Debt Free by 30!

WD_DEBTFREE_BY30

Hello MSE Forum readers!

If I was to look back on my 20's as a whole, it has been heavily dominated by my money troubles. Whilst other global issues have had their impact, my poor management of my money as well as a gambling problem I struggled with when I was younger stopped me from having a lot of experiences others would have in their 20's and eventually it got too much for me. This is why in early 2023 I made a big step personally to sign up to Gamstop and also enter a DMP via Payplan, something which I remember being very emotional about as it felt like I had failed myself as I always had thought I would just get out under my own power. Looking back on this now I can see whilst I had my own problems, I would have never been able to get out with just how the system works but to not feel bad on myself for failing as that's the only way I could grow as a person.

I'm now two-thirds of the way to finishing the debt plan to which my overall goal was to get it paid by the time I'm 30, but as problems have arose this deadline is slowly creeping too close and I want to make 2026 my year which I really switch on and complete the goal. With the help of this forum thread, I really want to push myself to do this.

Outside of this debt plan, I have some other debts that will or I aim to have paid by the time I'm 30 (which I'll detail below) and how I plan to achieve this as well as build a better footing for myself to hopefully prevent myself going into a debt spiral like I have done so many times in the past. Now that's address, lets see where I currently sit.

I'll be detailing this from where I had started this entire process to help myself with some more motivation and perspective


Old Debts - Items that were added to the Payplan or were from this same time frame

Payplan (mix of CC's, loans and store credit)
Start Balance - £22.2k
Current Balance - £7.9k

Paypal Credit (entered separate direct plan with PPal once I realised I couldn't manage it)
Start Balance - £2k
Current Balance - Approx. £1.75k

Business Debt - Smart idea when I tried to make money off a hobby which failed miserably
Started in 2021 but entered a debt plan in 2025, with the aims to just wrap it all up to get rid of the stress  

(this is paid by reselling items, but may require top offs from regular wage)

Start Balance - £4k
Current Balance - £2.8k (set payment of £200/month)

New Debts - All debts taken in the past 3 years

2x Capital One Cards
£200 Each (Paid in full each month)

Zilch (structured repayment CC)
Current Balance - £0.3k

Creditspring (fee, not "interest", loan)
Start balance - £1k
Current balance - £0.5k

Loan from Parent (Used to buy a car, borrowed a couple more times in emergencies and final extra bump to purchase a smaller car from family this month)
Originally Borrowed - £7k
Currently Owe - £2.75k

Holiday/Emergency Borrow from Partner (Gf was able to pay on 0% card and I now owe her, no immediate rush to pay off)
Currently Owe - £1.2k

As we can see I've had a mixed past 3 years, whilst I have reduced my overall figure I've also struggled to stay on "budget" and this is what I need to get a grip on if I want to hit my target.


My main aims for this year then to help achieve this goal. Whilst I will be firm on these, I know crisis's happen and cannot always be avoided.

1. No new debt/credit accounts, once debts are paid the accounts will be closed (excl. Capital One for emergency)
2. Detail every purchase I make in a month to track where I am most wasteful and then target these areas.

3. If I want to purchase an item, I must save for it or "trade up" 

4. Cooking meals in tandem, so it doesn't feel extra effort

5. Carefully prepare for events, birthdays, christmas etc.
6. Whilst I get paid on the 21st, treat each month start as the 1st to reduce reliance on payday
7. Enjoy the life and things I have

I think the last one will be the most important for me as the way friends and families lives will always remind me where I currently am and can be a big demotivator for me, so I need to just focus on what I'm doing and enjoy what I can whilst I do it. The other aims are such simple aims in theory, but I don't think I've ever actually saved for a big purchase and also used some form of debt for Christmas if not all put on cards at times so if I can work on these it would be ground-breaking!

I will check in on payday with how my wage currently breaks down and then just general updates as we go, but I hope I do keep up with this and do hit my target!

Thanks for reading if you did

Further updates will come on payday as I breakdown my wage and the real work starts from the 1st!

MelenHirren

Good luck! You can do this. x

Brie

I love it when a plan comes together!!  Well done!!!

Meanwhile - if you don't mind - I'll move this to the DebtFree Diaries.

SpireCaptain

Good luck, I'll be following and encouraging from the side lines.

 You mirror most of what I've felt from 28- currently (38) regarding how I feel about not living in the moment and enjoying life because of the debt spiralling around above our heads. 

You seem to have a good plan, just need to action it now and documenting here will be helpful. 

Smudgeismydog

You sound very focused, wishing you the best of luck on your journey 

FootyFanDan

good luck, it seems like you are very determined

WD_DEBTFREE_BY30

Thank you for all the comments, really makes me feel more passion and energised to achieve this goal

First payday of the year, I would expect for the majority of months I will end up with the same take home pay as my companies not "optimal" let's say at this moment, so bonuses or a pay rise are highly unlikely. The only expected change is my cycle2work scheme payments finished in July.

