Hi - im new and working towards being debt free!

raggydoll_2

Hope its ok to introduce myself here. I've been browsing the forums here for a while now and absorbing all of the great info. I particularly like all the 'challenges'! I have recently had a 'lightbulb moment' with regards to my life in general - perhaps a result of getting married a few months ago and thinking about life slightly differently. I am sick of being stressed as a result of work and decided to take steps to change this. I work for a charity full time at the moment but in March am going to be doing that part time and developing my recently launched business with the rest of my time with the aim to be running my own business full time in a year or twos time. As a result of this i have had to look very closely at our finances to make sure i can afford to reduce my hours and was suprised to find that we could actually survive on my part time wage along with my husbands full time wage despite us spending everything we have at the moment! This has inspired me to monitor our spending very closely and work towards becoming debt free in as short a time as possible. This also goes hand in hand with out 'green and sipmlified' approach to life.

First steps are finding out exactly what debts i do have i mean i know what they are but not exactly how much. I have already applied for a lower interest lone over a shorter term to transfer my cahoot loan about £5,800 (consolidated debts from uni) to which has become extortianate with interest rate increases. Then i will concentrate on paying that and my car finance back. We have only bought the new car this month (infact we collect it tonight) which does appear to contradict what we are trying to do but it is far more economical than the last one which failed its MOT miserably last week! and will in fact almost pay for its self in what we will save in running costs). This is a total of £5,099 and going without a car is not an option for us as we live in the middle of no where with no transport links! Then there is the mortgage to tackle which is currently interest only as we have moved around renovating old properties and selling for profit up until now but are settled where we are so when our discounted period is up next March (i think - another thing i need to check!) we will change to repayment and look at paying this off as quickly as possible. It currently stands at £101,000. After that theres just the student loan to clear which is somewhere in the region of £12,000 but at such a low interest rate and being taken from my pay packet i dont particularly worry about that one.

So thats a bit about me really im 24, no kids, recently married, have 1 dog and 2 horses and very soon a few chickens. I am passionate about all things green and keen to live a simple life and enjoy it to the full.

Look forward to getting to know all you like minded folk a little better

Wildchild_2

Hi there and welcome to MSE!. Looks like you have a good plan.

Just wanted to wish you good luck and say hello

Eshka_2

Hello from me too! I'm also new, you'll love this place - it's great and absolutely FULL to bursting with great advice.

Congratulations on getting married, look forward to seeing you around and good luck with your new endeavours!

free-range

Hello raggydoll

Just wanted to say hi, congrats on getting wed and good luck with the plans to tackle the finance!!!

Like you I have 2 horses plus 2 cats, 2 dogs & 8 chickens... we'll have to trade some money saving ideas on the animal front - vaccine's are due soon for ned's & pooches

Oh, and good luck with the chickens too!

taxi73

Wanted to say hi and welcome and the plans sound fab

Puzzledbubbles

Hi Raggydoll,

Im new too, only been on a week, we seem to be in the same place, im 25 and just been married a year and half but only now working out that changes are necessary - starting to do what my grandma always told me "look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves"

Good luck with everything.

Puzzled