A good clear out!

Scribble · 31 January 2008 at 4:45AM

Hello everyone, I thought I'd say hi properly... My debt isn't massive but it's not shifted so I thought It was time to kick its ***

I'm aiming to pay off 5.5k in 6 - 8 months - I'm self employed and can do that due to some longer projects from last year paying up all at once and managing to have kept everything ticking over on the income from shorter jobs in the meantime. I've been very, very lucky that work is good and I've not been too far out of pocket since I went solo.

I currently have the option should I stick to the minimum of paying nothing but interest off my card due to a high APR, so I'm going to slim right down.

My mood mainly changed this evening though. I keep all my correspondence and I've found out how useful that is recently so I decided to drag it out of it's drawers and shelves and organise it properly in chronological order. Halfway through collecting sheets, stapling and filing things together in A4 envelopes or folders, I suddenly felt my entire financial life since uni flashing before my eyes... Bundling old payslips I could see my salary increasing, how the bank had increased my limits, how I'd responded to that and how I'd paid things, how my habits had changed with self-employment, and which bills for which people had required reminders (filled in a direct debit for one)... I went through my phone bills and looked at how many calls I made... saw what I actually spent. That combined with doing a budget made me feel 10 times more positive and in control of my finances than on Monday - then I thought I'd be paying very little off the balance for a while, and quite probably adding to it if an emergency or change of circumstances cropped up. Now I've got the confidence to live leanly for a while and take the plunge.

Doing all the maths and fact finding (and stapling) has been tiring, but reading this site and the comments of people using it have helped loads and encouraged me to take charge now not in another year or two years time so thank you and I'm looking forward to my extra disposable income - disposed of in an ISA of course

(BTW I've lurked on here for a while. Some of you who frequent the comps forum might appreciate the stapler doing the stapling was in fact a totally gratis Rexel PowerEase

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bananakinz · 31 January 2008 at 5:23AM

well done - have you got many staples left?

Hope the debt gets kicked soon

Scribble · 31 January 2008 at 2:51PM

Thanks! Fortunately the Stapler came with many, many staples so the thing'll be good for any stapling needed later when it comes to paying my Overdraft off, and paying my taxes early!

By April 2009, If I can balance my taxes for the 08/09 year straight away and shift the OD, I'm totally debt free bar the student loan - when I add that all together, I'm owing a lot more.

But then If I put aside the money that will have to go on tax and pay nearer the deadline, I could earn interest off it...