My one big hope is my old or new boss, like I said not optimal, reverts back their decision to make me work in the office every day and I get Fridays as a no-travel

Same with most outgoings, but I will date the ones expected to end this year so we can see how it's projected if I stick to my rules

Take-home - £2172

Obligated debt payments
DMP - £397
Family Car Loan -£250 (Should be paid by August/Sept)
Creditspring - £195 (2 payments left after this, will save £28 if settle on the next payment)
Paypal - £40 (Many payments left)

Zilch Debt ("Credit card" but structured monthly payments, fee paid upfront)
Zilch 1 - £75 (1 payment remaining)
Zilch 2 - £36.25 (2 payments remaining)
Zilch 3 - £19.45 (2 payments remaining)

Clearpay
£44.66 - Last payment, will now close the account (baby steps and a easy win)

Now my regular bills

Car insurance - £78.78
Mobile bill - £64.45 (phone was recently upgrade to reduce bill, but recieved credit, regular payment will be £78.75)
Union Payment - £18.59
Dentist Plan - £18.15 (Covid got me taken off my NHS list, so needs must)
Monzo Bank Plan - £17 (Originally had the lesser plan, upgraded when I cracked my phone and now it's incredibly handy when you do 20k miles a year to have their breakdown cover!)
Road Tax - £3.09 (with the plan to switch cars this month, I just set-up the DD to save the refund)

Subscriptions
Amazon, Spotify, Youtube Prem (I'm Gen Z, it's my main source of entertainment) and Patreon
Totals - £50

Now money set aside for other bills

Food Shopping - £200 (mostly for just me and the 1 or 2 larger meal with girlfriend per week)
Fuel - £200 (I drive a lot as previously mentioned, do have a week off so slightly reduced)
Toll - £75 (Usually £100, again the week off saves me £25)


So totalling all that up I am left with approx. £390 this month

I am trying to have a lean Feb, so I've allocated this as per the below

£75 to cover the rest of Jan, so I can initiate my plan of working from the 1st for discipline
£36 - Money owed to myself for a trade up goal I have
£100 - allocated to repay my girlfriend, but will be held in case of emergencies
£50 - into my business account to help cover bills

After this I have been left with just shy of £155

This will be ideal for Feb as I have a work conference on the 2nd to attend that's 250 miles away, so it will cover my fuel costs for that trip. 

The added benefit from this is the expenses I should receive will be about triple my fuel spend and this can help form a base for a emergency fund

I always forget how much I actually save when I take time off (might be good in hindsight) so this side-pot does give me some breathing space as I start to make this transition into a new way of thinking as I had planned ot only have £80 lol

Hopefully going forward these won't be too wordy in future! 

WD_DEBTFREE_BY30

WD_DEBTFREE_BY30 said:

After this I have been left with just shy of £155

Correction, should be £129. These days off just knock my count so much lol

WD_DEBTFREE_BY30

Got my new car a week early, was going to get MOT'd by my grandad before he sold me the car but it's just more convenient for me to sort it and then he'll give me the money if any is wrong. Car cost me approx. £400 more then I sold my original car for, which is in-line with what I'd budgeted for on my original post. Has cost me more to change insurance, rather then save money like it was a week ago but only £20. Apart from that I shouldn't see any change. Will check in on Friday to see if my MPG has suffered or not.

I did close my clearpay account, so I've done the first milestone in this challenge. It didn't take much to pay it off, but it did feel a big move to actually close the account

I've managed to maintain my budget, just, but I'm wary I could easily fall off the wagon, so just need to keep it together for 1 week for the new month start. I think any sign of spare money sends me loopy, when in reality it's not it's being set aside for a reason and I need to try and hammer that in this week that these little transactions add up.

I want to be debt free, I don't need pie and chips!

One week down, many to go...

WD_DEBTFREE_BY30

Week one of the car has went well, it's close enough on MPG but I also haven't been as consistant with my driving due to getting used to the car. Real test is tomorrow with the work event, 500 mile round trip over two days, aiming for 50 mpg + to make the most of expenses!

Spending has been a bit wishy washy again this week, I think that's just due to getting used to the new 1st of the month for my budget (finally we are here…), but I know now I have a budget to stick to and cannot stray far away from it.

Had to put in a about £120 into my business account due to low sales for that debt, struggled to get into the groove of going to places to buy stock, but it's a sharp reminder that I cannot really afford to support both my personal and that debt so I need to be out and about looking for things. Good thing I am off this week as it allows me to look without the pressure of my day job

Week 2 done!

WD_DEBTFREE_BY30

Bit late to my weekly roundup, but it has meant I've got some positive news on my debts

End of last year, Sainsburys Bank had moved my account to Natwest as part of their deal to sell the business. Sainsburys had never defaulted this account despite my payment plan, but as soon as Natwest had it they defaulted it as soon as possible. This meant the default was going on years after all of my other accounts, so I made a complaint and asked for this to be backdated.

Well I finally got my case results this week and the officer agreed with my case! They couldn't figure out why Sainsburys hadn't done it (my guess was to do with the value of the business they were selling to Natwest) and agreed it should be from nearer to my DMP start time.

So now instead of the Default expiring in Nov 2031, it'll now expire in March 2029. On top of this, as a little bonus, they've compensated me £75.

The real bonus to me is it gives me some more motivation to go after these debts and get them down now I can see that things are going my way.

Aside from this I had a good week off, the work trip delivered on my hopes for my expenses, 50mpg allowing for a 3x return on my fuel spend and after doing my calculations for my monthly spend I realised I need to knuckle down and get in the kitchen making food (like SERIOUSLY) as whilst I could afford it the money could've been better spent elsewhere.

I'll also be tracking my spending each week now to hopefully see a bigger change in myself.

Till next week!