of payments this month :  

Total daily payments = £92.69
Total Weekly payments = £98.00
Lump sum payment = £250.00
Monthly DDs = £69.87

Total payments  = £510.56
.......................................................................................................................................................

My end of month total outstanding debt is now £2757.31

    Reduced by £3708.29 since 3rd January   
.......................................................................................................................................................

Savings/Emergency account payments this month :
 
Previous balance £492.20
This months payments +£160.00
2 x Family birthday gifts -£54.18

End balance  £598.02
..........................................................................................................................................................

Summary : 


As you can see i am now down to a figure beginning with a 2 and not a 3 which is a big milestone to reach. I have now paid off over 57% of my original debt since January when i started paying it back on this forum. My aim this month was to get under the £2800 figure if possible, which i have just about achieved, which im very happy about. I think next months target will be to get to around the £2300 mark if i can. 

The average payment needed to pay off the debt in the next 8 months, which is the end of the 12 month CC interest free period given by Natwest, has now come down to £344.66. My aim is to have this all paid off by Xmas day this year, all being well. 

This month i have paid over 27% of my salary towards my debt.

This month i have ended up paying a little less than normal as i expected and explained last month, that my CSA payment for the month came out twice in this accounting month, as thats just how the days fell and worked out, so i ended up with £71.20 less this month that i could have used towards the debt this month. But i have still managed to get over £500 paid off the debt this month which im very pleased with. 

Looking ahead .....

Next month i will have slightly less salary to play with as i have recently changed job role in my workplace and do slightly less hours over the month than i used to, so i will have around £76 less than i previously had since April. I will still carry on as normal and pay as much of my debt off as possible with a lump sum at the end of the month if possible. 

The coming months.... 

September i have my car MOT which i know will fail as my rear brake lights and indicators don't work correctly, the brake lights come on when i indicate and the indicators work intermittently. There is obviously some sort of electrical fault, but i have no idea how much this will cost until i take it to the garage to get it fixed and hopefully thru the MOT with no other issues, but i won't know until its been the garage. This is one of my yearly stresses as cars cost a fortune for people with hardly any spare money or knowledge of mechanics, and you dont know how much it's going to cost until you take it to the garage, and some of them rip you off. So fingers crossed that will not cost a fortune. 

October is Car insurance renewal month. Luckily this is a lot less than it used to be. Fingers crossed no accidents before the renewal date and it should be around the same figure as last year. 

Then its December and Xmas time with the obvious cost of presents etc. 

These 3 months are what i have been trying to build my savings/emergency fund up as much as i can for, as i knew these would be large payments that i would need big lump sums of money for, hopefully i will have enough to cover all 3 payments by the time they come around. There is a little gap between October and xmas to build up the xmas fund once my car insurance is paid.

Anyway, enough of my waffle for this month. Im very happy the way its going so far and now we go into August and hopefully more positive progress on the road to debt freedom 

Thank you all for your comments, advice, support and encouragement over the past month    

..... On To August  

Tezzadp

Spendless said:

By tomorrow (your day before payday)youre going to be less than £40 from that figure beginning £2xxx.

I thought of one of your quotes recently. Ive said before I like the tree ones. You did one about a tree not flowering for years then it eventually did. In the past week Ive seen 2 trees full of plums, both on my street. Ive either never noticed them before or theyve never produced fruit before. Today I think Ive spotted a 3rd in the grounds where my kids went to school. Unfortunately theyre too sweet for me - I tried one. 

With it being the end of my month my lump sum payment has now taken me down to the figure starting with a 2 whoooooooooop

Awww i'm glad you thought of one of my quotes, it must have stuck in your mind. You will probably notice more and more trees now you have thought about it. 

I will probably have made some errors in my posts again, so im relying on you to point them out to me, i know how much you have an eagle eye for detail, and i dont like getting things wrong, so please keep telling me when you spot something 

Tezzadp

doingitanyway said:

You have an admirable number of NSDs

Love the quote about discipline and what achieving a goal looks like...

Thank you. I dont have any spend days as i literally just go to work and then home again, i dont have a life at the minute, im doing my best to pay off my debts asap, i'm happy to do this as it would take me longer to pay back my debts if i didnt and i want to get debt free as soon as possible. It's not for everyone, as not everyone can/is willing to give up everything in order to get debt free. 

I'm glad you like my quotes. I try and post a new one each day if i can, and hope they can help/motivate at least someone. 

daisy_1571

I also love the motivational posts. 

Re the brake indicators issue.  One, put the indicators on and walk round the car (obv in a safe place with hand brake on, tyres turned to the kerb and no bad people loitering who will rush into your car and drive it away, lol!)  Is it all 4 indicators?   If all 4 are affected,  its likely to be an electrical issue that the controller unit is controlling,.  If its just the back 2 or the front 2 it could be one bulb (in either the brakes or an indicator) is the wrong type ie a brake light in an indicator or vice versa, the wrong bulb for the car or correct bulb but slightly loose.   Hopefully you have an older car where you can unscrew the glass covers not one you have to take the front apart to get them out.  It could of course be, that damp has got into the bulb unit so when you take it out to look at it it will look like a corroded battery terminal in an old torch.  Or it could be the wiring is bared somewhere making a little bridge so the instruction goes over to the wrong bulb.

If one indicator bulb has blown, it will make the others not work correctly either so might be that.

Either way an hour or so looking might save you some money.  If you can get all the bulbs out, put them in Chinese carton tubs with a note so you don't get them mixed up, and give the terminals a clean on terminals and bulbs.  Put just the brake lights in, test.  Take them out and put the indicators in, test.  That narrows it down so even if it goes in to a garage you can tell them what you've tested and it might save an hours mechanic wages on your bill.

Is the third brake light working (if you have one, if your car is genuinly ancient it won't have one)?  If its out, then its likely to be a wiring issue further into the car.

How's your headlights?  When you put them on, does your normal rear lights come on?  If not then its a main wiring loom issue

Don't tell me you can't do any of this!  Lol.  You are perfectly capable and can use your intelligence and eyes to do simple checks.

Anything too complicated and yes an electrical specialist garage/mechanic will have testing tools to help them narrow it down quicker.  Your aim is to find simple stuff and save money either by no bill or smaller bill.

Second,  mots. You probably know this but never never never take your car to a garage and get service and mot done or even just mot.  Always go to an mot testing place only.  They have no vested interest in finding things to do on your car.  They'll tell you its passed, passed with advisaries,  or failed and you take it elsewhere to get any work done.

Cheers 

Daisy xx

Tezzadp

daisy_1571 said:

I also love the motivational posts. 

Re the brake indicators issue.  One, put the indicators on and walk round the car (obv in a safe place with hand brake on, tyres turned to the kerb and no bad people loitering who will rush into your car and drive it away, lol!)  Is it all 4 indicators?   If all 4 are affected,  its likely to be an electrical issue that the controller unit is controlling,.  If its just the back 2 or the front 2 it could be one bulb (in either the brakes or an indicator) is the wrong type ie a brake light in an indicator or vice versa, the wrong bulb for the car or correct bulb but slightly loose.   Hopefully you have an older car where you can unscrew the glass covers not one you have to take the front apart to get them out.  It could of course be, that damp has got into the bulb unit so when you take it out to look at it it will look like a corroded battery terminal in an old torch.  Or it could be the wiring is bared somewhere making a little bridge so the instruction goes over to the wrong bulb.

If one indicator bulb has blown, it will make the others not work correctly either so might be that.

Either way an hour or so looking might save you some money.  If you can get all the bulbs out, put them in Chinese carton tubs with a note so you don't get them mixed up, and give the terminals a clean on terminals and bulbs.  Put just the brake lights in, test.  Take them out and put the indicators in, test.  That narrows it down so even if it goes in to a garage you can tell them what you've tested and it might save an hours mechanic wages on your bill.

Is the third brake light working (if you have one, if your car is genuinly ancient it won't have one)?  If its out, then its likely to be a wiring issue further into the car.

How's your headlights?  When you put them on, does your normal rear lights come on?  If not then its a main wiring loom issue

Don't tell me you can't do any of this!  Lol.  You are perfectly capable and can use your intelligence and eyes to do simple checks.

Anything too complicated and yes an electrical specialist garage/mechanic will have testing tools to help them narrow it down quicker.  Your aim is to find simple stuff and save money either by no bill or smaller bill.

Second,  mots. You probably know this but never never never take your car to a garage and get service and mot done or even just mot.  Always go to an mot testing place only.  They have no vested interest in finding things to do on your car.  They'll tell you its passed, passed with advisaries,  or failed and you take it elsewhere to get any work done.

Cheers 

Daisy xx

Thanks for all this Daisy.

I work for a car parts supplier (and yes i still know nothing about cars  ) I took the indicator bulb out at work the other week and tried a new bulb, it was still doing the same thing. I took the whole lamp unit out and checked the terminals and the indicator one was slightly corroded on one of the connectors, i tried to give it a bit of a clean up with some electrical contact cleaner and some wet and dry sand paper. but it still didnt work with the new bulb. One of my colleagues (who does know about cars) told me i need a new lamp unit as he said its probably shorting and sending the wrong signal to the wrong bulb. He gave me the part number and i found it on Ebay for around £25-£30. But on my way home another night, one of my other colleagues who was following me said my brake lights werent working at all. When normally the fault only comes on when i turn my right hand indicator on. It's just the rear indicator that doesnt work but the brake light flashes instead, which i have read is like a safety thing, like its better to have some lights flashing than none at all, sort of thing when turning. 

So i thought why would my brake lights not work at all? why would a a little bit of rust/corrosion on the terminal cause my brake lights not to work? surely it cant just be a case of just replacing the bulb holder/terminal? So i thought rather than waste money buying a part that i might not actually need, i can take it to the garage and see what they say the fault is, then if it is that part then i can buy it and its a simple fix and do it myself, and if its not then they will tell me what it is and hopefully it wont be anything too drastic. 

Also, we have a good garage who we all use at our work as he is related to one of our workers so does things cheaper than normal and doesnt rip us off, so i can trust him thankfully. 

in_need_of_direction

Great to see your debt starting with a two. Stick at it